Tube Preamp?

I'm looking for suggestions for a decent tube preamp. It will be used for recording acoustic guitar, possibly some vocals, and I want to see if it will give my PODxt a little more tubeness. I've been looking at this one , this one (a little pricier than I would like though), this one , and this one . Any info on tube preamps anybody can give me will be appreciated.

They are OK however knowing you you will be sick of them in no time.

I started with an ART V3 tube pre. I moved to a Behringer UVP and now have a Focusrite.

The Focusrite PVMP is solid state but blows the others out of the water.

The low end ones are OK and are better than no pre however they cant hold a candle to the high end ones ! Here you get what you pay for !

And you will want a a reasonable large diaphragm condenser. I have a Shure KSM44 which is lovely.

It will hardly ever be used for vocals. Mainly for acoustic guitar and for warming up the signal from the PODxt when recording and to give it a more realistic feel when playing live. It's nothing I'm set on doing, just something I wanted to try. I've heard a lot of good things about the Presonus (with out the eq) using it for my purposes. But, I try not to believe anything I hear, and only half of what I see...lol :D

If you have the opportunity try to A/B it with an Avalon (or even a Focusrite).

It is the difference between a strat copy made by the "cheap guitar co" and a PRS.

:( guess I should start putting a little more into the GAS fund then huh.

Good thing is, I'll be getting the money for some studio monitors for Chritsmas :D

how about this

Not quite as posh as the Platinum Voice Master Pro but will kick the ass of a Behringer !!

Had good results with my Prosonus and a borrowed Arp tube preamp.

You do have to experiment a bit, and get your gain chain under control. I find best results with the lowest amount of gain closer to the source (mic, guitar etc.), and the most closer to the recording media, like the master record level. That's my rule-of-thumb, again, you will have to experiment some.

I don't suggest using a tube-preamp for getting crunch or distortion. They will warm up and "liven" the sound a bit.

A good condenser mic will go a long way for vocals. I probably don't know what I'm missing with the higher-end stuff mentioned here. I've always had to be patient and tweak/experiment alot to get magical results out of minimal gear and budget, heh.

As for the cheap Strats, I actually like some of their tone I've heard, they just feel like crap to play.

My opinion.

Peace,
-Rick

It was one of the ART preamps, not ART

I think I'm going to hold off on a preamp for a while since I don't record much acoustic anyway, and I use tube power amps in my live setup, so really no need for one there either. :rolleyes:

I think I'm going through the longest ongoing case of GAS I've ever been through :(

When working out your gain staging, for best results get your signal as hot as possible as soon as possible.

There is very good reason for this as it stops you lousing the top end of your signal.

uh oh, thought of something else :eek: ! What about running my guitar through a VHT Valvulator tube buffer when using my PODxt (or anything else for that matter)?

ALso with the cheap tube pres like the ART V3 the tubes (I used to have one) "Warm up the sound" by adding distortion, which is not always good !


As for the tone of cheap strats, I suggest backing off on the distortion a bit, you will here a vast difference.

I have owned (5 bucks at a porn shop) and do own both the cheap and not cheap strats, In-fact I have 3 Fenders at the moment ! The difference in the way they sound is huge.

Id suggest tweaking the EQ on the Pod rather than putting it through anything else that will add noise. You can always do that after you have recorded it.

The Valvulator, in front of the POD, is supposed to make it more realistically tubey, and give it better dynamics. I've never used one, but I haven't heard of anybody who didn't love it (except for those who have never played a real tube amp before). Plus, it has 2 outputs, so I could run 2 amps if I so desire :D ! Uh oh! more idea's :eek: hmm.... Is there such a thing as a bypass pedal? Lets say I'm running the POD and the RM preamp...........wait, wait, I just remembered I already have an a/b box....he he he