the Mic-Pre Challenge!

[billisa]

Speaking of comparisons, order the CD listening sessions put out by PMI Audio using the B1 and C1 with Neve and Studio Projects preamps...

One thing in all this... Anyone who records for a living may or may not be able to consistently pick up differences in one piece of gear or another, but will the average home listener?

The sad thing, to me, is that with some of the best ability to record and reproduce sound, music is rarely LISTENED to anymore. I think some of the subtle differences we debate for days are very much lost on most of the music buying, or downloading public.

 

[dwillis45]

Loosen the fuck up jackass. Homerecording ie limited shit. Fucking rich ass snob.

I'm not sure where this comes from. I simply commented on the way your poll results might be colored by the way your preamp test was designed. I'm downloading the mp3's on a laptop with poor speakers and the differences are less apparent that, say, Blue Bear who auditioned the clips in a control room. In addition, if you are looking for meaningful differences of opinion, its important to ask the question in a way that does not bias the results. When you say that one preamp is more expensive, it's does load the results.

Your response to my comment and most of the others tells me you need to loosen up. And anyone who posts the headstock of a Matin D-41/D-45 on their personal web site strikes me as a "rich ass snob." I don't own a studio, a house, a car, or an expensive Martin. I guess I made the mistake of appearing rich by trying to a make an intelligent comment using the english language. Well, fuck it.....LOL....OMG......Dude....I'm gonna cruz on down to GC befor my gig siNce I feel, like, sooo...played. ........................ You whinning hypocritical toddie! You sit there on your loathesome spotty behind not giving a a tinkards cuss for the struggling artist! You excrement!

 

[Outlaws]

Matin D-41

Damn right. I worked my ass off to get it too.


....but I never said anything was wrong with making money or having money............I called you a rich ass snob. "SNOB"

There is a big difference between having some some money and complaining that others don't have enough.

 

[c7sus]

So did you ever figure out a way to bypass the Roland pre's or not?

And you guys that can't hear the difference need some serious upgrades or hearing tests.

 

[Outlaws]

Whats up c7sus......long time no see.

 

[Outlaws]

So did you ever figure out a way to bypass the Roland pre's or not?

And you guys that can't hear the difference need some serious upgrades or hearing tests.

No. But there is still a huge difference. I don't get what everyones whining about? Maybe the differnce could be bigger....but its big enough for the time being.

 

[wheelema]

The sad thing, to me, is that with some of the best ability to record and reproduce sound, music is rarely LISTENED to anymore. I think some of the subtle differences we debate for days are very much lost on most of the music buying, or downloading public.

Hallelujah and Amen!

 

[chessrock]

I don't get what everyones whining about? Maybe the differnce could be bigger....but its big enough for the time being.

You really don't get it, do you? (sighs, shakes head)

 

[Outlaws]

Sample 1 = Davisound
Sample 2 = Roland

 

[heylow]

Outlaws....

I don't want to come off like a dick here and maybe I haven't been following closely enough by my own admission....

...but if you hear the difference and it's a pretty wide difference to your ears, what was it you were/are so upset about regarding the pre?

What is it you want it to do that it is not doing?

Again...I'm not being an ass....am genuinely lost (perhaps even ignorant) as to the original complaint. For the record, it sounds from here as if you have a pretty nice pre going there.


Rock,

heylow

 

[tdukex]

Now aren't ya glad ya didn't sell it?

 

[Outlaws]

Outlaws....

I don't want to come off like a dick here and maybe I haven't been following closely enough by my own admission....

...but if you hear the difference and it's a pretty wide difference to your ears, what was it you were/are so upset about regarding the pre?

What is it you want it to do that it is not doing?

Again...I'm not being an ass....am genuinely lost (perhaps even ignorant) as to the original complaint. For the record, it sounds from here as if you have a pretty nice pre going there.


Rock,

heylow

No offense taken.......when I had originally done my first comparison it was in a very, very acoustically unsound room. The kind the has a metalic echo to it....if you have ever been in one of those. It was a shitty apartment. And I could hear a thing.

Now I have a better room to do this in and the problem cleared up.

I have nothing to prove with the pre.....it was just a comination of thing on another thread that just made me want to do another test to show people the difference......and when I did the test is this better room, I proved myself wrong....which fucking sucks ass ....but is better because now I have a kick ass pre and not a shitty pre.

I don't know where I am going with this so I am going to stop.

 

[Outlaws]

Now aren't ya glad ya didn't sell it?

Very much so, tdukex.

 

[c7sus]

I dig my TB-10 too.

Only thing I don't like is the UNBALANCED instrument inputs. Hayne made it sound like he tested the design with a keyboard and not a guitar. So it works great with keys but hums like a bitch with a guitar! One of these days I'm gonna send it back to Hayne and he said he would swap out the instrument inputs for the balanced design he now uses. But after all the stories about turnaround times..................

I also asked Hayne for a quote to mult the outs, adding two per channel, with one out of each channel phase-switch capable. Then I can fuck around with M/S.

Or I can mult the outs through a patchbay and swap phases with a cable.................. which is prolly what I'll wind up doing.

I did a test that Hayne recommended---- putting a 5k resistor across the instrument input to check the power supply. DEAD QUIET to nearly full crank! I was pretty impressed after that little test.

When I finally hooked up an NT-2 and recorded a bit of guitar I was blown away. I easily put that mic 4 FEET in front of my Martin and still had gain to burn. Of course, in my room it sounded like Grand Central Station! But anywhere within 2 feet of the guitar sounds great.

Bottom line: Hayne may be slow but the guy knows audio!

 

[YungPoke]

i dont know anything about pre-amps but sample 2 sounds better to me.

 

[regebro]

Roland what? I wasm't THAT impressed with the amazing difference, so if this is some cheap crappy built-in roland preamp, I'm NOT getting a Davisound.

 

[manning1]

for me

i found sample two had more broad frequency spectrum in the lows. but for some strange biased reason i preferred the sound quality of sample one.

 

[Outlaws]

he said he would swap out the instrument inputs for the balanced design he now uses.

?


How long has he been using the new design?

 

[heylow]

That whole instrument amp thing....

When I first got mine it did the same thing....humming like a bitch on direct bass. I sent it back and he fixed it right up....quiet as can be now. The turnaround time wasn't TOO bad....about 2 or 3 weeks....still a little slow I guess.


Outlaws....

OK...cool enough. I'm glad you dig it now! If you haven't noticed the "hum" thing, you probably don't have it. It's VERY obvious....in fact, it sounds broken when it happens. I don't actually know when the new design was implemented though.


heylow

 

[c7sus]

If you can plug a guitar into the instrument in and get no hum then it's a balanced input. In fact, the piece I have is Voxvendor's, so it's TB-10 Number 1. I think Hayne said all the later versions have balanced instrument I/O.