Recomend me a pre!

sei046

Looking for a nice pre. not willing to spend a bomb so give me an idea of what your pres are like and in what sort of setups.

teamdresch

The most important thing here is how much you want to spend.
There's way too much out there to recommend otherwise.

Also, what are you thinking of using it for (if there's anything in particular)?

sei046

well im not sure on the budget yet, looking in around the few hundred mark say approx 600. not avalons. Will be for all around use. Need something pretty versatile

teamdresch

FMR RNP.
DAV BG-1.
Groove Tubes Brick.
Toft Audio do one or two pres.
Summit Audio.
Speck.

sei046

do you have any of these? hear great things about the brick

teamdresch

No, I've heard enough good news about the first three to reckon you'd be safe enough.

Oh, and there's the Safe Sound P1

frobisher

It's good to see a question like this pop up round here! I think that a lot of entry level recordists completely underestimate the importance of a quality mic pre-amp. It's almost at a point were for many a pre-amp and an A/D converter are presumed to be the same thing. It's been a while since I've been regularly working with different pre-amps in different studios so I can't give much by the way of recent hands on comparisons. If I was to look at buying a pre for the money described I'd be taking a listen to all the pre's that teamdresch mentioned above but I'd add in the Safesound P1 http://www.aybg12.dsl.pipex.com/products.htm

What I can say is that I have The Brick from Groove Tubes and I love it. It's got a nice full sound that I love on my vocals and brings my bass guitar DI signal to a whole other level. The other thing I love it for is for electric guitar either from a mic on the amp or DI'ed from mt POD. When I first got it I used it one everything, now that I've gotten used to it's nuances I sometimes turn to my desk for a cleaner sound with more sheen for certain things. My desk has some pretty good pre-amps on it so using The Brick instead says something. If I could compare the two I'd say that the desk (A&H Saber) is smoother with sheen and that The Brick is thicker and has more depth in the sound. I picked up my Brick for very little secondhand in the states, safe in the knowledge that if I didn't like the sound I could pass it on for the same money. But as it turns out I have no intention on doing that!

sei046

i know what you mean Fro, for Qs like this i tend to other forums as they dont get much attention here! whats the P1 like?

frobisher

As I said in my post I haven't heard them in action but if I was to spend the same as your budget they're the pre's I'd want to listen to. There's a lot of info out there, even some sound files. If you don't have the chance to listen to them maybe do what I did with the Brick and play it safe by buying used with the idea that if you don't like it you can pass it on for the same money. I wish we had a store like those in the States where you can walk in, try several pre's on the same source and make your decision based on listening and A-B'ing. But it just ain't happening so you've gotta take the odd risk!!

Maybe one day we can have a get Boards recording get together and compare our various bits and pieces?

sei046

thats funny i was only thinking that yesterday. Would get a lot of info out on the table an awful lot easier!

LeperKing

http://www.thomann.de/ie/dbx_376_tube_channel_strip.htm
On board A/D by default! Compressor/De-esser/3band eq (1 parametric)/ Varying tube saturation control. AD has inbulit limiter

LK

unclebill98

Voice Master Pro. Very good in almost every dept and its within that budget. I've used it on tons of things kick, bass, snare etc....