Recording Herbert with a Golden Age Pre73 mic preamp?
- Thread starter spguitar
- Start date
crankyrayhanky
Well-known member
GAP73 is great pre especially for the buck
You'll love it
You'll love it
shadowdevourer
New member
I have the mighty Herbert and the GAP. I think it's an amazing preamp but I only tried it on vocals yet. I am currently moving but when I'm done I will be trying it on my Herbie to fire up some intense guitar recording sessions.
stringsibanez
New member
I use a pair of AMS-Neve 1073s for pretty much all guitar tracking (as well as vocals, bass, drums, almost anything I can).. assuming the Golden Age is similar in architecture and overall character (as most "73" type pres tend to be).. you should be in for a good time.
All of the various offerings (each based off the classic original) tend to have slight variance in specific sonics (where I tend to prefer Vintage or AMS Neve), but the way in which the circuit architecture seems to colour the sound I often liken to this: It's like having a multi-band compressor with an infinite number of bands.. Whereas most mic-pres tend to emphasize a specific place in the frequency spectrum (which draws the ear to that characteristic and influences the audio to sound "focused" and finite.. the Neve-based design seems to present the whole frequency spectrum in a way that's very even. (It sometimes seems more even than the actual source.. hence the colouring). Nothing pokes out or draws the listener's attention away from the overall sonics of the source which allows the recorded sound to seem "wider" / "bigger" .. more lush and full. It's really flattering and vibe-y.
As for microphone choice, I'm not a big fan of the Beta series when it comes to more aggressive styles of music/sources which are often better represented by mics with a less modern vibe..which doesn't mean the recording won't still sound modern. (I tend to find the more hi-fi characteristics of the Beta line can bring out the nastier aspects of heavy guitars and scream-y vocals.)
I'm sure it's been said before, but in my experience, heavy guitar sounds and big 4x12 cabinets are generally well served by a blend of two microphones that complement each other in a desirable way. Something like a regular old SM57 or an SM7b blended with any one of either a Sennheiser MD421 or e906, an EV RE20, a Royer 121 (if budget is less of an issue), or even an AKG 414 or other condenser in some cases.. It isn't that one mic doesn't sound good.. just that a second will often fill out the places that the first mic doesn't emphasize and reduce the need to compensate with EQ. (A typical example I guess would be a 421 adding width to a 57 which can seem focussed in the midrange.) To make it even simpler, I often don't even bother fighting with phase issues to get both mics on the same speaker. I just point them both at roughly the same location on 2 different speakers, completely perpendicular to the grill, on the same cabinet and go.. sounds awesome.
My long-windedness aside: you should be happy with the pre, and as always, we'd love to hear some clips.
All of the various offerings (each based off the classic original) tend to have slight variance in specific sonics (where I tend to prefer Vintage or AMS Neve), but the way in which the circuit architecture seems to colour the sound I often liken to this: It's like having a multi-band compressor with an infinite number of bands.. Whereas most mic-pres tend to emphasize a specific place in the frequency spectrum (which draws the ear to that characteristic and influences the audio to sound "focused" and finite.. the Neve-based design seems to present the whole frequency spectrum in a way that's very even. (It sometimes seems more even than the actual source.. hence the colouring). Nothing pokes out or draws the listener's attention away from the overall sonics of the source which allows the recorded sound to seem "wider" / "bigger" .. more lush and full. It's really flattering and vibe-y.
As for microphone choice, I'm not a big fan of the Beta series when it comes to more aggressive styles of music/sources which are often better represented by mics with a less modern vibe..which doesn't mean the recording won't still sound modern. (I tend to find the more hi-fi characteristics of the Beta line can bring out the nastier aspects of heavy guitars and scream-y vocals.)
I'm sure it's been said before, but in my experience, heavy guitar sounds and big 4x12 cabinets are generally well served by a blend of two microphones that complement each other in a desirable way. Something like a regular old SM57 or an SM7b blended with any one of either a Sennheiser MD421 or e906, an EV RE20, a Royer 121 (if budget is less of an issue), or even an AKG 414 or other condenser in some cases.. It isn't that one mic doesn't sound good.. just that a second will often fill out the places that the first mic doesn't emphasize and reduce the need to compensate with EQ. (A typical example I guess would be a 421 adding width to a 57 which can seem focussed in the midrange.) To make it even simpler, I often don't even bother fighting with phase issues to get both mics on the same speaker. I just point them both at roughly the same location on 2 different speakers, completely perpendicular to the grill, on the same cabinet and go.. sounds awesome.
My long-windedness aside: you should be happy with the pre, and as always, we'd love to hear some clips.
Testing it in a rock mix. The drums need some work so overlook them. Here's the first clip with Herbert.
LEFT Channel 2 with a PRS Standard 24 (Duncan Custom)
RIGHT Channel 3 with a Gibson SG Standard (Stock)
Mic'd with a single Beta 57.
https://soundcloud.com/burnthelies/gold ... rbert-test
LEFT Channel 2 with a PRS Standard 24 (Duncan Custom)
RIGHT Channel 3 with a Gibson SG Standard (Stock)
Mic'd with a single Beta 57.
https://soundcloud.com/burnthelies/gold ... rbert-test
Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert
Active member
I like it a lot!
Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert
Active member
I wish I had money for a decent pre and interface. In the studio right now but were working on drums and bass first