tmix said:
Ha ha ha! I'm sorry! (hangs head in shame)
I meant no offense!
I was thinking because he had similar pres to mine , his thoughts compared to them would be informational.
OF COURSE your opinion counts!
What other pres do you have to compare the brick to?
Again, no snub intended!
Tom
Lol! No problem. The brick is my most expensive and, presumably, nicest pre. Others include crappy behri mixer (never use, except occasionally for routing), crappy Alto pre (never use, except when I need some 'ugly'), DMP3 (use all the time for acoustic guit), VTB-1 (used for vox & DI before I got the brick), & Tascam US-122 pres (not as bad as you might think, but rarely use them).
***meaningless superlative alert***
My impressions of the brick are, it has a nice, musically-warm sound. It is open and "larger-than-life" on vocals, at least to my ears. As a DI, it pretty much kicks ass. I also like it with an SM57 or RE20 on a guitar amp -- just adds that extra something, even when recording at low volumes.
I've never used a really expensive pre, so I have no basis for comparison there. It is definitely better than the other pres I have for many jobs, but the differences can be somewhat subtle.
I, personally, think the VTB-1 is amazing for its price and it does a fair impression of the brick with a little "toob" thrown in.
I prefer the DMP3 to the brick for acoustic guitar, as the brick does seem to get a little mushy on transients (using the MXL 603s mic).
The major downsides to the brick are:
1) It's frickin' huge - takes up a lot of desk space
2) No phase switch, pad, or low-cut - not essential, but can come in handy
3) Only has XLR out - a 1/4" TRS would be another nice option
4) Only +55dB - less than some, but it's darn quiet unless all the way up (even then, it's mostly just amplifying room noise, not noisy itself)
So, in summary, it's a very nice sounding, no-frills pre. Like all pres, it works better for some things than others. It's my main vocal & DI channel right now, and I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon. The next obvious step would be a transformer-heavy >$1000 pre, which I can't justify at present.
Hope that helps a little. I'm sure fab4forever will have some additional insight after he gets his.
Oh, and happy birthday! (Sucking up in case I need some drum tracks someday
)
