Advice on pre amp purchase

[tonyharp]

Hey folks,

Sorry for cross-posting but I am wanting as many opinions as I can.

I am shopping for pre-amps for the front end of my DAW. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I am considering the following options. If you have any other suggestions please let me know.

1)Aardvark Q10s
2)PreSonus Digimax LT
3)Terratec

Thanks a bunch,
Tony
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[H-man]

T-Harp, looks like you have a little cash to spend, but definitely take a look at the Focusrite stuff. I didn't have as much to spend as you do, so I ended up getting the Focusrite Penta preamp/stereo compressor and it rocks. I definitely heard a tighter and punchier sound using it (di for bass, much fuller and warmer vocals w/ AT 4033 and even sm57 for my scratch vocals, great on mic'ed Marshall cab with 57, and nice on my Classical guitar w/ 4033). Check out the the octepre the Focusrite 8 channel pre. I got the Penta from all the good reviews here on the DUC. Best part was I called Sweetwater to get it, and they had just gotten one returned from a guy that used it for about a week and it only cost me 250 instead of 400, so check around, you never know what you may come across . Good luck.

[J. FO]

definitely would say that if you have the money for a digimax, get a focusrite octopre instead. focusrite pre's are better (to me) than presonus. plus with the octopre, you can get comp. and limiting on each channel, probably pretty handy for tracking drums.

[Bloux]

Originally posted by J. FO:
definitely would say that if you have the money for a digimax, get a focusrite octopre instead. focusrite pre's are better (to me) than presonus. plus with the octopre, you can get comp. and limiting on each channel, probably pretty handy for tracking drums.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">J.Fo,

I'm researching my next purchase, either an octopre or a Digimax (not the Digimax LT)

the digimax indeed has great pres, comp/limiter per channel as well as a notch EQ per channel. (a feature the octopre does not have) probably even more handy when tracking drums. (which I will be doing)

I'm going to try and hear them back to back next. see which one sounds better to me.

[Bloux]

Tony,

this is a brand new piece that is being released this month. it looks great!

I have a friend who has the origianal voice master
and he loves it. similar to the Penta and the track master which are all Focusrite Platnumn series.

but check this beast out, it looks pretty smokin. I havent heard any reviews or users yet, so you might want to keep it in mind. I'm keepin an eye out as well. (after my Digimax or Octopre purchase, I will be tracking drums here very soon need all those extra pre's) I'll be looking to upgrade my dbx 376 tube channel strip for vocals, maybe the voicemaster PRO??

its called the Voice Master PRO click on it!

good luck

[gabriel_p]

Bloux, the VoiceMaster pro looks great, but I've heard some people here at the DUC say that the Platinum lines of Focusrite Pres is not very good. I don't really know about that beeing true, I just wanted you to know something I've heard, so really try to listen before you buy.