Preamp for 200$

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Alexi

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hi there,
i am searching for a decent to good preamp costing up to 200$.
i don't care if it is a tube preamp or just a normal one, i am just trying to get my snare drum to sound phatter (miking with sm 57)

cheers
 
Alexi said:
hi there,
i am searching for a decent to good preamp costing up to 200$.
i don't care if it is a tube preamp or just a normal one, i am just trying to get my snare drum to sound phatter (miking with sm 57)

cheers
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For "decent" you'll have to spend more -- for "good" you'll have to spend a lot more...... for "barely usable" $200 is probably the low-end.....
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
For "decent" you'll have to spend more -- for "good" you'll have to spend a lot more...... for "barely usable" $200 is probably the low-end.....
Click to expand...

Where would you rate the DMP3? I'd consider those decent, especially for the price
 
reshp1 said:
Where would you rate the DMP3? I'd consider those decent, especially for the price
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"Decent" compared to what? An ART, sure... an RNP, nope.....

But I probably over-generalized a bit... the DMP3 is fine for what it is - personally, I'd save a bit more and get at least an RNP, but you've got to start somewhere......!
 
reshp1 said:
Where would you rate the DMP3? I'd consider those decent, especially for the price
Click to expand...

The DMP3 is a very good preamp for acoustic guit and vox. IMO the preamp is better than Mackie preamps. But I don't record drums, so I don't know how it would fair on that app.
 
Alexi said:
i am searching for a decent to good preamp costing up to 200$.
i don't care if it is a tube preamp or just a normal one, i am just trying to get my snare drum to sound phatter (miking with sm 57)
Click to expand...

If you're trying to get your snare to sound "fatter," I'm not entirely sure you're going to get that by using a particular kind of mic pre. Mic pres are designed to boost mic level signal to line level.

I know plenty of compressors that can fatten up a snare, though, by way of shaping the dynamics.
 
what about tube preamps,

the vtb1 compared to the presonus tubepre compared to those art tubepres, which ones woul you guys consider to be the best buy?
 
i own a la audio 4c and a dbx 163, im thinking about getting a RNC....any other good affordable compressors you would recommend (dbx 166, dbx266, alesis 3630?)...
 
Out of those, I'd take the vtb 1 based on its good reputation, and the not-so-hot reputations of the others.

But if you can spend somewhere in the $300 area, then why are you looking at $100 pres?

Maybe you should just different heads and tuning, or micing the bottom/side of the snare?

If you want a comp, you should probably look at the FMR RNC.
 
While I dont doubt your good intentions, I do doubt your ability at this level to tell the difference between a Mackie preamp and a pre costing 200 bucks...theres simply not enough difference to Make a difference...I do agree with Chess that you're (perhaps) approaching your problem from the wrong angle..a mic pre will not necessarily 'fatten' up your snare sound...at least not at this price point..I would work on tuning,mic placement, and the room before I ever tried to buy a sound.....unless you're willing and ready to fork over the 1200 to 1500 per channel for a pre....If you want to spend your 200 towards a 'better' sound, buy an RNC and run the snare mic through that...at least it will retain its value and is usable on many other things as well.
 
The lowly 49$ tube mp has a low mid/midrange aggressivness that works kind of nice to "fatten" up a snare. But yeah, as previously stated, a compressor could do more at the electronic end of things to thicken it up. Considering what those things cost nowadays, i dont know why the tube mp get's such a bad rep...you dont got much to lose dollar wise, and they are usefull to have around the project studio. It's kind of weird that the tonal characteristics that make the original tube mp desirable and reccomendable as bass DI make it 'crap' for a mic preamp :confused:

good luck!
 
I have a VC3Q... its pretty good, but I am starting to feel its limitation...

for $200, DMP3 is definately a good choice, based on the sounds I hear it can do on this board.
 
hey guys, i didnt mean to mess up the conversation, i know i won't get a fatter snare sound through a 200$ preamp but i know that a decent preamp affects the mix in a positive way, especially those cheaper tube preamps i've heard add a whole new dimension to ones recording capability.

cheers

(i don't want you guys to over discuss thid toppic, i know the dmp3 is nice and the vtb1 and all it's opponents are pretty good, i was just searching for a bang for the buck kind of tip)
 
by the way, where can i get those lowley preamps, i live in germany so all we have here is neumann, sennheiser and akg :) :) :)

cheers
 
We have a little Joe Meek unit that seems to do okay for this price range. I haven't used it myself but I've heard the results of it and it's pretty good.
 
I'd go with either the DMP3 or the VTB1. I'd probably favor the VTB1 because when I used one I did note that it put a decent image in the monitors with an SM58.

Just so you know some of these ultimate snare sounds you here come from a snare mic'ed with three mics (usually an SM57 and two other mics like a small condenser and a large dynamic) and going through some top end mic preamps.
 
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