Any vendors or Gearslutz want their 500 series pre in our shootout?

[James Lugo]

People have been asking for a 500 series shootout so we're gonna do it in a week or so. Pres that are at the studio:

Avedis Audio MA5 (the original prototype, it's orange, groovy baby!)
A Design Blue
A Design Red
LaChapell 583 s (Telefunken tubes/Jensen)
Buzz Elixer

I can get a BAE, API.

Waiting on Dave Pearlman to finish building a TM-1 we are going to use. If anyone wants their pre included post on this thread and PM me. Vendors and gearslutz welcome. I may throw a small imprompto party one night in the 2 weeks but I'm not sure.

Post if you want your stuff featured and post if there's something you want to hear.

[NathanEldred]

James, thanks for including the Elixir, I'm glad you liked it (and thanks for the kind words on the forum too). I'd like to include the Atlas Juggernaut, but only have the production prototype which won't be available for at least a couple of weeks since it's currently being used. The full run of Juggernauts will ship around April 8th. Do you think you could fit it in? Thanks!!

[James Lugo]

Nathan,

I'm pretty slammed for the next week or so, so let's talk over next weekend and see where your pre is at.

[Kronos147]

I would love to bring some VSI MX-1's!!!

I would love to hear the Avedis Audio MA5, LaChapell 583 s, and Buzz Elixer too!

Eric

[futur2]

great idea james! but better wait and try to include a serious amount of the available pres in the shootout. this could be a reference thread for a long while...

shadow hills, vintage design, great river and germanium, api and bae should be in it. an a designs p1 is a must! i'd love to hear the new burl and the jlm pres too! roll and atlas would be great if available. al.so and bizzar would also be nice, since they seem to be the only transparent ones together with the elixir. but i fear those will be harder to supply. i try to write a message to the guys making them. maybe it's possible?

also osa pres would be interesting to include because even if they are not so popular they are the lowest-cost available.

[futur2]

Originally Posted by futur2

great idea james! but better wait and try to include a serious amount of the available pres in the shootout. this could be a reference thread for a long while...

shadow hills, vintage design, great river and germanium, api and bae should be in it. an a designs p1 is a must! i'd love to hear the new burl and the jlm pres too! roll and atlas would be great if available. al.so and bizzar would also be nice, since they seem to be the only transparent ones together with the elixir. but i fear those will be harder to supply. i try to write a message to the guys making them. maybe it's possible?

also osa pres would be interesting to include because even if they are not so popular they are the lowest-cost available.

ok, i contacted al.so, roll, jlm, burl and bizzar and invited them to join the shootout. i hope we hear back soon from some of these guys.

with vintage design, great river and germanium you could ask fletcher to provide modules if noone else can. vintageking has al.so and shadow hills (and also chandler and great river). atlas of course carries osa but also chandler and great river. i'm sure all of them are willing to help to make this a great shootout!

[futur2]

in addition i added a link to this thread in the various threads of the more rare modules. i hope this gets us some extra attention...

[Tom Hakala]

shootout with a y-cable?

[Pfraser]

Maybe use throw in a few non-500 gear to compare in general 500 gear to their bigger more expensive counterparts.

[futur2]

not a bad idea at all to use some well established "reference pres"

Originally Posted by Pfraser

Maybe use throw in a few non-500 gear to compare in general 500 gear to their bigger more expensive counterparts.

[TAVD]

I'd love to hear how the JLM stuff compares, specifically the TG500.

[ulysses]

I'd be happy to send you an RMS5A7 Tubule to include in the shoot-out, but I don't think I can get you one as soon as you'd like. We're probably about a month away from having the complete set of bits and bobs we need for public consumption of this thing. Probably 3rd or 4th week in April.

We did have a little listening party this week down at Mastermix where we discovered a minor chassis issue we're taking care of, while sound-wise it compared quite favorably with some very credible and very expensive competition. Looking forward to more of that kind of thing.

[heisleyamor]

is this all going to be done with 1 mic? or several? I would really like to hear an m-audio sputnik with some of these pres. Also, do you know A/D converter you're going to be using?

Edit: Also, it might be pretty cool to add a couple 500 series EQs at the end of the shootout to show the difference in the EQs. (Different APIs, Avedis, etc.)

[jho]

Make sure to put a Purple Biz in the shootout! And a Gamma..'

[YRLK]

I'd love to hear Nathan's Juggernaut, and I agree with putting some standard sounds in the mix for the sake of comparison as well. My advice (and preference) would be the API 512c.

What instruments will be tested?

How about male and/or female vocals, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar?

Brad

[Brent]

I can't wait for this! thumbsup

[futur2]

Originally Posted by jho

Make sure to put a Purple Biz in the shootout! And a Gamma..'

thumbsup totally forgot about the purple

[Pfraser]

I would like to here a cello tested, guitars vary from brittle sounding to warm but we all know how warm cellos are so it would be a good thing to have in a shootout.

[gm5k]

Originally Posted by Pfraser

I would like to here a cello tested, guitars vary from brittle sounding to warm but we all know how warm cellos are so it would be a good thing to have in a shootout.

i agree with this thumbsup

would be very interesting to have something different to hear along w/ the standard electric/acoustic guitar, vocals, etc...

however, these things are time consuming and can be difficult to organize, so its very understandable if you're only able to get the regulars in there. either way the shootout will be greatly appreciated.

[AllAboutTone]

Put a P-1 in as well pad in, shuffle the cards and deal them out. To bad Hardy cannot play the game, maybe someday.

[ulysses]

I think the single most revealing source is a grand piano. Put a small omni condenser on it (like an Avenson) a few feet above the hammers and let a good, dynamic player do the rest. That's a great way to judge tonality, transient response, and headroom. Choosing a microphone with low output impedance that is relatively impervious to loading will allow you to parallel at least a couple of different preamps at once so you can make a direct comparison of the exact same performance through the same mike in the same location, into two or more different preamps.

[futur2]

Originally Posted by ulysses

I think the single most revealing source is a grand piano. Put a small omni condenser on it (like an Avenson) a few feet above the hammers and let a good, dynamic player do the rest. That's a great way to judge tonality, transient response, and headroom. Choosing a microphone with low output impedance that is relatively impervious to loading will allow you to parallel at least a couple of different preamps at once so you can make a direct comparison of the exact same performance through the same mike in the same location, into two or more different preamps.

thumbsup especially the part about comparing different pres with the SAME performance is spot-on. differences in performance is where most of the shootouts lack. just make some groups of pres for each performance and always include the same reference pre in each group so that there is at least some possibilty of comparsion.

[James Lugo]

I'll make sure I get a grand piano in my 80 sq ft iso booth.

[rydan]

Would be really interesting to hear a Shadow Hill Gama as well, if that can be managed. I'm thinking about buying that one, since it seems very versatile with the selectable output transformers...

[mcsmitty]

Originally Posted by rydan

Would be really interesting to hear a Shadow Hill Gama as well, if that can be managed. I'm thinking about buying that one, since it seems very versatile with the selectable output transformers...

+1

[Kronos147]

Originally Posted by James 'LA' Lugo

I'll make sure I get a grand piano in my 80 sq ft iso booth.

I can host this event to Kronos, in Burbank. Yamaha C6 at our disposal.



The control room might start getting a little tight tho. Only 300 sq. ft.

[James Lugo]

PLEASE READ

OK, so I see this thing has a life of it's own and is gonna get insane quick! So here's the deal. I am going to do the shootout Saturday April 12th. That gives Nathan time to get his s**t together with the Juggernuat (sp?).


ALL VENDERS OR SLUTZ WHO HAVE PRES THEY WANT TO SHIP TO ME FOR THE SHOOTOUT READ THIS:

Shipping is a drag for me because I'm not at work in the morning. So, I need ALL boxes with preamps shipped to my studio and set to arrive on either Wednesday April 9th or Thursday April 10th.

James Lugo
6381 Hollywood Blvd. Suite 700
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Someone had offered their spot to shootout with a piano, honestly that may or may not happen just because I'm slammed right now with 4 records and 2 gigs where I'm learning songs on guitar. So, let's take it one day at a time right now. The offer is awesome and it's appreciated, I just don't know if I can swing it. If anyone has a cello player PM me. I'm gonna sing a ballad, a screamer, I'll get a girl if I can and we can track my Martin acoustic and heavy guitars. When we get done you'll know what the pre sounds like.

[James Lugo]

Thread is moved:
500 Series Preamp Shootout Saturday April 12th.

Come here and repost your pre interests.