Should I just spend the money?

[bwaudio]

Okay, I want a good pre/channel strip for my studio. All I need is 1 or two channels right now.

I can get a Toft-Audio ATC-2 for about $800, which I've heard is okay. Or I could bite the bullet and spend more on say a daking or a vintech, which are supposedly better.

So do I spend $800, or more? I guess spending less will be better right away, but if I'm going to upgrade in the near future, it won't really be worth it.

Any thoughts?

[John Suitcase]

A lot depends on what type of things you're recording.

A good preamp will make your recordings sound better, of course, but if you're still learning, or don't have a lot of cash, there might be other places to spend the dough.

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by bwaudio

Okay, I want a good pre/channel strip for my studio. All I need is 1 or two channels right now.

I can get a Toft-Audio ATC-2 for about $800, which I've heard is okay. Or I could bite the bullet and spend more on say a daking or a vintech, which are supposedly better.

So do I spend $800, or more? I guess spending less will be better right away, but if I'm going to upgrade in the near future, it won't really be worth it.

Any thoughts?

Here's my best advice: if you're not sure what you need, buy used. If you buy new and it turns out not to be the right gear choice, you're either stuck with it or you have to sell it at a substantial loss. If you buy used, you can put it up for sale and recoup just about everything you spent on it.

I speak from experience on this. My wallet wishes it weren't true.

And something else to keep in mind, gear is contagious. There's always going to be something you want to upgrade. So until you get to the point where you know exactly what you need and why you need it, buy used and save yourself the hit in the wallet.

Sometimes you might even make out on a piece of used gear. I bought an Avalon M5 pre for about $850 a few years back. It really wasn't the right piece of gear for me and I recently traded it for a used Blue Kiwi. I can't buy a used Blue Kiwi for $850 and there's a $400 difference in my favor on the new cost of those two items.

Good luck!

[RCM - Ronan]

Maybe instead of looking at a channel strip you could start with a mic pre and slowly build from there. Your $800 budget will almost get you into a great mic pre (used) or an OK channel strip.

[u b k]

imo the absolute most musical, most versatile, harmonically rich pre in that budget range is the ua solo110, and it is every bit as lovely as anything else that gets recommended in these waters. you can get them used for ~$500.

plug an sm7 into one of those puppies and it'll be a good while before you get the itch to have more gear.


gregoire
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ubk
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