I have Apogee Duet, Will a (budget) pre-amp help

[tonymead]

Hi.

I have just bought an Apogee Duet and wondered if buying a budget preamp (less than £200) would benefit me or are the Pres on the Duet as good as anything in that price range.

Mics used are SE 2000A, Rode M3, SM57,58

just gauging opinion here, would consider character or neutral.

Thanks a lot,

Tony Mead

[Lee Cardan]

I would imagine that the pres in the apogee are far better than anything in that price range

[papa8706]

i agree, the apogee's pres are prob. better. Might be worth checking out some better mics in that price range depending on what kind of recording your doing.

[JPeters86]

Not to hijack, but I have a similar question. I use a MOTU 8pre for most "large" recordings, and I also use it for my own work, which is basically stacking tracks (not more than two simultaneous record-arm tracks at a time). Will a Duet improve my recordings? I've read that most people are stunned by the quality of the AD/DA converters when hooking up an Apogee piece. No experience myself though.

[Toro]

better mics seem to be the trend since preamps are getting cheaper and better sounding

[ohmicide]

i don't think you'll hear a very noticeable difference

[Draw the Moral]

So here's a similar question along those lines.

Do you think an ART MPA Gold will be an improvement, or at least a different character of sound for a duet?

Or is one of those things where I'm going to need to spend at least $800 or more to get a noticable improvement?

[SANDS]

I use the duet for just about everything. I also use a Neve pre along with the Duet. Being able to come in +4 was the main reason I bought the Duet. The pre's on the Duet are great, they work for just about everything. I use the Neve on my kick a lot and vocals, other than that it's mostly the Duet pre's for everything else.

I have used the 896hd and the 8 pre quite a bit, mostly on drums. My buddy Mark owns both and we have tracked drums using all three, trying to find the best solution for drums with what we have.

Here is what we found. The Duet sounds the best by far both ad, da and the preamps. The 896 falls behind in second and the 8pre is pretty much horrible. That is actually a piece I wrote on the "worst equipment post or what ever it was called here on Gearslutz. It is amazing the night and day difference between the 896 pres and the 8pre, not a huge gap between the 896 and the Duet but still noticable.

Hope that helps.

[Draw the Moral]

Yeah. I've found the pre's on the duet to be absolutely excellent.

At this point, I'm thinking a good microphone is going to be money better spent.

[SANDS]

Originally Posted by Draw the Moral

Yeah. I've found the pre's on the duet to be absolutely excellent.

At this point, I'm thinking a good microphone is going to be money better spent.

Yes, do that. With a good mic you can't go wrong, the ad/da will always change, you have good ad/da/pres with the Duet,