Pre-amps vs A/D

ogy

which is more important in your opninion

im gradually upgrading my gear, which would you do
- buy a decent pair of pre's to plug into my presonus firepod until i can afford better a/d
or
- buy an rme fireface and use the pre's that come with it until i can afford to buy a decent pair

fitz

I'd go with the Fireface tbh.
You're getting an improvement in pre's and convertors with a FF over the Presonus. It's an overall step up. Getting nice pre's isn't gonna give you the same improvement cause you'll still be using the Presonus convertors.
I believe the FF pre's a pretty clean, so you can get "character" pre's when you can afford them.

I'll be getting a FF myself for my home setup sometime next year I reckon. Should work nicely with my UA Solo 610 pre. I'd like to do something similar to yourself and pick up a couple of extra pre's for different sounds, working of the solid platform of the FF. I'd like to pick up a Portico 5012 or something like that....

danjokill

"Good analogue tube" pre's will stand the test of time ....... ie digitial stuff is always moving but some good old school outboards are lifers!!!

trackmixstudio

I fully recommend the API A2D.
2 channel pre with converter. You will have this forever and never need to upgrade it.
I much prefer pres with transformers (like api or neve etc) than tube stuff.
Pres and converters are equally important in my opinion.
If I were you I would keep the firepod and get the api and connect with spdif.
I used to have a fireface and it was pretty good but when you hear the A2Ds converters it is a different level. It also has line inputs so you can use it as a 2 channel AD bypassing the pres.

PaulBrewer

Yes to all of the above really ... good to see you're thinking that way!

i57dwun4yb1pt8

thats alot of dosh for two channels though . 2000 EURO .

Im upgrading but since its a home setup im striking a balance and getting
a TC electronic studio konnekt 48 firewire , and a DAV bg1u to go with my existing DAV bg 1 this cost me atotal of 2200 euro for 4 chans of DAV and 4 channells of TC pre with as good converters as RME , and even inbuilt effects.

so i will 4 channells of clean dav pres ( kick , snare , overheads , or vocals and DI ) on the line ins
and 4 channells of internal TC pres ( toms and hats )

id rahter have got an apogee set up but they arent pc friendly .

PaulBrewer

In some ways it's a pity the Apogee stuff doesn't work for PC.

However I never heard a TC box that didn't sound good.

frobisher

What's your budget, music style and normal recording modus operandi?

ogy

recording a variety of stuff indie/rock/blues/folk/classical/jazz etc. probably not metal

at the moment i have a nice akg 414, going to buy a pair of decent SDCs quite soon, and then want to get the preamps and converters sorted and start recording as much as possible.

i guess im planning on spending between 1000 and 2000 on something, and then hopefully about another 1000 or so in a few months. exactly how i should split the total amount between pres and converters im not sure. i was thinking maybe of getting the fireface first as fitz said, ive heard nothing but great reports about it. and then in a few months trying out pre-amp pairs like ssls, neves, api.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

ahhh screw it , im sick of using good gear
I want something fcuking great - so im getting this instead of the DAV bg1u



http://www.adesignsaudio.com/pacifica.html

dav nagle

DaDumTish wrote: »

ahhh screw it , im sick of using good gear
I want something fcuking great - so im getting this instead of the DAV bg1u



http://www.adesignsaudio.com/pacifica.html

Even the best gear is named after me! What can I say.

frobisher

ogy wrote: »

recording a variety of stuff indie/rock/blues/folk/classical/jazz etc. probably not metal

at the moment i have a nice akg 414, going to buy a pair of decent SDCs quite soon, and then want to get the preamps and converters sorted and start recording as much as possible.

i guess im planning on spending between 1000 and 2000 on something, and then hopefully about another 1000 or so in a few months. exactly how i should split the total amount between pres and converters im not sure. i was thinking maybe of getting the fireface first as fitz said, ive heard nothing but great reports about it. and then in a few months trying out pre-amp pairs like ssls, neves, api.

A lot of people ask the same question as yourself in relation to a pre and/or A/D conversion. I think it might be because that's how many modern semi pro and amateur units have been sold so people grew up with them like that. In reality they are doing two very different things. What's your D/A like? An improvement there can make a big difference but it's often the last people think of. I have a high end D/A unit that when I got it just made everything sound.... I guess the word would be tighter. It didn't make my old mixes sound better, quite the contrary, but it did improve everything I was working on and how it translated. My first big jump in A/D conversion improved things a lot too but in a different way. It opened up the space between the instruments so you could hear what they were doing better and shook a layer of dust off what I had previously been working with. Pre amps are a whole other story and I personally find it hard to pin point exactly what they do in words. I can hear the differences and I know what they are reputed for but I personally find the emotional or sensual impact quite tricky to nail down in words. Feather me up and tar me for this, but I think that within the different budget divisions it's usually flavour differences rather than fidelity that separates them. Cheap pres are cheap pres. The initial units you mentioned above are cheap pres and your 414 deserves better, what exactly they should be is all about what you might like yourself.

In relation to actual gear recommendations I'd say go along with my normal M.O. and,unless it's something that's perfect for you or budget is not an issue, avoid anything that's newly released or in fashion.

I'm about to buy a used Apogee mini-me. 2 highly rated pres with compression/limiting and A/D by the company who make it for some of the worlds top studios. It's a few years old now and out of production. I've seen them going on ebay for well under $400, yes dollars! It'll hold it's value until you want to trade up and is a pro piece kit. You could buy it and a groove Tubes Brick for well below half the money you've mentioned. Food for thought!

anders

Just saw the MiniMe mentioned and thought I'd share my experiences as I have one. If you use condenser mics with it you want a mic with a built in pad. There's no pad or phase reverse on the pres (because they have a two channel pre in the same series with all the bells and whistles). The pres are very clear and open compared to anything I've heard. Having both S/PDIF and AES digital outputs makes it really easy to hook up to pretty much any interface.
If you can get one for around 400 euro or even less I'd say it's well worth it.
On the plus side is they are very open and detailed. They work great on ambient mics, overheads, acoustic instruments.
On the negative side, there's no pad which means you can't really use it on close miced drums and other really loud sound sources if your mic doesn't have a pad.

And I just can't help myself... The difference between solid state and valve or tube equipment is not transformers it's transistors. Most pro pres will have transformers on the input and/or output be it tube or solid state. All of them don't but then they are usually classified as transformerless design or something...