Presonus?
- Thread starter Take Two
- Start date
Wide Awake
New member
I've owned a couple of PreSonus preamps.
MP20 is good, a clean sound with good definition and transient detail, good solid construction. No wall wart !!! Excellent as a direct box. I bought mine on sale for $400 and if you look hard you can buy them around that price. The Digimax LT has eight preamps with inserts on each channel, it's now selling for about $700 with the rebate they are offering.
The Blue Tube has a rich sound but can be a little noisy if pushed hard. I wasn't totally happy with the one I owned but I think it could have been improved with a better quality tube.
I haven't tried the $99 single channel version PreSonus makes.
MP20 is good, a clean sound with good definition and transient detail, good solid construction. No wall wart !!! Excellent as a direct box. I bought mine on sale for $400 and if you look hard you can buy them around that price. The Digimax LT has eight preamps with inserts on each channel, it's now selling for about $700 with the rebate they are offering.
The Blue Tube has a rich sound but can be a little noisy if pushed hard. I wasn't totally happy with the one I owned but I think it could have been improved with a better quality tube.
I haven't tried the $99 single channel version PreSonus makes.
Wide Awake
New member
BTW- This thread should have been started in the "Rack Forum", not in the "Microphones Forum". Oops 
The presonus (MP20) is generally considered a pretty decent mic pre, but a little over-priced considering there are others for less money that sound just about as good (dmp3), and others for similar money that sound better (RNP). It is pretty impressive, though, that at it's price point you get a two-channel Class A with transformer input.
I wouldn't even touch their Blue Tube thingies. Pure junk.
The Bellari is an interesting piece of work. It's the only budget tube mic pre that really is a tube mic pre, and sounds like a tube mic pre. It's not a starved plate / hybrid deal. There is a catch, though -- it's not necessarily a really good-sounding tube mic pre.
It's slow-sounding, for lack of a better word, and a tad noisy. It's surprizingly cleaner than you'd think it would be (considering it's pedigree) -- but it will impart a certain old-school, low-fi type sound as you start stacking the tracks. Not necessarily a bad thing; a lot of early-90's grunge and some of today's punk and indie band's go for that kind of thing.
Personally, I think it's cool as hell to have as sort of a special effect. I use it all the time on aggressive-sounding rappers, by the way. I got this big, big dude who comes in now and then with a pretty intimidating kind of voice. The Bellari actually gives his voice this old-school "fuzz" thing that reminds me a little like a (very) poor man's distressor-type compression. Weird and hard to describe; you'd have to hear it.
Keep in mind -- I did have the Bellari modded quite generously -- the capacitors were replaced . . . the input transformer replaced with a Jensen, and the stock tube (recently) replaced with a T'ung S'ol, etc.
I wouldn't even touch their Blue Tube thingies. Pure junk.
The Bellari is an interesting piece of work. It's the only budget tube mic pre that really is a tube mic pre, and sounds like a tube mic pre. It's not a starved plate / hybrid deal. There is a catch, though -- it's not necessarily a really good-sounding tube mic pre.
It's slow-sounding, for lack of a better word, and a tad noisy. It's surprizingly cleaner than you'd think it would be (considering it's pedigree) -- but it will impart a certain old-school, low-fi type sound as you start stacking the tracks. Not necessarily a bad thing; a lot of early-90's grunge and some of today's punk and indie band's go for that kind of thing.Personally, I think it's cool as hell to have as sort of a special effect. I use it all the time on aggressive-sounding rappers, by the way. I got this big, big dude who comes in now and then with a pretty intimidating kind of voice. The Bellari actually gives his voice this old-school "fuzz" thing that reminds me a little like a (very) poor man's distressor-type compression. Weird and hard to describe; you'd have to hear it.
Keep in mind -- I did have the Bellari modded quite generously -- the capacitors were replaced . . . the input transformer replaced with a Jensen, and the stock tube (recently) replaced with a T'ung S'ol, etc.
OnTheBlackRock
New member
i have a presonus
I have 6 presonus single channel pre amps and I threw a groove tube in the 2 of them (the two i use for vocals) the rest i use for the drum set and they sound fine to me... depends if your trying to make a really crappy mic sound good through the blue tube... i have some decent MXL's and Shures and they sound fine dont spend anything less than about 100 on a preamp though... it wont do much at all.
I have 6 presonus single channel pre amps and I threw a groove tube in the 2 of them (the two i use for vocals) the rest i use for the drum set and they sound fine to me... depends if your trying to make a really crappy mic sound good through the blue tube... i have some decent MXL's and Shures and they sound fine dont spend anything less than about 100 on a preamp though... it wont do much at all.
I think the BlueTube can be good. Just be sure you can pick and choose which one you can have. They are either pretty darn good or absolute shit, with about equal quantities of both in the market place. When you get a good one, you get a pair of pretty clean preamps with a variable color to it that ranges from "there's something in there" to "what the heck is this stuff?"
I honestly like "what is this stuff?" on a snare.
I think the MP20 is darn good, and is what I use for stereo room micing with M179 blumlein.
I honestly like "what is this stuff?" on a snare.
I think the MP20 is darn good, and is what I use for stereo room micing with M179 blumlein.
Armistice
Son of Yoda
I have an MP20 too and it sounds pretty good to me - not a huge amount of gain on offer, but enough. Very clean - has this funny even harmonic distortion system that I haven't really played with yet. I have found it quite easy to clip with relatively quiet sources - takes a bit of fiddling, but fine once you get the magic setting. A fine device.
The other thing about the MP20 is that it LOOKS really good. I don't have much of a rack at all, but when I show my various toys to non-musical people, they go - "Oooh, what does this one do?" and point at the MP20 - beautiful blue colour!
So I think there's definite bang for your buck there as a dual purpose device.... as we know, the end purpose of all music is to get you laid, you have to ask yourself, is an RNP going to achieve that aim for you?
The other thing about the MP20 is that it LOOKS really good. I don't have much of a rack at all, but when I show my various toys to non-musical people, they go - "Oooh, what does this one do?" and point at the MP20 - beautiful blue colour!
So I think there's definite bang for your buck there as a dual purpose device.... as we know, the end purpose of all music is to get you laid, you have to ask yourself, is an RNP going to achieve that aim for you?