Affordable mic preamp with a lot of gain?

Processaurus

Out of curiosity, what mics are you using, and what are you recording that needs that much gain? How much headroom do you leave on the meters when you record? I built a nice API clone preamp, and it is a good piece of gear, but it only made a night and day difference, vs a regular interface/mixer preamp, with unusually low gain mics, like ribbons, and the sm7. Condenser mics seem to have higher output than dynamic mics, i'm surprised you need the high gain, unless you're recording very soft or distant sounds.

I think a chinese Neve clone, like the Golden Age Project Pre73 could be a good way to go, they have a nice transformer input and get 80dB of clean gain. The API clones (like the Warm Audio WA12) have transformer inputs and more than 70dB of gain. Those kind of transformer based preamps are quieter with the power supply separate from the rack unit- the audio transformers can tend to hum from proximity to the power transformer, when you get into cranking the gain.

Telefunky

Richard doesn't need the amount of gain for his (mainly) condensor mics, which wouldn't even work because such mics have relatively high self-noise.
He want's clean gain to achieve loud monitoring, which seems difficult on the Scarlett.

Golden Age is a Swedish company, not Chinese
Their recent Pre-73 with Carnhill transformers is an excellent piece of gear if you want Neve sound for a low charge.

If Audient with IOS, then I'd go with the 4 channel Version ID44 - it's the only model that saves it's settings onboard. This doesn't matter for the smaller ID4 and ID14, which feature the same input stages, and are used as straight in/out channels mostly.
The ID44 is about the same price I paid for the ID22 some years ago, but comes with twice the outputs. It's a reasonable device for a full studio setup with great monitoring.

richardyot

@Processaurus said:
Out of curiosity, what mics are you using, and what are you recording that needs that much gain? How much headroom do you leave on the meters when you record?

What started this for me was that I'm doing some voice recording for a training company and so they have sent me a Sound Devices USB Pre2 to do the recording with. So out of curiosity I compared this piece of gear with my Scarlett 2i4, and it was immediately apparent that the Sound Devices preamp can deliver a lot more clean gain than Scarlett, even with condenser microphones.

Just to recap on my previous posts, this image shows the maximum clean gain I can get with the Scarlett and an Oktava 319 (top) vs the Sound Devices with the same mic (bottom), the recording is voice and guitar on one mic:

The difference is huge, and this means that with the more powerful and cleaner pre-amp I can monitor much more effectively when recording vocals, because I have a clean and quiet signal in the headphones. In order to monitor effectively with the Scarlett I need to have the direct monitor volume on maximum and then add some additional gain from the DAW, and the resulting sound in the cans is hissy and noisy (even if the recording itself is clean). That additional noise in the cans means I often miss cable noise and other glitches because they are masked by the hiss from the electronics, so I end up with corrupted recordings.

None of these problems happen with the Sound Design Pre - the signal is much quieter and louder than the Scarlett. The recordings need less processing, because the gain is already adequate, and the monitoring is much more effective because the signal in the headphones is quiet.

In terms of raw sound quality the final output from the Scarlett (once gain has been added in post) is very similar to the more expensive preamp (the Sound Design Pre is about 4.5 times the price of the Scarlett), but the actual experience of using the equipment is completely different.

klownshed

I would think an external mic pre is the way to go.

I’ve had a TLA tube channel strip for years and it’s so much better than the mic pres in my audio interface it’s not even close. But my interface sound perfectly fine for line level so it’s the best of both worlds.

And mic pres never stop working due to OS updates or have driver issues.

cabo

I bought the Audient iD4 for 127 € just a few days ago and am quite happy with the purchase (and my first desktop recordings with it). It's got a D.I. input for guitars and bass, a decent mic pre-amp and is pretty small. To use it with the iPad you might need a powered USB hub.

Korakios

At 4:30 he starts cranking up the gain.
Super cheap, I'll grub it in next few weeks with a ribbon mic

klownshed

ART Also make a tube pre for under £50

Telefunky

Those aren't tube preamps - they have IC inputs with a tube as a drive stage after it.

DefRobot

@richardyot
I use this one. Record it into GarageBand for the low latency (with guide tracks on other tracks).
Fast and better quality set up than you would think!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00HXE4BYW?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title

nerVe

I agree that 500-series is a great entry into the over 60dB club...there are great kits out there too....

Alctron Rack3 500 Series Rack Chassis 19" w/ MPS-1 Power Supply is the best entry price point i’ve found.
It has a proper power supply which other more expensive chassis do not. And you have up to 3 chassis (9-modules) per power supply.

If you dont want to go the whole module / chasis route;
The warmaudio WA273 is pretty ridiculous for the price!
https://warmaudio.com/mic-pre-wa273/

Wow, real pro usbc ipad pros without the consumer headphone jack, a thread about gainstaging +70dB on the audiobus forum, an AUv3 looper....pinch me!