preamp / signal chain advice

[songman0412]

Hello, Can anyone recommend an inexpensive outboard preamp and compressor for the digi002 rack? I was looking at the ART preamps and wondered if anyone could offer any feedback from experience.

Also, does anyone use outboard compressors before connecting into the 002, and if so what do you use?

Thanks for any advice.

[sw rec]

My mic chain looks like this:

AKG Solid Tube
Joe Meek VC1Q (the older Ted Fletcher model, always find em on Ebay!)
BBE 882 Maximizer
(This makes a killer bass DI as well, although I have a Meek VC6Q/BBE 882 for that)
Those Meek compressors will compress the crap out of your signal if that's what you're looking for,
but like the Millenia Ad says "There's no "undo" on your mic preamp".......better to use it for gentle limiting and use your PT plugins if you want to get drastic.

[Obsidian Dragon]

This depends on what price range you are looking at. Also how you intend to connect it to your 002R makes a difference. If you are looking to connect it via one of the four line in ports (inputs 5-8), you can go with the Presonus TubePre for about $99.00. I think it sounds better than the ones from ART. There are tons of better mic pres but you mentioned inexpensive. If you go with the optical ADAT port you can get 8 channels of mic pres for less per channel by using like a Presonus DigiMax LT or DgiMax FS, Focusrite Octapre, or M-Audio Octane, but since these come with 8 channels, the total price is higher than just one channel. I personally avoid equipment from Behringer but they're cheap.