What are your favorite preamps??

[kaneo]

I would like to know what your favorite preamps are and why?

I really like the neve preamps they give a great kick and snare sound.

What others are out there, i would love to know??? As i am recording soon and want to hire some.

[Big Daddy]

It's not the preamp it's the engineer.

Everyone has their preference for mic, preamp and other analog gear.

If the guy gets a sound you like and it's in your budget to use him, it doesn't matter what he uses.

Yes, he should have certain things that any studio should, but the bottom line is to listen to stuff he has already recorded and if you dig it go with him/her.

If you walk into a recording facility and go WOW....it probably means you can't afford their time. Just rule of thumb.

[brandondrury]

It's not the preamp it's the engineer.

I 100% agree.

If you really want to get into Ford vs Chevy debates, have at it but both are going to do fine in most cases in your trip to Lowes for lumber.

The difference between preamps is such a subtle thing. Check out my Guitar / Bass Preamp Shootout Results and listen for yourself. There is no objectively better preamp all the time. The difference is so subtle that preamps do not matter unless you have a badass musician, a great song, and a great room. Then preamps can pull you this or that way 1 or 2% (depending on the source).

I own a Vintech re-issue of a Neve 1272. There is nothing about that unit that makes me get excited. I have a Trident S20 preamp. I have a Presonus M80. There is nothing about any of these units that gets me excited. They add gain to a signal. The difference in character seems to be overshadowed by other problems in my world.

I tracked a live band a while back. We finally got around to mixing. The guitar player has the best amp in the world (1968 50 watt Marshall Plexi through a 68 cabinet loaded with 20w Celestians....I think). Anyway, I ran out of "good" pres and a Mackie preamp on his amp. The guy is completely ecstatic about this tone. He said it's the best tone he's ever gotten on an album. (This is the 3rd time I've heard this with a Mackie / SM 57 combo, by the way).

I'm about to sell some of this off and go with API preamps. We'll see if those excite me. My gut says that no preamp will ever excite me. A great song excites me.

Brandon

[kaneo]

Cheers guys, sounds like you guys know what your talking about.
Ill keep all that in mind.

[brandondrury]

Just remember to put an equal amount of your budget into your preamps as the big studios do. A typical HUGE studio (that is going out of business) has a $2,000,000 facility and maybe $50-100k in preamps. It just doesn't make sense for a $3k studio to have $2k in preamps. Does that make sense?

Brandon

[Tbonebeats]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

It just doesn't make sense for a $3k studio to have $2k in preamps.

Brandon

I agree brandon. I used a behringer vx2000 mic pre/processor at this guys home studio and squeezed som nice vocals out of it.

[brandondrury]

I used a behringer vx2000 mic pre/processor at this guys home studio and squeezed som nice vocals out of it.

People tend to assume that a "crappy" or "inexpensive" preamp will always sound bad. What does it mean when you get a tremendous tone on a track that used a Mackie preamp?

It means that you CAN get tremendous tone through cheap gear. Some will argue that you would get a "better" tone of better preamps. They may be right, but when it comes down to making smart business decision, you are going to have a hard time convincing an artist on a budget that they should pay more money to use the high end gear.

Brandon

[Whiskey Jack]

I have a Behringer MIC200, the ART TubePac, and an ART TUBE MP. The TubeMP is the closest match to the Behringer. I prefer to use an AKGC2000B with the Behringer, for vocals, because it is brighter and a little more transparent. I use either or both of the ARTs with MXL V63Ms (I have a pair) on guitars because they are darker and a little ****er ; the tracks always sound quite a bit more like an acoustic guitar on that combo than they do with the Behringer/AKG set-up. Everything I do is on a budget (the budget is designed to make money, as opposed to spending it on gear, but that's another story). My only aspiration at this point is to try higher end 12AX7s in either or both of the pre-amps to improve the musicality of it. I just bought a brand new Behringer to replace the original one I had, which I bought second hand from a guy off CraigsList in a parking lot. It lasted about 6 months, which was long enough for me to check it out and not feel too bad about the money I'd spent on it (less than list, it was used).

[jeffsanders]

I currently use a Sebatron VMP-1000e in my home studio. It's been good to me.

Sometimes I lust after maybe a Great River or one of these other revered preamps in that price range, just to see if it'll give me a chub. But then again, I've gotten awesome results with the FMR Really Nice Preamp and GT The Brick (even an M-Audio DMP3 for that matter). Sold them to buy the Sebatron. And I'm not even sure I'd do it again.

The RNP was actually perfect for my needs in hindsight. $450 for two channels that sounded killer.

Like Brandon says so often, the only things holding my recordings back at any given moment are the songs and performances themselves. And possibly the tracking room/monitoring environment.

[bilco]

Great River ME-1NV - because my Pbass through the DI, acoustic guitar through an SM81 and vocal through an SM7b are all flattered by it. They either sound just like they sound in the room or they are colored in a way that is flattering. I have not tried it on a guitar cab yet. If it sounds good on that, it will be the first preamp I have owned that is flattering to every source that I personally record without having to add any EQ to correct it after the fact.

But $1,080 is a LOT of money to pay for what essentially boils down to a volume knob.

RNP - I sold it to help finance the Great River, but this was a really useful tool. The main thing I think it shines on is dynamic mics. It really made an SM57 or SM7b on my voice sound great and it has a lot of gain for dynamic or ribbons. It was not flattering to my particular guitar with an SM81 or my Pbass, but it may work well for you. The same mid range that it enhances on vocals that works so well for my voice and an SM57 made the acoustic sound boxy and the bass a little bit thin on the bottom. All of this can be corrected with EQ by someone who knows how to apply EQ, but I wanted a preamp that sounded good on all sources going in flat, so that is how I ended up with the GR.

Mbox - I think that the original Mbox (with Focusrite preamps) has some really solid, utilitarian preamps that sound pretty good (in a very vanilla way) and have the important benefit of not requiring extra gain staging, cables, etc. They work very well on the acoustic guitar and sound good on the Pbass direct with a touch of EQ added after recording. They don't have a lot of gain (~45db), but I have gotten decent results out of an SM7b on vocals if I sing directly into it. If I lost everything I own and had to start over, I would be just fine with an Mbox 1, a compressor to raise the gain, an SM7b and an SM81. I am going to get an RNC anyway. I am going to experiment and see if I really need to hang onto the GR or not. That $1,000 would come in handy for a vacation with my wife or a trip to NYC to see my daughter (or a '62 reissue Pbass!)

Brandon is right about the importance of the preamp in the grand scheme of things. The GR does NOT inspire me to write better songs and it does not disguise or compensate for a flat vocal note, rushed guitar riff or an uninspired performance. Even if I get very good source recordings of every instrument and vocal, it is not going to make the mix process any easier, especially in an untreated room. It DOES have more focus to it than the inexpensive preamps I have used, like Behringer, kind of like when the Optometrist is dialing in your prescription for glasses, "which is better, A or B?" Towards the end of the process, it gets pretty subtle and to my old ears it is subtle, but real. I could get by with an old pair of glasses, but a brand new set definitely makes seeing easier.

On the other hand, I have never had to pay $1,000 for a pair of glasses.

bilco