Preamp Test: Crane Song Digi 002 Focusrite

[crillemannen]

Hello,

So i just got my Crane Song Spider so i thought i do a series of preamp tests starting out with high gain gutiars. the preamps thats included in the test are:

Crane Song Spider : 8000$ (approx. 1000$/channel)
Digidesign Digi 002 : 1500$ (approx. 3-400$/channel)
Focusrite Octopre LE : 500$ (approx. 50$/channel)

About the test:

I didnt reamp so its 3 different takes so have that in mind. Its recorded with A Triple X through a Engl 4x12 with celestion v.30's and a sm57a.
The fourth take is just a comparison between to different cabs: Engl and Harley Benton. As you can hear there is a huge difference between them.

The preamps are in this order: no1. Spider no.2 Digi 002 no3. OctoPre no4. Harley benton cab

http://www.studiohaga.net/preamp_test.wav

My conclusion is that the Crane Song wins (well it should...) but the Octopre isnt that far behind. The Digi 002 is really far behind those 2, muddy mids, and dull highs uke: . I will do another test with Drums, and i belive is that is when the Spider will shine.

But i think there will be a huge difference when i do the second test with drums.
Some pics:

Btw...
I also tried a Mytek DAC96 = a 2 channel D/A and i must say that i've definitely have bought into the hype. I practically didn't hear any difference between the Digi 002 D/A and the Mytek. Well maybe the Mytek was a little bit more open and sparkling highs but for 1000$ its just not worth it.

 

[lolzgreg]

Wow does that Digi suck balls

The Crane song does sound fantastic. It's got more harmonic content and less mud than the Octopre as well.

 

[Astrikos]

Thanks for the test.Yes digi doesn't that good as the other 2.

 

[crillemannen]

Yeah the Digi 002 really sucks, the best buy as Lasse has said before is the Octopre Le. Im gonna record some drums next week, and im really excited to see how the Crane Song handles the transient response

But if you have the money you get ridiculous amont of high end with the Spider: top of the notch Preamps, 10 channels of A/D, the famous Crane song tape effect and you get a mixer which means you can mix down if you use mutliple microphones on one amp, and just sen is as one track into your DAW

 

[Fragle]

holy shit, HUGE difference.

spider wins by miles as far as i am concerned. 002 does indeed suck, octopre sounds like the regular project studio pre....not too bad, but the spider just seems to have that instant pro quality to it. incredible.
are the preamps really the only different things in the signal chain for those clips? almost sounds like varying mic positions, judging by the almost dramatic difference between those.

002 sounds muddy and harsh at the same time, also lacking definition.
octopre is still lacking some definition, and doesn't quite have those super tight lows, but i guess it's usable.
spider is great....defined, tight bottom, smooth highs, clear and crisp mids...wow.

ah yeah, engl cab ftw!

 

[::XeS::]

The Spider sounds awesome! The octopre lacks definition and tightness....
Anyway the spider cost also 16 times the price of the Octopre Le so....I think the LE is the best quality/price. If you are a semi pro and you can payback very quick those 8000$ it's a great buy.

 

[crillemannen]

Yeah the Spider definitely gives that pro sound Its not any difference between the mic'ing. Tried to match the gain on every preamp.

One difference is that the Spider has internal A/D which gives it another boost in terms of quality, and has wordclock which for those who have compared, say that is even better then the Big Ben

 

[J.DavisNJ]

I will definitely listen to these when I am home.

Which pre did you D.I. through? Just curious.

-Joe

 

[Lasse Lammert]

haven't had the chance to listen yet, but thanks for the test.

I'd love to buy a Spider (just too expensive for me )....
I always thought the Octopre LE sounds extremely good for the money (preferred the preamps to the ones in RME makes)....I just recorded vox and bass for an entire CD with mbox2 preamps..I hope they don't suck as much as the 002

 

[Skinny Viking]

haven't had the chance to listen yet, but thanks for the test.

I'd love to buy a Spider (just too expensive for me )....
I always thought the Octopre LE sounds extremely good for the money (preferred the preamps to the ones in RME makes)....I just recorded vox and bass for an entire CD with mbox2 preamps..I hope they don't suck as much as the 002

Vocals & Bass both done with Mbox ... this is completely unmixed so I think you should be fine

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/594184/Moonlight+Rough.mp3

 

[crillemannen]

@ Lasse

Yeah the Octopre is a really good buy.
Yeah i decided that PT HD had to wait, it was better to upgrade the signal chain Just think of what you get with the Spider. As it is now, when i upgrade to PT HD i can get the cheaper 96 interface because the Spider has its own A/D And i've done some good recordings with my mbox2 pro

 

[Lasse Lammert]

I'd love to compare the spider with the API (which is my fav so far)...
did you ever compare those?

 

[crillemannen]

I actually borrowed 2 512c for my last recording. It was super sweet, i felt that it had somewhat compressed character (in a good way) and really straight forward. Would be fun to compare them with the same source, drums etc.

So if i hadnt bought the Spider i would probably bougth a 3124+ but as i wrote the Spider has the complete package, if you wanted the same quality pre's , A/D (api, lynx etc) it would have been allot more expensive. So even if the Spider is expensive, you get allot for that money

 

[lolzgreg]

I want two spiders real bad. Too bad they're going to cost as much as my studio construction lolololol.

 

[greyskull]

the difference becomes more and more apparent as you stack things up... the 002 gave me a headache!!

 

[[UEAK]Clowd]

I don't know guys... and maybe because I'm not listening on my monitors at the moment, but I wouldn't call this a "HUGE" difference by any stretch...

edit: actually I take that back lol it is a pretty decent difference, the first one seems a bit more "exciting", but still, not $600 per channel more exciting.

 

[::XeS::]

The spider gives a big difference in my opinion. The guitars are way more hi-fi and defined

 

[crillemannen]

the difference becomes more and more apparent as you stack things up... the 002 gave me a headache!!

True that!!! Hopefully im gonna post some drums next week, and vocals

 

[kaomao]

of course the digi002 is bass heavy to me.
Anyway you can fix the low end later in the mix process.
The others too are more open.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Anyone know how the new Octopre MKII line compares?