One and only one $1,000 mic preamp

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mrbowes

mrbowes

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I know this topic as been beaten to the ground, and for that I apologize.

I recently landed a pretty good job(for a college stutdent) working at IBM and have saved my pennies. I want to invest in one high end mic pre amp that that fits the bill on many applications.

Preface: Yes, I have used the search function and have honestly been reading about high-end pres for several months now.

I've narrowed my options down to three:

-Great River ME-1NV
-John Hardy M1 Personal
-AMI TAB-Funkenwerk V-78

The applications i will be using these on primarily include(in order of decreasing importantce): Vocals, acoustic guitar, DI Bass, electric guitar(amp and DI), mandolin, overheads, synth DI

In your honest opinion, if you could only have one of the three aforementioned pre-amps(or feel free to chime in any others), which one would it be, and why?

FYI:

mics
------
sm7b
sm57 x2
ksm27
AT3035
oktava mk012 x2

compressor
---------------
RNC

interface
-----------
E-mu 1820m

monitors
-----------
m-audio BX8 pair x2
 
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I would go with the Great River. In my opinion, all three will be great preamps, but the Great River has a more "versatile" quality to it. It just seems like the better "first" preamp purchase.
 
If you want to do OH you'll need a stereo pre. All of the ones you mention are out of my league - I use the RNP/RNC. But I'd think any nice pre worth having is worth having in stereo.
 
xstatic and supercreep - thanks for the replies

regarding the stereo OH bit - i agree that in general OHs are stereo, but i will not be doing any drum mic'ing, and recently have actually had good success with a mono overhead/room mic on acoustic gutar and mandolin. i've been using an oktava mk012 for this purpose.

also, OH is not my primary concern. I have a rane ms1b that I could use for the mono overhead pre. i am really just looking for a pre that will make vocals and acoustic stuff sound 3 dimensional, open, and up front in the mix.

thanks again - i really appreciate your time.
 
Great River. I am looking for one myself. They come highly recomended from a friend engineer with many grammy's to his name.
 
mrbowes said:
I know this topic as been beaten to the ground, and for that I apologize.

I recently landed a pretty good job(for a college stutdent) working at IBM and have saved my pennies. I want to invest in one high end mic pre amp that that fits the bill on many applications.

To preface any replies - Yes, I have used the search function and have honestly been reading about high-end pres for several months now.

I've narrowed my options down to three:

-Great River ME-1NV
-John Hardy M1 Personal
-AMI TAB-Funkenwerk V-78

The applications i will be using these on primarily include(in order of decreasing importantce): Vocals, acoustic guitar, DI Bass, electric guitar(amp and DI), mandolin, overheads, synth DI

In your honest opinion, if you could only have one of the three aforementioned pre-amps(or feel free to chime in any others), which one would it be, and why?

FYI:

mics
------
sm7b
sm57 x2
ksm27
AT3035
oktava mk012 x2

compressor
---------------
RNC

interface
-----------
E-mu 1820m

monitors
-----------
m-audio BX8 pair x2
Click to expand...

The Great River is a good one. But, the John Hardy is a better one. The Hardy is much more versatile for your one and only pre-amp. The GR has a sound that is very good, but tends to build up over many tracks in a way I am not fond of. I like the Hardy because he designed them originally to replace the Neve pre-amps on consoles. He payed strict attention to the coloring of the pre-amp to minimize the "track build-up" problem that even Neve seems to have. If I was stuck with either of these two, I would go the Hardy way.
 
Personally, I have never been that fond of the Hardy's, but that is just my personal preference. Many people certainly like them. They are a bit more of a smooth "cleanish" preamp. Not a bad thing to have around. They remind me a lot of the Avalon 2022 in certain characteristics. The Great River however is very different. It's a much more upfront sound. Almost a larger than life sound. This may not be desirable on certain things, but is often sought after. As far as versatility goes, I think the Great River is actually much more versatile. The Hardy and the Great River together would really be very complimentary as they are very different from each other.
 
I've only heard these at The Listening Sessions, but I would go with the Hardy M1 rackable (not the Personal M1), because later you could add another channel for $600.
 
Hardy would be my choice. More versatility across various instruments.
 
Ditto. Hardy. More versatile. Get the 4 unit chassis and one pre for future expansion. That puts you over budget, but so what. In the long run you'll save $$.
 
Check out the new Neve dual channel pre for $1450.00. Rupert Neve has started building his own stuff again so this is the real deal - not some clone.

I'm about to be ording one myself.
 
deepwater said:
Check out the new Neve dual channel pre for $1450.00. Rupert Neve has started building his own stuff again so this is the real deal - not some clone.

I'm about to be ording one myself.
Click to expand...

The problem with most of the Neve stuff is that everybody wants it *because* of the "vintage" thing. Neve pre-amps are extremely colored and even worse for your only pre-amp. The other problem is that the old Neve pre-amps dont work well with newer mics as their slew rate is pretty slow by today's standards. I don't know if he re-designed the new stuff to be like the vintage or not. It will be interesting to see. As for the vintage Neve pres, those people who have it can keep it. I will use the modern stuff.
 
Certainly the Neve preamps have a sound of their own. As far as them not working well with newer mics, I don't find that to be true at all. The slew rate is part of what makes the Neve preamps so fat sounding. I do agree that unless you are looking for that specific sound, a Neve preamp may not be the wisest choice for a first preamp. But, Neve preamps do what they do and do it better than just about anything out there. There is most certainly a "magic" there that is very sought after. In my opinion they are an excellent tool to have around, but they are also sort of a specialty item and I would reccomend a decent assortment of other pre's before going down the Neve path.
 
thanks for the replies...

last night i spent some time listening to each again at thelisteningsessions.com.

the great river definitely seemed to jump out more. i liked the great river more than the hardy on bass DI, acoustic guitar, drum machine, and electric guitar. more punch. seemed to show the flaws of the instrument/player more than the Hardy. more detail in the high end. has a nice mid range bite that really makes it seem to jump out of the speakers.

the hardy had a wider sound. i preferred it on the vocals, but that is purely a matter of the person singing(tho i did like it better on all 3 voices). it seems to resonate more and sounded fuller in general. not as upfront as the great river, but bold and musical at the same time. it seems to be missing the high mid-range bite that the great river does so well, and this is the reason i didn't like it on acoustic guitar as much.

it's a damn hard call.
 
mrbowes, you haven't really gone into what type of music you're doing or what kind of sound you're wanting. At least for me, knowing that helps a lot in making a recommendation.
 
^
good call.

i'll be recording anything from bluegrass to hip hop music. the bluegrass group i will be recording for is fairly traditional - double bass, fiddle, mando, banjo, and guitar, with harmony vocals.

the hip hop group has a bassist, an MC(emcee?), and beat-boxer.

my personal stuff includes mostly acoustic rock with lots of synths. going for the poppy vibe on my personal stuff.

so, to answer your question: i will be recording a wide variety of music.

it seems the hardy would be best suited for the bluegrass and the great river for the hip hop stuff. i also think the great river would be better for poppy singer/songwriter. i'd say i'm a teno vocal, but i like to sing high when i feel confident =)

thanks for the suggestion
 
The Hardy is definitely better for the acoustic-based music. But you know the M-1 doesn't have a DI. The 1NV is a great rock pre.

I actually think you should split the difference and look at something like API. There's a nice pre that's a knock-off of API, the BAE 312A http://www.brentaverill.com/312a/ The sound is somewhat colored, not as clean as the Hardy and not as heavy sounding as the 1NV. You could also get an API 512C with a lunchbox, but I don't know if you want to have that in a dorm room.

If you think you might want to add some other channels down the line – either of mics pres, eq, or compressors – then look into the API 500 series and the 500-6B 6 slot Lunchbox. That way every time you add something you're not paying for another power supply.

But if this is really for "one and only one $1,000 mic preamp" – I vote for the BAE 312A. Single channel with DI for $899. Hands down in this case. And if you get the BAE 312A you'll find out that you can use other opamps with it – like Hardy, older API, Millennia, Forssell – and switch the entire tone of your pre for about $50-$75 per opamp. Very cool sonic possibility to have.

My 2¢.
 
The master has spoken.

Mind him you should. Yes. (In my best Yoda voice)

Seriously, a good recommendation.
 
^^^

thanks for the recommendation, Dot - I am going to investigate my options further.

I just realized you're in Durham - very cool. I live in Raleigh and work in RTP. Last year I worked with Mark Cimerro at Sonic Wave Studios for about 5 months - great experience. T'was my first opportunity to work with high-end gear.
 
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