Pendulem MDP-1 or Great River MP2NV?

[picksail]

Just looking for opinions. Which would you choose and why?

[picksail]

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[hitp]

You may want to contact (email) Fletcher of Mercenary Audio (do a google search) and get his opinion. All depends what you are looking for. We checked out both a year or so ago, we ended up not getting either more for financial reasons than quality. We currently use the Brent Averill 1272 or a Tube Tech MP1A, which are both different sounding pres. We also had APIs which we later sold. I strictly do VO work and Jingles and find the 1272 versatile enough for our needs. Still if I had the cash I'd definitely stock up on the different pres. When you have to buy for 12 rooms in a third world market . . . things get pretty expensive.

To answer your question the MDP-1 comes in two flavors. One with a flat sounding Jensen input transformer (which gives it a nice sound for acoustic guitars and snare drum), or one with a "colored" sounding input transformer (which gives more warmth to vocals). For a little extra you can have one of each transformer put into each channel which is nice for an overdub type studio not concerned with recording anything in stereo. The MDP is tube which adds a bit of softness to the sound yet keeps the clarity. MDP-1 with the "clean" transformer option is probably the killer Acoustic Guitar Preamp. This was different to the Tubetech which is rounder and a bit more "muffled" sounding in comparison. But we use the Tubetech a lot . . . it is great too for certain things.

The Great River "Mercenary Edition" sounds like the Neve 1272 which it was modelled after, but has a tighter low end. It is transistor and has a different intput transformer than the stock 1272. The Great River is not a flat sounding preamp, it thickens the sound of vocals (if that is what you are after). And is tighter in the low mids than the 1272s we use, but again on a voice over that makes it to your TV set the Averill is more than adequate for what I need. . . most of the competitionin our market just use Mackies so we already a step ahead IMO.

In the end it is hard to recommend MDP-1 over the Great River or vice versa. Both color the sound but in different ways. I also did not audition the two at the same time so we never had the luxury of an A/B comparison. I think the Great River was cheaper from my dealer than the MDP. Either way you cannot go wrong with either . . . I am sure this is not the answer you wanted, but it is true. If I had the cash for one, I'd get the MDP with two different input transformers. I think this is more versatile for tracking a variety of instuments and vocals . . . you have a choice. But for straight VO work . . . I'd get the Great River . . . maybe becuase it has that 1272 flavor that I am so biased with. Best is do what I did and rent both to try and then give them your own opinion, that is how we ended up with the Averill in the first place. And remember different pres sound different with different mics. So audition it with the mic you plan to use preferably in your studio.

Both Pres sound a bit better to what we currently use (1272s and MP-1s). But in the end not that much better to warrant a purchase. the 1272 is stock in all of our 12 rooms and and two MP-1s are in the music rooms where a "tube" sound may be needed as an option.

Well just my two cents . . . give the Mercenary people a call, their opinion would probably be different from mine. They carry both brands and maybe they will let you rent both for a weekend to test.

[xl-sander]

a few months ago i was looking for a pre to track either... in the end i decided to buy a dan alexander 1272 clone ( i dont know how it sounds compared to the other 1272 but to me the dan alexander sounds very good. i really use it on every signal i have, from all midi things to vocs or acoustic guitars´. i am very satisfied. i think if you have a 1272 its a matte rof taste which one you prefer. to me the adc is more important!! if you have a worse adc every 1272 wont help you!! i tried the L2 hardware as adc, its beautiful. better than any digidesign mix interface or any rme. havent compared it to apogee or hd interfaces yet! i hope i will be able to upgrade to hd one day and use a 192 i/o and some dan alexanders! the only thing i dislike is that you cannt link the two channels..but i guess thats not a big deal...just my 2 cents

[Haigbabe]

Greetings.

Try these examples.

http://www.3daudioinc.com/cgi-bin/ul...&f=14&t=001128

Best regards,

Haigbabe

[Jules]

Lots uof interesting chatter here about this

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthrea...&threadid=5396