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Author Topic: Mic Pre's- Which Sound Best? At What Price?  (Read 39030 times)

Schallfeldnebel

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Re: Mic Pre's- Which Sound Best? At What Price?
« Reply #60 on: March 31, 2005, 03:26:16 PM »

About ten years ago I walked around with several preamps,  using the pre as a kind of colour device. I did do several A-B or even A-B-C-D tests, and always the pre we started to make the mike balance with, was the winner in the test.

This implicates the microphone position is the major factor in the sound. When something does not sound satisfying, one can off course change to another pre-amp or microphone, changing the microphone's position gives often more sound difference than changing a mike preamp.

For fun I have listened to some old recordings, and in the mean time I forgot what I all had used, and tried to figure out what was what. When I looked up my notes it was even more suprising how less I could hear back from all the effort I had put into those recordings.

It is a nice luxury to have all kinds of microphone preamps for all kind of sounds, but most customers do not hear the difference, neither the public, and as an engineer probably after ten years you do not hear what you have used either.

Buy a nice affordable preamp, and spend your money on microphones or a retirementfund, and instead of creating the sound of a microphone or preamp manufacturer, create your own sound nobody can copy.

Erik Sikkema
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Bill Mueller:"Only very recently, has the availability of cheap consumer based gear popularized the concept of a rank amateur as an audio engineer. Unfortunately, this has also degraded the reputation of the audio engineer to the lowest level in its history. A sad thing indeed for those of us professionals."

eligit

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Re: Mic Pre's- Which Sound Best? At What Price?
« Reply #61 on: April 02, 2005, 11:20:57 PM »

i think this thread is dead but what do you think of

1)buzz audio ma 2.2

2)john hardy m-1

3)oram mws

opinions?

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Tree Leopard

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Re: Mic Pre's- Which Sound Best? At What Price?
« Reply #62 on: April 13, 2005, 09:48:37 AM »

I can comment on the Buzz Audio SSA 1.1 which is a stereo mic-pre / DI combo. http://www.buzz-audio.com/products/products.htm

The mic pres are near identical to the MA 2.2 but the latter have a few refinements in power supply isolation, aiming to extract the best out of the Class A circuitry. The output is also unbalanced (eliminating an extra amplifier stage) which they claim results in a cleaner sound.

The pres in the SSA 1.1 don't have any glamorous "sheen" to them, but they do have a pleasantly understated warmth and transparency. The DIs are very neutral - don't expect anything strong flavoured there (i.e. they can be used for a greater variety of applications rather than just gtrs or keyboards).

Using a range of "workhorse mics" (such as Rode NT 5s) and more refined "classics" (such as Schoeps CMC, Gefell UM900) I have been quietly impressed with the SSA 1.1 and how I could distinguish clearly the sonic characteristics of each one of these mics.

The pre-amps also offer plenty clean gain for dynamics and ribbons. (Great results with Milab D37s, Sennheiser 441s and AEA R84s thus far)

Andre
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m ackermoore

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Re: Mic Pre's- Which Sound Best? At What Price?
« Reply #63 on: April 14, 2005, 02:54:40 PM »

With all the talk about the Millennia HV series (which i love), i didn't see any mention of the Millennia STT-1 Origin. I've owned an Origin for a couple of years and i wind up using it on almost everything. For those who don't know, it's a channel strip combining a mic pre, 4-band EQ, and comp/limiter/de-esser.

What's unique about it is its "Twin Topology" architecture, which lets you select tube/SS signal path for the pre, and separately for the EQ & comp, and the fact that it incorporates both the HV-3 solid state pre and the M-2b tube pre, both of which are very fine, IMHO.  And the presence of a very fine tube/SS EQ and remarkably transparent compressor (when used judiciously) are a BIG plus to enable minor adjustments going to tape/DAW that can prevent the need for plug-ins/outboard processing later.

Most of my experience with the Origin is with Neumann, B.L.U.E. and Schoeps mics, all of which sound great with it.

The only feature it lacks that i wish it had is an impedance selector. If you're using mics with unusual impedances, you may (or may not) find a subtle mismatch. That said, i personally haven't really found it to be much of an issue; my M 149s and Dragonfly Deluxes are rated at 50 ohm (instead of the standard 150), but they still sound amazing with the Origin. [Oh, i also wish it had an input pad; the exceptionally hot output of the M 149 occasionally overdrives the Origin when tracking very loud drums.]

Otherwise, i can only rave about it. For someone looking for an extremely *versatile* mic pre (with or without the EQ and comp features) that can cover a lot of ground without ever sounding bad (and almost always sound great), the Origin is well worth considering.
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