If you could use only one preamp?

[brandondrury]

I've got a feeling how this is going to turn out, but I'm curious.

If you could only use one preamp on an entire record, would you go with the mega clean, straight wire style of preamp, or would you go with something more colored?

Brandon

[richiebee]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I've got a feeling how this is going to turn out, but I'm curious.

If you could only use one preamp on an entire record, would you go with the mega clean, straight wire style of preamp, or would you go with something more colored?

Brandon

As clean as possible. You can add colour in other ways... you can't take it away!

R.

[dach]

the "better" one unless the cut really screams for something particular....

[brandondrury]

the "better" one unless the cut really screams for something particular....

Let's talk about this a little bit. By "better", do you mean "better for this particular song / album" or do you mean better as in "this preamp always sounds better than that preamp"?

As clean as possible. You can add colour in other ways... you can't take it away!

Two questions. #1) Would you say this pertains mostly to the type of music that you are doing (what people in my rock music world call "classical / orchestra style" music)?

#2)What ways would you color the signal afterwards?

Brandon

[richiebee]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Two questions.? #1) Would you say this pertains mostly to the type of music that you are doing (what people in my rock music world call "classical / orchestra style" music)?

No. I've always been taught (and think it good if a little safe for rock and roll) to record as clean as possible so that it doesn't shag up what you decide you want to do when you're mixing. That would be the same (for me) regardless of genre. As I said, you can add afterwards, but you can't take away.

#2)What ways would you color the signal afterwards?

It depends on the instrument and the tune. I remember that for the funky dory demo I added distortion, eq and compression to the vocals to give them a little more attitude.

I like to use mild distortion to give an edge to the sound and take away some of the clinical sound.

[dach]

By "better", do you mean "better for this particular song / album" or do you mean better as in "this preamp always sounds better than that preamp"?

this is a loaded question unless we can understand what you're going for and also "hear" your source.... BUT,depends, but I wold usually default to "this preamp always sounds better than that preamp" as long as it sounds better "in context"

This should really be a no-brainer... if you can use only one.... use your best preamp (most clarity, fastest transient response, thickest sound- clean or not necessarily clean...)... that may be subjective AND contradictory to what you own, but that's my call.... it all depends on what you have in front of you... i'd almost always rather it "hit" than not... I can always deal with the transient, but I can not conjure one up like Harry Potter could on a weak beat... "transiento!"

what do you want to do? I have music I love to listen to and music I love that sells well...
who do you think I emulate most often?

[dach]

As I said, you can add {color} afterwards, but you can't take away.

bull hockey... no offense intended RB...

just listen and do what works... it ONLY takes a couple of seconds to repatch... you're really listening for a change in timbre and transient response... even though some may destroy that with compression... and eq... don't do it unless you have to....

quickly, think... do you want your pad's or your rhythm gtrs's to have punch??? ... vocals or strings?? what's up front in your mix and what's not? who really cares if it has color or not? ... can it be heard or articulated well enough for the part to "really" work? ... closer elements have more transients while further elements have less ( sort of...)... similar w/eq... front vs back.....

There are several pre's that are good both colored -neve, api, chandler, etc... and (semi?) uncolored gml, etc...sytek... and many that are not near as good... play to your strength's.....

after you do it a couple of hundred times, you'll get a feel for what works for you... or your wallet...

[brandondrury]

What about the low mid build up that comes from using various colored preamps (most notably the Neve stuff is infamous for this) on every single track?

.. use your best preamp (most clarity, fastest transient response, thickest sound- clean or not necessarily clean...)... that may be subjective AND contradictory to what you own, but that's my call..

Yes, but all of these factors are on different sides of the spectrum...sort of. It was amazing when we lined up 30 different preamps on a snare drum. It was quite clear which preamps had the fastest transients (and therefor a brighter snare). However, with the exception of the GML, the fastest preamps just didn't sound as "thick" (if you want to call it that) on guitar. (Harmonically rich may be a better world). Most often, the preamps that really excelled on electric guitar were missing a bit of fizz on the top end and this is why they seamed to excel at electric guitars.

In our tests down in Nashville, the only preamps that seamed to do all the things you mentioned was the GML. It was on the clean side of things, but there something "good" about it on everything. I think it finished in the top 5 on just about everything we tried it on (2nd place on snare top) but wasn't #1 on anything.

Unfortunately, we didn't have any APIs there. I would have loved to hear a preamps that is supposed to be fast and a little dirty.

Brandon

[richiebee]

Originally Posted by dach

bull hockey... no offense intended RB...

Bull hockey? What's that? ;D

Okay, we have our own techniques. No offence taken by the way. I still think I'm right.

Back to the original question. A non-clean (however it may colour the sound) pre-amp is not a versatile one. If you deal in only a small variety of genre's that's fine, but if you have to be a jack of all genres, then you need something that is versatile. That might not be (subjectively) "the best". The question was "if you could use only one pre-amp...".




Rich

[dach]

What about the low mid build up that comes from using various colored preamps (most notably the Neve stuff is infamous for this) on every single track?

Infamous in internet newsgroups for?... but really, what about it, when you used the "real" Neve stuff, do you have extreme buildup on each track?

A non-clean (however it may colour the sound) pre-amp is not a versatile one