Audient ASP008 vs mackie onyx? General preamp advice

[joe945]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy either a desk or bank of pre-amps, mainly for drum recording, or possibly recording the whole back-line of bands if i can get enough decent ones for the money.

I was looking at the mackie onyx 1640 w/firewire card but have had the audient ASP008 pre's recommended by a friend who works in a big studio.

Any advice would be much appreciated..my budget is about 1500 pounds, i use a motu 828mk2 so could run the analogue outs from the audient into that, although more than 8 or 10 inputs into my DAW would be nice.

cheers.

[Jbassist]

I use the ASP008 and i have been nothing but happy with it realy, awesome on toms /kick/overheads!

Highly recommended, i know george necola from here uses it too, he could tell some more about it too

But then again i haven't used the mackie yet!

[andrewj]

saw the 008 in many studios where the people cared for soundquality! heard them myself some times. very nice on a lot of signals! not for coloring, but for a transparent and clare recording there is not much that you might use instead of the audients!

Big recmd. for it!

[joe945]

Thanks for your thoughts..

If i was to go for the audient pre's, which as you say are very clean (which is cool), i'd still have about 500-700 pounds left over from my pre-amp budget. If i was to spend that on some pre's that are more coloured so i've got different options, what would you guys recommend?

I know you can spend 2k on 1 pre quite easily, but any suggestions for what i could get with what's left over would be great. I've got a tla 5051mk2 that i currently use on vocals & guitars ect..

Cheers!

[Damian Taylor]

As ever, check out seventh circle audio.

Nice one,

D

[andrewj]

600 bucks bring you to the Groove Tubes brick. Often used as a bass DI this unit is also nice for some Microphone PreAmping. Real tubey sound! Mhhh tasty!

For about 800 you will get a single PACIFICA Pre from A-Designs. It is very famous for it's real nice colour.

Audient Black MicPre seems to spend a lot of colour, too! Have not heard it so far (700).

For $800,00 you are the lucky owner of Shadow Hills Mono GAMA Mic Pre! Text from Vintage King Audio: Single channel vertical module version of Gama 8, fits in any API 500 series rack or console slot. 60DB gain range: reverse audio taper pot (stepped pot and St. Ives transformer options are not available as on GAMA 8), 3 transformer positions: Nickel, Discrete, Steel, Phase reverse, PAD, 1/4" DI, bakelight knobs, Illuminated display, discrete Class A/B. Runs on the 16v API power source. These are not hot swappable.

If you would wait until you can spend 1k I would recommend the the Chandler Germanium Pres! This is much colour in a really exciting way!

Also for about 1K or 1300 dollars you will get single channel pres of Great River or (and that is ma personal hero) Brent Averill! These units give you a damn sexy nevish colour. The Great River a bit more modern and the Averill a bit more vintage as far as I have heard! Okay this is nearly twice the price you wanted to pay! But worthy!

I do not know where your way goes to, but if you want a mixed system with different flavours, I would buy a rackmount for the monomodulten available today and buy defferent Pres! At first you will not come to eight channels, but in the end it will give you a real nice setup! Think about a rack with two SSLs, two Brent Averills, two Shadow Hills and two other units! Sexy!

Good luck on your search!

[joe945]

Thanks so much for all your suggestions..i'll be looking into it in great detail (as always!)..i'll also check out the seventh circle stuff, although my soldering skills don't go much past fixing the input on my musicman bass everythime it packs in 30 minutes before a soundcheck for an imprtant gig..it's a swine but i love it really!!

Also, as i'm looking to buy in sterling i might be able to get something decent for my 600 quid!

Cheers.