Favorite PreAmp for Synth

[Oli]

Anyone feel like posting some audio examples, with/without pre/DI? I've hardly used pres at all, and would love to hear some examples of what they can bring to the party.

[schmuck]

Synths can do such a wide variety of sounds it is really hard to say that one preamp is "best" IMO. Also, generally, if not driven too hard, preamps tend (or should) be rather neutral.

What I noticed:
- api is great on anything, stays relatively neutral, and takes overload best with non-bass stuff
- neve-like (BAE & Nice DI here) take bass overload a bit better
- tube pre (sebatron with coloured mullard and more clear german tubes) is fantastic on TB303 ; also it gives some "clarity" (maybe it is just the noise floor? ;-); too much overload = things fall apart in a bad way
- drum machines sound great through ANY of my preamps when slightly overloaded

If I could have only one it would be the api, because of the added sends & mixbus that can be driven (so functionality counts in here).

The most special is the tube pre and that one also made the biggest difference when using a JDI as compared to the preamp DI. So I think a DI per se is not always adding too much (it is great at killing hum of course but pure tone...in my experience it depends on the DI of the pre).

What i did notice is that furhter processing in the DAW seemed to sound really good after I started using pre's, but maybe that is placebo.

What sounds are you interested in to compare (besides a TB which I decided I want to do a nerdy comparison now anyways)?

[DanGo]

Thanks, Schmuck (boy, that feels a little disrespectful to use your user name!). I wasn't asking about "best"-- just what you like (which you gave me in useful detail!). I have a project in mind and want to get a bead on what synth users like...

[schmuck]

Ok I run the TB through everything that can record in my studio.

Due to the relatively low output, I could not "drive" all the preamps the same. Especially on the clean versions of the seb, there is a lot of noise - obviously for a "real" recording proper gain-staging had to be applied.

I only removed DC-offset and then aligned volume by ear. This is not a scientific test. Soundcloud has 44/24 files.

I think my choice of the TB was not too great - there are no earth shattering differencies IMO. Surely the mullard tubes stand out. The overstayer instrument driver offers a lot of tones, too. Anyway, for other stuff differencies are bigger for sure, but it is nothing to loose sleep over I think...

Gear notes: the "chandler" files are not a germanium preamp, but the tone control EQ (with EQ sections disabled). The "aurora" file is the compressor, not preamp (but I always find it so nice sounding so I added it). Converters: SSL Alphalink.

Not sure if anybody can bear the same bassline 500 times...but anyway, here they are.

[DanGo]

Thanks! That was really helpful, actually, regardless of whether it was scientific. You're right, the Sebatron with the tubes was the standout, at least for the TB... I liked the clean Mullard and the driven German tube sounds the best. They kind of tightened up the bottom, gave it some punch and added some nice harmonics to make the mids and highs a bit more exciting. At least that was my take on it...