Hands Down.... You're favorite Mic Pre?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jpfour23
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Best I've got here is a Davisound TB-10. Lots of clean gain.

Still need to send it back to have the instrument I/O's changed from TR to TRS. Hums like a bitch with a bass or guitar in it. Hayne told me they only tried it out on keys! :eek:

But he was quick to update his design when I pointed out the problem. Hard to believe I was the first clod that ran up against that!
 
for a year i used a joemeek vc8 as preamp for vocals, also used it on bass and guitar but since i got my symetrix 528 i don't use the joemeek often anymore, i find the eq's of the 528 better (definately more control, fully parametric) but like someone else said, the 528 IS a bit agressive, i've used it on guitars with great results (sennheiser md421 connected to it)
or mostly for vocals of course (akg 414)
but believe it or not, i've had results that were kinda better with my M8 and a dbx163x on insert, the M8 has clean pre's, clean but simple eq..

my next buy might be an avalon 737
 
Middleman said:
When I rent:
Neve 1084, 1081 or 1073 for Vocals
API on Drums

What I bought:
Neve Portico 5012
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that's sad. why are you spending extra on renting when you could own??why not sell the portico and get a real Neve preamp. ok so maybe you lose out on the resale but wouldn't it make sense rather than renting all the time?
it kills me to see kids waste thier cash on something they can't use because it is not good enough.

my favorite preAMP? the vt-1 by d.w.fearne . the best sound i have ever heard!

class a high end
 
For now, I'm very happy with my GT Brick. Not that I wouldn't love some really high end pres, but I also like to pay my rent.
 
Rodger Hartlett said:
that's sad. why are you spending extra on renting when you could own??why not sell the portico and get a real Neve preamp. ok so maybe you lose out on the resale but wouldn't it make sense rather than renting all the time?
it kills me to see kids waste thier cash on something they can't use because it is not good enough.

my favorite preAMP? the vt-1 by d.w.fearne . the best sound i have ever heard!

class a high end
Click to expand...

Well, a couple of things. I really hope you are kidding...

First, I am long past being a kid. Second my Portico sounds as good as a 1073 so I will be keeping it for a long time. In fact there are several shootouts in publication around a 1073 vs a Portico, the latest in TapeOp where they claim the Portico in fact sounds better than a "real" Neve 1073. I am not sure I would go this far in describing the two but they are extremely close. (Hey, Rupert designed both so why are we even talking about the Portico not being a real Neve). Finally, I will always rent because I can get all three of the above preamps for about $90 for a weekend which is more cost effective for a tracking and of extreme high quality when I need that many preamps to do a sesssion. Why sit on $9000 worth of preamps when I could invest in gear that gets regular use like high end monitors or outboard which is used over many hours of mixing. Preamps only get used for tracking so they are by and large one of the worst time use over money investments you have to make.

Renting is the most cost effective way to get a high end sound and keep a start up studio viable. For me, late at night when I feel like recording my own stuff, the Portico at $1440 is all the investment I need for working out songs and arrangements. Occassionally I get a final vocal, if I need it better I might rent the 1084, not so much for the preamp but for the EQ on that sucker. Its very nice sounding.

The Fearn would be one I would want to try as would be the Martech or the Manley VOXBOX.
 
Hands down... what's the best car? best woman? best wine? best band?

When you can answer those you can anwer best pre-amp.
 
Fletcher - It wasn't 'best' preamp, just favourite. My favourite guitar happens to play subjectively less well and sound less good than some of my others ... I can't help that it happens to be my favourite!

I can see where you're coming from though - very few of us here have experience of such a wide range of quality pres as you have ... and I'm sure that makes the 'best' question all the more redundant.

Nik
 
This is cool! Thanks guys for participating. I've enjoyed reading all this.
 
Fletcher said:
Hands down... what's the best car?
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Cars are so 20th century :p

best woman?
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J. Lo. No, Drew Barrymore. Requires further study :o

best wine?
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Yquem

best band?
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The wild shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner... the bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher... the competent drumwork of Don Brewer... Oh, man!

When you can answer those you can anwer best pre-amp.
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:confused: Beats me :confused:

Edit: it's gotta be the SM Audio 8-channel jobbie for $99. I mean heck, you could throw out all of the internals, and the box, knobs, and connectors would be worth $99! Wouldn't be much of a preamp then, but hey, cheap box!
 
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mshilarious said:
The wild shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner... the bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher... the competent drumwork of Don Brewer... Oh, man!
Click to expand...

They don't make em like that anymore.....great, great band!

We could use a little "People let's stop the war" right now.

-RD
 
Rodger Hartlett said:
that's sad. why are you spending extra on renting when you could own??why not sell the portico and get a real Neve preamp. ok so maybe you lose out on the resale but wouldn't it make sense rather than renting all the time?
it kills me to see kids waste thier cash on something they can't use because it is not good enough.
class a high end
Click to expand...

Rodger, you are saying that the Portico is unusable?
 
The rental scenario makes a lot of sense. If you are doing recording sessions on a specific day and need more preamps than you own, you can rent far better preamps than you could buy for the same money. It does seem a bit silly to sit on thousands of dollars in preamps that will only get used sporadically. Also, owning a couple channels of excellent preamps is a great idea in my opinion. It seems to me like Middleman is doing it just right.

The other advantage to renting is that you can rent different preamps for different sessions, thereby customizing your sound more for the tasks at hand.

My favorite preamp is the Grace 201, which is what I bought for my own personal studio. It sounds great on piano, which is what I primarily record.
 
c7sus said:
Best I've got here is a Davisound TB-10. Lots of clean gain.

Still need to send it back to have the instrument I/O's changed from TR to TRS. Hums like a bitch with a bass or guitar in it. Hayne told me they only tried it out on keys! :eek:

But he was quick to update his design when I pointed out the problem. Hard to believe I was the first clod that ran up against that!
Click to expand...

It got all the way to the customer with this completely obvious problem?

They sound like a really trustworthy outfit to me.
 
DAV BG-1/Forselltech Fetcode for clean(honorable mention millennia hv-3c)
Electronaut m63 or Fearn VT-2 for color.

and who cares what Roger or anyone else says. Listen for yourself. obviously the portico is liked by some and disliked by some.

that's sad. why are you spending extra on renting when you could own??why not sell the portico and get a real Neve preamp :confused: :confused:

so who makes the portico?

Opinionated for sure.
 
Favorites are Pendulum Audio MDP-1a and John Hardy M-2, plus I wish I had a Gordon.
 
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