Thoughts on the RNP

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EleKtriKaz

Home (w)Rec'r
I've had my RNP for a couple months now, and I thought I'd share my experience with it. First of all, my only bases for comparison are the pres in my Aardvark Q10. So far I have only gotten a chance to use the RNP on vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and as a bass DI.

The bad: Upon first use I was actually a little disappointed in the tiny grey box. I didn't hear the major difference that I was expecting to hear after dropping $475, obviously this is a very subjective complaint, and my fault not the pre's, however it is my main complaint nonetheless. I guess I was expecting a little bigger step up. The other problem I have with it is the gain staging, which is in 6db increments. The pres on my Aardvark are staged in half db increments, so this was a big change for me. On vocals I was constantly fighting between wanting to turn the gain up one more notch for better presence and needing to leave it down a notch to avoid clipping.

The good: After some continued use and upon referencing the tracks recorded pre-RNP, I started to hear the difference in quality, still not quite the step up I had hoped for, but better than I had originally noticed. Overall, the word I would use is "Cleaner". There was a little bit more "Sweetness" (I realize how unscientific these terms are), but overall the RNP is cleaner and more true to the source than the pres on my Aardvark.

The really good: As a bass DI, the RNP blows away my Aardvark. The signal is much easier to deal with as far as eqing and not needing nearly as much eq, and has great definition to it. The other "really good" is what the RNP did for my Sennheiser 421. This mic was basically unusable with the pres on my Aardvark. Those pres got seriously noisy at the levels of gain required by the 421. With the RNP it was a whole different story...nice and clean and produced one of the best distorted guitar tracks I've recorded.

Hope some of this is helpful.
 
EleKtriKaz said:
I didn't hear the major difference that I was expecting to hear after dropping $475

I started to hear the difference in quality, still not quite the step up I had hoped for
Click to expand...

Agree 100% thats why I sold mine

It doesn't cut it as that one go to 'money' pre IMHO YMMV
 
Well it is $475 for two channels. For the $475 it's perhaps not a "steal" for a young home recording artist, but I find it a flexible pre which I've used for Acoustic guitars, Bass, Keyboards, and some Vocals. It's clean. You'd be hard pressed to find a better 2 channel pre for the dough. But I'm sure there are also some pretty darn good ones (especially single channels) for less.

I also use the Safe Sound P1 - which for me sounds great on Bass and Vocals. I suppose for now it's my "go to" pre. It's more of a strip though, having a compressor, expander and limiter. But it's also $500 for the one channel.

There are steals out there - but for the most part you get what you pay for.

With the RNP you can definitely get your money's worth.

-Krag
 
You just get your gain in the ballpark on the RNP and then use the makeup gain on the RNC to fine tune. And..you use the RNP to balance the RNC. Great team. Plus, if you get the Funk Logic rack plate, you cover up the ugly little freaks and make em look cool.

Oh, and the RNC is an EXCELLENT compressor for vocals.
 
Awesome...I will look into that. Plus, I already have the funk logic rack plate, so I'm ready to go. Thanks for the tip. I guess I never looked closely enough at the controls on the RNC...didn't know there was a gain control. Thanks for the info.
 
I love my RNP for many different reasons:
1) big head room much bigger than my soundcraft M8
2) mid range bite -- when I want a lot of mid range detail in a vocal
3) stereo micing acoustic guitar with MXL 603 pair sooooo sweet

I think the RNP/RNC is a great value for the money.

my other pre is GR ME-1NV.....of course it has some sweet quallities but, much different. As I audition high end pres I don't notice that much improvement (like between ART vs RNP). The differences in higher end pres seems to be more about the the differences in sonic signatures.

Rob
 
How would you guys compare the pres in the RNP vs. the pres in a MOTU 896. I currently have an 896, and am contemplating whether or not it's worth the $600 + that an RNP+RNC would cost. Will it be enough of a step up to justify the dough? Any thoughts?
 
cmaconsulting said:
How would you guys compare the pres in the RNP vs. the pres in a MOTU 896. I currently have an 896, and am contemplating whether or not it's worth the $600 + that an RNP+RNC would cost. Will it be enough of a step up to justify the dough? Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I have an 896HD and use the RNP/RNC for OH, it's got more headroom and more detail imo. Worth it depending on your recording environment and monitors.
 
OH? Overheads? Monitors aren't top notch... fostex PM1, with a sub. Recording environment is decent, not a huge room, but I've got wall treatment and will be building standing baffles.
 
cmaconsulting said:
How would you guys compare the pres in the RNP vs. the pres in a MOTU 896. I currently have an 896, and am contemplating whether or not it's worth the $600 + that an RNP+RNC would cost. Will it be enough of a step up to justify the dough? Any thoughts?
Click to expand...


Much better than the Motu pre's.
 
Well since I apparently started this thread (didn't remember doing it until I clicked on it and to my suprise I was the first post!) I guess I'll weigh in again.

A year after that post I'm still using my RNP and am learning how to use it a little better. I now also have a better basis for comparison. My other pres are the "focusrite" pres in my Digi 002 rack and my Focusrite Octopre. The RNP completely smokes the Digi 002's pres (no suprise there). The digi pres can't handle low end AT ALL. And that's where I find the RNP excels. It beats out my Octopre most of the time as well because of the way it reproduces low end. It has a nice presence to it that neither of the other pres has.

Also, I've found that I like the sound of it much better when I'm driving it harder. The pre can handle tons of level without even coming close to distorting, but the problem is the peaks that can cause the convertors to clip. This can get tricky since there is no input trim, but that's where the RNC comes in handy. On vocals and electric guitars I usually run the RNP about 1 click (6dBs) hotter than I would if I was going straight into the 002. Then I run it into the RNC to keep it from clipping digital.

For the reasons above this thing makes a GREAT keyboard and bass d.i. You can drive the gain on the preamp and you've got input level control on the instrument itself.
 
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