VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Rob Ellis]

To give you an idea, here's my signal chain:

Gefell M930, Sennheiser 415>Avalon 737>MOTU Ultralite>Adobe Audition

Recently, not wanting to wait for the 737 to warm up for the recommended 30 minutes, I tried recording directly into the MOTU, which has mic preamps w 48V phantom power, etc.

I may be crazy but running the mic directly into the MOTU sounded fairly close to running it through the 737 and then into the MOTU.

The 737 adds a slight touch of more warmness and air, but at the same time without it there seems to be a little more clarity and cut through....

I'm not knocking the 737 by any means, just beginning to wonder if such a high-end preamp($2000+ new) is really necessary, especially since I don't use any of the ancillary functions like compression, EQ, etc.

I'm also thinking maybe there's something to be said for having one less component in the signal chain.

Or maybe selling the Avalon and buying a less expensive pre-amp, (probably solid state), preferably in the $500-1000 range, and putting the leftover dollars to different use.

It's not that I'm unhappy with the Avalon. It's just that as I mature in this business, I'm more cognizant of what I DON'T need, and less willing to keep around high-end gear that's not being fully utilized.

Also possibly of relevance to any input you may have on this: I will be switching from a PC to a Mac computer system soon.

Thank you in advance for your input!

[Frank F]

[Rob Ellis]

Hmmmm....I could probably sell the 737 on e-bay for anywhere from $1200-$1600....it's only about 6 months old....

...any thoughts on a suitable replacement pre-amp at a low-enough price point to warrant going through the time and trouble and hassle of selling the 737?

I know tubes add warmth but are there any solid state ones that would function as a reasonable stand-in?

I realize that the money you lose in re-selling, factored in with the hassle of selling gear on e-bay, etc., could make the whole thing nothing more than a dead-even or possibly a losing proposition.

And I could be suffering from a case of reverse gearitis (where you start second-guessing your decisions and selling all of your stuff )

Luckily my fellow gearheads here can be counted on for proper guidance.

[Frank F]

The choice of Solid State Pre's is diverse, so the best advice is to find a place where you are able to play with the toys to your hearts content. Although I am not a big fan of solid state pre-amps, due to the lack of warmth in so many and I prefer the analog foibles to the pristine sound of digital, Solid State pre-amps should be reserved for instrument recording - in my humble opinion.

That said; tube circuits are sometimes elevated into mythological status, primarily because they were all we had for about 50 years before solid state came along. But in real world terms a good solid-state preamp can sound much better than a poorly designed tube preamp. Conversely, a good tube preamp usually sounds better than a poorly designed solid-state preamp. That is a pretty simple quality issue.

It is the nature of the distortion that makes the two types sound different. Solid-state circuits run out of headroom when the output voltage exceeds the power supply voltage. The result is gross distortion - the output becomes a square wave. Square waves are not sounds that we normally usually consider musical, so our subjective response to them is negative. Hence; one produces the sound often called "grunge" or "garage band" style with the typical digital square wave pattern.

Look for the impedance factor when purchasing a pre-amp. Find the pre-amp which woks best with your microphone. Matching microphone and pre-amp impedances to the same value (power-matching) is not necessarily desirable since it reduces both the level and the signal to noise ratio by 6dB. For dynamic and condenser microphones, the preferred preamp input impedance is generally about ten times that of the microphone output.

While many professional recording engineers strive for accuracy in most other tracks, these same engineers are most likely to choose a preamp with clearly identifiable sonic character to capture and enhance a vocal or voice over track. This often means a tube preamp with a "warm" midrange (caused by slight harmonic distortion which is a normal part of tube operation) and "smooth" high frequencies (a result of mild low pass filtering caused again by the tubes' performance).

Vocals and voice overs are an area where recording engineers often opt for channel strips, which are a combination of preamp/compressor/equalizer in one box. Following are some suggestions for preamp/channel strips to review:

Great River MP-500NV, PreSonus Eureka, dbx 286A, Aphex 230 Master Voice Channel, Symetrix 528E, dbx 376 (tube), TL Audio Ivory 5050, PreSonus BlueTube Dual Path, Universal Audio SOLO/610, Universal Audio 710 Twin-Finity, Grace Design m101, etc.


Here are the concerns to observe when making a choice on a pre-amp/channel strip purchase:

1: Budget. Find a preamp within your budget that will do what you need. It is not really to your advantage, for example, to pay more than you can afford for the "best" solid-state unit on the market if it's not really effective on delicate voice over/vocals.

2: Vocals. If you are paying the bills by recording voice overs you need to invest in a high-quality vocal-optimized preamp. Probably a tube, possibly transformerless. Needless to say, you will also need at least one outstanding voice over microphone. Make sure the mic and the preamp are happy with each other in terms of impedance, gain, phantom power, etc.

3: Choose between the players.
a) Multi-channel preamps. Whether you are in need of a front-end for your DAW, or simply looking for a grouping of the same preamps in the same box, consider why you would buy a multi-channel Pre. For multi-voice commercials or audio plays, each artist with their own microphone, can benefit from the "equalizing' effect of a multi-channel preamp. You usually do not want individual voices to stick out too much in background vocals; so using similar mics through identical pre-amps can unify the sound.

For this option to be financially feasible, multi-voice recording should be a major part of the work you do every day.

b) Channel Strips With the added benefit of (typically) some compression and EQ, a channel strip can be quite an addition to your studio. Here are a few things to think about:

1 The combination preamp, compressor and EQ that most channel strips offer can drastically improve the quality of your recordings when properly used.
2 Be sure you understand the operation of each component.
3 With a channel strip you could bypass your mixer altogether, provided it has the outputs you need. In this case, a channel strip with built-in A/D conversion could plug straight into your computer's audio interface, thus keeping the signal path as clean as possible and avoiding an extra AD/DA conversion that might have inferior components.

4: Hybrid Preamps There are times when both a tube and solid-state preamp are exactly what you're looking for. Some preamps contain both a tube path and a solid-state circuit, with the option of selecting either circuit or even a combination of the two. Solid State pre-amps are most often used for instrument recording, not vocals or voice overs.


When gear-itis strikes, the decisions get tougher because you act upon emotion and desire rather than intelligence and need. When the pangs of the malady begin to wane, you find yourself with a very thin wallet and the desire to find the product you should have settled upon in the first place - for less money.

Good luck with your choices.

Toodles

F2
_________________
Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[Rob Ellis]

Hmmm... based on what your input Frank, I may be best off just keeping what I have, which BTW I am aware many would people would love to have (an Avalon 737, that is)

[Frank F]

Yep. Sometimes what you have, which works for you, is the best of all decisions.

Toodles

F2
_________________
Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[Rob Ellis]

That's why it is so valuable to discuss these things here. It helps clarify the thought process.

For example, I realized in the course of considering this move that while I don't usually use the on-board compression and EQ, maybe I will want to start using them, or get a client who requests some "sweetening"...maybe the noise gate function, which I don't normally use, is good to have just in case, etc.,,,,,

[Frank F]

I beleive in this case and in many presented here on the VO-BB regarding equipment purchases and/or upgrades Ockham's Razor applies: "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate", which translates as "entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily". A simpler explanation is colloquially referenced as: "sometimes the simplest answer is the right one".

Toodles

F2
_________________
Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com