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I'm starting to do some research into a bank of higher quality pres for tracking, and these caught my interest. I read Kurt's review, now looking for feedback from the field. I emailed Joe Malone to see if there were any here in Nashville, but so far, they haven't made the "third coast" yet. Maybe I'll be the first.

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anonymous Tue, 07/13/2004 - 19:21

Well, I got one recently. Looking to jump to the next level as well. Searched high and low for the best price/channel. This was it. After reading Kurts review and hearing samples, I was willing to give it a try out. Joe said it was fine to return it if it didn't work out for me. The risk was the shipping cost.

So what do I think? I'll start with two points...
1. Been recording as a hobby for 20 years. Playing guitar for 25. Have used everything from a tascam 4 track cassette, tascam 8 track cassette with a Soundtracs FME board, Teac ?-8 reel to reel, roland all-in one box-o-crap and finally an Aardvark Q10. Needed more inputs because by the end of the summer I will open a home studio for business. I was getting great reviews on my recording abilities with my setup so I wanted to take the next step and do it for a little more than fun. This is a reference point for my opinion.
2. My studio is in turmoil right now. Finishing touches on wood work and getting ready to tear everything out for a new floor. Sold my Mackie HR824 monitors (didn't like high high end, low end was flabby) Auditioned a few, genelec, yahama, and JBL. Getting the JBL LSR28s. They havn't arrived yet. I'm left with some sound blaster cubes and headphones

Have had the JLM for 4 days now, tried my 4 year old daughter's vocal (SP C3), my guitar and a friends guitar (SM57).

With all that as a reference (long on details uh??) I'll say this. Much better than my Q10, would describe it as better depth and smoother in the high end, noticable better than the Q10. Better defined low end. LOVE the limiters. Joe set them for my Aark24 - CAN"T seem to clip it any more;-). Very nice.

Once I get the monitors and the room turned around I could report more. Already have 3 customers wanting to record here. Very excited and very pleased so far.

Mark

anonymous Wed, 07/14/2004 - 07:17

I'm also looking into an 8 channel preamp unit. What did/do these units cost? How long does it take to get one once it is ordered? Does it have an A/D converter option with it or is it just preamps?

Right now I am considering the RME OctaMic-D because I trust their converters but I'm not sure if their preamps are anything to write home about. I don't need a lot of color in the preamps because not be recording rock music, mostly acoustic music and jazz.

jonyoung Wed, 07/14/2004 - 07:36

yodermr1, Thanks for the early reports. I built my room last year after freelancing around for years. I'm getting better than expected results with my room and gear so far, but I know what a huge leap really good pres can make. Good luck with your construction, glad to be done with mine, even with 25 years in the remodel and cabinet biz. bcarr, the price is based on exchange rate. As of last week, shipped to Nashville it was a hair over $2k, pretty decent price for 8 pres with limiters, especially if they compare with Focusrite Reds or API's. :D