Next pre...?

[ebeam]

Yeah, I've done a bit of 3 mic drum recording myself - especially back when I only had 3 mics . Personally, I prefer the flexibility that a 4 mic setup gives - kick, snare and 2x overheads. Although I never really had a great front of kit mic before - maybe my new Gefell LD will do the trick. I generally prefer not to mic the toms and just position the overheads to give a nice blend of cymbals and toms. I only have 4 channels of A/D at the moment too, so one more pre would be enough until I get funds for some outboard A/D to go with my Lynx card.

RE- I'll check out those Davisound pres....who is selling them?

 

[tdukex]

Davisound sells their own.

http://www.davisound.com

 

[Dot]

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!

??Ultimate??

It's actually pretty redundant. I don't know what the Davis sounds like yet, but all those pres are fairly close together in character. Way too much super-clean and transformerless in that "collection".

Dan Richards
Digital Pro Sound
The Listening Sessions

 

[darrin_h2000]

That Toft thing is arround that price.

 

[heylow]

A bit off the beaten path.....

Yo,

I can enthusiasticly second the Davisound TB-6....NICE stuff!!

On the opposite end of the color spectrum, I have been eyeing these up: http://www.seventhcirclestudios.com/SCA/SCA.htm lately. The stuff can be gotten in kit form or you can have it pre built for a bit more.

You get this: http://www.seventhcirclestudios.com/SCA/N72/Photos/SCA872_2chnl_1.jpg completely built for like 800 bucks and it leaves room to add 6 more at about 350 a pop in the future. My guess is that he will probably try to make other modules work off that power supply in the future....just a guess.

Anyway...I havent heard them but the guy that builds them has been a regular at Tapeop for quite sometime....very cool guy....and a few people who's opinions I trust seem to like them quite a bit.

Just a thought,


heylow

 

[Recording Engineer]

Dot,

I was refering to "ultimate" in the sense of having them all in the same room for comparison... NOT to have them all in your collection!

Anyway, I feel it would be the "ultimate" as it would actually be comparing apples to apples in the sense that apparently, they're all trying to achieve the same thing.

 

[shortyprs]

I'm a little away from the pre-upgrade decision so I'm really pleased to be following this post. For a beginner set up, I've been working with 2 DMP3's, an RNP and a Joemeek vc6q. It's a good balance of clean/color for a newbie.

Everything I've researched towards an upgrade matches what I'm reading here. The John Hardy sounds really clear, but very full and alive. The Great River MP-1NV is my favorite. Very warm and present. But most of what I do right now is blues and rock influenced, so that makes sense. The Grace is also very good, but my impression is that it isn't different enough from the sound I'm getting. This isn't based on a good a/b comparison, so, take my bias with a grain of salt. The Sytek gets a speacial nod. I've emailed the guy a couple of times and he's always helpful, always very responsive to my questions. He really seems to care about the quality of his product. That does count for something in my book.

As it stands, I'm saving up for the Great River MP-2NV, with an open eye toward developments in other pres. I'm going to try very hard to a/b my final choices when the time comes.

As an aside, hey ebeam, I've tried the 3 mic drum recording. The drummer I work with really likes to control the flavor of his snare, so I always end up with a 4 mic setup. The funny thing is that we did a test cd of mic placement and pre's before recording seriously. Everytime we go back through the notes, he says, "Man, I really loved that one take..." one with a 3 mic mix! Go figure.

 

[leeg]

I've had the good fortune of comparing the mp2nv, speck 5.0, rnp, and phoenix drs-2. I ended up keeping the mp2nv and speck, for the variety of sounds available with that combination. The speck is the cleanest of the bunch but with a subtle color in transformer mode that still remains clear. I couldn't get as clean a sound with the rnp so gave it up since I was certainly holding on to the mp2nv, which already provided the girth and warmth so fitting for making a track stand out. I could have easily just stayed with the nv though for all of my tracks, it sounds plenty clear to these ears but can be made to growl too. Of course, it's an even better luxury to have a cleaner channel to add contrast to the big sound of the nv.

 

[ozraves]

As an aside, hey ebeam, I've tried the 3 mic drum recording. The drummer I work with really likes to control the flavor of his snare, so I always end up with a 4 mic setup. The funny thing is that we did a test cd of mic placement and pre's before recording seriously. Everytime we go back through the notes, he says, "Man, I really loved that one take..." one with a 3 mic mix! Go figure.

Keep spreading the gospel of three mic drum technique. Three channels just sit so well in a mix.

Steve, www.mojopie.com

 

[Richard Monroe]

Mostly, I use Avalon AD2022 and Joemeek twinQ. I'm really psyched about the new twinQ, available in about 5 weeks. All the digital and analog outs you can stand, DI, 5 band EQ, "metal" switch to enable or disable the transformer. de-esser, optical compression with makeup gain. What's not to love? As always, Alan could let me down, but he hasn't done it yet. I will definitely be upgrading my green monster.-Richie

 

[chessparov]

shortyprs, I'm curious how your new arrival, Beyer Soundstar X1N will sound on each of pre's, particulary the RNP. Let us know how you like it.

Chris

 

[Frusciante_Fan]

Universal Audio 610 or 2/610 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

The best pre I have ever heard. I love it

 

[shortyprs]

Hey Chris,

The Soundstar just arrived Monday. Sadly, it came while I was in the emergency room with my kid. No panic! He's got a mild concussion, but is fine and will know what planet he's on eventually.

I got one listen-through with the mic so far. You're description was dead on. I really like this mic!!!! Anyway, I've arranged a couple people to help me do comparison tests with several mics and pre's. I'm working on a way to post mp3's, but I'll send you a CD regardless. Be about 2 weeks. Mucho thanks again!

Tom

 

[chessparov]

shortyprs, sorry to read your son was injured, and do wish him a speedy recovery.

Glad to see you like the X1N, it's a very fine vocal microphone.
For those who aren't familiar with it, it was Beyer's answer to
the Sennheiser MD421.

Chris

 

[Bowisc]

Soundstar pic for y'all......



Bowisc

 

[sweetnubs]

yeah fruciante-fan I told 'em the universal audio. remeber though, we are going for under a grand. it's like a infite annoying loop around here: great river/rnp, great river/rnp, etc. etc. Like I said I haven't heard the great river but reliable sources (my mommy) say it is pretty good. I'm somewhat suspect of it but I'll give it a fair listen someday. The rnp on the other hand is kind of lame. Nobody talks about universal audio around this place. Feltcher's inventory probably has influence on some of the dimwits around here. I got the single channel for a steal and was going to resell it, but the damn thing sounds pretty good so I kept it. nubs approved, get it. The two channel sounds a little better and it's got eq to boot. I like gentle shelving eq and large band sweepable eq. narrow band usage of parametric eq is overated except for band-aid fixes for crappy home recorded tracks. matrix II sucked. butter-pecan is the best ice cream. santana is a shitty guitar player. anything else?

 

[nwsoundman]

Hey now

I have mentioned that the UA 2108 is a pretty damn nice box. Also the 610 sounds pretty damn good on my acoustic. Now that suprised me.

Kirk