Sound issues, think it's time for a good pre...

[Ethan Holdtrue]

So yea, I think it's time I picked up a good class-A mic pre mostly for drum overheads. I'm tired of fighting with EQ's to try to 'un-box' my drum sounds, and I'm pretty sure a good mic pre is the asnwer... The only problem is I have no idea what I should look into getting. Any thoughts?

p.s. I mostly record metal, tech/grind and hardcore.

[I'm Painting Again]

I'm a firm believer that good preamps will help you get your sounds to have the right space and make it all fit in dense music like your doing..one will be good but a bunch will be much better..

class a is just an amplifier type..there are many other classes of amps that are good..

some pres are too "thick" for loud bands some are "thin" and thats better or at least it makes it easier to fit everything "right" on a recording with loud and dense music..

[A-Barr]

What's your budget? Do you know how to solder? There are a lot of great kits out there that yield great results for a realistic and reasonable amount of money. Check out Seventh Circle Audio, Hamptone and JLM Audio if you think that's an option for you. Otherwise I'd recommend staying away from buying preamps by "type," unless you're getting some really good (and expensive) stuff. A lot of cheaper preamp manufacturers will sell stuff with technological bells and whistles, like tubes, class a, discreet, etc. Not that these aren't important descriptive terms, but just because something is tube, class a, etc, that in no way garauntees that it'll sound any better than another piece of gear. With the high-end stuff, I'd use it as a guide to what the color of a certain pre will be, but with the low-end stuff, it's all gimmick. A well designed and well built class ab non-discreet pre will outperform a cheap discrete class a tube blah blah most all of the time, IMO.
Having said that, I will recommend a cheap gimmicky tube preamp to you: The Electro-harmonix 12AY7, it's about $189 and a lot of people like it and consider it to be one of the best among the cheapy mic pres out there. Next step up: Grace Designs 101 at $500, supposedly the best mic pre under $1000, I read an article on why you shouldn't waste your money on sub-$1000 pre's and this was the only exception to the author's rule. Above that, there's the Great River 1-NV (I think that's its name) which is supposed to be about as good as you can get for $1000. Above that... well you'll have a hard time getting something lame for more than a grand.
Good luck!

[John Jeffers]

What mics are you using for your overheads?

[Ethan Holdtrue]

As of right now I'm using SM-81's, MXL 603's, and a MXL 9000 tube, for the most part straight into my MOTU 896 HD.

the newest available project I have done can be found here:

http://myspace.com/hostileground

[John Jeffers]

Have you considered getting the Black Lion mod done on your 896? If your budget is tight, it'll give you a nice upgrade to your 896 preamps for $250, and maybe allow you to get some more life out of it before adding expensive pres to your studio.

[gregnrom]

So yea, I think it's time I picked up a good class-A mic pre mostly for drum overheads. I'm tired of fighting with EQ's to try to 'un-box' my drum sounds, and I'm pretty sure a good mic pre is the asnwer... The only problem is I have no idea what I should look into getting. Any thoughts?

p.s. I mostly record metal, tech/grind and hardcore.

See if you can't borrow or rent prospective preamps before dropping a load of money. Make sure you use them in your normal setup so you can see the difference (which may not be all that dramatic).

[Ethan Holdtrue]

thanks every body :]

[stinkpot]

What's your room like? If it's small, have you tried recording with the door open and a mic down the hall? Have you tried moving your drums around to different areas in the room? Is your room treated (bass traps, etc.)?

A new pre is exciting and fun, but if you're on a budget, I'd try those types of things first.

[RuudUnit]

I totally think you need to open the acoustics can of worms if "boxy" is what you're trying to avoid....

Usually stuff sounds boxy because it was recorded in a box.

[knobtwirler]

Try the philosophical-technical approach. See if you can make a top 3 common denominator list of how you seem to have to treat your boxy drum sounds with eq or whatever you do after you record it, and think real hard about how to do those things with either mic placement or instrument/setting adjustments to things before they enter your setup. You may surprise yourself and see things that were right in front of you all along that a new better mic pre would still capture and screw up your sound.

[Bill @ Irie Lab]

Folks,

Check this out: http://www.record-producer.com/learn.cfm?a=3062

And then this: http://www.record-producer.com/learn.cfm?a=3071

The ICs he is speaking of has the lastet wiz-bang circuit topology - 'current feedback'.

Worth getting out the ol' soldering iron, everyone needs a couple extra channels of pres from time to time.

Too many irons in the fire for me right now - so to speak. But, I think I'll build a pair some time for the hand percussion station.

Human feedback would be cool on this if any one should try build some,

Bill

[KennyLusk]

As of right now I'm using SM-81's, MXL 603's, and a MXL 9000 tube, for the most part straight into my MOTU 896 HD.

the newest available project I have done can be found here:

http://myspace.com/hostileground

Oh, I loves the SM81! It's so bright and open and can take the SPL's like there's no tomorrow.

Everybody's got great recommend's here and I just wanted to "third" what Ruud Unit and Stinkpot said about acoustics. If "boxy" is what you're getting more than likely it has nothing to do with your gear and everything to do with the room.