tube preamps with Digi 002

[rathbone 53]

Hello, I am using a Digi 002, recording mostly acoustic music with a couple of pretty good mics. A neumann as well as an audio technica condensor.
I'm wondering if a mic preamp would be helpful to me? I've been looking at the Blue Robbie. Also where would it go in my chain? Would it go microphone-mic preamp-mic input on the Digi? Or would you try to bypass the mic input on the Digi board? Perhaps through the optical input
Thanks for any help you can give me.

[aitikin]

I haven't worked with the 002, but I'm pretty sure that there are line ins on it, you would either want to send your mic pre to that or via adat. It's definitely mic - pre - interface. You could still do the pre on the board, but it'd give it a very different (and not necessarily in a good way) sound.

[Joseph Hanna]

Honestly..........

Honestly.......

Really........forget web forum wives tales.

The 002 pre amps are really VERY, VERY, VERY capable. Save your money and practice your mic placement and technique. This takes time (sometimes years), effort, patience and talent. Indeed all the virtues that rushing out and "buying" a new pre-amp doesn't require.

Still in the end the investment in your craft will be FAR more rewarding than spending money in the mis-guided hopes of improving what only time and talent will.

[Kevyn]

Honestly..........

Honestly.......

Really........forget web forum wives tales.

The 002 pre amps are really VERY, VERY, VERY capable. Save your money and practice your mic placement and technique. This takes time (sometimes years), effort, patience and talent. Indeed all the virtues that rushing out and "buying" a new pre-amp doesn't require.

Still in the end the investment in your craft will be FAR more rewarding than spending money in the mis-guided hopes of improving what only time and talent will.


Would you say also that the preamps on a MBox 2 are capable? I ask because I was considering adding an preamp to my system but after reading more and more about digital recording I'm beginning to think it would be better for me to focus more on getting an AD/DA converter or should I consider both?

[Smithcok]

I agree with Joseph Hanna.

Just because Black Lion Audio mods the "00" series (And they do a very fine job), doesn't make the preamps "bad". I think once a few people weren't completely happy with the pre's and converters, literally everyone jumped on the bandwagon and decided that the analog stages (etc) of the units were no good.

Honestly my best sounding album to date was done more than 50% with decent mics and a borrowed 002R (just got my own 003R).

(I'm not knocking anyone) A bad mic placement will screw the sound of any preamp, whether its an avalon or a Behringer.

Now, that being said, having preamps with better clarity or a different color may be desireable in certain situations. I wouldn't personally recommend the Robbie, as I think its overpriced and kind of "bulky" and hard to place (but I'm sure other people have completely the opposite opinion).

Are you actually dissatisfied with the 002's sound, or are you just looking to expand your sonic options?

[aitikin]

Just because Black Lion Audio mods the "00" series (And they do a very fine job), doesn't make the preamps "bad".

.......

(I'm not knocking anyone) A bad mic placement will screw the sound of any preamp, whether its an avalon or a Behringer.

I wouldn't personally recommend the Robbie, as I think its overpriced and kind of "bulky" and hard to place (but I'm sure other people have completely the opposite opinion).

Good points on everything. I have to say that the pres are usable by all means. They're nothing fantastic, but nothing to horribly disappointed in. I prefer my Fireface's Pres and have found a number of things to sound better than them. Doesn't mean I don't use em. In fact, I use them often.

Mic placement is literally the only thing that matters for a lot of things. I do a good amount of live recording and I have had major improvements over my tenure at it. The more I do it, the better I get at. Just keep trying.

The Robbie isn't one I'd buy. Although, for a little while last year Sweetwater had a promotion for buying a specific Blue Mic (can't remember which one right now) and get a Robbie free after rebate, or something like that. Unfortunately, I hadn't started at my summer job until well after the promotion ended so I couldn't get in on it:( . Otherwise I'm pretty sure I'll never invest in one. There's just so many other choices that everyone generally prefers.

[michaelhoddy]

You know, 15 years ago or so, NO ONE was worrying about whether preamps were "usable" or not. The Mackie 8-bus had just come out, all the project studio folks thought it was amazing, and ran off and built studios out of them and ADATs.

The only people who really had anything resembling standalone rackmount preamps were a few high-enders who had parted out old Neve consoles or whatever and racked up the guts.

These days, there are a bunch of folks who would immediately dismiss the preamps in the Mackie as "unusable" and the converters in the ADAT as "horrible." They might even be partly right.
Yet many, many people then made good, even great sounding records using exactly that gear, and we were all very excited to own it.

So that makes me wonder if we've all gotten a bit lazy with this boutique preamp insanity.

Listening to most of the records today, both independent and major-label, I'm not convinced that they sound any better than their relatives 15 years ago, even with all this boutique gear that's now available. So it's apparently not helping us as much as we'd like to think.

The Digi 002 preamps are fine. If one can't make a good-sounding record with them, the issue is not with the Digi 002.

You will get MUCH bigger variances in sound just by moving the mic around, maybe recording in a different room or through a different instrument, than you will by changing preamps. Really. And it costs way less too!

[rathbone 53]

Thank you, thank you. You basically have reinforced my original attitude.
I also believe that mic placement and performance are the main ingredients for a good recording. I have not been dissapointed at all in the mic pres on the 002. I finished my latest cd and have heard nothing but compliments on the overall sound. You could listen to a example from an mp3 on my podcast at http://stevehansonmusic.com/
I think I'll save my money on the blue robbie. And maybe start looking for a U87 or some equivalent mic upgrade.
Thanks again,
Steve
but please keep the thread going!