In search of class A preamps

D

Dmeek

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I plan on purchasing a stereo pair of Quality preamps to use as my main preamps for recording & for my overheads alongside my MOTU 8 pre.I want commercial quality so i can hopefully start recording bands for a living or least get my name more known with out the torture & confusion of trying to translate my vision through an engineer & hoping his techniques can even achieve what im going for.I`m not sure if im a tube or solid state guy or both as i like clarity but not but not to the point where the music is thin & passive.If their is a firewire interface around the $1000.00 mark or something that can be run through my 8 pre ( it doubles as an optical converter) that is of quality please sell me on it.If you wouldn`t mind stating why you are recommending the particular preamps of choice it would be appreciated.


Thanks,
Daniel
 
Dmeek said:
I want commercial quality so i can hopefully start recording bands for a living or least get my name more known
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Daniel - If by commercial quality, you mean pro quality, a world-class stereo pre won't necessarily do that for you.

You also need (besides the talent you are recording) a well-treated room, good mics, decent converters, some skill in mic choice and placement, a rudimentary understanding of the instruments/talent you are recording, and a helping of dumb luck.


Having quality tools is important, but not as important as knowing where you want to go and how you're going to get there.

Maybe a good place to start is by describing your situation now: What room, mics, pres, instruments, budget, etc. and then start working on the specific details.

-Casey
 
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My situation

Thanks Casey & everyone:D Right now i am recording in a small bedroom( at least when i`m recording myself).I am pretty confident about my ears & ideas.I just want to get good enough gear that I can worry about the room & techniques ect... & know that i`m doing something wrong when my results are poor & not trying for the impossible. For preamps I`m using a MOTU 8 Pre & the pre that is built into my Line 6 X3 Live.Microphones = Rode NT2-A,2 Shure SM57`s,& i also have A Oktava MK-219 (but never really use it anymore).I plan to buy the rest of the mics required for micing a drum set next year. Everything is recorded into my Computer Using Sonar & Waves plug-ins.The only thing i usually use a mic on for my recordings is Guitar & Vocals(I record my bass direct).Everything else is Direct/Sampled.I know a bit about Mic placement & just purchased a book i`m reading called"Modern Recording Techniques" that is teaching me a bit. I don`t expect a miracle of recording to happen in my environment but would like to stretch it as far as i can go.I figure if i use the right Mic techniques through decent gear I can capture my ideas & go back in the future & fix them as i learn more.I am tired of spending hours getting the perfect performance take just for it to sound like garbage.In response to Squiksilvery: I tried the Presonus Firestudio & it was unstable using Sonar & the firepods GSIF drivers (Gigastudio drivers) didn`t work so they were both returned.I will say they sounded clearer than the 8 pre though & i would have liked to keep them.I hope to not have to sell the 8 pre being i just bought it (about 2 monthes ago) but will do so if i come across an irresistible alternative that i can afford...I am also interested in using the reamping feature in my Line 6 X3 Live so i can record when the mood strikes & worry about the perfect tone later. Does anyone know of a affordable sound card that has significantly better conversion than the 8 pre?... ohhh... & i can currently afford to spend or save about $600.00 to $700.00 a month for gear.Thanks ahead;)
 
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You might look at a Firepod...it has 8 pres, and seems to work pretty well for teh money.
 
IMHO, probably the best packaged card with conversion and breakout preamps is the RME Fireface. They make a 4 preamp and 8 preamp version. I've seen used Fireface 8s go for @$1100. RME makes nice gear and their conversion is pretty good. To do better with the conversion, I think you would be looking at moving to Lynx or Apogee, but for significantly more $$$.

That said, if you want a pair of "better" preamps, for less than $1000, you might consider a DAV BG1 or a Sebatron unit (either tube or solid state). I think you can get a Chameleon for the price as well, although people seem to like them more for the models with EQ than just the preamps. At $500 per channel, you are kind of in between a large group of high end pre's that typically go for @$700 per channel and up, and good quality low end pres like the RNP, brick, DMP3 and the like which are good, but may not be significantly better than the pres in the RME.
 
There seems to be a pretty significant gap in the $1,000 range. There's a lot below 500 and quite a bit between 500 and 700, but if you want to get something really nice, you seem to almost have to spend 2 grand for one channel.

That's what I'm finding, anyway. I'm no expert. I have a Firepod/Firewire 8 channel right now, and I think the pres on it are damned quiet...but my only other dedicated (non-board) preamp was a an MAudio DMP3, so I don't have a lot of experience to draw from. I very much want to move up.

But I'm about to pull the trigger on this http://www.brentaverill.com/products/index.asp

It's the same Class A as a Neve 1073, made by Brent Averill. It's under $1,200, and I have yet to read somebody who didn't love it, but I haven't tried it yet.

I'll make a deal with you...if I buy it, I'll post samples through my firepod and then through the Averill. If you buy it first, you gotta' post samples! :D
 
chrisharris said:
There seems to be a pretty significant gap in the $1,000 range. There's a lot below 500 and quite a bit between 500 and 700, but if you want to get something really nice, you seem to almost have to spend 2 grand for one channel.

That's what I'm finding, anyway. I'm no expert. I have a Firepod/Firewire 8 channel right now, and I think the pres on it are damned quiet...but my only other dedicated (non-board) preamp was a an MAudio DMP3, so I don't have a lot of experience to draw from. I very much want to move up.

But I'm about to pull the trigger on this http://www.brentaverill.com/products/index.asp

It's the same Class A as a Neve 1073, made by Brent Averill. It's under $1,200, and I have yet to read somebody who didn't love it, but I haven't tried it yet.

While I'm thinking about it, I suppose you could add the Grace pre to the $500 category since it is in the ball park.
I'll make a deal with you...if I buy it, I'll post samples through my firepod and then through the Averill. If you buy it first, you gotta' post samples! :D
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Don't you mean you need to spend about $1000 per channel for really good pres? There's tons of good stuff at that price point. All the 500 form pres like API, Purple, A-Designs, Great River are less than $1000 per channel (typically $800 or less) (but you need to have a rack or lunch box which brings it up to $900 a channel or so). Two channel units like the Great River MP-2NV, A-Designs Pacifica, Chandler, Buzz Audio, Grace Designs Lunatec, John Hardy M-2, Lavry Mic Pre, Manley Dual Mono, Millennia HV3C, amonmg others, are all approximately $1000 per channel (or less) new. In looking at my own stuff, I haven't paid more than $1000 per channel for anything and I have Pendulum, API, Purple, A-Designs and Millennia pres among others - all of which were bought used. The gap seems to be at $500 a channel where pickings are slimmer.
 
The Brent Averil stuff does really sound good. If you really wnat that sound though and need to spend a little less, the Vintech preamps also do a good job. Where the Averil really starts to excell over the Vintech, in my opinion, is when you get to the EQ side of the 1073 and 1081 channel strips. At that point though the Chandler LTD becomes a real contender as well.

As for other preamps, there are some really nice preamps, and lots of them, available in the $1k range. The REALLY sweet stuff though does tend to start at about $2k a channel. I recently had a pair of Martechs and a pair of Pendulum Quartets in the studio for a while. Very different units from each other but both were easily noticed as being insane sounding units. They each just brought things to the table that none of the $1k per channel preamps I have ever used could keep up with.
 
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