my std rig is Schoeps tubes>V3>744T for my stereo pair, and Schoeps>744T for the guitar and bass mics. The 744T's pres sound a little bright and thin on the guitar, so I was looking for something with a little more body for the instrument mics - however, I decided I would get a better sense of the Portico sound if I ran it on my main pair. The 4-ch mix can be found here:
http://www.archive.org/details/mermen2007-02-02.flac16Comparing to my usual setup, I found the Portico to sound a bit thin, with a loss of ambience/detail - same opinion from someone that took a 2-ch patch out of me. When I asked the guitar player (who has a fully loaded studio with Avalon, Great River, Apogee, Pro Tools etc etc. and does his own recording) what he thought, here's what he sent me:
>Here is the deal with the Neve:
Neve preamps/eq's are popular as tracking devices mostly for individual instruments in a multitrack recording situation - they are known for coloring the sound and creating a sounds that "fits" into a mix like part of a puzzle. In a multitracking situation.The Neve pre cuts the sound of the individual instrument down to size and makes it "contained". How the Neve does this is by producing a RICH punchy defined tone that has some kind of dense harmonics with harmonic boundarys. This is part of the magic of Neve stuff and why the old Neve pre's are the most expensive of any type. The punchy contained tone has a big lush sound that is Neve. It is a very very very good "sound" Its almost like Neve' pres make instruments more dense and Big( as if they were compressed). What is LOST though when using the Neve is the airy open(not excessively flavored) extended frequency response sound that you get with your own preamps. I think running a whole band mix through a stereo Neve causes the sound to be flat and constricted because the air(the extended and flat frequency response of a less colored preamp is lost.) I listened to the FEB 2 recording and I can hear the "sound" of the NEVE especially when individual instruments are dominating the mix . They are big and beautiful lush and rich. I really like the way it sounds. I was thinking when listening to the flavor of the recording of that show and thinking WOW I would like 24 channels of those. On the other hand I hear the same thing you and Tom are hearing.<
I thought this was interesting in light of the Portico review here:
http://www.studioreviews.com/portico5012.htmExcerpting from that review:
>The Listening Sessions is working on an in-progess graph to describe the sonic characteristics of preamplifiers, and in our tests and comparisons with other mic preamps, the 5012 Duo Mic Pre is decidely in the "colored" camp. Mic preamps with the amount of coloration found in the 5012 have some distinct advantages as well as disadvantges for recording, depending on the sound desired. What coloration — which is essenitally distortion can add to a recorded sound is a sense of what might be called "energy" — some might calls it "balls", as well as a type of glue effect so that the collection of sounds within the mix seem to congele together — rather than sounding as a collection of separate sounds. The transformers often used in more colored preamps also tend to slow the signal down, resulting in a slower slew rate. The advantage of a slower slew rate is that, among other things, the sound of the room [ acoustic space ] where the source is recorded is deemphasized. This can be demonstrated by listening to the Drum OH WAV files Session 10 recordings for the difference in the amount of room that can be heard on the cleanest preamp used in the comparison, the Great River MP-2, and the slowest preamp used, the Portico 5012 with the "silk" setting engaged. And while getting the acoustics to at least a workable level is always a high priority, the fact is we all record in various spaces. And in spaces with less than ideal acoustic conditions, the ability to reemphasize the sound of the room can be a big plus, and in many cases go a long way towards making more professional-sounding recordings.
The disadvantage of using slower, more colored preamps is that much of the resolution, imagery and detail can be lost from the source. In the case of music that is largely acoustic-based, it's often preferable to have a more "natural" sound, which includes the space as well as the imagery afforded by stereo miking techniques.
Where the Portico 5012 mic pre excels is rock and heavy music. It can also be used as well on Pop, R&B, Hip-Hop and Electronic music where a thicker, more colored sound is desired. Where I would caution users in the market for mic preamps for more acoustic-based and "classical" recordings, is that the Portico 5012 will not yeild the resolution or imagery afforded by cleaner and more transparent mic preamps, such as the John Hardy M-1, Millennia, HV-3 or any of the other preamps listed on the mic preamp chart with a rating from the 1 value at "transparent" to about the 7 value of "color".<
Based on all of this, I don't think it's best to use it with my stereo pair, but I will be trying it on the individual instrument amps before I decide whether to keep it or not.
Steve
Topic: demo'd a portico last Fri (Read 12957 times)