Studio Recording Day 3 "Mic pre-amp shoot out"

Microphone Pre-amp shoot out. Grace 801 Pre-amp used as our control (Grace 801, Focusrite Red, Great River,Avalon 2022, DBX 786). Performances are in groups of two with the Grace being the control in each couplet. Signal path.....matched TLM 170's, Monster studio 1000 cable, each pre-amp, AD-8000 converter

[@drewsleyy3836]

Great video!! Most important distinction I noticed: the Focusrite was by far the noisiest. The Grace was perhaps the quietest, but the rest were fairly quiet as well. Tone-wise, the Avalon was obviously the warmest, but this video does go to show that room, mic choice, and mic placement are all more definitive tone-shapers!

[@tamparecording5654]

I wonder how many people are listening to this out of your computer speakers saying "Wow, I really liked that one!"

[@chrisrobson2203]

lmao!!!!

[@leonardtristan6873]

The smartphone is even better ahah

[@defconbrown8667]

That's where your audience will be listening

[@keefrichards5557]

Avalon has this nice detailed top end that I really like

[@tajdidajman4889]

Really

[@bentyreman5769]

I like the focusrite Red the most, thanks for uploading this

[@oldsoul247]

Thank you so much for doing this video I have been looking for something like this for a while

[@shostycellist]

Grace all the way. The most natural sound of them all.

[@shostycellist]

@user I do classical recording so I'm not really looking for exciting or magical, just realistic. Neutral = natural to me.

[@imaginarytube]

0:01 Grace 801 0:17 Focusrite 4 Red 0:32 Grace 0:48 Great River 1:03 Grace 1:19 Avalon 2022 1:35 Grace 1:51 DBX 786

[@saptezsapte77]

Avalon AD2022 seems to be the most natural in behavior. Pristine.

[@saptezsapte77]

@user Listened again. Avalon is still the best in my opinion. Resolution and dynamics. Of course, KZbin compression, etc.

[@MrsFattyPatti]

Have a great weekend Darren.

[@tenor2792]

Nice !!

[@theocorfiatis8324]

Grace 801 seems to be the most natural. I also like the Red 4.

[@huss03]

Great River

[@MrDonnyAir]

For this application... I'm REALLY digging the Grace - such nice "silk"... Focusrite Red would be my second choice. I was surprised by the dbx... not my first choice, but not at all bad by any means. But the top end of that Grace is sooo smooth. ( of course, those are really nice mics they are using, too. ;) )

[@sandrateager]

Great share! =)

[@CooperKatten]

I wish these shoot outs would be done not using acoustic guitars or vocals. Anyone who has done a lot of editing knows that the smallest change in postion of the guitar or mouth, strumming, loudness from the vocals, etc etc etc is going to have a huge impact on the sound. Lets instead record a reamped di from a guitar, vocal, bass or whatever where the performance is identical and the distance to the mic is the same.

[@JeffWGThomas]

The Grace and the DBX would be my choice for clean and accurate.

[@gavmurray7398]

Be good to see what the settings were... Avalon has +36db head room before it will clip. red light comes on at unity(noobs me included thought this indicated overload-WRONG). A reasonable setting when you understand this has the needle pegged and the red light on pretty much constantly. then theres the variable impedance etc etc. my Avalon sounded a bit like this clip but then i learnt how to use it properly. Its impossible to get it to distort like most pre amps. when its totally dimed you get some nice harmonic distortion but only the good kind and its subtle. the problem with it is working out how to tame +30db into your converter because its sweet spot tonally is way higher than most interface line level inputs can deal with.

[@Sr.Rakthai]

Grace 801 for me.

[@Crisprecording]

All these pre-amps are viable for male voice for sure. It really depends on the character of the voice and what kind of a timber you might want to offset.

[@MoizAudio]

Dbx 786 hands down

[@jfilbert]

+Moiz Audio I agree. Makes the others seem blurry.I feel like it's the only pre that let's you hear each individual string. -each strum has an individual per-string transient attack. I wonder if DBX 676 is close...

[@jfilbert]

@user Thanks for the reply =)

[@jasonshrestha]

0:48 Great River 0:16 focusrite

[@gozogozoman3746]

Cool guitar sound... what guitar is it?

[@huss03]

0:48 Great River 1:51 DBX

[@VEGAN-X]

GREAT RIVER IS GREATEST

[@christianlaurent5807]

May I ask you the brand of your microphones stands...Thanks a lot Christian

[@Crisprecording]

I think they are Atlas stands

[@christianlaurent5807]

@@Crisprecording Thanks so much..

[@mikewalker3337]

So if I have 7000$ worth of recording gear and two dollars worth of skills and imagination, my recordings will sound like 2$ ??!! Well, that sucks!! Would protools help?

[@tamparecording5654]

Mike Walker It's just a tone comparison.

[@Crisprecording]

My thoughts would be that if your voice was on the deeper end and getting lost a little bit in the mix you would want to use a pre-amp that has a tighter bottom. By tighter I mean focused while letting the mid range qualities and higher transient qualities remain more dynamic. For this, my selection would be the Grace or Dbx

[@OllertonMD]

that avalon sounds dreadful on your guitar. as if a high frequencies were smothered under a blanket. Great river had the most robust low end. grace made the guitar sound exaclty like a guitar.

[@darty58]

Dude with one mic it would have been better, with 2 you can hear phasing and it's less precise

[@Crisprecording]

Darty58 all these clips are the sound from one microphone mono. Each performance is unique and in order to interpret dynamic/harmonic nuance between the preamps I used the Grace as the control (one of the mics) against the other preamps. No phasing happening...you are only hearing one mic at a time.

[@TiagoRamosRidao]

0:01 Grace 801 0:17 Focusrite 4 Red 0:32 Grace 0:48 Great River 1:03 Grace 1:19 Avalon 2022 1:35 Grace 1:51 DBX 786