Need a pre-amp reccomendation!

F

FadeToMuffins

New member
Hey guys. I primarily play metal/rock and all genres within that spectrum. I currently have:
Line 6 Toneport UX2 USB interface
2x Motu 8Pre Fire interface


What I'm looking for:

A 1 or 2 channel preamp (preferably 2) that will work well for both male vocals (I'm a tenor singing through a modded V67G & an SM58) as well as on guitar cabs recording heavy guitars. My mic setup for recording cabs is 2 SM57's (although I just got a pair of GLS ES-57's which I've heard good things about).

So what should I look for? Is there an all in one audio interface that I can get that will feature a great Pre AND some sort of USB/Firewire interface, or am I better off just focusing on a dedicated pre-amp and using one of my other interfaces? Within these choices, what are some good recommendations? My budget is about $300.

Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate it.
 
One of very few sub-$500 dual-channel units I'd suggest off the top o' my head would be M-Audio's DMP3.

THAT SAID - If you can hold off a bit and pick up a FMR RNP, it'll be worth the extra $200 (or less if you can find a used one).
 
I hear over and over again that the Golden Age Pre 73 is best preamp in that price range.

Golden Age PRE-73 | Preamps @ ZenProAudio.com

Listening to the clips on the zen pro website, even importing them into my Daw, I can't tell the difference between the stock pre 73 and an all original Neze 1073. I don't know why anyone would buy the zen pro mod over the stock pre 73. Maybe I'm deaf.

I don't know if the smoothness you get from one of these is suitable to your style of music. Maybe someone else can comment on that.
 
Your MOTU 8 Pre Firewire interface, which as the name suggests, is eight preamps and a Firewire interface in one box.

Is there something about the MOTU preamps, which are actually pretty decent, that you don't like? Or are you suffering from the "somebody told me I need a preamp" malady which is currently going around?

Before spending any money, I would work with the MOTU preamps for a while, using them for both your guitar and vocals.

Then, after you've identified what the MOTU preamps aren't giving you, do a post outlining the problem and you will then probably get some advice that will be useful...
 
The Motu preamps are sterile and thin sounding. Yes they are clean. Yes they don't make any noise. What they don't do is give me a fuller, warmer sound. This is especially apparent when I am recording guitar tones. My rig is as follows: Peavey 6505+ head -> Avatar 4x12 Cab with Vintage 30 speakers.

You sound like the kind of person who is going to press me and insist that it is my micing technique, or my playing technique, or my ears, or ANYTHING but the preamp as I obviously "don't know what I'm talking about." So suffice it to say, it is my preamp, I need something warmer, yet something that isn't necessarily dirty sounding.

That being said, I've received the DMP3 recommendation before, but it looks like it's pres are on the same level as my toneport or motu. But between the RNP and the Golden Age, which do you think has the better pre?
 
FadeToMuffins said:
The Motu preamps are sterile and thin sounding. Yes they are clean. Yes they don't make any noise. What they don't do is give me a fuller, warmer sound. This is especially apparent when I am recording guitar tones. My rig is as follows: Peavey 6505+ head -> Avatar 4x12 Cab with Vintage 30 speakers.

You sound like the kind of person who is going to press me and insist that it is my micing technique, or my playing technique, or my ears, or ANYTHING but the preamp as I obviously "don't know what I'm talking about." So suffice it to say, it is my preamp, I need something warmer, yet something that isn't necessarily dirty sounding.

That being said, I've received the DMP3 recommendation before, but it looks like it's pres are on the same level as my toneport or motu. But between the RNP and the Golden Age, which do you think has the better pre?
Click to expand...

Wrong guess, but we do see a lot of people here who "was told I need to get a preamp to fix everything".

If what you want to do is add some coloration to your sound, an external preamp might help. But since you are looking for a "subjective" sound, may I suggest that you either find a music store that will let you take a couple of preamps home to audition, or one that has a liberal return policy. Then test them out on your rig and see which one you like best. What is "warmer" to me or someone else here might not be what you consider "warmer".

Good luck...
 
Well, I haven't owned a lot of preamps, but I've listened to enough interrogator sessions and shootouts to recognize that investing in a preamp is about the least bang for your buck you can do to try and change your tone. The difference you get for $2000 is extremely minimal, and the golden age makes that tiny bit of high dollar tonal coloration that you might or might not want very affordable. It's mostly for vocals, though. I wouldn't expect any perceptible difference in guitar tone from one preamp to another. It's hard enough to hear a difference on vocals or classical instruments.

For guitar, choice of guitar body wood, pickups, and especially speakers will get you the most return on investment. In case I wasn't clear. Speakers. Speakers. Speakers. Speakers and also microphone, but really speakers, and you have the right mic already.

Your amp and speakers also seem ok, but you really have to crank that 120 watt amp way up to push those 280 watts of speakers into smooth creamy toneville. If you can't do that, then you need a small, low wattage, recording amp and especially low wattage speaker. I also have to wonder what kind of guitar and pickups you are you using. What is your style of music? Lead or rhythm?

As far as micing technique, using two microphones can introduce comb filtering, which will suck your tone in a huge way. But I presume you know about that already and have the mics positioned so that there is at least ten inches of difference in distance of one mic from the speaker compared to the distance of the other mic from the speaker. If not, and you want to discuss that, let us know.
 
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