Thinking about buying a mic pre...

[MatrixClaw]

Ok, well I have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, and while I like the clean sound the preamps give, I'd like to add some variation and color for vocals/guitars.

I was thinking about picking up a Golden Age PRE-73, since I've heard good things about them, but I thought I'd ask you guys first. I think with its 80dB of gain, I'd gain a good bit of flexibility for my mics. I've also heard the DI on it is great for bass, which would be nice.

One problem I have with the Saffire's preamps is that I have to really crank the gain on them to drive a lot of my mics, which leaves me with only a very small range, and cranking them too much adds a good bit of noise. Unless I'm recording a very loud source, I have to turn up the gain on the preamps to 7/10 or higher most of the time. In the case of my SM7b, for weaker vocalists, I find myself turning that thing up to nearly full, which sucks.

As far as price goes, I'd like to stick to around the same general price as the Golden Age, but if something is really worth it, I'll go up to $500 (used).





...or - Do you think I'd just be better off upgrading to something like the Steinberg MR816 or RME FF400/800?

 

[Trevoire520]

How quiet are your sources that you have to crank the preamps on the Saffire so far?

While the GAP73 does have 80db of gain I've heard that it's pretty noisy once you get to the top of it's range.
If you want something with 80db of clean gain you might be better off with a Focusrite ISA One, though it's a more clean sounding preamp than the GAP.

 

[MatrixClaw]

How quiet are your sources that you have to crank the preamps on the Saffire so far?

Not quiet at all, honestly.

Even with my 5150 at ~4 on the volume, I still have to turn the preamps up to 6 or so on the Saffire. With vocalists that have plenty of projection, the lowest I've been able to turn down to was about the same.

When recording my own death vocals (which are, admittedly, weak), with my condenser - I have to turn up to ~7, whereas with the SM7b, I'm almost all the way up, and the waveform still isn't as loud as it is with the condenser.

With most sources, it's not a huge issue, but I feel like the usable range on the Saffire's preamps is pretty useless for fine-tuning. The volume knobs almost never go below 5, because the resulting audio doesn't even show a wave form in my DAWs, except for DIs with the Instrument switch engaged.

 

[setyouranchor]

I find myself cranking my saffire too. Sucks. Keeping my eye on this thread

 

[sawtooth]

I have a saffire 40 and sm7b. I have mine on 5 for death vocals and hitting -18db. Perhaps you are trying to hit just under 0 which you shouldnt be doing anyway. Try recording with much less gain.

 

[MatrixClaw]

I have a saffire 40 and sm7b. I have mine on 5 for death vocals and hitting -18db. Perhaps you are trying to hit just under 0 which you shouldnt be doing anyway. Try recording with much less gain.

If I went any lower, I'd barely have a waveform. Usually, the difference between the gain at say 7 on my condenser and 6.5 is a visible form at 7 (near -15 to 18dB) and little blips at 6.5 (probably closer to -30dB).

As far as the SM7b goes - I haven't used it on any vocalist besides myself since I've gotten it, but being that my condenser is far more sensitive, I'm sure I'll still be cranking it pretty high for most applications.

 

[jeid]

Forgetting what the waveform looks like, where does the level peak in your DAW?