Favorite mic pres?

Maggie

Maggie

New member
These studio gear threads are fun (for me, at least)!

What mic pres do you like? What mic pres are good, considering that you can actually afford them? What mic pre invades your dreams? Do you like warmth and compression? Do you like straight wire with gain? You know the drill.
 
WOW! That's, like, 3 threads! LOL

Anyway, my personal belief is that a high gain guitar sound is naturally compressed, so I use no compression on distorted guitars.

Mic of choice at the moment is BLUE's The Ball mic, and I use a little ART tube mic pre, which is very good. Another great, inexpensive mic pre is the Pre Sonus ...

Mic pre of my dreams is a vintage Neve; mic of my dreams would be a 1930's Telefunken or, for a new one, a Neumann TLM 103.
 
I use an Aphex 207 dual channel mic pre. It's not big dollar top of the line but it is darn good for the money. I think it was in the $450+ price range.

I insert a DBX 166XL comp/lim/gate into it and I get very nice vocals and bass/acoustic lines out of it.
 
I realize I'm biased, but IMO, the best-sounding mic pre is the D-TAR Solstice Two Channel Mixer-Blender . As someone who was intimately involved in the development of this product, I can tell you that we -- shall we say -- "borrowed" the mic pre circuitry from the same circuits used on the big Neve consoles from the '70s.

The mic tone is big and warm. Personally, I use it with my SM57, but it works great with a bunch of mics, and even has 15v Phantom Power for some condenser mics.

The Solstice actually has two mic inputs, one for each channel, so you can use it as a stereo mic pre. Also, each channel has a 20dB pad and a phase reverse. Plus a ton of other features. Check out the link above if you want to learn more about it.

Cheers,
 
The Focusrite Red series we used at school.... *sigh*

OH! and the Avalon mic pre/compressor that my boss had when I was a go-fer intern at a small studio... I spilled water into it, and DIDN'T get fired. That's the miracle... oh, that, and the heavenly sound coming out of that box.
 
Last edited:
OOH! that solstice looks pretty nifty!! I'll betcha it beats that bluetube piece of junk I'm using now... how much does it go for?
 
Thanks for all the info, guys!

Most of this stuff is nicely in my price-range (about $500 US).

Speaking of the 15v phantom power issue: does anyone know if phantom power can survive a pass-through application? In other words, if I have a separate 48v phantom power supply, can I go mic -> Solstice -> phantom power source -> recording medium?
 
I have a Jim Demeter mic pre that's got virtually no features or compression, but has huge clean headroom, which is what I want for vocals and bass.

I also have the ART Pro MPA pre and VLA compressor, the two rackspace type. To me, the MPA is worthless now that I have the Demeter, so I may sell it. I really like the VLA compressor though. It's probably a copy of a Urei or something. The tube compression works great on vocals and bass. I'll probably start experimenting more with pre's on guitars. Maybe the MPA will find a purpose.
 
Uhh...I think you'd go Mic -> Phantom -> Solstice. The mic would get the power it needs, then the pre do the shaping, levels, etc. That SHOULD work fine. 15v would work with most mics, but you'd end up with less headroom and possibly different frequency response. For example, C1000s work on a 9v battery, but they sound better when you give them 48v.
 
msawitzke said:
Uhh...I think you'd go Mic -> Phantom -> Solstice. The mic would get the power it needs, then the pre do the shaping, levels, etc.
Click to expand...

I can't without buying a separate phantom power source- the one I'm using is built into the recorder.
 
Re: Favorite mic pres > Solstice inserts

Re: Favorite mic pres > Solstice inserts

> As someone who was intimately involved in the development of this product, I can tell you that we -- shall we say -- "borrowed" the mic pre circuitry from the same circuits used on the big Neve consoles from the '70s

Evan...can I hijack the thread? with your intimate knowledge of the product, perhaps you can solve a problem for me...the inserts on my solstice don't work IE no signal out of ANY output jack, and the send/return mix only works out of the blended outputs. unit was sitting idle for a year with jacks inserted - did they oxidize or ? Cables all good, and the efx i'm using also work. i'm at my wit's end. any suggestions are welcome. thank you / sean
 
Re: Favorite mic pres?

I never cease to be amazed at the built in condensers in my Zoom H4. Though I wouldn't mind getting a decent ribbon mike.
 
Re: Favorite mic pres?

I really enjoy the Focusrite ISA series tube mic pre's. They just have a really nice sound, with a nice warm tube character that is more subtle than coloring. Planning on getting an 8 channel at some point if I can score one for a relatively decent price.
 
Re: Favorite mic pres?

I'm GAS'ing for a D-TAR Solstice. (For an electric guitar project.) But I love my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. I'm using it with a pair of Sennheiser e609 Silver's.

But if I hit the lottery, I'd snag a Manley Voxbox. ;)

Manley-Voxbox.jpg
 
Re: Favorite mic pres?

I went old school.

When I got my UA LA610MkII, my recordings' quality jumped through the roof. Mic positioning is a breeze now as well.

All tube and features an opto compressor side (can bypass) to it that is similar to the legendary LA2A.

IMG_3608_zps94a71c5f.jpg


universal-audio-la610-mk2.jpg


If $$$ wasn't an issue, I'd have:

UA 2-610
UA 1176LN (a pair)
UA Teletronix LA-2A (a pair)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top