Next pre...?

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jonathanl

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Hey all

I asked this question a while back in ozrave's forum, and was convinced then but now that I have a job and can fork over the money (and up my budget to around $1k)..

What should I get next?

Originally I was convinced to get the Grace 101 and maybe I should still be getting it..

but there were a few other pres in the $1k range that I'm now looking at:

Hardy M-1
Speck Pre (I think that's in that range)
Great River 1NV

I currently have a RNP.

Any suggestions or just stay with getting the Grace?

Thanks in advance!
 
Well i don't know a lot about any of these pre's considering i can't afford to use them, but from what i've heard they vary a lot.
The john hardy and great river are VERY coloured, and the grace 101 is one of the least coloured preamps out there.

What do you want? I'm sure there is a middle road, i think the RNP might be middle, but leaning to clean.
 
Actually the John Hardy is supposed to be quite transparent and excellent for acoustic music. I've never heard it described as overly colored, just musical. The Great River NV is quite colored with the "Neve" sound.
 
ah thanks brad. For some reason i thought both of them were modeled after the neve's.

Ok glad that's cleared up.
 
jonathanl, since you have the RNP you already have some color. The 1NV will give you a lot of color and edge and is great for rock. If you want something cleaner than the RNP and you're doing tracking of acoustic instruments and also voices, the JH M-1 is amazing.

The 1NV actually has an additional transformer in the DI - for even more color. The M-1 does not have a DI. You can use a DI box though.

I'd say if you're doing Classic Rock, Hard Rock - get the 1NV. If you're doing mostly Jazz, Folk, Country, acoustic-based music - get the M-1.

Dan Richards
Digital Pro Sound
The Listening Sessions
 
Okay..

I'll probably start with the M-1 so I have something to compliment my RNP and get the 1NV later.

Thanks for the input!!
 
I have a couple of recordings from engineer friends done with the John Hardy with transformer outs (I haven't worked with it one on one). From what I can tell it is a very clean, large and open sounding preamp. Regardless of subjective comparisons between the two, the RNP is in this same "camp", as are pieces from Great River (MP-2MH, not the NV), Millennia, Grace, etc. Perhaps getting something very opposite the RNP (like the NV) with quite a bit of color would be a better move, rather than sideways (in a sonically applicable type of way) . That way you can reach for one or the other depending on the application, rather than two different shades of 'cleaner'. Just a thought...good luck.

Nathan Eldred
atlasproaudio.com
 
I figured I'd get different responses from different people, but that's cool. I will think about it. As much as I want both, I can't get both at once! I I plan on eventually getting both so I guess it just depends what I'll be recording next!

Which is a toss up for me because I currently have two things planned to record:

One is my friend's rock band.

The other is mostly songs I've composed on my acoustic and plan on recording up to a full band with.. depending on the song..

so yeah... that's why I ended up asking. Otherwise if I was just doing one of those this summer I'd already have known what to choose (from what I've read.)

But as always.. thanks for the varied opinions :)
 
I don't think you could go wrong with most of the options you just mentioned, although I'm not completely sold on speck (unless you're talking about their EQ).

The Great River and the John Hardy . . . either one would be an excellent choice. Both are very much in the transparent camp.

If you want something with a bit of color, I'd be looking at either the Great River MP1NV, or perhaps the Manley Langevin if you want some extra options along with it.
 
The more I play with the UA 2108 the more I like it. It can do clean and it can do some coloring.

Out of the two you mentioned I like the Great River stuff across more sources than the Hardy. The M1 sounds great on acoustic stuff and voices (male that I have heard). The Great River can do pretty clean stuff if you don't drive the input hard. I am not sure about how dirty the Hardy can get. It may be pleasing to drive it real hard and see what it does. Anyone tried that yet?

Kirk

Chess, I hear what you say about the Speck. I was not impressed with the pre on the 5.0.
 
Past the RNP...

The real trick I've found about this as time goes by is that the RNP does stack up against some very nice preamps in putting out good tracks.

I think it all depends on what you are looking for. The more I go the less I am a fan of single-channel preamps. But, a lot of people only need one channel preamps. I'd tend to recommend the Grace 101 still to those people. It's a little overly real at times. But, isn't that what recording is all about a lot of times?

The A Designs MP1 or even the MP2 are good options.

Steve, Mojo Pie
 
I've had an RNP for a while and just got a GR 1NV. They are definitely from different camps as Nathan says. In what little time I've experimented with the two so far, they each seem to have their own place and complement each other nicely. For example, the NV absolutely rocks on vocals and I love the RNP on acoustic guitars.
 
sweetnubs is again feeling sweet. under 1k I'd go for the single channel universal audio pre, although it doesn't sound quite as good as the 2 channel version, or the sytek. Both are different beasts. sytek will give you more bang for the buck. the universal will poor it's sweet cream over the nubs in your audio. They both also compare very well to some of my higher end pre's. I've never tried the great river but I've heard good things from actual users I know. I think the stock vintech sucks. I don't like v76 preamps either. (although they are nice in certain particular circumstances) But then again I have a small 8 channel neve broadcast console that I use as a sidecar so I don't have much need for the "classic neve sound."
 
ebeam said:
I've had an RNP for a while and just got a GR 1NV. They are definitely from different camps as Nathan says. In what little time I've experimented with the two so far, they each seem to have their own place and complement each other nicely. For example, the NV absolutely rocks on vocals and I love the RNP on acoustic guitars.
Click to expand...

I got to agree with you that the RNP is THE thing on acoustic guitar. Heck, I also agree about the Great River. I disagree with Nathan that the RNP is from another camp. I think it's a different color than the Great River MP-2NV but it's still got a decent amount of color. In any event, the RNP's sound is nothing like my Grace 101's realism.

Steve, Mojo Pie
 
I agree. The RNP definitely has color and is not super transparent like a lot of people say. It has this 'agressive' midrange thing happening (gotta love this subjective terminology) but has different coloration than the GR.
 
Steve- I read the review of the Sytek pres on your site. I'm thinking about picking up one of these when I start tracking drums again (I've stripped down my studio and only have the 3 channels of mic pre at the moment). They seem like a great deal and from what I've read would complement my other pres nicely. Any thoughts?
 
ebeam said:
I agree. The RNP definitely has color and is not super transparent like a lot of people say. It has this 'agressive' midrange thing happening (gotta love this subjective terminology) but has different coloration than the GR.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's as clean as a Millennia or Grace, but it's a lot closer to that than the NV. It's a class A design, from what I've noticed on many Class A designs they produce a little more something in the mids than a monolithic based design. I definitely would not characterize it as aggressive though. Again, subjective.

Nathan Eldred
atlasproaudio.com
 
ebeam,

Personally, I prefer the DaviSound TB-6 on anything I'd use the Sytek MPX-4Aii on. I look no further when I want accurate or "transparent". It use to be a couple hundred bucks more than what Sytek sells the MPX-4Aii for on eBay right now, but it JUST went up a couple hundred bucks. Unfortunately, it no longer hits the "$1k and under mark"... Still, it's around half of what other comparable (in my opinion) 4-ch. preamps go for.

By the way, I haven't done ANY "tests" of any-sort with the MPX-4Aii and TB-6... I look forward to the day I can do just that!

In fact, it'd really be cool to do what chessrock had brought-up about tracking an enire song with the same preamp; which I've done plenty of time with the "Mic-All" preamps in my DaviSound TB-3, but not with the MPX-4Aii. However, I've yet to track a drum-kit with the DaviSound "Mic-All" preamps all-around, but that will be changing next year!

Of course, the ultimate would be to have the Sytek MPX-4Aii, DaviSound TB-6, Millennia Media HV-3B, Great River MP-4, Earthworks 1024, and Grace Design 801 all in the same room!

Really, the ultimate would be quite a few more than that, some single and some double channels, but I've stuck with 4 or more cannels pres I've come-up with off the top of my head.
 
ebeam said:
Steve- I read the review of the Sytek pres on your site. I'm thinking about picking up one of these when I start tracking drums again (I've stripped down my studio and only have the 3 channels of mic pre at the moment). They seem like a great deal and from what I've read would complement my other pres nicely. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I only own three channels myself. I have a Grace 101 and an FMR RNP. I have a Great River MP-2NV that is on loan to me to do some factual checking and perhaps a review.

A Grace 101 might compliment what you have. Of course, you only need three channels to record drums. I came to this conclusion after mixing a lot of songs and finding myself muting drum tracks until three or so were left. Here's an article by Fletcher on recording drums with three mics: http://store.yahoo.com/mercenary-audio/3micdrumstuf.html

On the Sytek... Mike Stoica seems to have a decent rep with some quality people who use his mic preamp. The guy that wrote the review for me was not the most experienced guy but he really gave it a good going over. A used Earthworks Lab 101 might do the trick for you as well. If you need the channels, then the Sytek is about the only thing of quality in that price range.

Steve, Mojo Pie
 
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