Hi there,

So, I've got the ATR-1 Antares auto-tuner. Rather cool piece of gear, even though it has no pre-amp, de-esser or eq/compressor stuff on board unlike the AVP-1 Antares.

So... what I basically need is a nice but not too expensive mic pre-amp. Something with a limiter would be nice.

Any advice? I hear most people use the pre-amp on their mixers and I don't have a mixer at the moment either.

But I think a tube pre-amp might be better than a mixer pre-amp?

i got a Joe Meek 3q that is a bomb for a mic.

Word, Joe Meek or something from M-Audio.
Welcome to the forums

Lol at "welcome at the forums".

what's your budget?

on the cheap, the discontinued M Audio Tampa has a decent compressor built in

Groove Tubes Brick was always good for me, coupled with a DBX 160x to compress vocals

other than that, I'd say get an API lunchbox with an API 512c or an A-Designs P1 or an Avedis MA5 and that way you can add modules as you have the money

I'm not sure what my budget should be, but mainly 'on the cheap' is what I can afford at the moment.

I often hear you shouldn't save money on pre-amps by going for low-cost versions as it really influences the quality a lot though. But I won't spend over about 200$.

I am going to route the auto-tuner into my guitar/vocal multi FX rack, so what I probably really need is a relatively clean (but thick with compression and definitely with a de-esser) pre-amp with a limiter for some extra auto-tuner comfort.

I'm thinking the ART tube MP studio should be fine.

That API lunchbox seems overkill though, although a simple 19" rack wouldn't be such a bad investment.

yo, phem, if you are talking about this http://www.artproaudio.com/products.asp?type=79&cat=1&id=58 then I might add that I have one of these that I run through a compressor/de-esser/limiter/expander unit into my MV. It's good but after a month I ran into problems with it because it started to distort the sound by adding a loud buzz on top of the vocals. As I bought it online I did not wanted it to send back for repairs so I just cracked it wide open (I have skills in generic gear fixing) and saw that the analog tube was inserted a bit slant and was touching a resistor next to it thus short-circuiting the unit and making that buzz. After fixing this problem never had any problems for like more than 9 months and recorded many great songs with it.

Thanks Olby, yeah, I heard there's a batch of bad units circulating that also could be fixed either as you said or by unscrewing one of the corner screws or something.

Apart from that it sounds like a good piece of gear though, I'll buy one.

yeah i knew about the screw near the power connector, but it didn't worked out for me so I had to fiddle with it a bit more until I found out that the tube was causing the problems.

cheers,
olby