Topic: FEL BMA1 preamp

[Ozpeter]

http://www.felmicamps.co.uk/products/felbattpreamp.html

Is this new?

[Nick's Picks]

beats me.
looks nice though

[DaveG73]

Is it just a typo or is it another case of the screwed up UK economy that something made in the UK and shipped worlwide costs less than something shipped to the UK? 

Dave

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Is it just a typo or is it another case of the screwed up UK economy that something made in the UK and shipped worlwide costs less than something shipped to the UK? 

UK pays VAT while the rest of the world does not?

[analoghell]

http://www.felmicamps.co.uk/products/felbattpreamp.html

Is this new?

No, i have had one for a while. Lovely little beast. Stunning quality. A bit pricey though.

[powermonkey]

http://www.felmicamps.co.uk/products/felbattpreamp.html

Is this new?

No, i have had one for a while. Lovely little beast. Stunning quality. A bit pricey though.

Getting my hands on one of these tomorrow. Looks pretty sweet.
 

[flintstone]

This is one of FEL's latest products.  It's been available since early in 2007.  It differs from previous FEL models in that the output is at line level.  Previous small FEL preamps drew power from the mic input's "plug-in power" or "phantom power."  This model has its own battery.

I'm thinking this preamp would be a great match for the Zoom H2, which has a noisy external mic input, but a quiet line input.

FEL has no USA distributor, so you have to order direct from the manufacturer. (Business opportunity for someone!)

Flintstone

[powermonkey]

Really happy with 3 of the 4 shows I've taped using one of these. One I screwed up really badly, but it was a tough one to tape and I left the levels too damn low. Entirely my fault. At some stage I'll get my act together and try and review it properly, although I don't know how to go about testing it in detail.

[fmaderjr]

Looks interesting but the company's site says "true variable gain 10 dB to 50 dB". Does this mean that it always boosts a minimum of 10DB? If so it loses a whole lot of flexibility.

Most preamps have at least a unity gain setting so you could use it like a battery box and the Church ST-9100 for one even lets you attenuate the gain all the way down to 0, which is great for easily overloaded recorders like the Microtrack. 

Can one of you BMA1 owners explain the gain options a little better than their website does?

[powermonkey]

From the initial couple of show's I've recorded with this it would indeed appear that the minimum setting is +10db. Sounds good to me, though. Another couple of shows coming up so I'll provide more info when I better figure out what I'm doing.

Samples (mp3):

Pete Doherty - Rhythm Factory (2007-12-16):

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ql3lh5 - Music When The Lights Go Out

Babyshambles - Rhythm Factoy (2007-12-17):

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ir5eyj - Sedative

Pretty pleased with those.

[fmaderjr]

Thanks for the info. Your samples indeed sound good.

However since I already have the Church Audio ST-9100 and don't appear to need the extra 30 Db of gain provided by the FEL, I'll happily stick with the Church due to it's ability to provide unity gain and attenuation if needed. Sounds like the FEL might be a good alternative to the Church for people who record a lot of quiet accoustic stuff (or nature sounds).

[powermonkey]

I'm still definitely going to get a CA pre myself too, for the extra flexibility. Also, the FEL pre is quite a bit bigger than the CA st9000 I've used before, so it might be easier for *ultra stealthy* shenanigans.

[fmaderjr]

When you spring for a Church I recommend spending a bit extra and getting the ST-9100 (or the much smaller Ugly if you don't mind dealing with 2 small level controls instead of 1 easily adjusted large one).

Chris says the ST-9000 is a good pre too and I'm sure it is, but the ST-9000 won't provide attenuation so is not as versatile.

According to a previous post by 3-Fan:
The 9000 knob is not a gain control, it is only an output control.  So even if you have the switch to the +10db setting an the knob at something other than full, the recorder is still going to see the internal gain structure of the full +10db. For instance, if you wanted say +15db, you could set the preamp to +30 and use the knob to attenuate back to +15db but your internal gain structure would still be +30.  You aren't changing the gain of the preamp so the input could very easily overload. I learned this the hard way!!

The ST-9000 does provide up to 30 DB of gain instead of the 20 provided by the ST-9100, but you already have the FEL for when you need a lot of gain.

[powermonkey]

Cool! Cheers for the heads-up.

T+

[fmaderjr]

No problem.

+T for the info on the FEL (I forget about doing that too often. Just recently learned about what tickets were!)