Talk to me about 2 channel mic preamps

FastRedPonyCar

New Metal Member
Jan 24, 2009
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one side of my ART MPA preamp has some unwanted hiss. I've tried both disabling the tube, swapping the tube with a few replacements and nothing changes. It's not a huge deal when recording loud guitars but for bass, it's unacceptable so I'm thinking after the dust settles at the end of the year after Christmas spending, I'll be looking to upgrade.

my budget unfortunately won't permit me to afford the Universal audio 2-610 (which is what I THINK I really want)

So I'm looking at the $1000~$1200 pre's at the moment. Their primary duty will be recording loud guitars and DI bass (though the bass is run 2 channels - one channel runs through either my JTM54 or nitro's clean channel and the other runs through a sansamp RBI and then into the mic pre then to the PC)

I don't plan to ever use it for drums or vocals so it just needs to be good for guitar.

Sweetwater's pickings are slim

JDK R20

TL audio - A1

Langevin

Vintech 1272


I have no idea how any of those sound or if they're particularly well suited for guitar the way the UA pre is so I'm leery of buying any of them but understand realistically, there's no way I can try them all out side by side to make a choice. :(

I've also heard good things about the Vintech 273 (which they sell) but would either have to wait longer before I could afford it or jump on their 3 payment plan...and if I do the payment plan, I may as well get the UA unless there's something else better out there for the same $$?

That and I don't know what kind of difference I'd hear between the vintech 273 and the 1272.

Any input on this would be appreciated.
 
If you can score it, get an API rack and start filling it up. You'll find out that you really can't have too many options when it comes to preamps. Like an API has killer mids, good for guitars, and toms. Neve style Pre's have extra warmth, great for kicks, vocals and snares, then you got nice transparent pre amps, which are great for overheads and snares, and anything else you want to capture the source as accurately as possible. And then some mics pair up with some pre-amps better than others. Like an SM7b pairs up good with a neve style preamp such as a great river. The options are endless! Either way, once you step into the high end realm of pre-amps, you'll find you will be doing a lot less fighting the mix.