Looking for a 4-ch mic preamp upgrade to the pres' on my Yamaha AW1600. No surprise, requiring more gain for a few mics (using SM57, AT3035 and Sennheiser 421 at the moment for percussion - congas, keys and vocals) in my home studio. Desiring a mic preamp with neutral affect on the mic signals.
What would be the next reasonable stage up from the AW1600? I recognize I could go 'whole hog' and spend $$$'s on a few namely pres that will do this, but I'm unaware of the current market for less expensive options. I had, and am still considering the Grace 1-ch for vocals, and making do with other inexpensive alternatives for the other channels, but would be nice to make a leap to a 4-ch unit that would suffice for a while.
thanks for any and all with this.
Comments
If you went for a multi-channel pre-amp, it would make sense to
If you went for a multi-channel pre-amp, it would make sense to get something that would be usable with whatever you later got to replace the AW1600.
Looking ahead at the AW1600 replacement, you could remain non computer-based by going for a hard disc recorder and external mixer, or you could go computer-based and simply get a DAW and an interface.
So what to get now? A 4-channel or 8-channel pre-amp that has a FireWire interface built-in or available as an add-on option looks a good bet. There are several of those on the market at varying performance levels and prices.
Alternatively, you could go for a top-quality pre-amp such as the API 3124+ now, and connect it later to a computer via a separate line-level interface.
There is an interesting solution using the RME FireFace 800, which gives you 4 microphone channels plus 6 line inputs, any two of which can be output via S/PDIF into your AW1600. However, you can set it to reproduce any or all of the inputs on its analog outputs, so you could use it as a 4-channel pre-amp with the AW1600. On its own, it is a 10-in, 10-out device connected via FireWire to a computer if and when you want to migrate to that way of working.