Microphone Preamp

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Permalink Reply by Eric Morgan on November 7, 2008 at 10:11am

If it's the digital interface you need, then I am not much help. I can tell you, from MY experience, I did not like the Voicemaster Pro. It was easily overdriven and way to sensitive. A tiny adjustment made way too much of a change, making it next to impossible to fine tune. I got rid of mine and went with the DBX 286a, which nicely enough, costs about 1/3 the price. The DBX does not have the digital interface though.

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Permalink Reply by George Lazaros on November 9, 2008 at 5:19pm

Well, the digital interface would be good to have, because this way I could use the digital output to feed my sound card to the digital input and have better sound on my mic.

So, I'm thinking, I'm buying a preamp, let's buy one with a digital interface.

The chief sound engineer at the radio station that I work for says I'd better go for the Joemeek

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Permalink Reply by Jeff McNeal on November 9, 2008 at 8:07pm

The Voicemaster Pro is a terrific bang for the buck, but it is poorly designed and built. The red lit function switches are prone to noisy operation, intermittent connection, and eventually outright failure after just 2-3 years of use. Because of the "pass-thru" design of the various modules, this means that this preamp is essentially destined for an expensive repair bill or to be junked for parts. For this reason alone, I would not recommend the Focusrite.

I discovered that this problem is widespread when my fomer VM Pro Platinum started developing the aforementioned switch problems. The only fix for the sealed switches is replacement - with the same defective switches - by a repair facility in Las Vegas that sees MANY of these units on a regular basis. I spoke to a rep for Focusrite who feigned ignorance to the problem, which tells me that nothing has been done to correct the defective switches.

I know several others who have experienced the same problem with the switches. The problem seems to be fairly common.

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Permalink Reply by George Lazaros on November 22, 2008 at 12:22pm

A friend told me this one is very good, any opinions? http://www.solid-state-logic.com/Music/Xlogic%20Alpha%20Channel/ind...

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Permalink Reply by J S Gilbert on November 22, 2008 at 8:39pm

If you like the Joe Meek, you will Love the Drawmer MX60 Front End. It has similar functionality to the Joe Meek, just better sound for less money. The Drawmer MX50 dedicated de-esser is actually built into the ront end and it's about $100 less than a Joe Meek. Lotso fother nice bells nad whistles too - look at some of the reviews on line.

The Aphex 230 is also a great channel strip with different things going for it and the best darn noise gate I've ever used. It's actuall even a little cheaper than the Dramer.

I wish I could recommend the Joe Meek, but compared to a lot of other strips in the same or even lower price range it just doesn't really come close.

Now, if you want to commit a little more dough for the ultimate channel strip, the the Millenia ST-1 is the absoulte best and some of us will put this puppy up against a Manley Vox Box any day of the week..

Ah - so much gear and so little time.

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Permalink Reply by George Lazaros on November 24, 2008 at 7:29am

Well, thanx for your help J S!

There's a thing about the Drawmer, it doesn't have a digital output, so it'll still use my sound card's preamp and ruin everything! While, if I find a preamp with spdif out it'll go through my sound card's sprif directly to the mac, and that's why I need a digital out.

The Aphex is toooo expensive in Greece, it costs 1200 euro, out of budget for me, unfortunatelly.

After reading reviews on the web I'm thinking about the Dbx 376 and the SSL X Logic Alpha Channel, which seems the best choice, it's from a good company, has good sound ( a friend that has it swears on it ), has digital out and tube emulation.
So, if I buy the SSL I will have a preamp that can be as "clean" or "tube" I want.

Anyone knows anything about it?

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Permalink Reply by Hugh Ross on January 29, 2009 at 7:45pm

Does anyone know if I can go from my dbx 286a (analogue) out thru my mbox 2 mini (digital in)? I want to stick with pro tools but this seems like an issue and I can't afford to buy a D/A converter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hugh

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Permalink Reply by Mike Cooper on January 30, 2009 at 3:44am

Hi Hugh,

Forgive me, but what you've written doesn't look quite right to me. The Mbox 2 mini doesn't have a digital input. It has a socket marked "Line/DI", but that's not what "DI" stands for in this instance. See here.

What you can do, is run a TRS cable from the "Output" socket on the 286 to either of the "Line/DI" sockets on the Mbox and let it do the A/D conversion for you. Plugging into one of these using a TRS cable will bypass the Mbox's mic preamp and should give you a nice, "balanced" connection. You may need to use the "Pad" button to reduce the level some.

If you plug into input 2, that leaves input 1 free for another mic, if you want to use one at any point.

Hope that helps!

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Permalink Reply by Hugh Ross on February 1, 2009 at 5:11pm

Mike - THANK YOU SO MUCH for your fantastic info. It is EXACTLY what I was trying to find out but was having the hardest time pinning down. Yes I mistakenly thought that the "DI" meant digital. I only just checked this board so I didn't see your response until this very moment.

Thanks again. I'm still figuring all this out.

Hugh

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