favorite mic pre distortion

[andris]

Just wondering which mic pre's you've found have the most pleasing distortion when overdriven.

[Nick Sevilla]

Just wondering which mic pre's you've found have the most pleasing distortion when overdriven.

Neve 1073.

Cheers

[Peterson Goodwyn]

Hamptone JFET

[ashcat_lt]

Tascam 1642.

I think that's the model #. An old mixer. The pres and EQs and just about everything about it just sounded like an electric guitar!

[mjau]

Altec 1589.

[andris]

Thanks for the replies. When the pre only has a gain knob do you use a passive attenuator or console line input to bring down the output so that is doesn't clip digitally?

[ott0bot]

Thanks for the replies. When the pre only has a gain knob do you use a passive attenuator or console line input to bring down the output so that is doesn't clip digitally?

That'll work. The passive attenuator will usually be the best way to retain the signal from your preamp without eccess coloration. A console line input can be run through a number of different gain stages, op amps or transformers and can alter sound pretty drastically at times. But try both and compare.

Preamps with a gain and and output or trim know definately make it easier to distort.

Me personally I've been liking my PM1000 channel strip on drum and guitar mics and a UA 710 for di'd fuzz bass and vox. Also, I've been using the Summit Audio 2ba-221's line inputs for additional break up and tube saturation. Nice and mushy without losing too much of the frequency range of a signal.

I also like the pushing the Tascam 424 mic pre's, and distorting the heck of of drums and track it to a cassette, then transfer digitally at a resonable level.

[nobody, really]

scully 280

i've heard people say good things about ramsa pres when pushed, but i haven't found anything yet that i like that on. i think they're great otherwise.

[losthighway]

Chandler Germanium

[RefD]

Tascam Porta 03.

very trashoid, bordering on fuzz.

LOVE.

[Nick Sevilla]

Thanks for the replies. When the pre only has a gain knob do you use a passive attenuator or console line input to bring down the output so that is doesn't clip digitally?

If I am to really try to get a very specific distortion, then I use a trim before the input.

Usually I've used passive 5K log pot before the input, if the device has no output gain knob.

Cheers

[AndyHutchinson]

The short answer is the Daking Mic Pre One. It has an amazing 3rd order FET distortion, although the caveat is that we use it, at work, with a Telefunken RFT bottle from the 30's-40's.? Anyway, the combo has the most amazing distortion. Regardless of the mic choice, I really like the sound of the Daking overdriven. It doesn't work on everything, but it sounds great on guitars, overheads if mic'ed with ribbons, etc.

[calaverasgrandes]

Yamaha PM180, though you pretty much need a high output condenser to make it buzz.
Summit 2ba221 as well, but I actually like its clean sound more.
The old Radio Shack Realistic Mixer. The one with two VU meters and the faders. It doesn't have proper mic ins, just mic level 1/4" jacks. But it gets this great fuzz when hit hard.
I used to have an old Wollensak reel to reel as well that suited this purpose. Though it also had a 1/4" mic jack and the output was speaker level so I had to DI out and lowz-hiz in.
TOA AV mixers also, white noisy.
Ramsa? I really dont get what folks are on about with those. I had a WRS series for years. Great feature set. Inserts on everything. Swept mids, switchable high and low shelving. Nice metering. Muddy as hell, it was mixers like this that made the 1604 seem awesome when it came out. I tried clipping hte pre before. For instance when I wanted a snare to sound exploded, or for the vocal. Poop.
Great for live sound production though. No RFI or EMI, easy to patch dynamics anyplace you need to. Metering! Big as hell, no squinting to see which knob you are on.

[T-rex]

Chandler Germanium

+1

[joel hamilton]

Those Dakings do rip up really nicely.

My personal favorite, if we are talking distortion and not just killer saturation like the way a 1073 or 31102 or 33114 neve will do, but full blown drive would be the MANLEY VTL tube "mono reference" mic preamp. That is the only tube pre I own that makes the transition from clean to drive in a perfect logarithmic taper. Absolutely stunning, even without other devices in the chain. Variable feedback (like the chandler germ, only 12 years earlier) is really apparent on a tube pre because it affects the rise time so much.

The EH 12AY7 will do a good approximation of this type of thing if you have a crazy hot mic that is putting out a ton of level. I have even chained one 12AY7 into another and it really sounds incredible that way, without as much noise as I had assumed would come out the other end of a cascading gain setup like that.

The drive I get from my 33114's in my console can be really pleasing, because the discrete AB amps (BA438 and 440) in those modules transition to saturation really well without any "snap" or nasty cat sneeze...