My new preamp sounds like my cheaper one? HELP!

[FALKEN]

right on; its not my 'go to' either but it sure has a LOT of gain.

 

[hemmick reef]

After all that initial disappointment with my new The Brick preamp not sounding better than my edirol sound card preamps, I calmed myself down had a good nights sleep and tried again next morning with new ears on.

Well, all I can say is that the preamp pixie must of turned up in the night, and sprinkled some 'sounds better' dust on my preamp (or me maybe!) because things started to sound a bit different in the cold light of day!
I spent some time A/B the pres with a DI'd cheapish yamaha electric. The noticable difference is where I have to turn up the HiZ gain on the edirol (guitar DI'd) to get a decent level; the sound starts to go fuzzy in an unpleasant way. Conversely with The Brick the sound of strumming strings sounded clear even with changing the gain and if it distort slightly it sounds OK.

It is subtle but then again the edirol just doesn't sound 'right' the Brick does?
Coloured sound or not...the sound of each string playing can be heard and isn't so mushy and I can imagine that that will make a difference once several tracks are recorded.

So I will definitely be keeping The Brick

I can hear the cheers now in the distance

 

[Ford Van]

Preamps are highly overrated.

 

[FALKEN]

Preamps are highly overrated.

fight with your mixes often?

 

[Ford Van]

fight with your mixes often?

I don't know, you tell me! http://www.phoenixlightandsound.com/Audio/

I am not some ameture dimwit. I have been recording/mixing/producing audio a long time.

Believe it or not, some of the best sounding stuff I linked you too used VERY cheap preamps, and some of the worst sounding used very expensive preamps.

GIGO man. Preamps are highly overrated. I TOTALLY do not agree with the "you can stack tracks better with expensive preamps". I believe you can stack tracks better just by getting a good capture of the RIGHT sound for the production style.

You guys all think too much and do too little!

 

[FALKEN]

I don't know, you tell me! http://www.phoenixlightandsound.com/Audio/

I am not some ameture dimwit. I have been recording/mixing/producing audio a long time.

Believe it or not, some of the best sounding stuff I linked you too used VERY cheap preamps, and some of the worst sounding used very expensive preamps.

GIGO man. Preamps are highly overrated. I TOTALLY do not agree with the "you can stack tracks better with expensive preamps". I believe you can stack tracks better just by getting a good capture of the RIGHT sound for the production style.

You guys all think too much and do too little!

sounds great, man. muy impressed.

 

[Tonio]

FV, I checked out some of your mixes a while back. Do you ITB or OTB for mixes?

T

 

[Ford Van]

FV, I checked out some of your mixes a while back. Do you ITB or OTB for mixes?

T

Both. All of that work spans about the last 9 years, and about 6 or 7 different studios/configurations.

Really guys, if you start out with a guality sound, put a decent mic in the right spot in front of it, and have half a clue about mixing, preamps are NOT that big of a deal!

Sure, I would rather be tracking via ClassA pre's any day of the week. But, I have done a LOT of great sounding work that used nothing but cheap ol' ART and Mackie pre's. I can safely say it is FAR more about the quality of the source, the mic and placement, and not being a numbskull while mixing.

 

[Robert D]

I don't know, you tell me! http://www.phoenixlightandsound.com/Audio/


GIGO man. Preamps are highly overrated. I TOTALLY do not agree with the "you can stack tracks better with expensive preamps". I believe you can stack tracks better just by getting a good capture of the RIGHT sound for the production style.

You guys all think too much and do too little!

That was F'n beautiful!

 

[dcomerford]

Fruture Music January 2006

Interpol producer Peter Katis
"for bright lights Paul used a handheld Sennhieiser..."
On a few occassions " I persuaded Paul to try a fancy, super duper $10000
vintage 1953 Neumann U47..w/ Telefunken v672.
On the hand held we used Ampex Am10 pre-amps that I got for around $100.
The funny thing was that sometimes the results where indistinguishable from what we got with a $250 hand held mic."


hummmmmmmmmmm

I guess it depends if your doing a sensitive jazz recording or slamming it to tape
with compression.

Same issue has Rick Ocasak who produced Weezer saying his preference for
the dbx 166 compressor with Over Easy ( not exactly premo gear).

 

[jmorris]

O man how do they sound? I always used to listen to abbey road stuff from the early days before i even knew what v72 was and i loved the sound. It sounded very "orange" or "red" to me. Then later recordings kinda lost that sound and a wider range of colors were present. But i still dig all the recordings from those earlier days. I am no preamp expert but they seem to have some sort of a midrangey quality, some sort of "orange grit" sound to them.

Is this how they sound to you or am i crazy?

Abbey Road Redd 37 consoles had V72s preamps,I have V72a's. Different feq. response. They sound ok, it kind of supports .Like Ford Van said "I believe you can stack tracks better just by getting a good capture of the RIGHT sound for the production style."
I think any "good" preamp will give a good result( if used properly, tracked, mic placement,room, good players, good instrument etc.)

 

[jmorris]

On the same thinking,microphones. They over rated? I bought a 1969 Neumann U87 from Hit Factory as they were closing. It was probably used by Lennon, Jackson ( well, woppy) Paul Siman, Springsteen and countless others. Is it the mic to end all mics? No, but I do find myself being very careful and REALLY paying attention to placement, signal chain and levels with it. End results sound great. But I dont think it is because its a U87, its me being attentive. (Plus, its real cool and it has a vibe! )

 

[rsolinski]

I don't know, you tell me! http://www.phoenixlightandsound.com/Audio/

I am not some ameture dimwit. I have been recording/mixing/producing audio a long time.

Believe it or not, some of the best sounding stuff I linked you too used VERY cheap preamps, and some of the worst sounding used very expensive preamps.

GIGO man. Preamps are highly overrated. I TOTALLY do not agree with the "you can stack tracks better with expensive preamps". I believe you can stack tracks better just by getting a good capture of the RIGHT sound for the production style.

You guys all think too much and do too little!

uhhh.....Hey Beavis.....it's spelled "amateur"

 

[NL5]

.... and not being a numbskull while mixing.

Dammit! That's what I do best!

 

[Warhead]

"These old cymbals I got at the garage sale sound like crap, and my bass that hasn't been set up in 2 years has seen better days ... but I sure am glad I've got this nice mic pre."

+1

I've often wondered when guys ask "what preamp for guitar tracking" if they've bothered to have enough good AMPS around to even achieve a decent sound. The whole preamp issue can very much be cart before the horse type of stuff.

War

 

[dkelley]

I think to mistake most people make when they buy their first pre is they imagine the difference is gonna be huge.

The difference would have been huge if he'd bought a neve preamp instead of the brick, or a peavey tube would have been nice, or one of many other good coloring preamps that don't just overdrive a tube to gain a fake colored sound.

A good colored preamp uses expensive ironcore input and output transformers and often solid state technology (done right) to provide a subtle emphasis on lower mids and a subtle reduction in crunchy highs to give warmth.

Simple design physics = cheap pres can color nicely too, but MOST don't because it's hard to get those magical sounding transformers for less than $200 or $300 each, and you need 1 to 4 depending on pre design and where you use them in the circuit, and then there's the rest of the pre itself that costs a lot too. So money = the magical thing that makes great coloring pres sound like they do. The cheaper ones have to use other tricks to simulate that tone.

I'm VERY surprised that there isn't a really good digitally modelled mic prefor coloring in the $200 price range. It could have been done by now and would probably sound better than most of the cheap tube mic pres out there that replace frequency and phase response coloring with tube overdrive which is really a different tone completely.

 

[chessrock]

Alright Kelley,

First off, this thread is old as dirt. You're talking to the wind.

Secondly, the Brick isn't a starved-plate design. It's transformer based, and tubes are operating at optimal voltage. The fact that it's single-channel and mass-produced in China would account for the low price tag (although lack of sales and the need to clear out inventory could be another).

Thirdly, you're rambling about a bunch of crap, and you're making no sense. I have no fucking idea what the hell this sentence is supposed to even mean, and I don't think you do either : "A good colored preamp uses expensive ironcore input and output transformers and often solid state technology (done right) to provide a subtle emphasis on lower mids and a subtle reduction in crunchy highs to give warmth. "

And this stuff about using magical transformers that cost $300 / each, and having to use 3 per channel? Pure, classic psycho babble (the most expensive input Xformers cost around $50, and can be purchased in bulk for much, much less). Then you mention something about how great it would be if a tube preamp could be digitally modelled? Look, I realize this is an open forum and all, but if you're going to post here, at least try and gain an understanding of your knowlege limitations before you start spouting off a bunch of dumb stuff. Unfortunately, we don't have an intelligence quotient here for posting, but if we did, I'm afraid your thoughts on this topic wouldn't have passed the test. Thanks anyway.

.

 

[seismetr0n]

daaaaammmmmnnnnnn!!

i think you just got served,,,,

 

[Reggie]

I'm VERY surprised that there isn't a really good digitally modelled mic prefor coloring in the $200 price range. It could have been done by now and would probably sound better than most of the cheap tube mic pres out there that replace frequency and phase response coloring with tube overdrive which is really a different tone completely.

Then get yourself a Line6 Toneport and quit bothering people with your BS.