tube mic preamps

[tonejones]

Hey,
Anybody out there ever try running yer live miced signal thru some of these home recording tube mic pres that are out now (ART, PreSonus Blue tube, Behrenger, etc.)?????

If so was wondering what results you had.......this is something that's been running thru my mind for a year or 2 now.........

[Eoin]

I can't imagine it would improve the sound. They certainly don't in my experience.

Bear in mind that most of those are actually hybrid preamps which operate a single valve with filament voltage on the plate. It's a solidstate preamp, basically, but some of the signal passes through a valve with no headroom (and virtually no amplification) to add a small amount of distortion which they'd like you to believe is "valve warmth" and which allows them to stick the word "valve" on the unit by some technicality. It would probably sound the same if you took the valve out and taped it to your guitar.

Spend your money on a good sound engineer instead.

[Billy Batz]

Thats funny. The better ones do use more tube based circuits though. Ive built one before. Some older preamps are all tube. Eric Johnson did that very thing at one point. He used a Neve strip at one point too.

[tonejones]

I know it's probably something like a very expensive Neve, but I remember reading that Mutt Lang used a tube mic pre on some of the 'Back In Black' guitar tracks....revved them up and got some distortion out of 'em to boot.......

After reading that, I'd be willing to bet that the first guitar you hear on 'Shoot to Thrill' is one of them.......

[Eoin]

Of course, there are tons of real valve pres out there, and even a few good hybrids (I have a DBX 386 which is really quite nice). But unfortunately too many people are prepared to buy something simply because it's marketed as containing a valve. The little Art and Behringer units particularly - these are essentially the Marshall Valvestates of recording preamps. A simple thing to look out for is whether it takes an IEC or a 9/12V DC input.

Frankly, even some of the cheaper hybrids aren't that great. I once owned an SPL Goldmike which I have to admit was disappointingly indistinguishable from the preamps on my behringer mixer.