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I am fullfilling the dream of my life, I come from a little town in Bolivia (south america) and from a family very poor, I made my way to America when I was 18, since then I have been working on several jobs and traying to make my way up. Well right now I am 27 and have almost my first semi professional home studio, I have been always facinated with the acoustics and sounds. I dont have to much studies on this field but when it comes to make music or put tracks together It just happens, hard to explain but I understand music on its deepest level, almost even espiritualy (by the way I am not a pod head). I just need some of you guys who have a lot of studies and experience to recommend which preamp should I get on a $500 budget for a Microphone TLM 103 Neumann, and if it's true that U can use an M4 midi interface with mbox and pro tools 6.7 le. By the way I dont know if there is something better than the Focusrite preamps that mbox comes with for that amount of money ($500)...

Thank you for your answers

Comments

Markd102 Sun, 04/03/2005 - 23:42

I've always found with the TLM103 that you NEED a good preamp. So I seriously doubt you'll find anything in that price range. But YMMV.
I tried the TLM103 with a friends Mbox a few months back and I hated the sound.
Maybe try the RNP, or the Studio Projects VMP-1. They are both half decent, but I certainly can't guarrantee them with the TLM.

And to run MIDI devices with the Mbox you need a 3rd party midi I/O unit.

wwittman Fri, 04/08/2005 - 22:41

I'm letting you know.
I honestly don't like the TLM 103, or any other transformerless Neumann, with ANY pre... but I don't think you can improve much on the MBox's mic pres for $500.

For $1500 you can improve on it enourmously.
But I'd suggest saving until you can make a MAJOR improvement; not a tiny incremental or barely noticeable one, that you'll only be upgrading from in not much time.

KurtFoster Sat, 04/09/2005 - 01:17

Will,
You gotta try the Brick. I would have agreed with you about two weeks ago until GT sent out a pair of those babies for me to review. I am very impressed with them. They really does compare to the high end offerings, from sound to the build quality.

It's transformer balenced in and out and has 3 tubes. It features through the board constuction with a super adaquate power supply. The switches and connectors are all nutted to the case, not soldered to the PCB. I really don't see how they are selling these things for under $350 but they are.

anonymous Sat, 04/09/2005 - 05:47

Jus bought THE BRICK

I recently purchased and hooked it up to the MBOX, I dont know to much about some other preamps but this brick is solid and improved the TLM way much more than I expected.... Thanx CUCCO for the great advice, it was worth it buying the brick...
And thx everyone who posted a reply on this subject ....

J-MADD Mon, 04/11/2005 - 14:24

Wwittman stated that the tlm 103 is transformerless. This probably is a dumb question, but is a Neumann U87ai transformerless? the specs say that it has a pressure gradient transducer. I ask b/c I have heard many good things about this mic, but I myself have used and do not like the tlm 103.

Justin

anonymous Wed, 04/13/2005 - 21:49

I got The Brick at my local guitar center in Chicago for $340 but it was a display model. My guy at guitar center told me he could do $360 brand new out the door. I guess it depends on the guy you're working with. they go for $399 at Sweetwater.com

You should always check online first, then print out the price before you go in.

anonymous Thu, 04/14/2005 - 10:03

Just do what I do. Walk into guitar center and be on your cell phone with your buddy while looking at the gear you are interested in. I was looking at a Shure KSM44 Mic at guitar center and was talking to my friend how was at home on the net looking on EBAY. I asked the guy how much and he told me 599.99 and my friend said on EBAY there is one from an authorized dealer for 545.99 with free shipping so i turn to the guy and said "Nevermind my friend said he found one on EBAY for 545.99..." the guy dropped it to 540.00. I said "Sold". I've done that several times now and everytime I have saved at least 40-60 bucks each time.