What's so great about your snobby Mic Pre??

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midnightlaundry

midnightlaundry

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There's no bigger douche than a self proclaimed Recording Engineer/Producer that talks about how great their gear is..

Make a case why I should spend the bux on an expensive mic pre.
 
Same with why people think they need $3000-5000 amps/guitars?
 
Why don't you go rent a Neve, API or Chandler pre for a day or 2 and decide for yourself...........

....so I don't have to be a douche :lol: :LOL:
 
Most albums I hear these days sound like cack.
Why?
With all the amazing gear they should sound awesome, right?
 
I feel that recording technology has made recording outstanding.

What makes everything sound garbage is the method the gear is being used.

Instead of using the amazing equipment to capture a moment, it's used to create a moment, to create a sound.

You could record an album with all it's dynamics and flaws then hand it over to a modern "producer" who will just demand it be louder louder louder, more air highs on the vocals, auto tune, turn the guitars down, add ROMpler keys, gain it all up, slap a limiter on it, quantize and then COMPRESSS.

That's why stuff sounds shit for me
 
I'm interested in a 1073. Great River makes a single channel that's reasonably priced. Anyone use GR?
 
I have the Great River. I also have a UA 610,True Systems Precision 8, and an API 512. If driven the GR colors the sound more than the others. For me the GR through an 1176 compressor sounds pretty awesome. Can you get a similar effect with plug-ins? Probably. What are you going to be recording?
 
Keep in mind audio guys are even worse cork sniffers than guitarists!

The great rivers mpnv preamps are in the 1073 vein.
Built quality is Excellent.
I like it on stuff I want to distort a bit or fatten up.
It sounds fat and 3D , and can add some nice character "distortion" when pushed.
It also can sound a little bit blanketed.
It's great on guitars, bass and some vocalists.
But if I wanted one preamp to do it all, the great river wouldn't be it.

Remember what's written at the top of this post
 
I'll bite.. because this is an interesting debate.

First off, I would argue more important than anything else, is decent gear, microphones, and a great performance. Even more than that, I would argue great producer and a fantastic room or space. Let's be honest, my 10+ year old presonus Firepod in a great space with 10 ft+ ceilings and treatment for drums and a equally good treated space that breathes for loud ass guitars will probably sound better than a Neve in my basement with barely 7 foot ceilings, minimal reflection control, and limited space. That's the first thing I think..

Now, the preamps. The misconception I hear around these sometimes is how pure they sound. I don't feel they do at all. If you have a decent interface ( I just upgraded to Audient ID4+ 880) like an Apogee etc.. there, you get a fairly clear neutral sound. These are probably mid level to the pros but the advantage is clarity and when you stack tracks, less mud. Doesn't mean anyone listening would really notice but it most likely helps with mixing and balance. Enter the Neve and other price tag mic pres. What do they add? COLOUR. Weird, but these would probably do the opposite of what all these audio guys would want. Some are thinner and punchier, others thicker, some more defined etc.... I bet you if you swaped in another preamp in place of what was used on your favourite recordings, the producer would have EQ'd slightly differently and you still would have thought it kicked ass. So in short, super expensive pre would be useful but more bang for buck would be more preamps in and better converters with the mid grade stuff. ( I have 10 now for the price of maybe one Neve??)

Another advantage now is if you have a fairly neutral mic pre that is good quality, you can throw a mic pre sim on it anyway in your DAW and close enough for what most would want to do. So no, you don't need it, but you need something decent and a bit above budget I think. You can def still get it done with budget and good mics, loud amps, and good performances though.

Finally. Why is music crap now? Nothing wrong sonically really.... the difference now is that everything is a lot clearer but also pushed digitally to the max. Everything is clipping by the time it is printed and a lot of dynamics are lost because everything is made to sound so damn loud. It also is all sampled and drums are mostly replaced leaving you with a robot and perfect sounding drummer. You can also flip the argument and find as many shitty produced 80's albums as you can find good ones though so we should be careful not to romanticise "the old" ways of doing things too much either.

Good space, treatment, mics, decent gear, performance trump the mic pres. But maybe those mic pres can really make one of those instruments stand out.... or not.
 
A good mic pre can take a "meh...hrmph" mic like a new SM57 (with its hi-mid spike) and make it shine.

It will also make your recording life easier because it will sound, at the very least, good no matter where the mic is placed.

Quality is quality (and you'll benefit from it) no matter what the object.
 
I don't hear many great recordings anymore these days because everything is so compressed and jacked up, it just sounds like a wall of noise...especially most modern rock and especially how drums are recorded, wall of static cymbals. When I want to hear a well produced track, I just fire up some Steely Dan- Aja.
 
sutepaj":jn05j1s7 said:
I don't hear many great recordings anymore these days because everything is so compressed and jacked up, it just sounds like a wall of noise...especially most modern rock and especially how drums are recorded, wall of static cymbals. When I want to hear a well produced track, I just fire up some Steely Dan- Aja.
Click to expand...

Bingo. Anything you might have gained from that pre is sort of cancelled out by the levels you push the final recording to and the wall of digital noise/ distortion. Drums are brutal now. Crazy cymbals and over hyped toms. Well tuned head with decent EQ and compression sounds great.. not sure why we had to go another route. As a drummer if someone told me all my hits would be time aligned and quantized then replaced by EZ drummer's sample library, I would ask why I was even needed at all? Maybe to bang the cymbals i suppose..
 
Rezamatix":3vris8s1 said:
Badronald":3vris8s1 said:
Most albums I hear these days sound like cack.
Why?
With all the amazing gear they should sound awesome, right?
Click to expand...


I don't know what the fuck you're listening to...

Today's music has some of the highest fidelity and they have been pushing the boundaries of sonica farther than ever before.

Go listen to something that was done really well.
Try the new Jeff Beck album, the production quality of that record is amazing.

Not the new Stryper album , but something with a real budget.

The new Joe Satriani record is sonically one of the MOST impressive recordings I have ever heard.





If you think that sounds like cack, it's your ears that are the problem.
Click to expand...

The tone here isn't anymore special than anything else he has recently done... it is just loud as fuck pushing the volume barriers. You wouldn't notice that much difference here between a Neve and a Duet. Certainly not 1,000$ worth.

Hear that much difference here?



For sure there is some but not making the difference of a shit recording vs a great one. Whether or not the riff is good probably makes the biggest diff.
 
The tone here isn't anymore special than anything else he has recently done... it is just loud as fuck pushing the volume barriers. You wouldn't notice that much difference here between a Neve and a Duet. Certainly not 1,000$ worth.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure he's talking about the entire recording.

I've never heard it before, and immediately I was blown away. Those drums sound amazing...and LOTS of dynamics. This definitely is NOT smashed to piss like the recordings of previous years.
 
I've been in these discussions over at GS and also owned API, Neve, Symetrix and a few others. As a recording engineer, I'm a hobbyist but I've learned how to use my equipment. So here's my opinion;
The preamp is probably the least important piece of the puzzle. Without considering the talent of the artist or composition of the material, the order of importance is 1) the room, 2) the mic, 3) the skill of the engineer, 4) vision of the producer.
I've recorded a lot of guitar, drums and vocals at my place and the differences between preamps was negligible. I listen to old recordings and I have no clue as to what preamps I was using. BUT if I were a big time engineer working at a big time studio with a big time budget there's no doubt in my mind that I'd be using big time preamps.
 
Just Mike":3axqs6my said:
I've been in these discussions over at GS and also owned API, Neve, Symetrix and a few others. As a recording engineer, I'm a hobbyist but I've learned how to use my equipment. So here's my opinion;
The preamp is probably the least important piece of the puzzle. Without considering the talent of the artist or composition of the material, the order of importance is 1) the room, 2) the mic, 3) the skill of the engineer, 4) vision of the producer.
I've recorded a lot of guitar, drums and vocals at my place and the differences between preamps was negligible. I listen to old recordings and I have no clue as to what preamps I was using. BUT if I were a big time engineer working at a big time studio with a big time budget there's no doubt in my mind that I'd be using big time preamps.
Click to expand...

+1. The room and treatment is such a HUGE factor!
 
Just ordered a UA Apollo Twin USB and a Neumann TLM103. Gonna pair great with my Manley Core and GAP Pre73... I can't freakin wait til they arrive.
 
lol at the op
it's ok to be clueless
really-it is
just don't broadcast it to the world and then expect a real answer or to not get sonned
a mic pre is THE most important part of the recording signal chain after the mic
just call me captain obvious!
 
I have a lunch box full of pres, bae, shadow hills, api, osa, daking and chandler.

The 512c and a 57 is the sound of rock. I run a ribbon and the Gama to blend.

And my ex thinks I am a douche. Couldn't be happier.
 
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