Guitar Gear Forum

So I am for reasons UNBEKNOWNST to me, looking into mic preamps. LOT's of stuff out there. Been looking at the Warm Audio stuff, Seventh Circle Audio, etc. Kind of digging the idea of the 500 series lunchbox format.

I have the Slate Digital "Everything" bundle that has some solid mic pre emulation. What are the benefits to going with actual pre's?

I don't know how your plug-in pre's are but the Apollo line has some super solid pre amp plug-ins and the quality of the interface hardware is superb. I don't need a pre-amp at all.... but i wanted one anyways and ended up getting the Electronaut M63 and i absolutely love it. I'm getting fuller, warmer, and colored (what i wanted by going with a tube pre) sound than i was getting from the plug-ins i was using. It's proved better for recording bass direct as well.

Though during this time i did a TON of reading and research on my own and listened to both sides... the ones that say hardware can never be emulated and those that say there's no reason for it anymore. I agreed with many points on both side. Went through TONS of comparisons both reading reviews and listening to clips. In most cases the hardware did sound better but only by a very small amount. That can add up if you're using all hardware but for the most part, and for the home recording guy like myself, it's not necessary. For this reason i went looking for a pre that doesn't have a plug-in version so that it wasn't a matter of is it good enough to the original or not.... the original is all that's available. Rather than getting all the beloved pre's that everyone goes goo goo over since i have access to the plug-ins at a much cheaper price point giving me lots of options. All that said though... i can't stop using the Electronaut and to my ears (not the best ears by a long shot) it sounds better than everything else i used so there's something to be said about that too.

Just my 2 cents.

At one point I had some big bucks invested in some great preamps. I've also spent a lot of time in studios that had about every major hi piece out there.
In the end, my main recorded instrument is the guitar so I decided to sell off my big pieces (Chandler Germanium, (2) 61676, 8110, a few others).
I scored a pair of cheap Golden Age 73s and- especially since I used a Kemper and now TNL- the differences are super tiny compared to the big units.

If I get back to recording drums, vocals, and other stuff more it would be worth it. Since that is more rare these days there's no need.

The go to chain IME for hard rock Jer stuff is Royer 121>Chandler Germanium. 57 can be just as a great in a different way and cost much less.Chandler pre has lots of cheap clones like the GA I listed above. That stuff is fun. Gearslutz is the place to explore for some great ideas on spending lots of cash lol.

On another note, my Music Sensei just landed some ua compressor clones that he swears sound old school amazing. They were less than 1k each. This guy has a probably 3-500k in top gear so when he says cheap clone is great, I listen....but I forgot the name, lol. I'll give him a ring and post back so I can help spend your loot.

I mixed up the clones
The LA2A he snagged was Warm Audio, which can found easily at places like Sweetwater. WA makes preamps too.

STAMM Audio was the small company he found with excellent results from their SSL Compressor clone. The price is way cheap too! They also have a LA2A and preamps on their site
http://stamaudio.com/sa-4000.html

I may get a STAMM SA for my master bus

The Heritage Audio 73Jr is a nice 500 Series preamp. I won one for writing a review at gearslutz.
It definitely helps warm up vocals and if you add a compressor to your lunch box, you'll be able to control levels before the signal hits the converter.

yeah a Lunch box with 2 BAE 312's or API 512's will be a serious start.. these will work and sound great with everything you throw at it and any source. It will give you a stereo pair should you need it , like overheads .

Warm Audio is sort of the Behringer of mic pres. Good stuff, but not pro level.

I LOVED the Great River ME1-NV I had. Very fat, neve'ish. Extended lows and highs.

As a rule if you want something that'll actually make a difference, don't pay under $800 per channel.

API A2D is a serious workhorse as well. Pro level A/D and 2x 312 pres.

I agree the Chineve pres are a totally valid flavor if you work in the world of recording rock guitar with dynamics and ribbons. It may not be an exact Neve, but it's transformer coupled, discrete and built with the same topology.

I use 32 channels of preamps for tracking; 16 Trident Trimix w/ 4 band EQ, 8 Audient ASP, 2 Chineve 1084 w/ 3 band EQ, 2 Chineve 1081 w/ 4 band EQ, 2 Classic API 312, 2 Focusrite ISA.

My go to for a 57, 421 or Fathead in front of a Celestion is the 1084. The low impedance setting on a ribbon is huge compared to a transformerless Audient pre in the same chain.

I'm considering dumping some $ into either an aurora audio audio gtqc or ideally long term, gtq2 and gtc2 for using both as channel strip and in mixing on 2 bus etc. Realistically would go used and prob gtqc first, can always add a 2nd later.

http://auroraaudio.net/products/outboard/gtqc-about

I'd go in a different direction and get an interface with killer mic pres built in. I was borrowing a RME Fireface UC for a while and it sounded amazing straight in.

GuitarBilly wrote:I'd go in a different direction and get an interface with killer mic pres built in. I was borrowing a RME Fireface UC for a while and it sounded amazing straight in.

Yeah I have started thinking this way as well and am looking at both the Focusrite Clarett8 and the UAD Apollo Duo. For the amount of recording I am doing I think those with the mic pre emulation they do will work really well. The pre's in the Clarett are supposed to be quite good and DO add some coloration where the UAD ones are super transparent which I suppose makes sense as they allow the plug-in's to handle the coloration. Not sure the UAD is $1200 better but it does allow for the interface to carry the CPU usage freeing up CPU on your machine. Tough call.

I like the pre's well enough on my Saffire Pro24 that I could just keep what I have, not dream so lofty right now and add the OctoPre MKII which would give me the same pre's that I have on the front of my Pro24. I really just want to be able to set up a recording template in Logic with at least 3 mins for guitar, one for vocals and one input for bass perma-set.