Taperssection.com
Gear / Technical Help => Battery Boxes, Preamps, Mixers, ADCs, and Processors => Topic started by: salmonite on June 20, 2008, 08:44:10 AM
-
Anyone ever use this pre? How does it sound? Good, bad, nothing special? Thanks in advance.
-
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.
-
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