Write here your Favorite Mic Preamps for Vocals

[Throttler]

Pacifica, 512c, Great River, HV3C, you can't go wrong with these.

[MCCY]

I have FMR RNP (Thanks Gary & Jimmy for the tip!) here now & it definitively sounds way better than ADA8000 That was clear somehow , wasn't it? Man, what have I done all the time with those extremely cheap solutions... Expecially for someone like me, recording many acoustic instruments, it makes much sense to invest at least some money.

[dawman]

Thank GaryB,
I cannot think of a single instance where his advice on anything audio related has been off.
I have 2 of these, and have access to really high end stuff for recordings from a collector of vintage mic's and mic pre's, and while the Crane Songs and Manley stuff has a slightly better tone and more control, for 5-6000 USD less the FMR's are excellent for live work and sound fine for DI recording, and vocals.
On the other hand, these are perfect for those who have really high end mic's like the U86/87's etc.
There again a Heil PR40 or AKG 414 through an FMR sound fine to me, and then hearing the Neuman mic's through the Crane Song Solid State sound a little more pronounced, but Jeez the latter costs 13,000 USD, and Heil/AKG FMR combo is 850 USD to 2000 USD.
I do not hear 10,000 USD of a difference.

[dawman]

Speaking of a nice chance....NO RESERVE.............Compressor, 8380, and 1U Rack Tray.

http://cgi.ebay.com/FMR-RNP-8380-RNC-17 ... 7C294%3A50

[Shroomz~>]

Telefunken V76

So stardust is a gear slut after all.

[kylie]

Telefunken V76

So stardust is a gear slut after all.

stardust, the gear slut, powered by astroman?

http://www.oneastroman.com/v76.html

-greetings, markus-

[astroman]

for those interested in the details of such gear this site is an invaluable source
http://audio.kubarth.com/rundfunk/index.cgi

cheers, Tom
(unfortunately not the one astroman)

[dehuszar]

I'm not sure why everyone is always so gaga for the Avalons. They do sound buttery one track at a time, but mixing a couple tracks together that came from the Avalon reduce to mud pretty quickly. I usually like to use tube mics with solid state pre's. The beauty I'm saving up for right now is this bad boy: http://www.sytek-audio-systems.com/prod ... amps/mpx4/

I had the privilege of running my NTK through this beast and it's sooooooooooo pristine. It captures that light air of the room or whispered vox without sounding harsh. And being able to put the warmer sounding Burr Browns on the latter two channels make it great for setting up multi-mic environments where one(or two) mic'd instrument would sound better warmer and another cleaner.

Not poorly priced for what you get either.

[greenbluegold]

My vote says the Syteks are the best deal in preamps on the planet. Somehow not surprised to see you're from Chicago

[ReD_MuZe]

i have very good results with my diy pres.
pres are easy to make and cheap !

[eliam]

I have a pair of diys too (Pat Morford's kit) and couldn't be happier. It's less simple but you save some cash and learn a lot!

When I need more I'll probably buy preamps from hereL www.lineaudio.se

Their quad mic is top-notch! It's my main vocal and everything else mic. For the price it's hard to beat.

[valis]

Those sytek desks like nice, and it's good to see the tabletop format desk has an extra tape send/return per channel (gives me a possible upgrade option for my soundtracs someday--perhaps.) Now if only building a desk like that were as easy to build as as Red Muze's preamps apparently were

[Shroomz~>]

The beauty I'm saving up for right now is this bad boy: http://www.sytek-audio-systems.com/prod ... amps/mpx4/

I had the privilege of running my NTK through this beast and it's sooooooooooo pristine. It captures that light air of the room or whispered vox without sounding harsh. And being able to put the warmer sounding Burr Browns on the latter two channels make it great for setting up multi-mic environments where one(or two) mic'd instrument would sound better warmer and another cleaner.

I have to admit, that one of those Sytek preamps will be my first stop when I've got the necessity & cash for nice preamps. I've got a questions though - Why do you think Sytek can't make that Burr-Brown option on 2 channels switchable? How nice would it be if you could just switch between the two preamp types on all 4 channels?

edit - sorry, just realized that it must involve more than just switching between the chips.

[ReD_MuZe]

there are like 2865386253 different preamps with the burr brown - including behringer...
its an el-cheapo op-amp that indeed sounds nice, but making a unit with it by hand should cost about 100 bux for two channels including the chassis...

my diy api312 has two choices of discrete op-amps, and two chip op-amps (one is the burr brown - which i almost never use...) it also has a "with transformers" and "without transformers" option for even more sound options.

if you are handy with the soldering iron, making your own pre will usually sound better and be much cheaper.

[kylie]

if you are handy with the soldering iron, making your own pre will usually sound better and be much cheaper.

do you have a link to that diy project you're talking about?

[ReD_MuZe]

http://www.diyfactory.com/projects/green/green.htm - Amek Mozart based - fet topology (transformer-less). quiet, open, clean and very 3d sounding love it! this one is my first diy, and one if my most used pres. my number one choice for classical music. very simple to make and a good choice for beginners. i think its also very simple to make a burr brown version if thats your thang.

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/diy/index.ph ... 45#msg2645 - API 312 - with "modular" options - you can select your xformers and opamps to match your sound taste. this one colors the sound in marvelous ways while keeping depth and clarity. mine has 4 basic flavors: velvety and vintage (discrete malcolm opamp), rocky and punchy( discrete 312 opamp), modern sounding ( burr brown with servo out - sounds to colored with the xformer to my taste - muddy), clean yet a tad sizzly (some other non discrete opamp i dont remember its name, with servo out).
basicaly i end up using the two discrete opamps the most. i don't like the "modern" sound, and for cleanness i use my amek.

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/
this forum has tons of diy projects and very helpful people.

[greenbluegold]

[quote]Why do you think Sytek can't make that Burr-Brown option on 2 channels switchable? How nice would it be if you could just switch between the two preamp types on all 4 channels?
[/quote]

I've got 2 channels of each type, and really, it's not a huge difference. I might even favor the standard channels. Excellent pre's for fast transients.