Sytek, Burr Brown on all 4ch. ??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Booda
  • Start date Start date
Well I played with the Sytek this weekend. I wasn't as impressed with it as I thought I would be. It's a step up from my mixer pres but they are really just fairly decent clean quiet preamps. These are just my first impressions though...haven't done much mixing with them yet. They are a little quieter than the RNP ( I think. ) However the RNP seems a little hotter so I'm not sure of the noise level at exactly the same output. The RNP has more of a bite, more character to the sound...I guess that's what some called "colored" and seems to have a better top end. Seems to capture more of the energy of the source or maybe it's just adding energy. One of the things I was hoping for from the Sytek was to actually push my 441 to a good level with no noise. At max gain I had to play pretty hard on my acoustic guitar and get right up on the mic to get a good level. It is pretty quiet there though. The RNP will spike the recording level at 66 (maxed out) but there's too much hiss there to use more than one or two tracks of it. The maxed output level of the Sytek is about the same as for the RNP at 60. The Sytek's 3&4 sounded pretty good on drum overheads. So far, I've had no need for a pad. I tried them on kick, overheads, bass through a cab through an NTK... so far so good. I like my guitar better through the RNP but the Sytek sounded good with two dynamics....nice and clean...I'm thinking the RNP would be better for rock style acoustic, the Sytek for classical ( with very good condensers.) The RNP picked up a better "whump" from the kick...the Sytek did a good clean kick though, maybe good for jazz kick? The Sytek does seem to put up a nice full sound on vocals....nice and quiet. It just seems to be a bit "finicky" with its gain....not as robust as the RNP. I like it pretty good on some things so far. I'm sure its strengths will grow on me over time. I'm glad to have all the extra channels....but I'm still longing for that big, beautiful, dead-quiet, 3D sound...but I'm finally figgering out that it's out of my price range...should have just believed Fletcher to start with I guess. :D Anyway, of course, these are just my first impressions and opinions, yours may vary... I don't have experience with a lot of other equipment so my reference point is small.....just thought some who are also carefully weighing their purchases might be interested. My evaluation so far: Good preamps ....not "great" ...but very useable. Good quiet clean basis for recordings but need some other amps or processing for some character.
 
Hey Stephen for what it is worth I never remember getting any e-mails from you. Sorry if you think I dropped the ball but I respond to 40-50 e-mails a day from my customers and potential customers and I never saw any from you...Maybe My junk mail filter got them. Anyway Sorry about the situation. Glad you got one at a good price anyway. Mike is a nice guy.

John
 
That's OK John. I figured it just got lost in the shuffle somehow or maybe you changed addresses or something. No big deal. Thanks for letting me know though. Now, when I get 5000 smackers saved up, I may get with you on one of those guitars. Looks nice.
 
bringing this post back..... im thinkin of getting one and using it to record drums mostly....so should i get all 4 pre's clean or 2 clean and 2 with the Burr Brown? i just dont wanna regret getting the Burr Brown option and wasting 2 channels that i wont use for my drums
 
y2jerik0 said:
bringing this post back..... im thinkin of getting one and using it to record drums mostly....so should i get all 4 pre's clean or 2 clean and 2 with the Burr Brown? i just dont wanna regret getting the Burr Brown option and wasting 2 channels that i wont use for my drums
Click to expand...

I don't have the Sytek, but I've done lots of swaps for BBs in other gear. I've never thought of a stock channel as cleaner than BBs :confused: if anything, the potential gripe with BBs is that they are too squeaky clean.

What are the stock opamps in the Sytek anyway?
 
The channels sound almost identical until you really hit them hard.
The BB channels simply make the transition to "grind-y" much smoother.

I got all four channels because they can be clean, OR a nice color depending on how I use them.
Turn the knob more if you want more color. Turn it back down if you dont. Simple as that.
 
That was kinda funny to see this thread pop up. :D I'm very happy w/ my Sytek and glad that I got the 2 different opamps. I use ch. 1/2 for overheads and 3/4(BB) for kick and snare when tracking drums.

I gotta say there is a difference in sound between the channels... but not where you might think it's a totally different Preamp or something. I can really hear the difference with acoustic guitar. The BB is just how everyone describes them a little warmer to darker sounding... but it's not like they don't have highs. I also like ch 1/2 more than I thought and it's nice to have that Little Bit of choice. If I know I want something a little more upfront I'll use the cleaner ch1/2. Except I always track vocals through 3/4... don't know why just do. Not to make you more confused but I think all 4 of the same either way wouldn't matter that much (it's a good Preamp). That's about how different they are... and for me, if I had to pick, I'd go w/ the BB on all four ch. but would rather have the choice and am glad that I do.

Good Luck,
B.
 
chessrock said:
They're pretty universally regarded as outstanding mic pres for the price. The only thing you really have to be careful of, though, is their relatively low input handling. If you're micing drums, you have to have some attenuator pads on your mics. Just thought I'd warn you, because the pads will add another $30-40 per channel.
Click to expand...

Weird. I have never had this problem at all. Remember that when the peak light is just tickling, it actually means you have 8db BEFORE clipping the output, not that you ARE clipping the output.

I have used them for toms with condenser mics that are quite hot, and they peak light almost every time, but with the BB's they dont spit at me, they just barely clip in a nice musical way, which really brings out the boom in the toms...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top