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anonymous 4 September 2004

Hi,

I am looking for a pre-amp to add some warmth to my recordings.

I will use it for vocals and guitar, but one of the main points would be to run my synths and some software synths through it, to make them sound warmer, richer and fatter.

So far I came up with these choices:

Langevin Dual Vocal Combo
API 512 c
Great River MP2NV
Sebatron ...

Unfortunately I have no possibility to listen to them for myself so I am dependent on other peoples recommendations.

Thanks

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Comments

KurtFoster Sat, 09/04/2004 - 13:11

All the pres you mention are acceptable, in fact better than that, they're all great.

At this point it is in your court to make a choice.

I know this is not the most helpful reply but it really is the best advice. The pres you are thinking of all come from reputible companies that provide great customer service ... all are built well and deliver wonderful performance. It's like choosing between two premium ice creams at this point ... what I like, may be a second fave for you.

I am sorry I can't be of more help to you at this point but anything I say as to a choice among all of these would be more to my own personal biases (for various reasons other than quality) than anything else..

Blueberry Sun, 09/05/2004 - 05:46

The Langevin has a little color to it. It is not a clear transparent pre. The color just adds a little oooh that's nice to it. But for warmth the Manely mic pre (not Langevin) which is tube based or the Voxbox would be the way to go. I tested it out at digitalprosound.com and fell in love with it so much, that I must buy it. With the gain control you can control how much warmth you want added to your signal.

anonymous Thu, 09/09/2004 - 06:53

Well I think I might go with the Universal Audio 2-610, seems to be the one to give the richest and fattest tube sound.

Though I am concerned about which Mic to use for voice recordings.
I have read in a review by -Myles Boisen- that the UA wasn't always a prime candidate for vocal recording with tube mics. There was a problem with a Neumann TLM 103. ( that's the one I intented to buy)

Any suggestions which mics work best for voice recording with the UA 2-610.

Thanks,

(btw could not find any review on the Manley dual mono mic pre)

Blueberry Fri, 09/10/2004 - 05:09

H.G. wrote: Well I think I might go with the Universal Audio 2-610, seems to be the one to give the richest and fattest tube sound.

Though I am concerned about which Mic to use for voice recordings.
I have read in a review by -Myles Boisen- that the UA wasn't always a prime candidate for vocal recording with tube mics. There was a problem with a Neumann TLM 103. ( that's the one I intented to buy)

Any suggestions which mics work best for voice recording with the UA 2-610.

Thanks,

(btw could not find any review on the Manley dual mono mic pre)

Go to the Manley web site under reviews for info on the Manley mic pre's. Note the Voxbox has the same pre, just with additional bells.

Universal makes a great warm pre, but remember that warm pre's will not always sound best for many applications. A more gentler pre is more user friendly. So if you have a more middle of the road pre like the Langevin DVC or Great River already, then I would go for the Universal or Manley.

KurtFoster Fri, 09/10/2004 - 11:57

This is nonsense that the Universal 2-610 pre is "too warm" ... Just about every record that came out of LA and to some extent Chicago and New York in the 60's [Mama's & The Papas, The Byrds, Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, The Turtles, The Four Seasons, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Count Bassie, Nat King Cole, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters (on Chess) just to name a few] were recorded by Bill Putnam / Bruce Swedien/ Lou Adler and others at Putnums studios, United and Universal/Western (later to become Ocean way) using 610 pres and in many cases tube based Neumanns ... and none of the records suffer from it ... rather they shine. To me, the 610 is a holy grail. I would take a whole rack of them if someone offered and if pressed to do so, I could do fine with nothing else, although it would be cool to have the GR MPs and perhaps the new EMI/Redd pre from Revolution also ... To me these fat warm pres are better .. they have dimension to them not like these thin anemic flat sounding "transparent" offerings like the Neotek/Sytek or the RNP.

I think the fault lies with poor engineering skills and mic choices .. bad rooms that pigeon hole the recordist into using cardioid patterns instead of omni, therefor introducing proximity effects and perhaps the overuse of inexpensive or DAW based EQs that do more harm than good.

AudioGaff Fri, 09/10/2004 - 14:12

Kurt, Lumping a great sounding mic pre from any version of a Neotek console including the only outboard unit they made, the MicMAX, to the mediocore makings of the sytek is not only unfair but down right incorrect. The sytek is more of a low budget Neotek wanna-be.

And while I in general agree that things can't be too warn, I do find that the re-issue 610 mic pre can be way over kill in tube tone and not apporpriate in many applications or something that always works well with many chanels combined. In fact there have been several times in the last year when using the 610 mic pre that it was down right wrong sounding, distorted too easily and lacked the necessary headroom to be usueable which is likely why I have not yet chosen to buy one for my self. I guess I'll just have continue to save up for the D.W Fearn that I have always wanted.

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