First of all, welcome to RO.

We are going to need some more info to properly aid you on your journey into audio. What are you going to record? (guitar, vocals etc.) How many channels of simultaneous signal flow?

Guitarfreak, he wants a single preamp...

Tell me, do you want a single preamp which is awesome - for about £1000 - or a single preamp which is good but far less than £1000.

People may be interested in what interface you have/are getting and also what you want to use this on. Preamps suited for vocals are not always so great for acoustic guitars or drums.

(FWIW I'm a hack with mixer preamps so the gear suggestions can come from someone else)

Codemonkey wrote: Preamps suited for vocals are not always so great for acoustic guitars or drums.

Are you sure about that?

Which Langevin?

I'm surprised that this combo dosent suit.

There are a large amount of pres at this level and price point....I think....Whats the exchange rate now?

runamuck wrote: [quote=Codemonkey] Preamps suited for vocals are not always so great for acoustic guitars or drums.

Are you sure about that?

How many posts have there been saying "I like XXX for YYY but I prefer ZZZ for QQQ"?

Dave - I think he's talking a Langevin mic.

How about keeping it in the family and looking at the Langevin Dual Vocal Combo. Two channels of great preamps with the optical limiter thrown in.

It's about $1800US right now. That will be either 5000 or 500 in pounds next week, who knows.

Thanks for getting back to me. Thanks to all of you.

I have £1,000 which I have budgeted for the preamp, if I go a bit over then I go a bit over, but I would really like to keep to my budget.

Primarily it will be used for vocals, but it will no doubt be used for guitars when the need arises. I have never had a decent amount of money to spend on a preamp, and dont want to buy something thats not suitable.

A collegue suggested looking at a channel strip, but I have old Drawmers that I almost always use.

I will certainly have a look into the Langevin Dual Vocal Combo. Thanks for the suggestion.

It seems that this site is going to help me quite a bit. Once again, I thank you all.

I will be back.

Nigh Swan
Mark

Ahhhh...I see I misconstrued the verbage.

So yeah. The Langevin DVC is way up there in the good department.

If you like the classic API sound, I would look at an API Lunchbox fitted with a 512C pre-amp. That combo comes in at around £1K, and leaves you 5 slots spare for expansion with other pres or processor boards.

If you are looking for a really clean, transparent sound, consider the DAV BGxx range. The BG7 is a mic preamp with compressor, the BG5 is a channel strip, and there's even a BG501 that plugs into the API Lunchbox. It's all UK made, it's considerably cheaper here than in the US, and Mick Hinton at DAV is really helpful.

We've had a lot of discussions of 500 series preamps including [="http://recording.org/ftopict-45656-500.html+series"] here[/]="http://recording.or…"] here[/] and [[url=http://="http://recording.or…"]here[/]="http://recording.or…"]here[/]. I think it's a good idea if you are planning to expand in this direction in the future and if you plan to get outboard compressors and eqs in this line.

I have not tried the DAVs, but they get a lot of love around here. Since you have a local price advantage they deserve a look.

Thanks guys for all the info. Especially the links.
I will take all this on board and make my decision. This forum has definately given me more to think about.

Nigh Swan
mark