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prslespaul · 9th April 2009

I dont think the MPA Gold Pres are a huge step up from the Focusrite ones. It would not sound any better or worse.. More like "different". Just different characteristics. I suggest just buying 1 great Pre to start out with and run everything you have through it. You can pick up a Chameleon Labs Pre for under 500 dollars on Ebay. It has an all discrete design with a balanced IN/Out Transformer design. The EQs are the best of all. There are a lot of good pres out there. But I will tell you from experiance, a Pre isnt going to make your recording. You do. It just helps to have a good Pre. Great River, Neve, API, John Hardy, it doesnt matter. Its the engineer who makes the recording. After years of experiance i am sure i could make a MPA Gold sound better then what a less experianced person can do with a Great River. The Chameleon Labs is one of the better budget Pres ive worked with. Very musical. If you want to do a little soldering, the Yamaha PM1000 modules blow the MPA Gold out of the water IMO. Although the EQ in that is no where near as musical as the Chameleon Labs. Well let us know what you decide to do.

9th April 2009	#84
prslespaul Gear maniac Joined: Oct 2008 Location: St. Louis Posts: 189 Thread Starter	I dont think the MPA Gold Pres are a huge step up from the Focusrite ones. It would not sound any better or worse.. More like "different". Just different characteristics. I suggest just buying 1 great Pre to start out with and run everything you have through it. You can pick up a Chameleon Labs Pre for under 500 dollars on Ebay. It has an all discrete design with a balanced IN/Out Transformer design. The EQs are the best of all. There are a lot of good pres out there. But I will tell you from experiance, a Pre isnt going to make your recording. You do. It just helps to have a good Pre. Great River, Neve, API, John Hardy, it doesnt matter. Its the engineer who makes the recording. After years of experiance i am sure i could make a MPA Gold sound better then what a less experianced person can do with a Great River. The Chameleon Labs is one of the better budget Pres ive worked with. Very musical. If you want to do a little soldering, the Yamaha PM1000 modules blow the MPA Gold out of the water IMO. Although the EQ in that is no where near as musical as the Chameleon Labs. Well let us know what you decide to do.