Daking Mic Pre II 2-channel Microphone Preamp Reviews
The Daking Mic Pre II 2-channel microphone preamp lets you add boutique quality and great sound to your recording setup at a very impressive price. The Class A Mic Pre II features the same discrete transistor circuitry featured in Daking's Mic Pre IV, adding a variable highpass filter for fantastic tonal options. You get per-channel polarity reverse, 20dB pads, phantom power, and selectable 1/4" line/hi-Z input on the front panel. Two aluminum knobs give you control over the variable highpass filter and gain. With its rugged 1RU stainless steel chassis and high-quality parts, the Mic Pre II is built to perform for the long haul.
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As low as $60/month
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Highest Rated Reviews
AWESOMENESS
I am using two of these units, one for kick and snare and the other one for overheads here in my home studio. This is serious stuff!! Clean crisp signal and transparent sound, not just on drums but in bass and guitars as well. This is the best purchase I've made in years.
Great, articulate sounding preamps!
These preamps present a wonderful balance between "warmth" (harmonic distortion) and "punch" (preserving and enhancing transients) and "accuracy" (not muddying up the sound or adding noise). They are incredibly musical and make just about any source sound better than the pres in my interface (which we're not bad to begin with). The HPF is incredibly useful and also very forgiving. If you are thinking about these but not sure if they stand up to bigger brands that cost more, do yourself a solid favor and just get it. You won't regret it!
Great Pres
I love the Trident A Range, and this does an amazing job at giving you that sound. By far the best bang for your buck, and these can be used on anything.
Buy this!
I received my Daking Mic Pre II recently and have been using it on a variety of instruments and it responded well to all of them, clear and present. Of special note, it was fabulous with an AEA R84 on both drums and upright bass. I'm looking forward to trying it on vocals next.
Solid Pro Sound
The Mic Pre II is a great addition to my studio. There is really nothing it doesn't do well with a clear, big sound. The first thing I tried it on was acoustic guitar (A Neuman KM 184 and a Stam SA-87) and I'm never going back to other pres. It was instantly a defined, yet 'rock' sound and I could dial in those crystal highs with the HPF knobs.
Next I tried drum overheads with two ribbons. Here is where I ran into trouble. The gain knobs on this pre don't really grab ribbons until they're turned up to 8 or 9. I thought this was a little weird so I contacted Daking and when I say Daking, I mean Geoff Daking. How great is that? You contact a gear company and get the guy who invented your pre! He had me run some tests and proved that even though you have to crank the pre to grab my ribbons, the self-noise is extremely low. I compared the sound to the ribbons through Cloudlifters and the Mic Pre II sound was much better.
Finally, I recorded vocals with the worst mic I own, a Rode NT 1-A (Sweetwater, don't let me near a review of this mic). Well...it sounded pretty darn good. The Daking somehow smoothed the horrible sibilance and left the big bottom. I would actually consider using this mic with this pre.
It's true, the case is not made of x-ray vision proof lead (thin steel) and it runs warm and it's always on but none of these things matter much to me. Great piece of gear, usual great advice and service from Sweetwater.
Buy This!
I can't tell you how impressed I am with this pre. For the price, just get the **** thing! 2 Channels, the HPF is just great, super useful on everything. One of the best Bass DI's i've used, the low end is just so tight an full. It's a pretty clean pre, but honestly I need at least another one, for the price you can't beat this thing.
Spectacular!
I am always "chasing" different colors and sounds for my home-based recording studio. I own quite a bit of mic pres from Warm Audio, Focusrite and even ART. I am a huge fan of Trident gear and have a history of recording on Trident desks. When I read about this piece of gear and it's "homage" to the Trident A-Range, I absolutely HAD to pull the trigger!
I experimented days later on a country/pop/christian band, using it as my overhead mic pre on the drum kit. One of my mic choices for overheads is a pair of Mojave MA201fet microphones, which in and of themselves sound fantastic! I have to say, the drummer and I were absolutely amazed at how great the kit sounded through the Daking. (He and I have been playing and recording together for almost 30 years.) It is pristine, with a nice "shiny" but smooth top end. The character this mic pre gave to the drum kit is absolutely spectacular!
I have yet to test it on other sources; but if it performs as well as it did on drum overheads, I feel like I definitely have a golden egg here!
