FMR Really Nice Preamp- any good?

if6was9

if6was9

Ireland
Jun 13, 2007
1,560
0
36
lreland
I'm looking to upgrade alot of my gear at the end of the summer, I'm using 2 firepods at the moment and want to upgrade to a fireface 800 and get a few good pre amps for the line ins.
There's a guy selling a FMR RNP for a decent price so I'm thinking about picking it up now while its still going.
Are these any good? I've heard great things about their compressor but not an awful lot about their Preamps.
Anything ye could compare it to in both quality and character?
 
Yeah, I've heard it's a really solid unit for the money, and I love the guy's philosophy on it, cut costs by having a wall wart and slightly higher noise floor than the competition, (neither of which I give a fuck about cuz I record METULZ :headbang: :Spin: :kickass: ) but not compromising the sound quality (mainly in the form of transparency I'd say, rather than color, but I doubt any preamp under $1k would have any remotely desirable color anyway!) I say snag it before someone else does!
 
Depends on the price I suppose, but personally, I wouldn't waste my time.

I mean, I've heard good things, but if I'm going to buy "nice pres," I'm going to get a Chandler TG2, A-Designs Pacifica, and/or API or BAE Lunchbox. That sort of stuff.

I for one don't think there's much difference between non-shitty interface pres and expensive pres*. Regardless, I am willing to prove myself wrong when I buy nice pres in the future. So that's another incentive to not "waste time" in the mid-grade.

* To be fair, I haven't used expensive pres; I've only heard shootouts. Differences are subtle. And it's funny how some people say "these subtleties are indistinguishable in a mix," while others say "these subtleties add up in a mix." But like I said, I am willing to prove myself wrong, and I will definitely be buying "pro" pres within the next couple years. Not that it necessarily means anything, but I don't see "pros" talk about the RNP.
 
Perhaps Damian, but a) it's always nice to have more preamps, and b) if he can get a good price on it, I DEFINITELY think it'd be better than the stock FP pres!
 
Yes, it's nice to have more preamps. And yeah, it probably is better than FP pres. But FP pres are probably not as good as FF800 pres, which is what he's going to have.

Like I said, it depends on how cheap he can get it. I'm just saying if it were me, I'd rather save my money and not deal with mid-grade. N'am say'n?
 
Even then though, I've never heard anything too spectacular about the FF800 pres ("mediocre" seems to be the buzzword), so I'd think the RNP would probably be a lot cleaner and fuller than those too. But I getcha on just wanting to shoot to the top, though on the other hand, preamps are of lower priority to me than source material (guitar, amp, cab) and mic, so until I'm made of money, I think the RNP is the best I'd be interested in in the near future!
 
the fireface pre's are fine.

people who call them "mediocre" tend to be put off by the fact that they are very neutral and un-coloring....and as far as neutral pre's are concerned, they're pretty high up there as far as i am concerned.

consequently, i'm not too fond of the idea to add another neutral, uncolored pre to the arsenal. instead, i'd go for something that's known for COLOR, like chandler, api, great river and whatnot. those will actually give you a whole other tonal range instead of just another flavor of "neutral" if there even is such a thing lol.
 
Well I figure as it is I'm gonna need 4 pre's for the 4 channels that don't have their own on the ff800 and I definately don't have the money for 4 channels of Api,Great River, Chandler and the likes. So 2 channels of this and then 2 more probably of those Golden Age pre's for something different to everything else I've got. I can't afford crazy expensive at the moment!
As it is they'll be a nice addition till before I get the FF- they're bound to be much better than the firepods stock pre's.

Got a big lesson when I recorded in a decent studio a few weeks ago- the guy was using an audix I5- which I also have, on all the vocals and it sounded killer. He said it was all down to his pre amps which were really nice focusrite ISA's and Phoneix audio stuff. So while I can't afford the best out there I wanna go for better than what I already have.

He's looking for 325 euro, I think I'm gonna go for it, they've 2 years warranty left on them too. They're 480 on Thomann so its a good bit cheaper and they're in immaculate condition
 
never used one myself, but i've heard many, many, people say that it's one of the few pres under $1000/channel that's really worth fucking with
 
I've heard they're brilliant. Another cheapie 2 channel that I heard was good is the ART MPA, with some sort of NOS tube or really high end tube.
 
if6was9 said:
Well I figure as it is I'm gonna need 4 pre's for the 4 channels that don't have their own on the ff800 and I definately don't have the money for 4 channels of Api,Great River, Chandler and the likes. So 2 channels of this and then 2 more probably of those Golden Age pre's for something different to everything else I've got. I can't afford crazy expensive at the moment!
As it is they'll be a nice addition till before I get the FF- they're bound to be much better than the firepods stock pre's.

Got a big lesson when I recorded in a decent studio a few weeks ago- the guy was using an audix I5- which I also have, on all the vocals and it sounded killer. He said it was all down to his pre amps which were really nice focusrite ISA's and Phoneix audio stuff. So while I can't afford the best out there I wanna go for better than what I already have.

He's looking for 325 euro, I think I'm gonna go for it, they've 2 years warranty left on them too. They're 480 on Thomann so its a good bit cheaper and they're in immaculate condition
Click to expand...


of course, who really has that kind of money lying around? ;)

so, if you're more looking for a couple (4 at least) decent pre's that do the job (well), you might as well consider the focusrite octopre LE.
i don't know how it directly compares to the RNP, but you're always hearing really good things about this one, especially for the price. plus you actually get 8 channels via ADAT on this one, rather than just 2 on the RNP.
 
yeah but I'll be getting a bank of 8 pre amps aswell to bring the track count up to 16- but I need 4 stand alone pre's for the line ins as it is, especially to take advantage of the conversion on the RME.
Made a deal, I'm picking it up for 325 euro next week
 
with some pres the differences are REALLY subtle, but the tone does definatly stack up in a mix.
The tg2 and api 3124 sound completly different.
the Tg2 is quite fat and beefy, while the api is punchy and detailed. the api has a more extended top end, which is great on drums; but the slightly darker character of the tg2 is great on dirty guitars and vocals. got an isa428 as well which has a fairly clean but sparkly sound, great on overheads, and the great river is just well... great...
 
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