Mic Preamps - How to Decide? 

Hey Barry, Thanks for another great video. The recommendation of Audient is Spot On. To the community: As the owner of a whole bunch of outboard gear, here are my own personal words of advice: Investing in Mic Pres can easily rack up a bill of $10,000 or more for a 2% to 5% improvement. So... Please, Please, Please DO NOT go down this road unless you have money to burn. DO NOT explode your marriage or enter into financial ruin investing in Mic Pres. The benefit is not worth it. Always remember: An amazing performance will sound great through anything. That's why it's amazing.

Dude, I don’t live in USA, but I really appreciate how honest you’re being about gear. Not many do that.

Barry is right, $1000 a preamp. We all want to have awesome gear for cheap, but the good stuff just aint cheap.

I'm so glad I found your channel. Nice to hear someone talk technical and affordable

Thank you for all the info sir. Looking forward to all your videos.🙏🏼

Thanks Barry, your helping me to save lots of money and to better understand lots of the gear that’s out now….I to was stationed in Seoul Korea at Yongson. Brought back lots of goodies for the studio….👍

My favorite RU-vidr out, always high quality content 🔥

Perfect video, thank you so much! History and flavors of specific brands, super comprehensive. Taught me everything I wanted to know as a beginner in the rack world.

that was a great discussion, probably watch it again to soak up all the info !

Dude thanks for sharing the history. This is the real part that's missing for most of us who had the youtube "eductionation".

My favourite and still most used I ever bought is the shadow hills mono gama, it’s a little more costly.......But having experience with all the popular pres, I love how it’s three in one. I would recommend this to anyone as a first also.

Its kinda interest to hear that you served navy at dragon hill back in 90's actually they are U.S 8th army. My studio located at Itaewon. I just hit 'subscribe' by the way.

This was a very informative video Barry thank you much!

Excellent video. Thank you

I just wanted to say thank you for your channel. Since last year, been slowly getting back into playing and song writing, as well building my project studio again. I come from the Mackie and two adat world, with Cubase as my sequencer. Lol...

I so needed these advice tutorial thanks Champ i got alotta gear point research to start looking up to see what would work for my usages ✌🏻

Huge CAPI fan here. We have built 10 channels of the VP28 and built 4 channels of their compressors ( XFMR with Litz trans). I am a session drummer on the side for fun and these guys are just awesome ( usual mic number for a session is 13). Also have Sebatron VMP-2000 tube 2 channel which is pretty detailed for a tube pre amp compared to my LA-610 which is super "tube-ish". The A designs blue is extremely pristine to me. Just My opinions. Nice video :)

I have a MOTU Stage B16. Fantastic gear! 16 ins and 8 out, Adat for my old Motu interface.

Thank again Barry!

You’re very knowledgeable!!! Keep up the good work!

Casually I was discussing this topic with a friend of mine that wants to invest on mic preamps for his studio. There’s a caveat though… he’s not great at speaking/understanding English. Regardless, I’ll pay attention to the video and then tell him! Regards from Spain Barry 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Even with somehow long video,was outstanding! Cheers!

I can learn SO much from you

Man you said a lot of great stuff here Barry. Watching this again. Really thinking about adding an Audient 800 or 880 to my Apollo 8xp to get 8 more channels for drums, but you are making me consider just saving my money for higher quality pres than that and keep learning about the pres by using the plugins in the meantime

Great explaination!

Great video man. This stuff gets very addictive though :D I have an IGS NE573 to cover Neve bases and An API312. I almost always record in mono and when we are recording the drum kits we have sixteen channels of Focusrite Clarrett. I went to mixing entirely in the box and sold all of my outboard gear off (I wish I'd kept some of it, such is the merry go round) and thought I'd get a nice mono front end for key things such as vocals or acoustic guitars. It goes IGS NE573 or API 312 into DBX 560A into Trident 80B. Over time I'd like to upgrade the 560 into something more 1176 flavoured. Anyway, great stuff man and enjoy the topics.

Thanks so much 🙏

I use a Joe Meek SixQ. It is a nice inexpensive single channel MicPre/EQ/Optical Compressor with a SPDIF output. I am currently putting together a 500 series rack. I own the Warm Audio TB12 and a DBX 520 De-esser. I still need to buy the chassis, an EQ, a compressor. I plan to use this as my vocal chain.

I know this is 2 years old now, but for anyone looking for great 'Bang for your buck' mic pre's, checkout the SSL Big Six. Get one on the used market. You basically get 4 SSL channel strips and the actual SSL G bus compressor circuit -- and the LMC (compressor). So, 4 SuperAnalogue mic pre's, 4 SSL EQ's, 4 SSL channel strip compressors, AND the G Bus compressor, AND the LMC (compressor) all for around 1900 USD (used market). Even for 4 quality DIY mic pre's (500 series) and a 500 series rack and power supply, you're going to get up in the high $1500 to $2000 price range. When I need 8 mic pre's, I just use 4 of my interface mic pre's, and send them out of interface into the 1/4 inputs of of SSL Big Six. Which is ch. 5, 7, 9, & 11 set to mono. Then send that out of Big Six into the DAW. Use SSL pre's 1-4 for Kick, Snare, Overhead L and R. The mic pre's are the same as the ones in their SiX 500 series modules ($400 a piece new). On top of that you get 4 additional stereo inputs with EQ, and all types of routing capabilities that will come in handy as you grow your workflow. It also sounds killer. One more thing, the pre's are very clean. They add little to no color. The channel compressors do add color (or saturation?). If you don't want to compress your signal very much, but want to tame/round-off those high-end transients, just engage the channel compression. The G bus comp = incredible.

Some of these older live consoles also had great mic pres and eq. We seem to forget...

Thank you for your service shipmate!

At least an 8 minute intro on ADAT instead of preamps that we are here for.

Brown Mark (my big bro in the music biz), bass player from Prince and the Revolution gave me some of the greatest advice ever!!!! He told me purchase the best mic pre my money can afford me. I’ll never forget it!!!

Great video!!

And thank you for your service 🇺🇸

In your honest openion who makes the best pro high end interface money is no object. Thanks🙂

Tell us what you shouldn’t have bought!! Thanks for the video.

I have two channels of Phoenix Audio DRS-Q4, and those go for half price on Reverb often. They have EQ built in which really works. Some people don’t care for them, and I’ve found that I like a nice loud amplifier for them, so I use them on my loudest sources, the Marshall amplifiers. The Dave Hill Europa 1 preamps are my nicest preamps, with the 2nd and 3rd order harmonic features. Nice and complex tonality without comp or EQ. I also have the Great River, but those would really like to have their companion EQ, or preferably the channel strip version MP/EQ would be nice. I keep an eye out for the EQ2. In your comments someone asked about the UK Sound 1173, with a built in comp. I only have one channel as a test but kept it and would definitely buy another. If you’re mixing music and you feel like parts get lost or buried in a mix, compression can really help that track stay alive. I know sound engineers and mix engineers have this down to a science, but for me, someone who never had a formal education, it was an interesting revelation.

Hey Barry,can you do the same type of video for "Channel Strips"? I just purchased a Drawmer MX60 PRO because the Focusrite ISA 430 MKII and the Rupert Neve Portico II channel are no longer available. I wanted an "all in one" rackable unit that comprised a pre-amp,EQ,compressor,de-esser and noise gate for vocals with the "British sound". Even though the Drawmer was 1/4 the cost of the Neve,it was the only alternative I could find, and it is made by the guys who used to work for Rupert.

Ima fan of the crispy polished sound I really want the Avalon m5 but it’s super expensive what do you think of the grace m101

At my friends studio by UCF he has api and vintech 273 (1073 clone) we just recorded some drums for this Christian album we’re working on. Really awesome sound!! Love the API!! One day I will get one lol 😂

Golden Age’s Premier line (not project) is definitely worth a shot, in my opinion the best bang for your buck. I prefer them to great river.

Great video! It would have been awesome if you mentioned some of the “up and coming” digital standards, like MADI and Dante…. Especially Dante. Definitely pricey, but very impressive digital standard. I guess I should clarify that I meant you should mention them in relation to expanding your preamp selection.

Universal audio 4-7 10 D is an excellent quad preamp with tube compression and adat. It’s a great deal comparing features to price.

love your channel! really surprised you don't have waaaay more followers.

Barry, a Vocal comparison between UAD-Unison-Softwarepreamps and the real ones would be great. Most comparsion on YT are not very useful. If they put the vocal recordings side by side, the difference isn't really there as long as you don't distort the audio like lets say in Rockmusic. I think and hope you hear the 2000$ difference when you try to mix even decent vocals in context. That would be quit interesting !

Hi, I have an Allen And Heath Mix Wizard 16 channel. Would you say those built in preamps are pretty good? Or not even close to a Neve?..

I have the Golden Age Projects Comp-2A and 3A and those are two ridiculously good sounding compressors for the money, I know we are talking preamps here, but if the compressors sound this good, I can only imagine how decent the pres are

Very sound advice. I just picked up a BAE 1073 rack unit on the used market for $750. Deals can be found with a little bit of patience.

Nice video Barry, i just discovered your RU-vid channel. I purchased a WA73-EQ Preamp about 3 weeks ago. I first started with a Presonus Eureka, but I like the WA73-EQ much, much better.

I need help in picking out a not too expensive interface using a pre amp Universal Audio solo/610 & TLM 103?Using mainly for voice over & recording traffic reports?

Is the Avalon 737 any good?

hi how do you rate tl audio a1 dual valve preamp? among these?

Ok for acoustic guitars you said if 2 mics are being used it is best to have 2 of the same preamps so the sound is the same. What if I had only one preamp, one of the mics went straight to the interface to the daw and the other went first through the preamp then to the interface then to the daw, could I later take the recording of the one that went straight to the interface and route it out of the daw and through the preamp, back through the interface , back into the daw and basically reamp it?

I'm an ebay buyer and seller and have to say ebay is still my first choice in looking up used gear. Reverb is fine (and I've bought/sold there as well). But the shear volume of products on ebay can give you the better deal because there's more compitition. Reverb is mostly guitarist (and stores) buying and selling. Ebay can be anyone buying and selling so there's a larger audience potentially.

Where do you buy your preamps from? I mean besides Sweetwater.

Which category would you guys put the Focusrite preamps such as Clarett, Red, ISA? (Scarlett isn’t really worth bringing up here imo) I also think the FMR Audio RNP is worth a mention as a really good stereo pair of preamps for $500.

Warm audio ! 273 is great ! Sounds exactly like Neve 1073 dpx ! I use it often and sometimes confuse the 2 !

i have an ADL600 can't live without it

Ever considered live application gear as studio mic preamps? eg. Midas MR18 or M32, Allen and Heath Q/QR Series, you’d be amazed at the quality of the converters relative to price/channel count….

I just need lots of analogue mono inputs rather than pre-amps, for synths and drum machines with individual outputs. What should I be looking at? I've seem the Ferrofish pulse 16 but it's really not much cheaper than buying 2x asp800. I know Behringer do some really cheap ones or a Presonus studiolive III 24R can work as an audio interface. I want quality but also a decent number of inputs. Since I'm not really using preamps much I guess only the AD conversion matters but i'm not sure what is best to get.

Literally while watching this video my delivery of a 500 series API 512 C showed up. Excited to put it in the lunchbox! Have another channel of the same coming Sunday. Next is a BAE 1073, just currently trying to decide if I go for a dual-pre Rackspace unit or single preamp channel strip with eq…. Because after that I’m aiming for a pair of Distressors (w Brit mod)… it’s a good year for upgrades for me and the home studio 😁 always hard to decide which piece of gear to save for next!

Hello Berry! Thanks for the videos. Quick question, I have an Apollo twin audio interface, do I need a preamp?

Focusrite ISA TWO is incredible!!!!!

The rule for gear is you can only pick 2 out of three of the following: Price, Quality, Availability. I have 3 Stam products: a neve clone, api clone and bus comp clone. All three of those sound amazing, especially for the price and the wait was only a couple of months for each at the time. However, I bought a mic from them over 1.5 years ago and still haven’t received it yet. I’ve talk to them a bunch via email, they make things as parts are available and Covid shut them down for prolonged periods of time. They are located in Chile so that I plains why it’s hard to get.

Are Mackie preamps "good enough"?

Why didn’t you mentioned Avalon V5 preamp or the 737 ?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Unison Preamps on the Universal Audio Apollo interface. I am able to use a Neve 1073 preamp as a plugin for the Universal Audio Studio interface. What do you think?

From what I’ve seen and researched, it’s better to save money and buy a better Neve clone than the GAP. The GAP Comp-2A is the best LA2A clone for the price range, highly recommend.

Hi Barry, thank you for the video! It’s always good to get someone else’s knowledge on high end mic pre’s. By any chance do you have any experience with the UK Sound 1173 mic pre, and compressor?

Great videos and great advice. I came across your channel by accident. Happy accident!!! I look forward to more informative video like this.

Got an audient interface, not recording drums at the moment.

It is safe to say that most people roll in to recording because they want to write and publish simple songs. 16 tracks of audio usually suffices. For that to work 16 to 24 tracks bussed into 8 busses usually suffices. That way of working has been possible now in a decent way (128 samples buffer) since like 2014 or so. With a modest investment in a (usb) audio interface with 2/4/8 or 16 channel audio interface. So testing that on older computers and current offering would be nice. Two plugins per track is kinda overkill. You can create 4 stereo busses and compress and reverberate/aux process there. Leaving only noise gate to live drum tracks if needed. You created some 200 channel track templates on a new Mac. Cool. But can you also do the same on above mentioned templates and mention buffer settings? There are still a load of 16 ch to 8 busses rack mixers out there, Tied to a computer interface can give individuals a great workflow at modest cost. If you could condens this to some test setups in the different daw's out there you will be able to gain a bunch of followers who then can rely on setting their boundaries in their own projects by recreating such a mixing template and sticking with it.

Did you ever mention SSL in this video?

I know you're an RME fan. Would you recommend the RME Octamic II vs the Audient ASP800? Or even the Audient ASP820?

loving the channel and have both an iD and EVO unit from Audient. I myself can't stand outboard gear. Mic pres, compressors, saturation units, and other fancy hardware actually annoy me when people try to use them. When I receive tracks I want them recorded into the interface with the shortest signal path possible. Pre-cooking them takes out all the fun. I love processing the signal from a guitar connected directly to the interface with a cord rather than mic'd. I dont even want vocals high-passed going in. That mud could be used for something who knows. Studio monitors are literally useless to me due to my room. It seems all we really need is a good laptop, a decent interface, and some headphones. Studios should be filled with mostly plants and not so much gear.

I'm getting a Warm Audio 73eq preamp.

I use an ONYX Preamp by Mackie into MOTU M4

I own the Audient ASP 800. Fantastic piece. You could buy better but the results would be negligible.

What about ir with the pa

I love your video! Is it possible to ask your advice (email or otherwise) on a very specific gear question?

For rock pop or r&b, I like the Great River MPNV or Daking

I need more I/O for my outboard gear , i have a Apollo x4 , what do suggest ???

I love of this boils down to money.

I tried to find a video of yours on this topic but I could not find one so, do you think it's better to get simples mic preamps and then save to explore EQs and Compressors, and meanwhile just use the plugins, or get a channel strip and afterwards just bypass the EQ and Comp if you like other units better?

The thing is if your looking to get into colored sound for your studio needs there is a ton of company's building like the Neve 73 clones. It's like the China Company Alctron, it's like who are they. They are a huge company that builds pre amps for many big and not so big company's. They build to the specs of the company's who hire them for the build. So who do they build for? Universal Audio (710 Twin-Finity Microphone Preamp), Golden Age, just to name a couple. Then Alctron do their own spin on some of them as well and way cheaper. So it's like you got a real Neve, a after market Neve, then you have like Warm Audio spin on it. Then you have Golden Age spin on the clone, and then Alctron's spin on it. So how do they stack up compared to the real deal, well they do but they don't either. Are you going to notice a big difference in the mix, unless it's just bad sounding then I would call it a different flavor is all. Most are very useable. The thing is a lot of kids starting out don't have 10k or more to sink for microphone preamps. You can get the Alctron's 500 series N73 pre for 165.00, that's cheap and has huge transformers. They sound great for the cost of the things, you can get a used 500 rack off Reverb and load up a 8 to 10 channels of Neve sounding preamps on limited budget. They are quiet, lots of gain for ribbon microphones and have that sound. Do they sound just like a Neve, will no, but nether dose a lot of clones, but it will get the job done and has that sound, bottom line. It's all getting so good now days, and used is good to it it's not to old or you don't mind working on it or controls that might not work right. Been there, lol. So that's the thing I find kind of funny. You got the real deal, then you got a clone, and then a clone of a clone, then a clone of a clone of a clone. The thing is a lot of them come out of the same company that are to be built in China. You can get some nice 8 channel Neve pres. for about 4000.00, So that's like 500.00 a channel for the Neve 1073OPX 8-channel Microphone Preamp with Remote Control. So if you look at it that way a 500 series can get speedy too. BAE 1073MPL 500 Series Microphone Preamp is like 1100.00 for one preamp, Golden Age Project Pre-573 Premier 500 Series Microphone Preamp 400.00 for one channel, Revive Audio Modified: Alctron/ N-Sonic, Mp73a, N73Pre 500, Mic Preamp, New in Box! Smooth! 1073 380.00 one channel, and the stock one for like 165.00. So with that being said the Neve rack mounted one looks almost cost effective, compared to a old Neve channel strip racked up for 12k used. I've been thinking hard on the Neve 1073OPX 8-channel Microphone Preamp with Remote Control, who know maybe some day but for now many people could get by on a Alctron MP73EQv2 1073 Channel Strip Microphone Preamp and Equalizer for under 400.00. I own 6 of the N-Sonic Mp73a's and one 500 series Tone-Beast from Warm Audio. I use the Mp73a way more, they just have a great sound on drums, I use Grace designs two channel for the overheads. So yes, if your on a budget, just find what sounds good to your ears and sets right with your budget.

Audioscape came with v1290, Wonder how it compares to heritage 73jr. Would be great if you can do a shootout.

What about upgrading your mics before buying fancy mic pres?

It’s simple. TG2 or chase tone for your entire life. Take your pick. 😅

No love for the V72s and V76s?

Do drum machines need pre-amps?

Thanks Barry. And I have some question for Barry if he has time but also, anyone who has time to comment I really appreciate the association. I'm at a crisis point with regard to gear. I'm really tired of having to strain to hear the difference. But here we are. So, when I needed to upgrade my interface I bought a Focusrite because it's supposed to be good (Neveish right?) And I got the Clarette cause its supposed to be even that much more Neve-ish. (right?) So, with the Focusrite being 'good' but not as good as an actual dedicated pre-amp if I get a Neve-ish pre-amp to stick in front of the Focusrite ... (arrrrgh) the new sound is still going to be colored by the failings of the Focusrite. This is my assumption. Is it correct and is there away to by-pass the pre-amp guts of my interface? I will also add that I'm not unhappy with my sound at present. I'm concentrating more on performance and mixing. I know I'm not getting world class vocal sounds like I'd hear on major recordings, I can hear the difference. But most people who will listen to my stuff listen on their phone or consumer speakers so it's of little consequence. Over all I'm pretty thrilled with the sound quality that I do get as humble as that may be. Still, whether I use an SSL plug in or simply use some stock eq and compression, I'm pretty happy with the sound either way. I know the sound is different and perhaps one sounds better than the other but I feel a lot of times that that is subjective to my mood. The difference does not send me over the moon. I wish I could appreciate the difference more. I'm hesitant to throw 2 grand at two more channels of pre amp only to find it makes a 'meh' difference. Years ago I used Roland VS. At the time it was a great way to learn and a very stable program at 16/44.1. But where that unit really fell short was that Roland had really crappy pre-amps. The work around was to use a mixer of some quality and or a preamp going in with the channel gain on the Roland turned all the way down. This worked well and the difference in sound was marked.

my presonus studio channel is silky smooth.........

Avalon is great! Great great!

You should do a video on studio budgets 50k is ave cost and ppl do not like to hear these type of numbers.

Is apple becoming a leader in the audio industry?

Please demo the heritage audio mic pre

I have several videos on that on my channel. Search for Mic Preamps.

I'm looking for 500 series. I want to avoid bulkiness

AES 67 ???