Heritage Audio Lang 312L 500 Series Microphone Preamp B-stock

Name: Heritage Audio Lang 312L 500 Series Microphone Preamp
Brand: Heritage Audio
Rating: 4.5 (5 reviews)

500 Series Microphone Preamp/DI Module with Built-in +25dB Lifter, +48V Phantom Power, -20dB Pad, and Phase Button

Write your review

Item ID: 312LB

Heritage Audio Lang 312L 500 Series Microphone Preamp

B-stock Savings!

Save $52.35 when you buy B-stock! What is B-stock?

The price below reflects your savings.

B-stock Savings:

.35

New for $349.00

Condition Notes:

Sweetwater's B-stock equipment is subjected to the same standards as a brand new piece of gear and comes with Sweetwater's Total Confidence Coverage™ exclusive FREE 2-year warranty. The images shown do not necessarily represent the condition of this particular item.

Only 1 Left!

Add to Cart

Ask An Expert

Our expertly trained Sales Engineers are ready to help!

(800) 222-4700

What is a Sales Engineer?

Have one to sell?
Check out Sweetwater's Gear Exchange!
Learn More

Heritage Audio Lang 312L 500 Series Microphone Preamp

Only 1 Left!

Add to Cart

Add to list

Most Popular Accessories & Related Items

Back to navigation

This article was Written By

Our Product Research Team

Get to know them!

Packed with 90dB of New York Muscle

The Heritage Audio Lang 312L thrusts 90dB of American-flavored gain into a convenient 500 Series module. This mic preamp boasts low internal noise, a lightning-fast response, and an outstanding dynamic range. Furthermore, Heritage's custom-made HA-880 op-amp, combined with Lang and CineMag transformers, provides enough New York muscle to propel your productions straight into the big leagues. Engineers with a penchant for vintage ribbons and broadcast-style dynamics will appreciate the 312L’s built-in lifter, which supplies you with an additional 25dB of gain — no external booster required. You also get +48-volt phantom power, a -20dB pad, and a Phase button. Furthermore, the 312L brandishes a combo input that accommodates XLR and TS connectors, enabling it to tackle microphones and DI-d sources with equal aplomb. Anyone searching for a do-it-all preamp that works flawlessly with any mic you plug into it will be eminently satisfied with the classic American sound of Heritage Audio’s Lang 312L.

Built-in +25dB gain boost

Most studios have at least one vintage ribbon or broadcast-style dynamic in their mic locker. Best practices dictate that you pair these gain-hungry mics with an external booster or lifter to ensure maximum output and minimal noise — unless you have a Lang 312L in your 500 Series rack, that is. Bursting with gain, the 312L is equipped with a built-in lifter, providing you with an extra 25dB of gain whenever you need it. With +48-volt phantom power and 90dB of maximum gain on tap, the 312L will coax the best performance possible out of every mic in your arsenal.

Superb results, no matter the source

Thanks to its low internal noise and impressively fast response, Heritage Audio Lang 312L delivers a clean, dynamic sound that’s sure to elevate the sound of every mic you plug into it. This outstanding 500 Series module houses Heritage’s custom-made HA-880 op-amp and transformer-balanced I/O with a 2622 Lang transformer on the input and a US-made CineMag on the output. We’ve used the 312L with modern condensers, vintage ribbons, and a bevy of DI-ed sources here at Sweetwater, and we achieved stellar results across the board. No matter what you plug into it, it’s a sure bet that the Lang 312L will reveal details that you never knew existed.

Heritage Audio Lang 312L Features:

American-flavored 500 Series microphone preamp/DI module
Houses Heritage's custom-made HA-880 op-amp
Transformer-balanced I/O with a 2622 Lang transformer on the input and a US-made CineMag on the output
90dB of maximum gain ensures maximum performance with every mic in your arsenal
Built-in lifter supplies a +25dB gain boost for vintage ribbons and broadcast-style dynamics
+48V phantom power for condenser microphones
-20dB pad tackles extra-loud sources with ease
Phase button reverses your polarity
Combo input accommodates both XLR and TS connectors

What is B-stock?

B-stock gear is inventory we buy directly from the manufacturer. Most typically, these items are repacks or refurbished units that are in perfect working order. If you are on a budget or don't need the shiny new penny in your arsenal, then B-stock items are a great choice that won't compromise on quality. Best of all, every B-stock item we sell also comes with Sweetwater's exclusive 2-year Warranty, so you can create with confidence.

When you buy a B-stock item at Sweetwater, you get:

Sweetwater's exclusive 2-year Warranty!
Products inspected and tested by factory-authorized techs, guaranteed to function like new (or better)!
FREE shipping on most items
Expert Product Support from a dedicated team

Resources

500 Series Buying Guide

Signal Processing Buying Guide

Warranty Info

Sweetwater's FREE 2-Year Total Confidence Coverage Warranty

Extra peace of mind at no extra cost.

Save money with FREE parts and labor
Get back to making music with the industry's fastest turnaround time
Fix it the first time with our award-winning, factory-certified Service Department

Learn More about Total Confidence Coverage

Back to navigation

Tech Specs

Preamp Type: Solid State
Number of Channels: 1
Frequency Response: 20Hz-22kHz
Phantom Power: Yes
Pads: -20dB
Polarity Switch: Yes
Analog Inputs: 1 x XLR-1/4" combo
Features: Built in Lifter
Manufacturer Part Number: 312L B

What Makes Our Sales Engineers Great?

Sweetwater Sales Engineers are a world-class team of experts dedicated to you. Hand selected from across the globe, each brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the world of music gear to provide you with unparalleled service completely free of charge. Friendly relationships, real trust, and the right gear are only a call or a click away!

(800) 222-4700

Contact Your Sales Engineer

Back to navigation

This preamp has a DI that is truly hi-impedance: greater than 2 Meg ohm. It will easily accomodate a peizo pickup or the output of a regular guitar and not be compromising the sound due to impedance issues.

For the cash outlay this preamp sounds very good, it is highly functional, and it is very useful.

I found the most underrated and underpriced preamp! Whats it sound like?

Punchy. Crunchy. Thumpy. Chunky. But if i hade to sum it up in one word: present. It makes the tone sound like its being beamed directly into your ear drum but in a pleasing and musical way. I wanted something api flavor. The 512c and v were more than i felt like spending, and every knows the warm wa12 and has an opinion. Since im an an unknown, i took a risk on a fellow underdog and i dont regret. I dont have detailed knowledge of the 512, but this sounds so good that im not actually worried at all.

Before i get to the shoot out, a few tips: theres no clip light so you gotta use your ears to find the sweet spot. Theres also no output knob so i grabbed a rolls ilc19 to get a separate output volume and I highly recommend it.

Okay as for initial tests, i shot it out with the great river 500, the fredenstein artistic se 500, and the built in pres on the allen heath cq18t. Tracked bass, vocals, kick, snare, floor tom, and hihat. The fredenstein didnt win on any of them so we can skip that. On the hihat, the 312 sounded good, but the great river rounded it out and took away the harshness so the gr won on hats. It didnt win on a single other drum. The 312 blew it out of the water on every other drum despite being less than half the price. The allen heath was more neck and neck on drums with the great river and i almost preferred the ah pres, but neither were in sniffing distance of the punch and thwap of the 312.

On bass, all of them except the fred sounded very close but i opted for the 312. Its low mids were just a slight bit more present and dense.

On vocals, the great river and 312 sound so radically different that its hard to say. The great river has more information and detail in the mids but thats not always a good thing. It can contribute to some muddiness or boxiness if you arent careful and can also make it trickier to sit in a mix. The 312 sounded perfect like the vocals were going directly into my skull. If it were a singner on anything aggressive, or a rapper, or a screamer, id reach for the 312. If its anything acoustic or smoother or less aggressive or that hi fi lil baby rap sound, id go for the great river. I repeat. This 350 preamp has scenarios that it overtakes an 800 preamp on VOCALS. That is insane.

I know the subtext of this ended up being that the cq18t is incredible and has great built in pres, but to reign it in and sum it up, the 312 is my new go to. With my last two 500 slots, i was going to get the chandler germ pre and the neve 1073 at some point, but now i kinda wanna get another 312 and im considering selling my fred to free up space and make it happen

I want to add some new info after owning and using the 312L for about a year….

I stand by what I wrote previously with the front panel input socket and the lack of an out put pad and the crazy amount of available gain…. OK, fine.

But at the end of the day, this really is a good delivery of the API-style sound at a reasonable cost. And to that point, I will soon have three of these in my 500 series chassis, so I wanted to make sure there is no doubt of my in practice opinion of this preamp. It is for sure good enough that I bought it three times. That is a real endorsement.

And to conclude…. I built myself pads for the outputs of these preamps. I picked up XLR male to XLR female barrel connectors and loaded them with H-pad resistor networks to pad the output of each preamp. I settled on -8 dB for my purposes… my line level input interface also has +15/ -15 dB level controls, so that gives me potentially -23 dB of pad on the output of the preamp, which is PLENTY on flex on pushing the circuit and saturating the transformers. I am able to use this workaround to arrive at the 'sound' and function I expect from an API-style preamp, so mission accomplished.

And in case I did not mention it here, I was in touch with Heritage Audio and they confirmed that yes, the lowest gain setting on the variable input gain control is pretty high compared to other preamps. Their intent is that we should be using the pad on the input to lower the gain on the incoming signal if it is too hot. Their claim is the input pad is transparent and can be used without penalty… to date it seems to be the case.

This is a good preamp. And I endorse it x3. : )

The Heritage Audio Lang 312L is a good delivery of the API sound, generally speaking. It compares well on a lot of set ups with my C A P I VP 312, which is a high mark to meet. There are some good things about this preamp and there are some places where it does not quite hit the mark for me, but I still find it as a useful tool. Read on for more details....

The good stuff: it delivers upon the promise of the input transformer / Discrete Opamp / steel core output transformer design that the API-style preamps were built upon. It is using API-standard plug in format for the discrete opamp, which is very cool because you can swap out the Heritage designed and supplied opamp for something different if you ever decide to do that. The price is certainly VERY nice and for the price, Heritage did not cut corners on some important components like the input and out transformers, so that is all a total win.

Some in-between things that you may not care about but maybe you will: Heritage Audio was able to achieve the very good price of this preamp by in large part populating the circuit board with surface mount components. You will not really be able to mod this board, but most people would never want to anyway. It makes for a difficult circuit board to repair if any components fail, so there is that issue for the future if you really care. The gain potentiometer is a continuous control rather than a stepped switch---some people prefer one over the other so it is maybe good to know what you are getting going into the purchase. And there is the odd front panel combo jack for inputting either the microphone or a DI signal into the Lang 312L versus going into the the 500 series chassis.

The caveats / bad stuff (from my perspective)... Regarding the front panel input combo jack / D.I.: I wish it was not there. I do NOT need another direct input and I compared this to my Radial DI boxes and this one sounds a little different but not better, just different. I wish this circuit board real estate was instead populated with an output level control, preferably one implemented as a continuously controlled pad AFTER the output transformer, to enable users the ability to push the signal harder and potentially saturate the output transformer. And speaking of pushing the signal harder... the lowest setting on the variable gain input control is actually pretty hot. For condenser mics that do not need a lot og gain, you will find yourself engaging the pad which is just a bummer because engaging the pad is NOT the same thing as lowering the gain level as it introduces a resistor network into the circuit. In my testing with the Lang 312L, I seldom found myself turning the gain control up past its lowest setting. The marketing pitch on this preamp is its massive availability of gain, which it for sure has, but I can't EVER seeing me using any of it---not with my dynamic mics, not with my ribbon mics and for sure not with my condenser mics. It may seem crazy for me to say, but this preamp has too much available gain and I wish the gain pot started at a lower setting. By my estimates, comparing the same mic + source with multiple other well built preamps, the starting gain on the Lang 312L (at its lowest setting, no pad engaged) must be somewhere around 30 ~ 34 dB, which is pretty hot.... I wish it started at something more useful like 10 ~ 15 dB so when one engaged the pad it would actually be at o dB of gain. Because of this hot amplification, it is difficult to manage the gain setting. And unless you have some sort of way to control gain staging further down the signal chain (for example, I can LOWER the line level input on the interface this goes into, thus receiving a signal less than 0dB at line level) you will have difficulty pushing the circuit to saturate the output transformer. It can be done with gain staging but there are no appropriate tools on the preamp itself to accomplish this task.

I plan on owning a pair of these and stopping at that number. They will be relegated to use exclusively with dynamic and ribbon microphones. My condenser mics are simply running too hot when amplified at the lowest setting on the Lang 312L, which is unfortunate. And the lack of a method to control the signal after the output transformer is an unfortunate missing feature on this preamp---I wish Heritage Audio would have pulled the DI on the front of the unit and instead built a pad on the output after the transformer into this circuit... Maybe I can do some workaround to drop a pad into the circuit, but that is some extra fussing I am not sure I want to bother wih.

Overall, this is a solid performer. If you mostly use dynamic mics and / or ribbon mics, this is a good solution for you to achieve the API-sound. If you mainly use condenser mics and are never concerned about how much gain you have available from your preamps, you will probably not be happy with this version of the API-style preamps that are available. Choose with care.

BTW---I think the 'color' from this preamp is similar to other API-style preamps I have used and heard and that I own. I think it is a good delivery of that sound. If you do not like this 'color' you probably will not be happy with any other API-style preamps.

Lots of gain, clean and simple layout, but beefed up the low mids too much for my liking. The sound characteristics of the pre is the only reason for the 4 star rating.

See also: 500 Series Pre, Heritage Audio, Heritage Audio 500 Series Preamps