Solved Great River ME-1NV

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After an exhaustive(for me) search I think I have found the best affordable preamp.

I looked at all of them(I think.)

I dismissed any starved plate voltage tube pre's first.

I dismissed any pre with all the bells and whistles for under $1000.

I refuse to pay $700+ for a pre with a wallwart.

I already have a UA SOLO610.

The other ones I liked were way too much money.

The GR ME-1NV is expensive but it has almost everything I think I need.

http://www.greatriverelectronics.com/product.cfm?ID=20&type=0#

The biggest seller was the fact that they use transformers yet you get a clean sound. It will also be a different flavor as it Neve based, the SOLO 610 is Putnam based.

My next buy after that will probably be either a Grace 101 or a RNP, but that's a while from now. They seem like the best of the wall warts.

I won't be able to get the GR until the beginning of next year anyway.

Does anybody have an opinion? Does anybody use one?

I know there are a few Neve based pre's but for the money the GR seems to be the most for the least because it lacks anything other than the pre itself.

I would have also bought a GT brick but they lack something I think every one of these type units should have........some type of output level.

Also the Summit unit looked good but it's a starved plate tube and those are what they are.

Well, any opinion or experience with this unit? Anything that would make me rethink my decision?
 
no experience yet, but I've pretty mch decided it's my next pre as well. THere's a thread somewhere comparing it to an API where a few people make a good case for the API.
 
I had the 2-channel version.
It is a solid unit, and has a pleasant sound.
But, frankly, I never heard any superiority to my numerous <$300 pres.

Be aware that it is definitely not a "transparent" preamp. It was one of the most "colored" of the pres I owned. Many people like its sound.
 
Maybe a Grace 101 is what I need?

The Solo for warmth and the grace for clean clean clean.

I don't like adding dirt to a signal in place of harmonic richness, there is a difference.

I'm so confused:confused::(
 
Since you're looking at buying more preamps in the future, why not pick up a lunchbox type unit and fill it with different options? It will probably save you money in the long run. Great River, API, A-Designs, and several other companies make 500-series lunchbox pres.
 
Its not really adding "dirt." Many preamps have some color, and although some of them may be configured to allow you overdrive them (where they have both a gain and an output control), color in mic preamps really is a generally a far more subtle thing.

If you really want clean, there are Millennia (find a used TD-1), DAV, Grace, and Safe Sound among others. Keep in mind that many of the recordings that we all know and love, from the 60s, 70s and 80s in particular, were all recorded through the preamps in the desks used at the time, like, Neve and API among others, and these are currently considered to be "colored" pres.

If you are looking at the Great River, for the money, you might want to consider getting a lunchbox and the new GR MP500-NV model. A 6 slot box is @$425 new. A GR MP500 streets for $750 new, or a total of $1175 for both and you would still have 4 extra slots that you can fill in the future. A ME-1NV streets at $1075 new. So for an extra $100, you get 4 lunch box slots and the related power supply -- which is a deal. Then you can put in an API, Buzz Audio, John Hardy, A-Designs or whatever other pres catch your fancy.
 
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The Axis said:
But, frankly, I never heard any superiority to my numerous <$300 pres.
Click to expand...

Wow, really????


I am not a believer in the massive preamp hype by any stretch, but my GR blew away just about every other preamp I've ever tried. And I've tried a lot. It is a fairly colored pre (gotta love those TRANSFORMERS! Who needs fricken tubes????), but with the output knob, you can go from "somewhat clean" to balls out.

I will say this, I had a UA610. It was the worst high end pre I have ever used. By far. If you think that thing sounds good, you will love the GR.

Lastly, the GR is not "Neve-ish" at all really. It's definetly got it's own sound.
 
How about the Summit 2BA-221?

I don't have the cash to be buying this and that I have to do it right the first time because it will be a while until I can get another one.

I like the solo610 for bass and it makes the POD really much warmer but I can see it has limitations, that's why I'm looking into other things. But can make things mid heavy and not sparkle which on some things like vox and snares I want. It could probably help a mic that has a lot of clear highs, too many, which some condenser mics have. So it has it uses.

The summit says it has a higher voltage on the tube but does not give any numbers. As long as it's not starved, some Fender amps have only 165 volts on them, some over 200v. It also has a lot of flexibility.

The GR looks like a mini-tank!!!

I think I need something that can go from clean to a little dirty. I don't like dirty, it's a coverup for not having harmonic richness, they are different.

I listen to a lot of 1960-1970's recordings and even the so-called remastered one's are dull. Maybe on purpose, some are really clean too, but more pop or geared for radio play.
 
I'm sure someone will come up with a contrary example, but generally clean pres do clean and colored pres do colored, and never the twain shall meet.

I'm trying to think of a pre that will take you from really clean to some color.

There are many, like the Great River and the API, that will go from pretty clean to colored -- but never really clean as some level of color is inherent in the pre.

I use a couple Millennia TD-1s for when I want really clean, but that's all they can really do as preamps (lots more flexibility as DIs). Perhaps the twin topology Millennias can do it, but we are now talking lots more $$. About the closest I have is a Pendulum, which is a very hifi tube pre with both gain and output controls, and there are many that would say that even it is lightly colored, even with the gain down and the output up.

Anyone else care to come up with an example? There are lots of pres with color where one can vary, somewhat, the amount of color applied, but the same doesn't seem to be true of clean pres.

As I noted before, when the term "dirty" is used for better mic pres, its not like guitar amps. The tonal shift is generally more subtle and sometimes frequency specific. It would be best if you could try out a couple and listen to what sounds you actually get.
 
I sold my Great River ME1NV and got bought TWO Seventh Circle N72's.
Not only do they sound as good they are the best deal I have ever seen for pre's of this caliber.
Since then I bought a couple A12's and they are also great preamps. I still have 4 open slots to fill! :D

I have never used a 610, so I cannot testify to it. But I hve used the GR and SCA "Neve-esque" pre's and they are both very nice indeed. Equally nice I'd say. Except of course one costs way less.
 
I think the Grace 101 would be a good choice. Super clean preamp that you'll hold on to for a long time. Or, if you need 4 channels, the Sytek MPX-4Aii is probably the best bang for your buck. You could get the burr brown in two of the channels for some variety.

From my experience in other studios, I think the best single channel preamp around the $1000 range is the Chandler.

The lunchbox is expensive to start off with, but once you have the rack upgrading is fun and their are a lot of choices.

If you like the Neve sound, Dan Alexander makes a 2 channel preamp that is based of that sound, so is the Vintech 1272.
 
Maybe this will help.

I am the only person recording.

The music is Blues Rock, with a Texas taste but I'm trying to get more production to it than the usual SRV or Johnny Winter type recording of the past. But not like the over produced pseudo pop of the later Z.Z. Top material.

Think Texas blues, meets the early Stones with a little soul like Otis Redding. Black Crowes without the heroin. Layla without the heroin......early Johnny Winter like "Still alive and well". A little Skynaryd....did I spell that right? Even some Hendrix...

A lot of guitar flavors with very earthy sounds, Everything from B.B. King to Billy Gibbons, I do have my own thing going and my own style of playing. All this will be done with a POD 2.0 which I have been able to get some great sounds from. Hence the need for a few different pres to help get away from that everything sounds the same sonically but not tonally. I can get different tones and sounds but when you use the same equipment in terms of the recording, those subtle differences disappear. They all start sounding the same even though in a live situation they don't, it happens within the processing, I guess like cheese. Think various Fender and Gibson guitar sounds through BF Fenders and plexi Marshalls.

I will be doing the bass which will be a classic P bass sound but with different flavors there. Think B-15, Bassman, SVT...so clean to mean, some with a little dirt some more muted and early Motown-ish. The Solo 610 seems to do that really well without anything else. Much better than the sansamp....yuck, even the behringer mic 200 works better than that and gets that kind of farty turned up SVT sound very closely. I was surprised at that and it sounds better then the 610 for that one sound. See that's what I mean a cheapie $40 behringer can do a sound that pre that cost $800 can't because of it's cheap quality. I can't get that farty thing from the SOLO, it's too clean and harmonically rich and when it distorts it does it in a completely different way.

Drums will be electronic with an attempt to make them sound real....I have some ideas on that from extensive live sound experience. To me it won't happen inside a PC, I'm going to try and do it before it hits the recording with processors, an aphex 204, compressors and para EQ through some tube pre's should do it. I already experimented with great results. Just a DBX 166 does wonder for a Roland hand pad and yamaha DD-55, I was shocked at the difference once the DBX was dialed in.

That's the foundation of the music, drums, bass guitar. The vocals will be done by myself and I am a little less than competent singer, I will have an Antares pitch corrector in the Roland 2400 I'm buying to do this. I have a Rode NT-1A and a Shure SM-58 which I prefer over the 57 for vocals. My voice is actually too clean for this type of music and a little dirt might be good here.

Added to that is your typical tambourine, a harp here or there and some percussion. I'd like to add some keyboards eventually when I learn to play one. But this is all very much an after thought.

In it's stripped down nakedness it's really just Texas style power blues trio stuff but a more controlled and polished rhythm section.

That's my music.

Ambitious to do myself in a small home studio with limited resources....yeah.

But isn't that the fun of it?

I have the chops to pull off the guitar and bass playing and know what the drums SHOULD be doing and sound like as opposed to most drummers. I can tell what kind of snare I like and drum sounds, what beats I want and so on. I can hear everything in my head, it's just a matter of putting on a disc.....yeah I know that's the hard part...very hard!!!

So with all that, I feel the summit unit might be the most flexible and eventually the grace for really clean, even a Joe Meek something for a change up. Maybe the GR is overkill for a Roland 2400 and that extra few hundred bucks can get another cheaper mic pre. I will have some of those plugins that Roland offers like the UA bundle and Massenberg EQ, along with the pitch corrector.

Yeah I think the Great River is probably overkill and what makes it what it is will be lost in the end product.

Yeah I wish I had about 20 grand and a real studio, that isn't happening so I have to do the most with the least.
 
The GR preamp is a good solid preamp. It is very quiet and can give you a range of sounds. It's a very good DI/instrument preamp. I like the idea of the new lunchbox version.

BTW, I'm not sure why you are opposed to preamps with wall warts. The preamp I use most (MixPre) runs on two AA batteries and it sounds great. As a matter of fact it sounds cleaner and more accurate than the Great River preamp, probably because it only has Lundahl input transformers and no output transformers. But then it does typically sell for a bit less than $700, so it wouldn't violate your rule. :)

Cheers,

Otto
 
I purchased the Great River earlier this year. I have been really really happy with it. No regrets here.

Dan
 
I've got an old mag when it came out. The reviewer mentioned he could crank it and get that Beatles Revolution guitar tone too....pretty versatile.
 
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