mic-pre with tascam 428

[crosstudio]

for those of you using the 428, are you using a separate mic-pre?

i know i'm asking for subjective criticism, but that's OK.

when recording a line source like a drum machine or sound canvas, the 428 seems to do just fine.

when recording vocals i always want more depth and clarity. i'm trying to decide whether i want to get a single channel, allegedly awesome pre-amp like the grace design 101, or get two of the RNP's when they finally come out.

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Hey, Cross.

Yuppers- I use the Art Toob MP and the pres in my Alesis mixer through the 428's pres and they sound fine. I need them for phantom power, any way. Sometimes I run through both because I'm too lazy to unplug the alesis from the back of the 428. (shrug) Maybe my ears are fried, but it generally sounds OK to me.

Very rarely (almost never) do I use JUST the 428 pres. They sound fine, I just use my mixer for easy zero latency monitoring. I like the other pres better, too.

I typically set the external pre levels to their sweet spot and adjust the 428 pres to get the right level- which is usually in their sweet spot, too.

I have a feeling that going all out on a very expensive pre would exceed the ability of the 428 to reproduce it, though. No experience, of course, but that would be my guess.

Take care,
Chris

 

[crosstudio]

that's a point i had not considered.

i figured that if i got the grace or rnp i could hook it up to my in-house system (mackie 1604vlz pro --> frontier design wavecenter/tango24), then easiery snatch them out and use the pre for the tascam.

i'm leaning towards getting 2 RNP's because then i'll have a pre for each 428 channel.