preamp vent/rant

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rightbrainnow

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Im sick and tired of shopping for a mic pre. Ive literally been researching it for half a year. Something will catch my eye, ill research the hell out of it and see what people on this board say about it, musiciansfriend reviews, harmony central reviews..i google for reviews and usually find a couple that have been feature in magazines etc. Theres such a broad spectrum of opinions on this board its ridiculous. "this preamp really gave the signal a rich and warm sound"...then two posts later "this thing is a piece of crap!!!sounds thin ...youd much better off buying a blah blah blah for this price range..."..so then you research those recomendations and you get the same thing over, and over, and over again. Ive come to the conclusion that the quality of a mic pre really only matters if youre getting into the high dollar stuff. People either rave about something because they want to like what they dropped money on...or they will bash it because they dropped so much money on it and it wasnt what they expected...i obviously find this biased, and not a true representation of a product. I live in a town where GC runs the music gear world. Their customer service is absolutely horrible and i dont trust them becuase they just push products to make money. "tube is the only way to go!!!" says on person...then the next says "well in todays day and age solid state is just as good, and at a better price tag" Everyone is so concerned with fixing their sound..not enhancing it. Im a purist and i beleive things should be fixed at their source. Does your guitar sound suck? why not buy a new guitar or amp instead of saying "my presonus mic pre is a piece of junk! my guitar still sounds bad!!!" This preamp stuff is just crazy. too many options. GC doesnt let you try anything, and when you ask their opinions they just read whats on the side of the box..i would like to just tell them "ok ive already read that a million times on the internet, stop promoting products you dont know anything about." Trying to pick out a preamp is just a never ending circle of contradicting opinions. I have no source to actually hear any of the products i would buy...so i kinda have to rely on all the research. I think im just gonna go with my gut and buy blue's robbie...being the purist that i am, I like that they neglected information overflow and just gave you one knob. blah, whatever.
 
haha, gotta love reading the anger driven words that you wrote the day before.
 
Forget about Guitar Center and call Mercenary, Soundpure, Front End, or another reputable dealer and talk to someone who actually knows something about audio.
 
Sometimes you just have to make a choice and put your money down on the table.

Figure out your budget, figure out what you will be using the preamp for and with which mics, and then get the best available in your price range. Nothing beats trying the preamps out in person though.
 
I'm with you. I felt the same way starting out. My frustrations started with the FMR RNP. I heard many great things on some boards then others had nothing good to say.

I found ebay to be an asset. I'd buy something, try it for a while, when I thought I was outgrowing it, I'd sell it for close to or more than I paid originally and upgrade from there. Let someone else suffer the depreciation.

Good luck,
 
qbert1 said:
I'm with you. I felt the same way starting out. My frustrations started with the FMR RNP. I heard many great things on some boards then others had nothing good to say.

Good luck,
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The problem with the RNP is that it's VERY clean, but it does have its own sound. It may not be the best choice for everyone starting out, and it does get noisy on the last two settings.

At its best, working in the right gain ranges, it's among the very best preamps out there. For many things, I prefer it over the Millenia Media SST-1 Origin and the Great River MP-2NV.

But it's not for everything. Some people find it too clean.
 
Harvey Gerst said:
The problem with the RNP is that it's VERY clean, but it does have its own sound. It may not be the best choice for everyone starting out, and it does get noisy on the last two settings.

At its best, working in the right gain ranges, it's among the very best preamps out there. For many things, I prefer it over the Millenia Media SST-1 Origin and the Great River MP-2NV.

But it's not for everything. Some people find it too clean.
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So, Harvey, about how much gain do you think it can put out before it gets noisy? Enough for lets say, an sm-7? :o
 
I can't understand why everybody keeps on talking like you can only own one preamp or that your choice for the first one is so critical. The problem being that only through use will you find out what a preamp maybe good for, and don't be so discouraged about it not being good on the first stuff you try it with. You will usually find that each piece excells at certain types of application. If one preamp was the answer than there wouldn't be so many choices to begin with. A preamp that works well for guitar program might not be as good for vocal, or one that works for drums real well might not be the first choice on guitar and so on. Just buy something you think you will have a use for.
 
Cardioidpotent said:
So, Harvey, about how much gain do you think it can put out before it gets noisy? Enough for lets say, an sm-7? :o
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The last two settings (+60dB and +66dB) are the noisy settings. Should work fine for an SM-7. I loved it with an SM-57 as I recall.
 
petermiller said:
I can't understand why everybody keeps on talking like you can only own one preamp or that your choice for the first one is so critical.QUOTE]

because for some people its a really really big deal on how they budget their money. Id love to have a selection of preamps...i couldnt agree more with you. However, im not in a situation where i can do that. Well rounded and bang for my buck is what i have to work with.
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Paralysis by analysis is a bad thing. Try this.... get a credit card. Call up Sweetwater or whoever and talk to the dude there and explain what you want. Tell him that you are slightly unsure and you may return the thing, but any subsequant purchases will surely be with him. (And mean it. Don't jerk around the sales guy) Ge the pre on your credit card. Baby the thing but give it a good work out for day or two to see if you resally like it. Don't like it, return it. Guess what, if you are going from a Mackie board to any resonably decent pre, it won't matter as the jump in quality will probably make you happy for the first time out. If you are this confused, you probably won't know one pre from the other and just need to pick a safe bet and get recording. Once you have worked with a decent pre or two and have some experience under your belt, you can choose other pres easier in the future.

One thing that sort of makes me nuts is to hear folks freak out about making sure they have the absolute pinnacle of anything ever and never make a bad purchase. Sometimes you just gotta take the plunge. You see this in boards like this all the time from folks. "I need a mic/pre/convertor/etc that is the best ever and will never let me down and will make me sound like Steve Albin/Hugh Padham/insert name and make me rich and get me babes and sound great on my guitar and drums and bass and in every room ever and ...." and they don't even really know what they are after (Wouldn't know a Neve from a Behri), yet they beat themselves to death over the decision. Yeah, maybe you'll buy a dud that you turn around and sell on eBay. But agonizing over stuff like this just slows you down.

When learning to drive you can't insist on getting a Porche. Having a car... any car, is better than taking the bus for the rest of your life.
 
Well, I feel like I know some about it because i read about all of them, and i listen to a lot of records...over the past year ive been listening to records and ive been focusing a lot on what the room soundes like..and well lots of things. Some records just "feel" different, and I think it has a lot to do with how they were recorded...so ive been compiling bank of different sounds and such. Now do i know which sounds belongs to which pre? no, but i know what kinds of sounds exist. My impatience is the true enemy here, but im not one of the people that asked "yea so like, ive got 500 dollars and i want to buy a pre, like what should i get"...after exhausting the search function, ive read many of those. I guess im a "newb" (hate that word) when it comes to knowledge of the language, but i feel mature and realistic as to what my needs are what a preamp actually does etc. I know what sounds exist, its just a matter of finding the medium to get them. I started out a musician in all of this, and i guess my tolerance for all the technicalities is low, but im trying!
 
Then you need to either pick a McChicken or a McRib and get moving. You're getting too skinny. :)
 
Harvey

Harvey Gerst said:
The last two settings (+60dB and +66dB) are the noisy settings. Should work fine for an SM-7. I loved it with an SM-57 as I recall.
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Well I thought the sm-7 supposedly NEEDED 60dB, so that something that got noisy by 60 wouldn't work. Am I misunderstanding something?

And sorry for the hijack again, folks. FWIW, I'm inclined to agree with bubbagump and SonicAlbert. Actually, I find I'm inclined to agree with SonicAlbert in general. I just realized that.

I just can't spend that much on a mic and afford to throw my money away on a pre that doesn't have the clean juice for it.
 
Cardioidpotent said:
Well I thought the sm-7 supposedly NEEDED 60dB, so that something that got noisy by 60 wouldn't work. Am I misunderstanding something?
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Well, the architects' specs put the output at -57dB while the other specs say -59dB - about the same as the SM-57, which I did try with the RNP. I don't think there would be any problems with this combination.

The noise at the 60dB setting is very slight; you really hafta listen for it. On most vocals, the other stuff would cover it up easily.
 
bubbagump said:
Then you need to either pick a McChicken or a McRib and get moving. You're getting too skinny. :)
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Yea, im eager to put everything together...I dont want to go through all the "blood and sweat"..record all of my songs...get a preamp..then re-record everything.
 
Thanks, Harvey

You didn't happen to ever try the VTB-1 with an sm-7 by any chance did you?
 
rightbrainnow said:
Yea, im eager to put everything together...I dont want to go through all the "blood and sweat"..record all of my songs...get a preamp..then re-record everything.
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Bool, sweat and tears is exactly what you need - that's how you learn in this field. Nothing comes without experience, trial and error. There are no magic bullets, there are no "correct" combinations, there is only what works for you and your material. If you aren't willing to put that trail and error in, you might as well pack it in now, cause if you think this will be the last preamp you ever buy, you really need to research GAS :)
 
Cardioidpotent said:
Well I thought the sm-7 supposedly NEEDED 60dB, so that something that got noisy by 60 wouldn't work. Am I misunderstanding something?
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Sing louder.
 
rightbrainnow said:
Yea, im eager to put everything together...I dont want to go through all the "blood and sweat"..record all of my songs...get a preamp..then re-record everything.
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That's funny - most of the stuff I do I just throw out and try again. Sometimes I re-record after upgrading equipment and sometimes it's just to have another try with the same stuff. I'm still not at the point where I have any end results I'm entirely happy with - and some of that is probably due to gear, but I'm sure it's also due to experience level. Still, each time I try again I think I get a bit closer. I'm upgrading my gear bit by bit, but I'm also upgrading my skills bit by bit.

The point is, you need both good gear and experience to achieve a good end result - so even if all you have is a crappy pre right now, use it. Who cares if you throw the tracks away, it just means you'll have that much more experience under your belt to use along with the good pre when you get it.
 
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