Fair Mic Preamp

  • Thread starter Thread starter MrStitch
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MrStitch

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K, I think I've figured out a possible solution to the signal problem.
I need a decent mic pre-amp. But what to buy?
I don't have the cash to buy something expensive. So I've been looking at the ART Studio V3.
Does anyone else have experience with this company or amp?
I've looked all over for reviews, but the only thing I find are the SALESMEN reviews =)

Someone toss me a bone here
 
RNP seems to be popular. Haven't used one yet, but I am going to buy one when I get some other items out of my way.

Its too bad all this digital stuff is so good and cheap, now the crappy stuff isn't worth the shipping price to sell:(
 
Art's quality control is shaky. The Tube MP I have distorts before the led goes to yellow (and it's not sopposed to distort until it goes to red). I wouldn't buy another one.

As a real low cost starter preamp I'd probably go for an Audio Buddy. Maybe not the coolest thing in the world, but it's darn cheap, and works.
 
I know I'm gonna get shot at for this, but here goes...
I like the IMPs in my Behrigner UB1832fx pro mixer.

TOKER41 <~~~is ducking and dodging the bullets of insult about
to follow this post.
 
Toker41 said:
I know I'm gonna get shot at for this, but here goes...
I like the IMPs in my Behrigner UB1832fx pro mixer.

TOKER41 <~~~is ducking and dodging the bullets of insult about
to follow this post.
Click to expand...
Not to worry. 'Fair' is a pretty easy spec to meet.
 
Has anyone tried the Audio Buddy?
I seen that one on-line as well, but the ART seemed more appealing. Whats the real difference here?
 
Yea, VTB-1 will be leaps and bounds ahead of the ART. I have the ART and it's not so good. When you have the money you can step up from the VTB-1 to an RNP, grace 101 or john hardy/great river.
Ah good times being a broke gear slut.

Hmmm those apogee converters look nice... I should probably by food first...
 
Would the VTB be any good for recording a bass direct?
 
I've heard it does a decent job. I've been told the only real use for my ART is bass DI though. So what do you want a good multi purpose, clean preamp, or a bass di?
 
Clean pre-amp.
I think we can all agree thats the most important thing... no matter what.

If your signal is shit to start with, you got jack.

If the bass is clean but weak... at least you have a good start.
 
Yea you can always drive the 12ax7 tube with the tube blend thing for a bit more warmth, i figure it can't be much worse than an ART for bass DI and it's a hulluva lot better for everything else.
 
I’ve got an ART mp, and it has worked fine since they day I bought it – it’s sound suits the applications I use it for very well. I’d be quite surprised if I was just ‘lucky’ because my unit worked out of the box and continues to do so – but this also does not mean that quality control issues do not exist. I’ve never tried the other preamp’s listed above besides the ART units, so I can’t comment on their sound other than that I’ve listened to decent results achieved with them in other peoples mixes.

What is puzzling however, is that there are what I perceive to be some pretty objective “facts” about what sounds the ART units can and cannot achieve. I mean, just listen for yourself:

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2270&alid=349

Do a search on this BBS, and you can find where and in what capacity the ART preamps are used on those tunes. Not to discount people’s experience, and, this is somewhat a matter of opinion – but it would seem to me that a lot of the comments posted generalizing about ART preamps, or their hierarchal place in the preamp food chain are quite misleading. It’s either a) the engineer in the above tunes uses the ART in a radically different way or in a really different configuration, or b) the engineer is using microphones worth more than I make in a month - microphones so good that they would sound spectacular through anything, or c) there are simply more variables here that need to be assessed before suggesting the ART will or will not work, or be absolutely inferior for your recording gig…

I’m new at this stuff – so it would be cool if the experienced members could give some insight here…

Thanks,
T
 
The studio mp isn't BAD, i had some serious problems with noise until i switched the electrical plugs around, etc. I seem to have to drive it REALLY hard to get any decent levels out of my shure sm58. And the preamp is dark, and so is the sm58, so it's a bad combo! But it has it's uses, i don't regret buying it anymore, and i'm gonna hold onto it for it's uses, but if the VTB-1 was around when i bought it, i would have gotten that. Or a dmp3, or something like that.
 
MrStitch said:
K, I think I've figured out a possible solution to the signal problem.
I need a decent mic pre-amp. But what to buy?
I don't have the cash to buy something expensive. So I've been looking at the ART Studio V3.
Does anyone else have experience with this company or amp?
I've looked all over for reviews, but the only thing I find are the SALESMEN reviews =)

Someone toss me a bone here
Click to expand...

If you're looking into something "decent" I've heard really good things about the VTB-1 from Studio Projects. The price dropped substantially recently and so ya might wanna check it out. A very good preamp for little money. ($129 US at 8thstreet.com). I think it better than the ART V3 and costs about the same. It's from the same company that sells the great C1 microphone. The RNP is great too but cost a lot more. Your money. You decide.

Daniel
 
For those that have the ART equipment....

Well the real issue that I have here is, I have a -80db noise level. What I wanna do is have a signal that starts at that -80db, and go all the up to -10 or -5db.

Right now, all I have is a crappy mixer that gives me a 15db boost. So what I want is a huge leap in the input signal... without the noise "comeing along for the ride" =)

Does the ART product achieve this? Can I boost my input without the noise?
Like I said... If you got a crappy signal to start with, you aint got jack.
 
MrStitch said:
Has anyone tried the Audio Buddy?
I seen that one on-line as well, but the ART seemed more appealing. Whats the real difference here?
Click to expand...

The Audio Buddy doesn't charge extra for the tube glow.
 
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