Pre-Amp for Shure SM58

I am looking to buy a pre-amp for my SM58 mic...

I tried doing a research and I got lost.
My sound card is an Edirol FA-101

My budget is about $200... more or less

I dont know whether I should get a plain one or one with compressor de-esser and other features.

What I have under mind for now is

1. Art Tube MP Studio V3
2. Studio Projects VTB1
3. Presonus BlueTube
4. DBX286A

I want mainly a one channel amp for vocal recordings...
Could you please enlighten me with your knowledge and experience.

Kind Regards

my best advice is to avoid cheap audio gear at all - buy it only if it can do something really good.
if you are on a budget then spend your money on gear that does one thing good and not on gear that tries to do many things.

peace jo

Would you be able to suggest a more preferable price range I should look at?


I see what you mean
but things are tight.

Thank you very much for your answer

the two tube/valve pre amps you mention are what is known as starved plate. which is to say, they don't have true valve circuitry.

Yes most likely I will go for a single channel as I dont need two anyway.

Any suggestions?

can you use a soldering iron?
for around a $100, you can make a jlm audio pre amp. it's a very easy build. i use one with my sm57.
http://jlmaudio.com/shop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=6

Nice one! Soldering is something I am familiar with...
I will look through it.

The only thing is that I would like to have a compressor on it and maybe EQ...

I was looking today these two....

Focusrite Platinum Trakmaster Pro and
TL Audio Fat-1 or 2 (discontiniued thow)

These go to a new category though but are pretty good.
I think I will find handy the on-board compression...

huge fan of presonus everything i own is from them, never had a blue tube but sure its quility built and will do fine for the price range

What are you recording with the sm58? Unless youre live on stage, you may wanna start by getting yourself a condenser mic.

Ok then. if you can use a soldering iron, then you can enter the world of quality for the price of a behringer patch bay.
check out the rest of the jlm audio site for compressors.

here's some stuff that has been cloned:
pultec eq
calrec parametric
ssl mixbus compresser
UREI 1176 L compressor
mutron bi-phase
tb303?
api or neve preamp
and the list goes on and on...

http://www.gyraf.dk/gy_pd/gyraf_diy.html
http://m.bareille.free.fr/biphase/biphase.htm
http://www.oakleysound.com/tm3030.htm
http://www.elby-designs.com/shopping/index1.html

Great man...

Thank you very much for these info...
It didnt even cross my mind


I'll definatly have a look through that.

Would you mind if I contact you at some point via PM?
regarding what I should select etc


Thank you very much again beach_break
and every one that helped

yeah, no problem with PMs.

you may want to look into the FMR lineup- the RNP would be a good choice for that budget...they're $450 new but can be found for alot cheaper used...

Thanks B.read

but

after gathering information and a lot help from beach break
I decided to go down on the DIY route ...

Premium parts and equipment for good price.
And you can manipulate it the way you want

and as an engineer... IT IS FUN!!!

Nice! are you already done with it? If not, seeing some pics of the process would be cool...