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Gear / Technical Help => Battery Boxes, Preamps, Mixers, ADCs, and Processors => Topic started by: Styx Cover Band on November 18, 2002, 10:42:42 AM

Title: What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: Styx Cover Band on November 18, 2002, 10:42:42 AM
What's a good and decently priced pre-amp to learn on?
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: Bri on November 18, 2002, 10:47:47 AM
mx-2?

bri
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: twoodruff on November 18, 2002, 10:49:06 AM
the oade m148 is a decent pre to learn on, and if you can understand the basic concepts of on and off you are all set. believe me it is hard, i couldn t do it at first.
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: Styx Cover Band on November 18, 2002, 10:52:13 AM
and if you can understand the basic concepts of on and off you are all set. believe me it is hard, i couldn t do it at first.

I hope I can or my three and a half years of college are all shot to hell
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: phriendlyguy on November 18, 2002, 11:26:56 AM
yeah but if your ganna spend $1350 on an oade you might as well go with the best option, and get a used V2 for like 800$ or less.
sorry trey.  you know me. ;)
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: jpschust on November 18, 2002, 12:37:14 PM
If you are going to spend that kind of money get a good pre- get a sonosax :-P  sorry ry you know me.
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: jlykos on November 18, 2002, 12:43:10 PM
Avoid the MP-2.  It sounds nice, but is very difficult to adjust levels.  It should have a sticker on it that says, "not for beginners."
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: creekfreak on November 18, 2002, 01:02:14 PM
The V2 is very easy to use. I am not sure what people are talking about when saying its hard to use a pre. First you have to decide how you want things to run, low gain on the pre, A/D wide open, or vice versa. I prefer to run as little gain as needed, so I set the V2 low and jack the levels on my A/D, which is even easier to do when you use a SBM-1 with a V2. Now using the mini-me line-in with a V2 is a little more difficult, but since I found out through testing that you can run mic-in on the mini-me from a V2 when the mini is set to low gain now its real easy
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: Tim on November 18, 2002, 07:28:04 PM
You must remember that Trey is from Mississippi, on and off are relatively new concept. Along with running water  ;)

Tim


and if you can understand the basic concepts of on and off you are all set. believe me it is hard, i couldn t do it at first.

I hope I can or my three and a half years of college are all shot to hell
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: twoodruff on November 19, 2002, 09:45:00 AM
please dont blame that on Mississippi, I am an Alabama man, Mississippi should not have to take credit for me. I mean I emailed Doug McOade 4-5 times to find out which way was on, and the battery still died. Figured out it was gone anyways, I had to make a sticker that said ON to remind meself. I think its best if I blame it on fish, that band made me do too many drugs, shot my brain. My brain cells (2) keep trying to reproduce but they are both male so luck there, see you guys on friday in birmingham
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: mterry on November 20, 2002, 12:48:44 AM
I'll be the cheap bastard here.........

I use a laptop........my pre is a USB Pre..........simple as anything
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: Wiggler on November 29, 2002, 12:15:08 PM
Don't worry about how easy it is to operate. Be more concerned with how it sounds. The M148 works great with Scheops and Neumanns and Microtrech Gefells. The V2 works great with Akg and Gefells.  The mini me pre seems to work pretty good with anything seeing as how there is no way to run mme without going thru the internal pre even if you use the trim pods.
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: hippies on November 29, 2002, 08:08:13 PM
Makes no difference...
Only passing through the chip in MME (@ Line Level)...

Apogee simply uses the same chip whether Line/ Mic level signal...
Not a problem as you're not adding any gain when using Line...

The thing that concerns me is the folks who are running an outboard Pre and using Mic input with MME so they can use the front knobs...in this sito, you're adding 12db of gain even with knobs all the way down on MME...

Still seems to me you're going through extra electronics when ading a second stage of gain into your signal path...

Not trying to offend anyone who may be doing this, just saying it's not for me...i'll stick with the Cal-Pots...



 8)
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: phriendlyguy on December 01, 2002, 02:33:28 PM
thats like adding another analog generation. ;)
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: Marc Nutter on December 10, 2002, 02:41:23 PM
Hi All,

As my company is a dealer of many microphone pre-amps, I strongly suggest reading a bit on gain structure to determine what amount of versatility vs simplicity of operation you would like in the equipment you may choose.   I know many people frequently fall back on the argument of "personal taste," but a little math/science techical reading is not out of line here either.  A fundamental  understanding of how to establish gain structure to optimize signal to noise ratio would aid in proper pre-amp use regardless of equipment choice.  

One key reason that I'm a big fan of each of the new portable all-in-one pre-amp-a/d's, aside from their great sonic performance, is that they utilized proper gain structure in their designs.  Notice the high level (+20dBu to +23dBu = 0dBfs)  they require to achieve digital full scale zero.  This is a far cry from the "turn up the input on your a/d all the way and only use as much gain as you need on the pre-amp" approach.  Both manufacturers have applied the fact that turning up the front-end (the source) is far better than turning up (or not attenuating) at the end (on the A/D) where noise will also be amplified along with the signal.  
www.yamaha.com/ycaservice/techdocs/ Sound/gain/gain1.htm explains this approach in detail.

A lot of additional good reading can be found through Google search under the topic "gain structure."

Here another that may be of interest:

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/oct00/articles/soundcard.htm

Happy Recording Everybody!

Marc
Title: Re:What's a good pre to learn on
Post by: Bri on December 10, 2002, 03:00:38 PM
right on, thanks marc!

Bri