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

  • Thread starter Thread starter xgarmothx
  • Start date Start date
Ah, good counterpoint! ;)

Lemme take a look-see, some reviews, etc.
 
Just search dmp3 in here. Everyone seems to love it. I, however, have never used it.
 
xgarmothx said:
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.
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I find that uber hard to believe, given that just about every 3rd question posted in this forum is "what is the best preamp for under $100". :D The other two being "what is the best mic for rap less than $50" and "How can i be more like EZ Willis?"
 
take the plunge. dive in and get something. buy 3 things and try them all and tell us what you think. its kind of annoying to agonize in public about which cheapie deal to get.
 
In response to "its kind of annoying to agonize in public about which cheapie deal to get," I signed up here because it's called HOMErecording.com, and avoided such things as PROrecording ;).

I'm not looking to spend every cent I make on gear right now - I can't. I AM recording at home, and don't think I should feel silly asking such a question, given the premise/name of this site.

All in all, the Studio Projects pre looks like it's pretty set for my needs, and I'm looking into buying one.
 
You're right, it is "home" recording, and many if not most discussions are of the "bang for buck" variety. Which needs to be distinguished from the best quality without regard to price type discussions you might run into at other more pro oriented sites.

So I hope you will continue to feel comfortable asking any kind of question you want around here. It is a public forum, and agonizing about gear choices is one thing that we do a lot of around here. :D
 
honestly, i'd save up just a FEW more bucks, and try to score a rane ms1-b...maybe you can find one used, which probably wouldn't be much more than $100
 
I tend to think that many people base their opinions on reviews they have read and not on actual experiences.

So:
I have an audio buddy here. I have a mic800 here. I have a vtb1 here.

First of all, the pre-amp has surprisingly little impact on your overall sound if you are not into a-capella music. I suspect you use it for vocals and bass, maybe guitar. The weakest spot is still the analog-in of your sound card not the preamp.

But you now need a preamp anyway:
audio buddy: good solid metal cover. small. 2ins. absolutely nothing fancy about it, but it gives a clean no-noise signal.
mic800: all plastic, looks toy-ish when holding it in your hand, however looks nice on the shelf. A tiny bit more noise than the audio buddy, however this is not recognizable in 99,99% recording situation. has a lot of gimmicks, that are actually quite good, however you can get even better results with the voxformer (direct x plug).
vtb1: good solid metal cover, looks more fancy and attractive than the audio buddy, I however do not hear ANY difference to the audio buddy.

Overall, all will do just fine. I personally think I would go with the Mic800 due to its price, it surely is a bargain.
 
I agree, I to have heard good things about the tube pre. Also the mic800 does look kind of toyish but I love it for acoustic guitar recording. I suggest you just read as much reviews as you can and I bet the right one for you will jump out at you eventually. I didnt realize Behringer had such a bad rep here. How many times do we hear how good they work for the price?
 
Thanks guys. From what I hear, I think I may spend the few extra bucks and get the Studio Projects. I'm a hell of a haggler, and generally go into music stores when I need to buy a good amount of stuff at once and get the worker to give me a discount, so I'm hoping to get out of there with the thing at about $100.
 
xgarmothx said:
Thanks guys. From what I hear, I think I may spend the few extra bucks and get the Studio Projects. I'm a hell of a haggler, and generally go into music stores when I need to buy a good amount of stuff at once and get the worker to give me a discount, so I'm hoping to get out of there with the thing at about $100.
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i found the studio project preamp @ an online store for 100 (VS the 120 at the other stores). i'm looking into that one too. it's at scitscat, i don't know how reliable the store is, i did a search on this forum and there seems to be a couple members who bought from them.

what's been bugging me these days are i don't really know how this stuff works (tube or solid state tube emulation) or w/e it is. I have no freaking clue.

Stuff like the VT-1 is great, it cost around 100, and people seems to like it, but how many of them actually have something else to compare to? or rather did they just say it without any comparision? (not to say that every ones does that, but money is an issue and i doubt people have numberous preamp to test).

And there's the MIC800 or the Art Tube V3, which have mix opinions. some said that the gain isn't great or that it's distorted, is not not useable? how much gain did they actually put on it? or did they just "heard" someone else said it and just repeats it, I for one does not believe that a company AS big as Behringer will put out a product that's completely trash and can't be use as it was suppose to be use. Also these preamp are fairly new and they actually have "preset themes" to use. I don't know about other people but i love these preset theme stuff, a completely noob like me that doesn't have a whole lot of gear, messing around with settings will take hours, why not just use something that the big company researched or put hours of work in for us already?

The other thing that i wanted to mention is technology, alot of the stuff here are old, and it's understandable, the technology of sound isn't moving quite as fast, but they are changes here and there for the sake of improvement. However the new stuff does not get test or sample as much as the old stuff, and chances are the "great" reviews aren't gonna pop up anytime soon, cuzz every time people ask for something to buy, everyone is gonna recommend the old stuff. I myself doesn't fall far from this tree, if someone asked me what's a good dynamic mic under 100 i'll instinctively point to the SM57, SM58, or the Senhenser E835 cuzz that's all i've been using and it doesn't sound like shit. However after thinking about it, chances are there's a crapload of newer mic that's probably gonna sound better for the same price because the technology of these company have been improving, the dam SM58 is probably older than me.

one other issue that i wanted to mention is the aspect of "sound", people like different sound, this is why it's freaking hard to justify what's "good" and what's "not good", this is why there's mix reviews. IMO most of these products aren't "bad" they just have different sounds, and people tend to lean toward 1 spectrum of sounds vs the others.

And to ask people to go and "test" these product is hard, there's not a whole lot of pro music store around (well in compare to electronic stores like bestbuy or circuit city). and even so it's hard to be "testing" in the enviroment that they have, plus the stores carry different brands, i think one of the bigger chain for audio gear is Guitar Center, but there is a crap load of stuff that people recommend on here that does not get carry by them, and then there's the price issue....

The more i read the more i get confuse and i'm leaning toward purchasing on instinct. and i absolutely HATE HATE stepping into these pro audio stores, they are like car salesman when you don't know anything, with cars atleast you can get some info, with these gears there's just too dam many to be gathering info, by they time u buy something that they've suggested chances are they've already rip you off.
 
warlock110 said:
if someone asked me what's a good dynamic mic under 100 i'll instinctively point to the SM57, SM58, or the Senhenser E835 cuzz that's all i've been using and it doesn't sound like shit.

However after thinking about it, chances are there's a crapload of newer mic that's probably gonna sound better for the same price because the technology of these company have been improving, the dam SM58 is probably older than me.
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Yes and no.

There are many low cost items available today that have nothing to even compare them to years ago, budget condenser mics and computer recording just to name a couple.

However there is also much that has changed very little. A top of the line professional micpreamp or compressor isn't necessarily all that different than one built four or five decades ago. The SM57 and SM58 and many other old favorites continue to be very competent pieces of gear even though to the novice they might seem outdated because other technologies have moved so fast.



warlock110 said:
The more i read the more i get confuse and i'm leaning toward purchasing on instinct.
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For the novice it is hard to go totally wrong with almost anything that has an XLR mic input on it.

Even with the most basic of budget gear the weak point is usually going to be the operator not the equipment.

The Audio Buddy was a good deal a few years back but much less so today. It is a decently clean sounding device as long as you don't overload it but it can overload on loud sources and is even more likely to with condensers as most put out quite a bit more level than dynamic mics. This is one of the few cases where the situation has really changed. The M-Audio DMP3 which can be found a bunch cheaper today than when it first came out is a considerably better micpre for not much more money.
 
JM350 said:
Even with the most basic of budget gear the weak point is usually going to be the operator not the equipment.
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I believe there is a lot of truth in this statement. I started home-recording a few years back and got a DMP3 based on its good reviews and decent price. While it is not a high-end piece of professional equipment, it was more than enough for my needs and my budget both then AND now. My skills in recording have improved a lot since I got it but I am still not at a professional level by any stretch of the imagination. The limitation in my recording set-up preventing me from becoming "The Next Big Thing" is not the DMP3... it is my musical talent, my recording abilities, my choice of mics and micing technique and placement, my relatively-untreated recording space, my knowledge and use of effects, my mixing and mastering abilities, etc. All in all, the DMP3 gets the signal from the mic and cleanly and accurately amplifies it and passes it along to the analog/digital converter. I have a feeling a $100 preamp and a $1,500 preamp would accomplish the same result with my novice skills. I would venture to say most of the preamps in the $100 range are about equivalent quality and performance for a novice at recording. This line of logic might not apply if you are already a professional recording engineer.
 
toddyjoe said:
I have a feeling a $100 preamp and a $1,500 preamp would accomplish the same result with my novice skills.
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Not really. Better gear makes it easier to sound good. A novice would not be able to get the maximum out of the gear like a pro could, but the better signal path would still be much in evidence.
 
SonicAlbert said:
Not really. Better gear makes it easier to sound good. A novice would not be able to get the maximum out of the gear like a pro could, but the better signal path would still be much in evidence.
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Not always. Sometimes better equipment shows up the mistakes made elsewhere, a lot more than lower-end gear.
 
pandamonk said:
Not always. Sometimes better equipment shows up the mistakes made elsewhere, a lot more than lower-end gear.
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But that's part of how that better equipment makes it easier to sound good. It shows up mistakes more clearly, calling attention to them and making it more apparent to the novice that a fix is required. The fix is also easier to achieve because you can hear better.

If lower end gear masks mistakes, it is only for the person in the room using it. For any listener with a better stereo system the mistake will be glaringly obvious. The masking of mistakes is like a fool's gold that only tricks those that don't know better.
 
SonicAlbert said:
But that's part of how that better equipment makes it easier to sound good. It shows up mistakes more clearly, calling attention to them and making it more apparent to the novice that a fix is required. The fix is also easier to achieve because you can hear better.

If lower end gear masks mistakes, it is only for the person in the room using it. For any listener with a better stereo system the mistake will be glaringly obvious. The masking of mistakes is like a fool's gold that only tricks those that don't know better.
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But under your definition of "novice," you are assuming the novice has: (a) advanced enough listening and recording skills to spot the mistake between the live and recorded sound as brought out by better equipment; and (b) advanced enough skills to know how to accomplish the fix you believe is easier with better equipment. If a novice cannot yet spot mistakes that are small enough to be masked by low-end equipment and has not yet developed the skills to know how to correct such mistakes, the difference between high- and low-end preamps is theoretical but of no use in practice. That was the point I was trying to make although I understand your perspective completely.

I am a little unclear about your second paragraph. I would think if low-end gear masks mistakes, the person in the room using it would be the one who would hear the mistake, not the end listener. The person in the room with the equipment would be in the best position to hear the original sound compared to the recorded sound and be able to spot the difference or mistake. The end listener would have never heard the original sound in the recording room and thus would have no reference point to identify any mistake in the recorded sound. Of course, when I am thinking of a "mistake" I am thinking of differences and variances in accuracy between the original source and the recorded sound as caused by the preamp in between. Are you defining "mistake" differently?

Interesting discussion here.
 
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