Pre Amps

I was at my mans house last night and he had a new Pre-Amp hooked up. I he thought that I should get one, the clearity that it added to his kicks and snares was crazy! Talk about some punch, man! Anyhow anyone rcoking a pre-amp with the 1000? Whats your out take on them? Surely anything that can add to the effectiveness of your production must be a plus.

i like to use the mangler efx processor with my 1000. The distortions are really nice. You can get something really subtle to give you that grainy punch or you can get something really crazy to completely change the texture and tone of the sound. I have ran the 1000 thru a pre amp though and it does give it a nice sound.

I have a preamp for my gemini turntable... its very noisy. I cant seem to ground it properly, does anyone recomend a specific type of preamp. I use some 20 dollar one, but the grounding seems to just not do anything, any tips...

I dont think a preamp should be used on the 1000 because it already has a specific amount of power coming into it. You could fry it maybe, plus, i would just go and get some better/powered speakers instead. Than the audio will beef up...

I have a TL-Audio FAT-1 preamp/compressor which I hook up sometimes, it's good for controlling master level while warming things up a little.
http://www.fat-man.co.uk/

Presonus MP20 is a good preamp for the money.

FMR Audio RNP is the shizz for the money - - I don't have one of those yet, but I have the RNC compressor. That thing is sickness, especially for the low cost.

http://www.fmraudio.com/rnp/

i use the the TLAudio Fat Man tube pre for everything. if you need to go a bit cheaper Rolls makes a Bellari tube pre that isn't too bad.

nice... ill do some research...

Does that TL Audio Fat Man have direct inputs for a turntable, or do you have to use TRS adapters. Also, when I use TRS connectors on anything, I feel like I might be degrading the sound. Is this the case. Would something sound better if I use the proper cable, without using adapters.

Another question...Has anyone used the Focusrite P6? Is this a nice preamp for the price? Im looking into purchasing one of these on basis of reviews and price.

well, you actually can't go directly out of a turntable into anything but a powered receiver or preamp of some kind, unless of course your turntable has an RIAA pre built in. once your phono out is brought to line level in some way then you can go into the Fat Man with standard 1/4" or XLRs. what i do is go from my turntable to my Rolls phono pre direct to the MPC or mixer. i do as much work as i can in the MPC and then send each track individually through the Fat Man without compression onto tape or hard disk. from there i do a final mix and master out through the Fat Man again but using it's compressor, and as much hardware EQ as possible. basically you want to get your hands on something with tubes in it, the nicer the better. sadly the rule of "you get what you pay for" definitely applies in this case. a cheap mickey mouse tube pre is worse than nothing. another thing to check out is old tube hifi equipment. old Heathkit stuff and others can be found on the cheap and have real nice warm sound just for running stuff through them. old reel-to-reel tape machines are great too. the Fat Man is AMAZING for the money though, BLOWS EVERYTHING UP, sounds so huge. we use the HHB Radius version, not the TL Audio kind. a little pricier, but i like the sound of it much more for some reason. the TL Audio one sounded a bit harsh to me. hope some of that helps.

what about those $100 ART tube preamp things?

yay or ney?

teej, thanks for the info, my man.I should have been more specific though. Please anyone and everyone chime in.

What are some good alternative preamp choices with low noise factor, and ability to produce an uncolored signal. I will use waves plugs for most of my compression/effects/warmth, etc. I need a good preamp, to get phonal signals into my sound card, as clean as possible, where they will be edited with whatever effects in soundforge and sent to the mpc, via usb, then sent through the soundcard from the mpc to sonar for multitracking, final edits, other effects, etc. I have been looking into the hi-fi market, at an AMC 1100, but Im not at all convinced the answer is there. Please don't lead me down the direction of DJ mixers. I already have a vestax PMC pro 5, and the noise factor is simply not cutting it. I need a dedicated professional sounding preamp, whether it is for a turntable only, or could even be a good mic preamp that I could plug a turntable into. Let me know your advice/reccomendations. Thanks.

Ah - you're specifically looking for a Phono (RIAA) preamp, not a general preamp. This is one for the disc jockeys among us...

Rough'nReady wrote:what about those $100 ART tube preamp things?

yay or ney?

ney. i tried out all those ART things and my conclusion is:
MICKEY MOUSE.

here is the phono pre that i use right now. super quiet signal, does the job. this is a good price too, i think i paid $60 for mine.

http://www.music123.com/Rolls-VP29--Pho ... 1834.music

The quality of components and flatness of EQ-curve output from an RIAA circuitry, can make a LOT of difference to your samples.

hot tip: get a SONY ES series amplifier with a phono input on eBay. They're sounding warm and rich, because they were designed with specs and audiophile ppl in mind. Pricetag was 1000$ and up in the early 90's, and now you can use them as a high-end RIAA pre-amp for 100-200$

Be prepared to reinforce your desk, though !
These baby's are bringing at least 15 kilograms on the scale...


...almost forgot: they are superb to drive a pair of passive monitors as well ! And you have another HQ headphones-amp..and...and..