Digi001 preamps good enough for vocals?

[GothicV]

Are they? Me and a friend both have digi001s and are thinking of linking our systems together and having a small studio, maybe make a few bucks. Since my band broke up soon after I bought it, and I haven't had a chance to record with a singer.

[MidnightFlyer]

I don't think so. They're pretty harsh. I would recommend pooling your resources with your friend and getting a better A/D converter and better preamps.

[where02190]

Not in this studio.

Hope this is helpful.

[KamaSutra77]

I'd suggest thatif you honeslty dont know, --dont worry about it. The Digi001 pres are decent. and will serve you fine till your clients start asking for more. Then worry about fancy equipment. In fact as a business tactic being able to coax new and prior clients in with the legitimate claim of improved fidelity and new gear can be an easy upgrade.

If your hellbent on form the get go offering and working with top flight quality gear, then simply consider a HD system with a "pre" and whatever level of proccesing power you'll require.

A notch down (or up depending on who your talking too) is a range of original, refabricated , and custom Pre's in the $700+ range. With $2500-$3500 a good area where there are lot of competing products.

Then there are the Presonus and Octopre contenders for lots of high Q pre's on a working persons budget.

The equipment and desire alone cant prepare you for running a busines though. Good luck!

[GothicV]

yeah, I was thinking of 2 new behringer ada8000's... one to use as analog inputs, and one to link digitally. 24 bit in/out and preamps. I know these are not gonna be wicked presonus or focusrites, but they will do the job. I may also get a preamp dedicated for vocals. Still swaying in the behringer direction... they have some nice looking (hopefully nice sounding) tube pre's. Thought/opinions?

[Basshead3606]

I doubt that the behringer pieces will sound as good as the 001's pres. Just my opinion. I dont really like behringer gear.

[doorknocker]

Originally posted by GothicV:
Still swaying in the behringer direction... they have some nice looking (hopefully nice sounding) tube pre's. Thought/opinions?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Please don't do it.....I use Behringer Headphone Amps, they are a real bargain and they do the job but a preamp is a completely different matter. Even spending just a few hundred bucks on a 'cheapo' preamp like a Behringer is a waste of money: The resale value is roughly about zero. It might sound 'a little bit' better than the 001 pres and that's really not much........ 'Cheap' tube gear sucks, peroid.... It's way better to work on your recording/mixing chops for a while and then get a decent pre.
I speak from experience, when I started out with PT 2 years ago, I immedeately bought an ART PRO MPA tube pre.....it actually sounds quite good, surely much better than the Behringer stuff...but....I recently broke the bank and bought an Universal Audio 6176 channel strip: It's way better than the ART and when you take a closer look ( 2000$ for the 610 tube pre and the 1176 compressor section plus a decent EQ) you'll see that the price isn't that much higher or in other words the ART PRO MPA is way overpriced. (Funny how all the semipro stuff has always the words 'Pro' or 'Professional' attached to its fancy model names) I since tried to sell the ART and guess what...the resale value is really low.
The only option in terms of 'cheap but really good' probably are the RNP and the RNC but since I don't know these units I'll let others recommend them.
Again, wait a bit and get something real like the Universal Audio or Brent Averill stuff, you wont regret it....... [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]


Andi

[narcoman]

Guys,

take it easy. there are plenty of budget studios out there making a small earning using this kind of gear. Cripes, there are hundreds of demo studios that use crappy little behrigner mix desks - but its all demo.

I know everyone here likes all the cool gear - me included - i wouldn't touch behringer stuff but it does do a job and if he's gonna charge ten pounds an hour or whatever then its cool. If thats what his budget allows then so be it.

There ARE plenty of recordings out there recorded on very cheap gear - especially dance music.

About 8 years ago I ran a studio with a behringer mixer in it. Looking back it was awful, but i made an aweful lot of records on it - two of which sold a heck of a lot and went top twenty in the UK.

anyway - the most important piece of gear in the studio is you. Rooms and monitors come next. then probably mixer/plugins you have and maybe somewhere4th or 5th is pre-amps. Now in the best rooms in the world with top dudes doing the work mixing through a euphonix then maybe, just maybe the preamps then become the most important thing. Put stuff in perspecive.


cheers

[doorknocker]

Originally posted by narcoman:

anyway - the most important piece of gear in the studio is you. Rooms and monitors come next. then probably mixer/plugins you have and maybe somewhere4th or 5th is pre-amps. Now in the best rooms in the world with top dudes doing the work mixing through a euphonix then maybe, just maybe the preamps then become the most important thing. Put stuff in perspecive.

cheers

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">You're right but it's not about the preamp being the most important thing...we're talking about wasting money for a piece of crap that claims to be 'great'.... like Behringer Tube gear.
And precisely because so much mediocre stuff is being produced in 20$-per-hour 'studios' you should strive for excellence..... this means working on your skills and keeping an open mind but it also means decent gear.

Andi

[GothicV]

actually, I think I either forgot to tell one of my points, or you guys all missed it entirely lol.


Sinmce there are only 2 mic pre's on the 001, I need to boost up the volume of the other inputs to mic level. A cheap behringer thing fits in my budget, and will boost up the levels. I am not trying to start a pro studio here. I think my short-term goal is to have a studio where locals come in and do a live jam, and get a demo to hand to bar managers and stuff like that.