Topic: RME quadmic pre???

[salmonite]

Anyone ever use this pre? How does it sound? Good, bad, nothing special? Thanks in advance.

[TNJazz]

Nothing special.

RME is known primarily for their A/D converters.  Their pres usually leave a lot to be desired though.  Not horrible, but not really all that stellar either.  Depends on what you're used to hearing out of a preamp though, I suppose.

The phrase "great converters, not so great preamps" can be applied to anything in their line IMO (the Micstasy may be a possible exception to the preamp rule though - I have not tried it but the other RME preamp gear isn't even in the same ballpark in terms of price anyway).

As always, YMMV.

BTW, I am a fan of RME gear in general.  I have owned several in the past and all have been superb for my needs.  They have all been PCI based A/D units though (no preamps).  The units I've used with preamps (FF800, Octamic D) I've not been happy with the preamp sound, so they went back immediately.

[DSatz]

I have one--I use it any time I'm recording "piano with ..." anything else, such as voice, since I always spot mike the piano for clarity if the lid isn't full up.

It's a lightweight, small box, so it's not ultra-sturdy but it holds up in a backpack OK. Very good input overload margins, good phantom powering (I can run four Schoeps mikes properly from it), no extraneous controls. The outputs are on 1/4" phone jacks, which I don't love, but all the back panel space is taken up by the four input sockets.

It's definitely what I'd recommend for lightweight portable recording these days, unless you want a combination unit with the converters and some sort of interface (FireWire, USB, etc.) built in.

Let me know if you have any questions.

--best regards