The Cleanest & Most Transparent Mic Preamp On The Market | Camden 500

[@cranborneaudio]

Want to skip straight to the audio examples? Quick links are below! 01:43 - Acoustic Guitar 03:08 - Drums 06:07 - Soft Vocals 07:24 - Bass & Bass w/Thump 07:44 - Drum Machine w/Thump 08:21 - Drums & Drums w/Cream 08:42 - Hard Vocals & Vocals w/Cream 09:12 - Electric Guitar w/Cream

[@TheLucky13s]

what mic was on the acoustic?

[@Kwaician]

Please keep making demo vids like this. This was very helpful and I’ll be buying one.

[@DavidDiMuzio]

What an exciting piece of gear. I can't wait to use mine in the Cranborne 500R8! Will definitely be posting some A/B demos.

[@ericjtomsky]

Wow I've never owned rack gear before but I've been doing a lot of research lately and I think this is the one I'm going to go with as my first hardware pre amp!

[@thaexception3406]

The details provided makes me want to buy the product!

[@rars0n]

Cranborne's 500-series products seem pretty awesome. I hope you guys are working on some other 500-series modules, as I'd love to see your take on a compressor and EQ.

[@cranborneaudio]

Hey Adam! Thanks a lot mate - really appreciate it! Way may have one or two ideas... 🤐😂

[@ayatosan2347]

@@cranborneaudio Digital recall would be a very nice feature on your next products ;)

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

Wow. Just, wow! That really sounds pretty amazing.

[@ArthurStone]

Nice overview: cool features :D

[@stephensircar1561]

I still don't believe that's his voice.

[@GingerDrums]

I own two of these. They are phenomenal preamps and I record voiceover for german TV every week with them. However, it is simply dishonest to say preamps are the most important stage in the recording process. The room and microphone selection are orders of magnitude more important, accounting for, lets say, 80% of percieved quality and fidelity. The competence of the mixing engineer will account for 15% The remaining 5% is split between cable interference, Preamp selection and AD conversion. This is my humble opinion! I should add I also own the Cranborne ADAT and love it! congrats on a great company!

[@cranborneaudio]

Hey @snowdenbleep! Thanks for the comment and so glad to hear you are enjoying your preamps and 500ADAT! We completely understand where you're coming from! We did actually say "preamps are 'arguably' the most important stage" - which means that we could discuss for days as to what is more important to who - as us Audio Engineers often do 😂 That being said, we could never disagree that room, engineering, and conversion doesn't play its part! We just wanted to state in this video and demonstrate with numbers and graphs that preamps are often overlooked. We see a lot of people spend a lot of money on lovely mics to then be disappointed with how it sounds with their interface's preamps and our point is that a great preamp can make a much bigger difference than people give it credit for. We've seen people get mind blowing results with a Camden 500 and a SM58 on sources that we never expected and so if people are looking for that next step up in their recording, a preamp can be an untapped opportunity for them. Really appreciate you getting in touch and so glad you're enjoying the pres! 👍

[@Robert_Babicz]

very interesting , will try to get my hands on

[@rapfreak7797]

Sounds great but I'd love to hear the theremin the singer must've been playing!

[@cranborneaudio]

Haha, shh, the theremin is an industry secret! ;-) Thanks for watching!

[@gaborkiss1425]

Great unit! At Vocals, were the SM7B's bass and high switches set to flat?

[@cranborneaudio]

Hey @Gábor! Yes the switches were set flat for that test! 👌

[@neilanderson9151]

Cream on that vocal was very strident.

[@StevieSosa]

Want!

[@smokinmoose2]

We record mostly acoustic music. So, without knowing what acoustic guitar was used, how it was mic'd up and what mics were used etc. I have to say the guitar sound is phenomenal! Of course it would have to be EQ'd in a full mix but for a solo project I could hear it used as is. Now, for the nit picking portion: Assuming this was done in a professional studio I'm surprised at the mic pop in the vocals; 6:15 precipice (p), 6:29 behind (b and d), 8:51 pullin' (p)...they probably wouldn't be heard in a rock mix but still... Otherwise, these preamps sound great.

[@cranborneaudio]

Hey Al! Thanks for your kind words about the Camden 500! Hearing it on acoustic guitar really blew us away! And it continues to do so everytime we hear it in action - we're immensely proud! As for the plosives, as you know, every mic, vocalist, and performance is different - the Camden will accentuate a subtle plosive purely because of how instant the preamp's attack is (due to the minimal phase shift). That's also the same element that makes the guitar recorsing shine - that kind of instant punchines at all frequency registers. Results could vary for the better (or the worse of course) depending on your vocalist and their technique but Camden 500 is guaranteed to leave nothing in the table in pursuit of pure transparency!! Thanks again Al!

[@thaexception3406]

Informative

[@synthmaster4959]

how much total thd does each of the mojo circuits produce? and can we see the freqeuncy curves between min-max settings

[@cranborneaudio]

Hey Synth master, Thump and Cream can produce as much 50% THD at Max Position! But this depends on input source level (and gain setting) and the input source material. Mojo is not a static effect - the Mojo circuit interacts with the input signal to produce harmonics and will produce different results from source to source. As such, a single frequency curve of Mojo using a sine sweep or similar may give misldeading results as to how Mojo will react on different sources. Hugh Robjohns produced frequency sweeps of Thump and Mojo in his Sound on sound review (worth a read!). The results are interesting and can shed some light but they can also be a bit misleading as they don’t really show the complexity of Mojo’s effect on a variety of different waveforms, envelopes, musical frequency content. Hope that helps!

[@HollerAtcherBoi]

Is there a reason that the mojo knob isn’t stepped? Wouldn’t that help when using 2 as a stereo pair?

[@cranborneaudio]

There are a few reasons! The pot we use has a 'click' in the OFF position that is a true, hard bypass. There are no detented pots that also offer this click to bypass function. And whilst detented pots are great, they are still subject to tolerance and are about as accurate as a normal pot unless implemented in a completely different way. The clicks are mechanical and do not always line up with the electrical properties. So a normal pot is just as accurate if not more if you take a bit more time to set them to the same value. Hope this helps! CA

[@acpllc3]

Hmmm... for the Drums with Cream demo, the switch is in Thump position...

[@cranborneaudio]

Hi acpllc3, For this section, there are 3 mics - one for the kick, one for snare, and one mono overhead. The kick is set to the Thump (highly advisable!) And the Snare and overhead mic are both set to cream. Hope that clarifies!

[@Derrick_Evans]

I have my re20 running into my pre amp and I can’t seem to get the signal led to light up at all. Same goes with my guitar into the di. No matter how much I crank the gain or change around settings it will not light up

[@cranborneaudio]

Hey Analog Sounds, that doesn’t sound right - sorry to hear this! Please send an email to us using our Tech Support form on our website and we will work through this with you! 👍

[@Derrick_Evans]

@@cranborneaudio thank you for the reply I seemed to have got it working. I used the pad button on my audio interface and was able to crank the gain one more notch on the Camden and bam! Sounds beautiful thank you for the super fast reply you guys are great!

[@cranborneaudio]

Ah that’s great to hear@@Derrick_Evans!! Welcome to the Cranborne Audio family! 🎉🤟

[@BlackrootBand]

What mic(s) were used on the acoustic guitar?

[@cranborneaudio]

Hi there, we used 2 AKG C451's for this video, placed equidistant with the 12th fret of the guitar. Hope that helps.

[@BlackrootBand]

@@cranborneaudio Ok, great. Thanks for the reply. I just ordered this (Camden 500). : )

[@helmanfrow]

The Mojo switch ought to have a middle 'off' position.

[@cranborneaudio]

Hi Helman, the Mojo circuit is completely bypassed when the pot is in the Off position (the pot has a 'click' when the circuit is bypassed). It's not really designed to be an effect that you A/B with a switch, it's more of a preamp flavour you dial-in to taste by selecting your style and blending it in. You can't bypass the transformers in a 1073 for example, but with our design you can determine how much of that effect is audible. Also, our 3-way switches have bulky switch bodies compared to 2-ways and the circuit is very tight as it is. Hope you get to hear Mojo in person! 👍

[@orangemaniabrother2232]

I love the clarity but I gotta say that I can't hear any difference whatsoever when you add cream saturation to that guy's vocals, clearly it did something cos the gain was decreased accordingly but considering the saturation addition is the big selling point for me I'm not convinced lol

[@cranborneaudio]

Hi there, thanks for checking out the video! Cream can add some serious saturation to vocals when cranked but we find that less is certainly more! Many VO artists and vocalists are using Cream on vocals set to around 3/4 because it adds a bit of THD 'up closeness' without it getting distorted and harsh. On other sources (drums, synths, guitar) the effect is very drastic but usable all the way to max. Have you checked out the other Mojo examples in the video? Cream and Thump are very dependent on the source coming in as they are all harmonic-based processes, and so the result will change organically depending on what you're mic'ing up! If you have any vocal track that you would like to hear with some Cream applied, I would be happy to run the track through our unit and send back the result? Besides the Mojo saturation, Camden 500 is one of the cleanest mic preamps on the market and so in some way the Mojo is the icing on the cake! Thanks for the comment! :)

[@gaborkiss1425]

@@cranborneaudio Can I send in a raw mono speech only track recorded with my current interface's preamps, and hear how the Camden 500 enhances it? I would like to hear it in neutral, Thump and Cream, if possible.

[@cranborneaudio]

@@gaborkiss1425 Hey @Gábor, we may be able to help you out! Send us an email using our website and we can see what we can do for you! 👍

[@albertorosas7395]

witch mics did you use?

[@dannymelgarejo8805]

whats that 500 chassis in this video?

[@cranborneaudio]

Hi there, we are using a standard API 6B here, however Camden 500 is compatible with any 500 series chassis - including our own 500R8 or 500ADAT :) Thanks! CA

[@paucosmos9050]

Propably it's not the right place to put it out but I am so in to purchase the Cranborne Audio 500R8 with some of that mic pres the company produces but still I am so obssesed with Neve things like with his amazing eQ and stuff. Also there is that thing really an Audio interface? What about drivers? So many companies dissapoint us after some years with not updating or not providing any drivers. I don't kow I may just need to get bombarded with people reviews and stuff.Why don't you hand your machines to people to get some refferences.

[@cranborneaudio]

Hi Pau! Thank you for your message and for getting in contact with us! There's no doubt that there are some great sounding preamps out there from tons of manufacturers! The beauty of the 500 series is that there is so much choice and the cost of the units are considerably less than their rack-mount counter parts. A 1073 style preamp will sound excellent on some sources, but those same aspects that make it sound great can also make it sound bad on other sources. Camden 500 is so clean that it essentially 'gets out of the way' and lets the mic and source do the talking. You'd be surprised at how 'good' a clean preamp can sound on some sources that you may not necessarily pair with a 'clean' preamp. But on that same token, some sources need that extra bit of 'vintage'. The 1073 has 'that' by design, we have 'that' on a variable control that can be dialled to taste. . The 500R8 is a very high-end audio interface. It features extremely high-end conversion (121/127dB dynamic Range, -112/-118dB THD+N), a reference quality clock (

[@thaexception3406]

@@cranborneaudio great response and I just got mine well the 500 ADAT last week!

[@cranborneaudio]

@@thaexception3406 Fantastic! Hope you enjoy your 500ADAT, welcome to the Cranborne Audio family!

[@fdschuler7863]

You're talking about a 10hz to 200k frequency response while sitting in front of a pair of NS10s! Ha!

[@user-cq9my5ju6k]

Is it class D ?

[@cranborneaudio]

Hi @coca cola, thanks for your question. Camden 500's preamp is Class A, but its output is Class A/B. Hope that helps!

[@EASki]

@@cranborneaudio how can I direct contact you.

[@zvotaisvfi8678]

"Cleanest and most transparent mic preamp" ... is transformerless.. 😂😂😂😂😂 thats precious that you think that though

[@cranborneaudio]

Hey @zvotaisvfi8678 , thanks for your comment. Actually, all of the most transparent preamps in the world are transformerless, units like the Forssell SMP-2b, Earthworks 1024, Grace Designs M101 and of course, our Camden range. This is because by their nature, transformers introduce harmonic distortion, which of course can be pleasing and characterful if designed and integrated properly, but are certainly not an indicator of a clean or transparent preamp. We've covered this topic in our Blog topic here, which we would encourage you (and everyone) to take a look at: www.cranborne-audio.com/knowledge/why_is_camden_transformerless?A%2F%2Fwww.cranborne-audio.com%2Fknowledge