need a nice preamp !

  • Thread starter Thread starter StarvingEyes
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StarvingEyes

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i have scrapped together $1,000... ive been considering the great river 1 or a 500 series api lunchbox preamp... it will be used to record many genres of music...rock/metal/acoustic ect...i will be hoping to use it on one of the 8 drum tracks.. and then on all of the other tracks since its all multitracked. I will be running it into a digi 002r...

what will give me the most noticeable upgrade... something that clients will say..wow..that sounds alot better than last time.. so far the only pres i have are the ones in the 002r and an old focusrite voicemaster pre... and oh ya.. a behringer board :eek:

thanks in advance
 
StarvingEyes said:
what will give me the most noticeable upgrade... something that clients will say..wow..that sounds alot better than last time..
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Better drums and a better room.

As for the pres, I think API tend to sound good on drums. Not sure if it's going to make any jaws drop, but you should notice a difference.
 
What kind of mics do you have? That should get a bigger improvement than a pre. For 1k the Great River seems to be the one to get. I know I'm gonna get one sometime. Yeah, people say API's are awesome on drums but there are probably better things for multi-purpose use, i'm guessing.
 
funny i always thought the api was more multi purpose from my research. im looking for the same 1000$ rock pre.
 
gemsbok said:
funny i always thought the api was more multi purpose from my research. im looking for the same 1000$ rock pre.
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I almost bought some API stuff as my first really nice pre but decided to go a different route for the time being.
 
hey i work with starving eyes in our studio... and to answer that one question.. our mic lineup is...

3) shure sm 57s
2) sm 58s
1) akg d112
1) audio technica 4040
2) audix overheads
1) seinheiser e609

so what would be the best overlapping multipurpose preamp? ive heard api on drums... they sonud good.. but what is a good multipurpose pre that sounds good when used on 70 % of the tracks... so u could say.. it layers well.
 
i would investigate the great river or the sebatron 2000e. both will give improvement and will sound different to any other pre that you try out.
the sebatron is very flexible for many voices and instruments
 
The Great River is a great place to start. It's kind of becoming the Distressor of the preamp world. It does a great job of moving between pretty colored and pretty clean. I love API's, but I think the Great River would offer more versatility. For me, I would get between 2 and 6 channels of great pre's, and then start looking at API's, but then I would be trying to get 8 channels of the API's:D
 
Microphone pre-amp

I am by far no expert. But I am in the market for a microphone pre-amp myself and I heard from the the sales guy at Sam Ash, who also has his own studio at home, that the Grace 101 is good.
 
I guess at that price, its either the John Hardy or Great River. I went for the john hardy when I had to choose because it sounds less colored - Great River has a unique coloring sound, which if you like, go for. I'm very happy with the JH and John himself gives great pre-sales advice and help whenever you need it. There are sound clips online where you can hear the difference between the 2... though I cant remember where!
 
Clean - John Hardy
Versatile - Great River
Aggressive & Drums - API
 
deepwater said:
Neve Portico is where its at. I have been blown away by mine. www.rupertneve.com
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Ahm, but Roger Hartlett says they suck and are not worth the money, so I know *I* sure as hell wouldn't buy one now that I've heard that **** ;)

But then again, he hasn't heard one (not that he apparently thinks that's necessary)



**** sarcasm for the the sarcasm impaired.....
 
Thea said:
I am by far no expert. But I am in the market for a microphone pre-amp myself and I heard from the the sales guy at Sam Ash, who also has his own studio at home, that the Grace 101 is good.
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I have one., It's decent, but not in the GR league.

It's tres clean and very unforgiving. That is a good thing sometimes.
 
Great River.....GREAT gear and Dan Kennedy (the owner)is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet..He takes customer service to a whole other level(I have heard the same about Jonh Hardy although I have never dealt with him personally)...

Ray

ps..Then grab an old API 312 :) and you would have a great rock n roll set up
 
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