All of you fellow renoisers have always pointed me in the right direction in the past so I thought I would share a purchase I made today. I Have read many of the reviews on the Art Tube MP mic preamp and it sounds like it’s excellent for the money.
Approximately three years ago I purchased a Shure SM58 and have had it sitting the entire time because of no preamp for this microphone.
I plan on using the mic solely with the preamp, no guitars or any other such instruments/devices will be plugged into it.
Has anyone here used an ART preamp like the one above for vocals? I am hoping to produce some tracks in renoise with my own vocals and help some friends with excellent voices record their own as well.
Cannot wait to play with vocoders and other effects to make some wacked out c64 messiah lyrics aside from using poor old sam reciter on the Winvice emulator; no offense sam…
I found it too noisy because of the tube electronica. I’d rather use my Soundcraft desk preamps I had at the time. However, you may like the colour the tube gives. I’m not up to date with alternatives, but compare some solid state preamps with it.
It should arrive delivered tomorrow. Cannot wait to play with it. I might be doing a bit of hiphop vocal recording with it - more along the lines of old school hiphop sound and I have seen recommendations to use tube amps because of the warmth as you said.
I understand what you mean about it acting color. Maybe it would have been better to get something clean so I am not limiting myself and then if anything I could have added the color so to speak and or warmth after the vocal has been recorded…
Will let you know how it works out. I have a major problem with recording my own music to begin with; with the exception of a few that are prestine. I have a feeling me getting the vocal recording down is going to be a real challenge.
Curious sagosen and henriette use in their setup… Her vocals always sound very clear. :hint:
In my experience Shure SM58 isn’t very good for recording clean vocals. It’s great for live use, but recordings get a bit muffled. I bought a cheap big membrane condenser mic which sounded much better than SM58.
Not really, I don’t know much about mics, just bought a cheap one, JJlabs C010B… It’s kinda a no name thing. A swedish music store imports cheap stuff mostly from china I guess, and slaps on their own logo. It got good reviews, and I’m happy with it… but then I’m no audiophile. http://www.jjlabs.se/index-en.html
Some very good value condensors are AudioTechnica AT3030 series (AT3035 review), $130 on the 'bay, and if you’re spending a little more coin the AT4040 (great all-round mic. See review). With an AT4040 and an SM57 you’re pretty much set for anything.
Basically, the 30xx is a cheaper, more brittle version of the 40xx, and it will show, but it’s still ok.
AudioTechnica makes good mics at good prices IMHO. Steer clear of the cheap chinese-made “deals”, unless you’ve tried them first, since most are very harsh in the highs.
A couple other good multi-pattern mics are CAD M179, Rode NT2000 and AT4050.
For preamp, most folks seem to agree that the Rane SM1B is the cleanest, highest quality preamp you can get for under $200, and it has plenty of gain. It uses real-good opamps and has a really simple, clean, design. If you want some coloring, though, the studio projects VTB1 is actually pretty good, and even cheaper ($100). Just don’t use that horrid fake-tube knob, and it soundsquite nice.
If you’re looking to spend a little more on preamps, a FMR Audio RNP8380 (Real Nice Pre) or a Groove Tubes Brick will make a big difference.
If you need more than one preamp, a little tip is to get a quality small mixer, like the Yamaha MG series or a small Soundcraft. Their preamps are clean and definitely useful. Tip:Use the insert jacks to tap the signal right from the preamp, so you don’t have to go through the bus.
Hope this might be helpful. Sorry about the link mania.