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

[skoora]

Amazing production

He does a much more rockin' version of this on Colbert. Actually heard that first and then was bummed at how much more chill the studio cut was. Really dig Sturgill though. Man, you just sent me down a a rabbit hole of Alabama Shakes live video's. Never cared for them but damn, they really elevate live. She's incredible.

This is from the POV of a hobbyist. I see a pro working with artists wanting more tools available to get it right...like a nice pre.
FWIW, I don't care much about the mic pre as long as it's got headroom and will spit out pretty much what I put in. When moving the mic half an inch can change your sound so much I'm good with whatever pre is available (usually in whatever interface i'm using.) I'll worry more about mic choice and placement. Ultimately people choose what works for them. Someone who's not a fan of using much EQ?, then every piece of the chain matters as you reach for the sound you want. If I had disposable income for this stuff I wouldn't say no to trying a nice rack channel strip or two. Who needs a 4th "Marshall" anyway! What's funny to me is a lot of the records where they were going for lo-fi and spent a shit ton of money trying to get there.

 

[japetus]

You can give a man a boat, but it doesn't mean he is a captain.

 

[japetus]

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!

The most important part of recording is talent. No pre will save no talent. No pre will save a heavy handed engineer from jacking everything up.

 

[japetus]

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!

The most important part of recording is talent. No pre will save no talent. No pre will save a heavy handed engineer from jacking everything up.

lol. you know a lot of heavy handed engineers?
your comments are funny.

I actually do, yeah. And you are funny.

 

[Just Mike]

Find a real badass studio with top flight engineers with serious credits under their belts and ask them about mic pres, you will get an ear opening experience. Don't hang with the HACKS.

Indeed, but as I said earlier, a Badass mic pre by itself is still at the bottom of the food chain. In a lot of ways I compare what we do to Drag racing. In this case, the best tires in the world won't make any of us win the Winternationals and the best mic pre won't make our recordings sound like VH1.

 

[spguitar]

These new toys just arrived. So far i just messed around with the 1073 pre and the ua 610. Pretty stellar stuff.

 

[spguitar]

Congrats'!!

Thanks! Big upgrade from my Firestudio Project.
Next up is a Focusrite Octopre Dynamic MKII for expansion.
Gotta love that sweetwater 36 month deal with free Neve and Fairchild plugs.

 

[aftec]

OP. Did you ever do a proper recording in a proper studio? You would never start a topic like this if you do, unless you are only into Norvegian trucore panda metal.
Did you ever stacked tracks on a recording? That's where a good pre will shine. Your consumer grade pre will be a mushy mess, your proper pre will still keep clarity.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

OP. Did you ever do a proper recording in a proper studio? You would never start a topic like this if you do, unless you are only into Norvegian trucore panda metal.
Did you ever stacked tracks on a recording? That's where a good pre will shine. Your consumer grade pre will be a mushy mess, your proper pre will still keep clarity.

Probably more true on older recordings and less nowadays. Yes good pre have more clarity despite being coloured. However, everything nowadays is on the verge of clipping once it is mastered so doesn't even really matter what pre you have. Room, mics, and player and decent converter for the win for me over pre.

Congrats on the upgrade. I am digging my upgrade to Audient. Def. a step up from the presonus I had.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm interested in a 1073. Great River makes a single channel that's reasonably priced. Anyone use GR?

I have the two Channel GR pre (MP-2NV). It's really nice, but I will say this... Years ago, Bob Savage was thinking about a nice pre and so we did a test against his more reasonably priced mic pres. At first we heard a huge difference between my GR and his pre in the recordings, but later we realized he had set something wrong (can't remember what it was). Once we corrected the issue, we re-recorded and the honest truth was the difference between my GR pre and his much cheaper one in the recordings was minimal.

As always, YMMV...

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

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.

Gotta disagree here. You either position the mic right for the sound you want or no mic pre, no matter how expensive, is gonna make the recorded tone "good". I also find that a 57 sounds like a 57 no matter what mic pre it's connected to.

Don't get me wrong, I like my mic pre and I do set it for some coloration that a 1073 provides and it sounds nice, I just think a lot of other things are more important to the final result... I'm comparing expensive vs. reasonably priced mic pres here - of course you need a mic pre to capture a proper recording of anything with a mic...

Steve

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

There is a reason why every pro recording in the world has been made with mic pres, don't let anyone here tell you they are not important.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that this is what we are saying....

We are saying that while they are important, they aren't essential to getting a good recording that you can feel good about. We are also saying that other factors like room, mic, and player are JUST as important if not more important than a preamp and that if you have limited funds, blowing 2k on just a preamp without an interface of any kind or a mic to record to it with is just silly.

Simple counter point really. No you don't need a top of the line preamp but yes they do sound good where you can afford them and they will make a difference... to music ears and less so to screaming teenage girls who just want the singer to take his shirt off.

 

[Anonymous]

There is a reason why every pro recording in the world has been made with mic pres, don't let anyone here tell you they are not important.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that this is what we are saying....

We are saying that while they are important, they aren't essential to getting a good recording that you can feel good about. We are also saying that other factors like room, mic, and player are JUST as important if not more important than a preamp and that if you have limited funds, blowing 2k on just a preamp without an interface of any kind or a mic to record to it with is just silly.

Simple counter point really. No you don't need a top of the line preamp but yes they do sound good where you can afford them and they will make a difference... to music ears and less so to screaming teenage girls who just want the singer to take his shirt off.

You don't need a top of the line preamp, but you need a preamp. I think you agree with that...

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

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 think the op is being somewhat tongue in cheek here. He's asking about a Great Rivers pre above this post. He's made some really nice recordings in the past as well...

Steve

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

There is a reason why every pro recording in the world has been made with mic pres, don't let anyone here tell you they are not important.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that this is what we are saying....

We are saying that while they are important, they aren't essential to getting a good recording that you can feel good about. We are also saying that other factors like room, mic, and player are JUST as important if not more important than a preamp and that if you have limited funds, blowing 2k on just a preamp without an interface of any kind or a mic to record to it with is just silly.

Simple counter point really. No you don't need a top of the line preamp but yes they do sound good where you can afford them and they will make a difference... to music ears and less so to screaming teenage girls who just want the singer to take his shirt off.

You don't need a top of the line preamp, but you need a preamp. I think you agree with that...

Steve

Yes. Or a casette player and casette tape and someone to hit record! But preferably a mic pre of some sort.

 

[Revson]

It's kind of like the difference between Guinness (or a craft beer, I guess) and Coors Light. Both will do the trick to get you tanked, but one has many subtleties to its flavor and the other is alcoholic foam-water. Developing your tastes makes it easier to notice the difference and distinguish what you like and what you don't.

 

[VC4Ever]

I don't get it...If you are using a mic...don't you need a mic pre regardless if it is professional grade or not. The mic pre is just one part of the audio chain. I recently got an API mic pre and my recordings still suck. I realized the room I am recording in needs some major acoustical treatment. To much reflections going on. Plus I have a drum set in there so who knows what that's doing to the guitar recording.

AND mic pres are MADE for Mic signals...not Two Notes Torpedo line level signals lmfao.

 

[Revson]

I'm pretty sure the OP is comparing built in interface preamps with external Neve, API, etc., style preamps.

 

[VC4Ever]

You and the tranny must be the only ones doing that. I found an interesting post of you trying to figure out how to use your 500 series gear just last year. As you can see from the overwhelming replies to your post using mic pres with line level signals just makes sense...and also shows how much of an audio recording expert you really are.

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/apple-l ... ation.html

Reza says:


Hi Gearslutz, Hopefully someone can point me to an existing thread, but if not.

I just got a API lunchbox with some pres , an EQ, and a comp in it.

I want to integrate them into my workflow and Im looking for help on best practices, setup and and general advice and recommendations. All of which would be kindly appreciated.

Firstly, I am using a Two Notes Engineering Torpedo Studio as my Loadboax/Ir unit for taking the speaker outputs of my tube amps into Logic.
This has worked brilliantly and Im very happy.
Now that I have this lunchbox , Im looking to send the signal out of the Two Notes which is line level, into the Mix Pres and then into the Apogee.

I Know I can bypass the mic Pres on the apogee, but Im also curious about using the EQ in the lunchbox, and the compressor as SENDS in the tracks in Logic.

Also and finally, Im looking at either an SSL G-Comp 500 series, or the Shadow Hill Vandergraph for my Mix buss . So any routing and setup help for those would be very appreciated.

 

[VC4Ever]

Also what's interesting is that you post that video which was posted February 10 2015. And your post on Gearslutz was posted June 21 2015. Looks like Hillary got caught lying again...