M-Audio Tampa vs JOEMEEK SIXQ vs FOCUSRITE PLATINUM TRACKMASTER PRO

  • Thread starter Thread starter EdJames
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Which would you buy with around £200?

  • Total voters
    23
E

EdJames

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URGENT ADVICE NEEDED!

My M-Audio TAMPA's input blew recently, so having sold a phone and some other crap on Ebay I managed to get another £200 together to replace it. Now I'm slightly anxious, cause whilst I liked the pre, it didn't blow me away, but it certainly did a good enough job for the money.

I am now however wondering if either of these others might be worth a pop...

M-Audio Tampa £169.00
JoeMeek SixQ £225.00
FOCUSRITE PLATINUM TRACKMASTER PRO £169.00


Alternatively, do any other UK heads in here have any recommendations of good solid preamps for use on Pop/Rnb Vocals like Daniel Bedingfield or Craig David? It'll be with an AT4040 and Delta 44 soundcard if that helps, and I don't necessarily need built in Compressors and De-Esssers as I have software that can do that if needs be.
 
EdJames said:
URGENT ADVICE NEEDED!

I managed to get another £200 together to replace it. Now I'm slightly anxious, cause whilst I liked the pre, it didn't blow me away.......
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I don't know that anything in that budget is gonna blow you away. I'm not even sure that any preamp at any price would. I've still yet to hear a preamp that did that to me, though I do appreciate the difference the high end stuff brings. It's just not not epiphany producing, blown away different.
I like the Tampa more than the Platinum on most things, haven't heard a SixQ. Maybe you should get either the SixQ or the Platinum, and then send your Tampa in for repair.
 
....

As one of my midrange pres I own two of the OneQs and like them alot. Not much in that price range can beat it, especially the compressor.
 
Safe Sound is made over there, it would definitely be a step up if you can afford it.
 
I was pretty impressed with the Safe Sound P-Solo. Nothing but gain, but it had a big sound, whatever the heck that means. :)
 
EdJames said:
about £150 more than I have to spend.
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then i'd recommend putting that money you've got in the bank for a month or two until you can save up that extra 150.........b/c the Safe Sound is a considerable step up.

i've got a Tampa myself, and while i think it's great for the price (especially the used price i got it at), it's not all that when compared to something better.


cheers,
wade
 
I've heard a lot of great things about the Rane MS1-b. I've not tried one but people generally say it's the best clean preamp before you start going into DAV BG-1 territory. It only costs £167 so it might be worth looking at! Do you need a dedicated channel strip? I've also been looking for a nice clean preamp but can't afford the DAV BG-1 or Safe Sound. I currently have an SPL Goldmike which is a great preamp for valve character which costs £263 and a VTB1 and Soundcraft M8. There is also the M-Audio DMP3 which costs £104.
 
If the Tampa blew up on you, then I wouldn't go back and buy the same thing over again. I'm not a fan of the Trackmaster Pro, so I personally would avoid that as well. Of your three choices the 6Q looks the most interesting.

But here are more than three options.

Take a look at the ART Pro Channel, or the ART MPA Gold or Digital MPA Gold, for example.

Another option is the Presonus Eureka.
 
Thanks Albert; once again you've come to my rescue.

I wet with the advice you gave me last time and ignored all three of these units in favor of the ART PRO CHANNEL which I picked up today for £250 including postage. Seems a fairly good deal...I'll let you know what it sounds like. Definitely though it was worth the extra £100 in order to get all the additional features and especially the channel strip...reviews online seemed to be the most favourable also!
 
SonicAlbert said:
But here are more than three options.

Take a look at the ART Pro Channel, or the ART MPA Gold or Digital MPA Gold, for example.
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Hi. Would you recommend these pres over the Rane Ms-1b and DMP3? Which would you recommend as being the better option for vocals? I already have an SPL Goldmike, VTB1 and Soundcraft M8. Would any of these be a step up from these?
 
dickiefunk said:
Hi. Would you recommend these pres over the Rane Ms-1b and DMP3? Which would you recommend as being the better option for vocals? I already have an SPL Goldmike, VTB1 and Soundcraft M8. Would any of these be a step up from these?
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The pres in those units are not going to be any better than the Rane, DMP3, or M8.
 
tdukex said:
The pres in those units are not going to be any better than the Rane, DMP3, or M8.
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Hi. Have you had a chance to compare the Rane with the M8 and DMP3?
 
I need to qualify my vote. I said six q, which I believe in completely, and is a very versatile pre, with lots to learn from and experiment with.

That being said, I own a trakmaster pro and it's an incredible pre for what it is (insanely clean and offering switchable impedance with good gain). The best reason to buy a trakmaster pro though is for it's compressor, that's a great tool right there. The compressor in the six q is WAY more colored, and has that meek sound, which is nice but very different, not nearly as versatile as a compressor (not as transparent as the focusrite). I think the tampa is a great pre too, but less fun to experiment with (From my understanding, dont' own one of those).

can't go wrong with anything by focusrite, great quality, nice pre, but it won't add anything extra to your mic's sound like the six-q is capable of doing, so it depends what you're looking for.

My recommended pre for the price range is actually the ART MPA GOLD, two channel tube mic pre with high plate voltage switch for the tubes (makes a world of difference). It is a true tube preamp, great device, warm and clean, sparkling and terrific for vocals and other instruments, and continously variable input impedence, imagine that for any price, let alone the price of an ART. it's in my rack, I own it and use it daily.

Only thing is, that's just a pre (a dual pre though), the other options you mentioned like six-q and trakmaster pro are channel strips, so pres (that are decent for sure, but not as good as the art pres) but offer nice other options. Although for me, eq on the vocal strip is stupid, but it's a matter of taste I guess. If you have cheap mics an eq is good I suppose during tracking. I actually use the comp in my focusrite only a tiny tiny bit if at all during tracking, but I process the vocal track through it during mixdown (I mix outside the box) so I can control the way the vocal sits in the mix, and that comp is my go to for vocals as far as the gear I actually own goes. Now if I'm in a big studio (not my own private studio), we'll talk pres and comps of a different level, but for the price, those two channel strips are both good, but the sixQ offers a little more character than the focusrite, but I still recommend getting the focusrite also at some point since it's pristine clear and quiet and neutral and contains a fabulous compressor that is highly underrated - in fact I'd call it's comp a sleeper as a vocal mixdown comp.

Cheers,
Don
 
tdukex said:
The pres in those units are not going to be any better than the Rane, DMP3, or M8.
Click to expand...

and yes, what this guy tdukex said is completely true as far as performance goes, except for the ART MPA GOLD (in a higher quality league to me completely). However the six-q, like I said, offers much more variation to the user...

FWIW, dmp3 is a great pre also, every bit as good as the best op-amp based pres over the last 10 years.

Cheers,
Don
 
by the way, the art channel strip, whatever it's called, pro channel maybe? it has a decent pre but nothing special (i'd probably take a dmp3 over it's preamp), but check out it's comp - it offers the only true vari-mu compressor in this price range or in fact anywhere near this price range. I have used one and liked the comp a lot, but only used it briefly so can't say much for certain about it during mixing etc. but if the comp is as good as a vari-mu ought to be, with the various pros and cons of that inherent design, then I wouldn't mind buying two of those art pro channels for my rack just so I can use the vari-mu compressors in my studio. I believe the compressor is switchable between optical and vari-mu on the device I'm thinking of, but I really am not sure if it's pro channel or what.

Just for what it's worth anyway...

Cheers,
Don
 
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