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

  • Thread starter Thread starter jpfour23
  • Start date Start date
Well I have:

-Presonus Eureka

-M-Audio DPM-3

-M-Audio Audiobuddy

-Pre's in my Fostex 450 console

-Art Tube MP :rolleyes:

And you know which one I like the best. :D
 
Well.... The only choices I have at my disposal are the internal pre's in my Roland 2480, the pre's in my Mackie 1204VLZ, or my Great River me1nv. Out of those, hands down the Great River me1nv. :D
 
Pretty cliche but I'm going with the Neve 1073. Great tones and awesome eq
 
SCA A12.
Although all the SCA stuff is great and fun to pick and choose for different mics/sources, I could be fine and dandy if all I had was A12's.
 
I've got several good pre's. JLM TMP-8, Sebatron, Hamptone JFET, Hamptone
Tube, Peavey VMP-2. If I were stuck on a desert island and only one pre................................I'd have to go with the Sebatron, very versatile......lot's of different tonal colors available. I love all my pres......hard choice to make.
 
For quick and clean on bass, guitar or vocals, Focusrite Trakmaster with the digital card option. Vastly under-rated. I guess that's why Spike Stent and Madonna use one. You can easily pull a magnificent sound from one of these.

For portable, and digital, Roland MMP-2 (vastly under-rated). The in-built limiting tends to make these not only fool-proof, but almost dickhead-proof.

For quick and sweet on vocals, LANGEVIN or Manley.

For acoustic instruments, Avalon or Brent Averill (Neve).

You really can't recommend mic pres in isolation.

Mics and Mic pres and source material almost have to be considered as a functional pairing.

It doesn't make much sense to pull out one third of the following chain in isolation.

Source material -> microphone -> preamp.

If the source material is bright or brittle in sound, then a softer mic and mic pre with sufficient headroom will be suitable.

If the source material is soft, like a soft voice then a bright and clinical mic and mic pre will suffice.

If you add A-D converters into the chain then it's four things to get right in combination

Source material -> microphone -> preamp -> converter

I always find I can soften a sound in a mix using EQ or reverb, and sometimes compression, but it's harder to put crispness back on a dull sound. Hence my preference for brighter, cleaner, clinical mic preamps with inbuilt digital conversion. However, sometimes you can turn a great warm instrument into eardrum sandpaper using a crappy converter.

So think in terms of combinations. And convenience.
 
High end: Great River MP2H. For what I do it's perfect. Very 3-D.

Low end: Electro Harmonix 12AY7 is really nice.

Tim
 
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