Opinion: Best (vocal) pre-amp for under $100.

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xgarmothx

xgarmothx

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Hypothetically, for someone on a serious budget, primarily for powering a condenser mic. I know there's a lot of experience on this board and a lot of knowledge to be gained by a noob like me before I go out and waste money.

...and by "hypothetically," I mean "me" :p
 
there are a couple of points i'd like to make if i may.

1. there is a forum for discussions of gear like this. it's right below the microphones forum.

2. there is a search function on this board that i'd sure would yield many helpful results for you.
 
RightOn, thanks for your comments. I apologise to the community as a whole if I've bothered you with this thread. I'm very new to this, and since I'll be undergoing surgery on July 9th, I'd like to have a lot of my setup in place so I can work on some tracking during the time that I'll be stuck at home. Hence, dispite my research outside this website, I'm trying to gain the knowledge of the experts on this board before making any uneducated decisions.

As for your comments, my thinking was this:

1. Since not all preamps are rack-mount, especially the less expensive kinds, which often tend to be free-standing, I wasn't confident that posting this in the "Rack" forum would have been appropriate, and, ironically, wanted to avoid people telling me that I was posting this in the wrong place.

2. "Sorry, the server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later." - I'm on a somewhat slow connection, and when the search function failed me a few times over the course of a half-hour stretch, I browsed the forums looking for such a thread. Seeing nothing recent off-hand, I felt that the post would be acceptable.

So, again, my apologies. I guess I can't delete the entire thread, so all I ask is that you ignore it.
 
hey no problem man, just trying to be helpful! a lot of people like the m-audio audio buddy as a cheap preamp. plus it's kinda the only game in town for under $100.
 
Thanks! I actually just got the search working, and found some info deep down in, but nothing super-specific. I'll look into the m-audio audio buddy right now.
 
The Audio Buddy is not the only game in town for under $100. The audio buddy is really bottom of the barrel in my opinion.

You can get a Studio Projects VTB1 for $120, which is not very far over your budget. There's also the ART Tube MP series, which comes in under $100. I personally would take any of those, or the Presonus TubePRE over the audio buddy.

Just my opinion.
 
I noticed a lot of reviews of the Audio Buddy were a bit so-so. I'll look into those right now, thanks!
 
Studio Projects VTB1 - Reviews were great
ART Tube MP - reviews were crappy
Presonus TubePRE - reviews were crappy

I'm looking at the VTB1 now. I assume people have had good experiences with this?
 
I just did a search for the VTB1 and read up on a lot of peoples' opinions on here. Most seem pretty positive.
 
You'll be a lot better off with the VTB1 than the Audio Buddy. The price difference is negligible, especially when you amortize it over the years that you will own it. That's really how you need to think about gear cost anyway: how much it costs to own *per year*. That weeds out the false sense of savings you can get from going a few dollars less on an inferior piece of gear.
 
I have 4 VTB-1's can't complain about them at all, even compared to my AEA TRP. I also have a ART Tube-MP Studio, and you know what, I have never used it :o:o:o , some day I will, lol.
 
I only found 2 reviews of that, and I have 2 thoughts:

1.) It definitely seems to have a lot more in the way of presets and options, which would probably be useful since I am somewhat unexperienced.

2.) It's Behringer, which seems to have a pretty bad reputation, particularly among members of this board.

Also, it's solid state with tube emulation. And to be honest, the price is scary - why so inexpensive?

Does anyone else have any experience with this puppy?
 
all pre-amps below 100$ suck equally, try to get something without a tube.
 
Studio Projects VTB1 - Reviews were great
ART Tube MP - reviews were crappy
Presonus TubePRE - reviews were crappy

I'm looking at the VTB1 now. I assume people have had good experiences with this?

ON THE CONTRARY I HAVE THE PRESONUS TUBE PRE AND IT DOEST A GREAT JOB I GET NICE WARM VOCALS AND ADDS ALOT TO MY MACKIE MIXER WHICH ALREADY HAS GOOD PREAMPS
 
I was able to get good results out a TubePRE too.
 
for some reason the question made me think of going to a whorehouse and asking for the cheapest one
 
Hahaha,

I understand the correlation. However, it's something like this:

a.) Live in a box, eating dog food, with a fantastic preamp that I can't plug in,

or,

b.) Get a preamp that makes my condenser mic work with my crappy SB Audigy2 interface, without making it sound like garbage.

I choose B. Young, just bought my first home, touring musician with very inconsistent income.
 
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