killthepixelnow
Do it right or dont do it
I'm saving to get a decent preamp. Art Tube does the job but, as Richard stated before: buy cheap, sound cheap.
Is a pre-amp really necessary?
- Thread starter justinm.
- Start date
Richard Monroe
Well-known member
Actually, I never said "buy cheap, sound cheap". You'll notice I said I have a DMP-3 and still use it, occasionally. Don't mistake me for a gear snob, I'm not one. First, if I was, I wouldn't be plugging a Pod into a boogered-up signal chain, because I would actually own the pricey vintage tube amps that I am digitally modeling. What I actually use is an Avalon AD2022, a Joemeek twinQ, an M-Audio DMP-3, the onboard preamps in a Digi002, and, believe it or not, a Behringer ADA8000. OK, 95% of all stuff goes through the Avalon or the Joemeek, but when I need a bunch of channels, I use all kinds of cheap stuff.
If I *had* commented on the price of gear, I probably would have said 2 things. First, it is harder to get good sound out of cheap gear than expensive gear. And second, in spite of what the financially challenged and envious will tell you, you can learn to record things just as well with expensive gear as you can with cheap gear. I did say that owning a good preamp will prevent a lot of problems, and it's true. I have absolutely never regretted buying that Avalon. But what the hell? I'm 53 years old, work a regular day job, and I made a living for 12 of those years with bad guitars, cheap PA's, lousy mics, and bad amps. I've paid enough dues that I can afford a good mic pre. My mommy didn't buy it for my birthday.
The important thing is that whatever your budget for recording gear is, the mic pre(s) are mission critical. They are not an afterthought, but perhaps the single most important piece of gear you will buy, after your instruments. Inexperienced homerec'ers usually think about the signal chain from the back forward, but audio engineers almost always think of it from the front back. If you have a good song, played on a good instrument, in a good room, *****by a good musician******, captured by the right mic (not necessarily the most expensive mic) in the right place, plugged into a good preamp, you can record it on a SONY cassette Walkman and it will sound pretty damn good. Garbage in-Garbage out. Your preamp is a huge part of whether you are capturing and translating all that good stuff, or just shoving a wad of cotton batting into the lead singer's mouth.
You can make good recordings with cheap gear, and everybody has to start somewhere. But if I were building on a budget, I'd put a big part of my money into my room and my preamp, regardless of how big or small that budget was.-Richie
If I *had* commented on the price of gear, I probably would have said 2 things. First, it is harder to get good sound out of cheap gear than expensive gear. And second, in spite of what the financially challenged and envious will tell you, you can learn to record things just as well with expensive gear as you can with cheap gear. I did say that owning a good preamp will prevent a lot of problems, and it's true. I have absolutely never regretted buying that Avalon. But what the hell? I'm 53 years old, work a regular day job, and I made a living for 12 of those years with bad guitars, cheap PA's, lousy mics, and bad amps. I've paid enough dues that I can afford a good mic pre. My mommy didn't buy it for my birthday.
The important thing is that whatever your budget for recording gear is, the mic pre(s) are mission critical. They are not an afterthought, but perhaps the single most important piece of gear you will buy, after your instruments. Inexperienced homerec'ers usually think about the signal chain from the back forward, but audio engineers almost always think of it from the front back. If you have a good song, played on a good instrument, in a good room, *****by a good musician******, captured by the right mic (not necessarily the most expensive mic) in the right place, plugged into a good preamp, you can record it on a SONY cassette Walkman and it will sound pretty damn good. Garbage in-Garbage out. Your preamp is a huge part of whether you are capturing and translating all that good stuff, or just shoving a wad of cotton batting into the lead singer's mouth.
You can make good recordings with cheap gear, and everybody has to start somewhere. But if I were building on a budget, I'd put a big part of my money into my room and my preamp, regardless of how big or small that budget was.-Richie
Sir_Matthew
Member
*ducks for cover*
This will be an unpopular opinion, but...
I find that I get perfectly good signal plugging mics directly into my ProTools Digi 002 Rack. I used an ART Tube MP back when I was using a Roland VS-880, but honestly, upon hearing the mics direct, I found the MP was bunging up the signal a bit.
Now, this is not to say that a good pre won't improve the signal. It absolutely will, and I've heard that in higher-end studios than mine. But if you can't afford a very good pre (which I can't), you can still get what I at least consider to be a perfectly good sound by plugging a decent mic (in my case, an Audio Technica 4040) into a decent board. And you may end up doing damage to your signal if you use a cheap or even mid-priced pre.
This is just my experience, but I'll go hide in a cave now as the hail of stones begins...
This will be an unpopular opinion, but...
I find that I get perfectly good signal plugging mics directly into my ProTools Digi 002 Rack. I used an ART Tube MP back when I was using a Roland VS-880, but honestly, upon hearing the mics direct, I found the MP was bunging up the signal a bit.
Now, this is not to say that a good pre won't improve the signal. It absolutely will, and I've heard that in higher-end studios than mine. But if you can't afford a very good pre (which I can't), you can still get what I at least consider to be a perfectly good sound by plugging a decent mic (in my case, an Audio Technica 4040) into a decent board. And you may end up doing damage to your signal if you use a cheap or even mid-priced pre.
This is just my experience, but I'll go hide in a cave now as the hail of stones begins...
Not at all. Case in point, before I got some nice pre options I ran my QTC-1s for a few years with nothing but a phantom box and a pair of splitters (monitor split) and still ran in-line attenuators in some cases to dump voltage.
The output impedance is low enough, the input is high...
...No worries.
killthepixelnow
Do it right or dont do it
intense
New member
Moronic? Easy tiger, none of us were born knowing all of this...