Mic pre-amps? Any advice?

[PHeMoX]

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?

[ellaguru]

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

[Les Braun]

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

[PHeMoX]

Lol at "welcome at the forums".

[Platypus Beird]

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

[PHeMoX]

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.

[Olby]

yo, phem, if you are talking about this http://www.artproaudio.com/products.asp ... at=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.

[PHeMoX]

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.

[Olby]

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