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will simms 16 January 2017

Hi...I have a PreSonus 192 interface with the xmax pre's, and have been looking at upgrading/getting other pre's for vocals and acoustic guitar.

Looking at

  • SSL, 4 pre's for $1700;
  • Warm audio, 4 pre's around $1000
  • and others Daking, UA610, etc... same price range.

My question really is has anyone used the SSL and the Warm audio stuff(eg's and dynamics as well) paired with tube (Mojave Ma 300) and small diaphragm condensers (AKG 970's) ?

Thanks, Will

Comments

pcrecord Mon, 01/16/2017 - 10:39

SSL, warm audio, Daking, UA610.. ??
You are mixing several technologies and sounds here.. It would help to know what you want to do.
It's hard to find somebody who, have all that gear in one place and can compare them.
Daking are transformer based and should sound great on drums, bass and guitars. They are similar to Focusrite ISA, clean with a bit of mojo
SSL are cleaner until you activate their VHD saturation fonction are solid state pre, great for acoustic instruments, vocal and guitars.
The UA610 is a tube base preamp, altought it can sound very clean, you can push it to saturation with higher gain settings, very good on vocal and other sources
the etc... I don't know what you meen ;)
The Mojave MA300 is a very good mic, cleaner that what many people think of tube driven gear.
AKG 970 ?? it's not found on akg website... you may think of the AKG C451 EB which are very good classic mics.

pcrecord Mon, 01/16/2017 - 10:46

The Warm Audio WA-412 is also transformer based, inspire by neve. didn't hear real world reviews yet
The Daking Mic Pre/EQ has a nice preamp and a nice pre that lets you screw things up... Seriously I'd buy the 4 channel instead, you can EQ ITB.
A compressor would be nicer to have, like in the Focusrite ISA 430 or the UA LA-610.

Again, let us know what you plan to do. droping names with no specific goal is no fun ;)

KurtFoster Mon, 01/16/2017 - 12:22

as with all things recording, YOU need to hear them, try them, work with them all. then You can make YOUR OWN informed decision. all you will ever get by asking us or others is an informed (perhaps) opinion and we all know that opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one and they all stink.

imo, anything will be an improvement over the Pre Sonus you're using.

will simms Mon, 01/16/2017 - 12:23

Thanks for the reply and I apologize if I was confusing things...The AKG mic is a P170...good little mic for $100.
I am looking for preamps to record mostly for acoustic guitars and vocals.
The xmax pres handle electric bass and guitar fine for now.
Drums are ITB for now. Based on what you said (and I was leaning that way anyhow) I'm going with
the SSL. I have tons of plug ins to color things if need be. I'm trying to put a computer based system together
after years of recording on a Roland 1824. Again thanks for the reply and sorry for not being more clear.
BTW...the etc. simply meant pre's in that range...$2000 tops for now.

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