need some advice with valve pre amps

i notice you can pick up a channel tube pre for like £30 pounds brand new with over drive option
i wanna add some warmth, going in and out DAW. the thing is, tubes do add colour, and dirrerent designs, still genrally do the same thing, the olny difference is the amount of noise.

now my question is, would it make sense to put one of these before, the likes of a focusrite platinum range. those are solid tranparent pres.
with exceptional signal to noise ratios, which is good, bbut i want colour, and these valve tubes really cant sem to deliverboth, without coming in at a cost. i dont want 8 of the same pres, cause everything gonna sound the same,

so does it make sense to put one of these tube pres to add clour before i go into something of the likes of a focusrite.

also these things have ad converers offering 24./96 via light pipe, tht is nuts whats your views on this and a set up like this.

I hear good things but I think I'd rather go through something without A/D converters personally.

I would say run your mix from a computer through an analog mixer to the valve into a recording medium, could be a computer too, the same one if you got the guts.

The "warm" up thing is really overdone. That's really sales people and marketing, but I do know what you mean. I've learned that what's really he key to the "warming" or added pleasant distortion that we want ois not the tube, but the transformers. An engineer who writes for Recording Magazine, Scott Dorsey once told me that you can take bsic cheap transformers out of toys and radios and pass your signal thru them for various colors. That surprised me big time. I bought a pair of Telefunken 672 preamps for that purpose. I had them serviced and racked and they got that funky paht distortion. There is another spot that I found out about that still makes these old preamps that they designed back in the day from the 70s. Those sound good. They are cheap and not super clean, but they sound funky....like Hiphop in my mind.

Anyway, that's my ramble.

Peace.

homershines wrote:The "warm" up thing is really overdone. That's really sales people and marketing, but I do know what you mean. I've learned that what's really he key to the "warming" or added pleasant distortion that we want ois not the tube, but the transformers. An engineer who writes for Recording Magazine, Scott Dorsey once told me that you can take bsic cheap transformers out of toys and radios and pass your signal thru them for various colors. That surprised me big time. I bought a pair of Telefunken 672 preamps for that purpose. I had them serviced and racked and they got that funky paht distortion. There is another spot that I found out about that still makes these old preamps that they designed back in the day from the 70s. Those sound good. They are cheap and not super clean, but they sound funky....like Hiphop in my mind.

Anyway, that's my ramble.

Peace.

[/u still around shires , damn where have you been, whats crackin??

u know what, a brethren of mine said something to me/ that i didnt dispute but held me on my toes.

in england the voltage is 220,
in jamaica its 110.
when were engineering, and particularly mastering to vinyl
we realised that the music was harder hitting when mastered in ja, we just thought the engineers had more experience with reggae music, in ja than in england, but it wasnt until a well known jamaican engineer came over to do a show, and he engineered a few dub plates for some sound systems, and he said out of his own mouth, that the voltage and transformers have a lot to do with the vibes of de music, england a joke ting fi mix music.
and now i hear the same thing again.
i know its a bit off point, also when we used to build tube amps
good ole kt88s i always heard the ole veterans mention to get the biggest blood clat transformer they can find, i mean in excess of 45pounds at least, they used to wind it them selves, they always said that the vibes come from the transformer. hmmmmm.

and now this, decent.

i was goona build some tube pres, i got like a 3 u r\ck case need to gut it, and try, but how much it is gonna cost me is gonna be the same as buying those little behringer things, i had the idea from loooong ago, but i dont know if it is worth it.

there are also loads of schematics around, even for those same telefunkens, and even an la compressor.
what do yo think.

You want to be careful building Tube stuff, There's leathal voltages involved, particularly in the UK or in any 240 land.

Transformers have lots of uses, besides just the power issue from the wall down to the circuit level, tube stuff needs the wall stuff boosted in many cases for the plate voltage, and there are audio transformers, often included in Tube stuff as well.

Winding your own transformers? Damn, now that's patience.

i wa rea;;y worried about tht, especially stary volatge, from caps and stuff like tht
thanks elma

we use the Fatman 3 by HHB. it's nice for adding some punch but the compressor feels a bit noisy at times. too much comp on a track can make the ears tired. a mellower model is the Bellari from Rolls. it's decent and cheap.

on the new eq mag:

1. using tubes in a circuit does not necessarily result in a "warmer" sound.

2. what many listeners describe as a "warm" sound often results more from (audio-) transformers than tubes.


and usually cheap price is not so good design/parts. even decent audio transformers cost money.

tube voltages

the voltages CAN KILL YOU. that's no joke. i've just finished a 2 channel tube preamp and i never used both of my hands in there after letting some power in it. little zap in the finger doesn't do much. current going from one hand to other goes through your heart... you can imagine what that does.

so far i've done an vca compressor and the tube preamp. and they're not comparable to something cheap shit. real quality stuff. alain smart c2 and d.w.fearn stuff.

Hey Skawala.
I've been working a "fool time" job. Still at though. Anyway, there are all kinds of ways of getting that edge to your audio. Since I'm a cheapskate, I try that way first.

Be super careful even thinking about building tube gear. That stuff is dangerous. Best to get an expert. Their mistake will be a mistake. Your mistake will be a trip to the emergency room or the funeral parlor.

Peace.

ok man, i ll take tht huble advice about becoming a bacon and egg toast sandwich. ill check around and see who can construct some pres for me.

peace yall.

building is not dangerous. fixing and troubleshooting is dangerous! good soldering, good contacts etc, chances are you don't have to take a chance with getting zapped.

i say, build something easy first and then maybe move on to tube stuff if you feel comfortable....

http://www.paia.com/

...they have some nice beginner kits. the dual phantom mic pre or something like a headphone amp could be a good place to start. that kind of gear is something every studio needs to have around....

before you start building, remember that it should be fun to build stuff. don't build stuff because you want a tube preamp. it's easier and cheaper in a long run to just go and buy the tube preamp. in a long run, after learning tons about electronics, you can build your own mics and shit like that.