Hi all...

I'm considering building myself a passive summing box, and I was wondering which preamps are well-suited to providing gain makeup. At the moment the only quality preamps I have are an API 3124+, but I'm looking to expand and this would probably affect what I buy. Also, what kind of qualities should one look for in a preamp if it is intended for gain makeup?

If this has been covered before, I apologise - I did a search but didn't come up with much.

Cheers,

Matt

Pendulum Audio MDP-1A w/ my Folcrom. Good frequency response all around. Relatively transparent for a tube pre. Great low end and hi end. Can be very colored if you hit the tubes harder but I honestly prefer the cleaner less colored sound. There are some other pres you may want to check out. I have personally not tried these but have heard they also yield good results:

-Millenia Origin Pair
-Buzz Audio MA 2.2 with Sowters
-Crane Song Flamingo
-OSA L3
-Great River 2NV
-Vintech pair X73i
-DW Fearn VT 2

As I said this is all word of mouth. The only One I can vouch for is the Pendulum and a pair of API 512c's, which I found did not really cut it for me.

All of those choices work great on the Folcrom IME (although some were a little more flexible and easier to mix on than others). I agree with edIT that keeping the output bus generally clean (with just a touch of coloration, but not too much) is the best answer; too clean and I've found I have to overcompensate with coloration on the individual tracks, too colored on the output bus and I've found that I'm working backwards, keeping individual tracks much cleaner than I'm used to and having to add slightly more unusual EQ choices than would normally happen if the output bus was more linear in frequency curve or distortion characteristics.

The cool thing about an outboard summing box is that you can experiment with various mic preamps *** which are also useful when tracking!*** to find the best combo.

IE, what works great for a kick drum might be the right answer for the passive summer on a particular project...who knows??

Tis kind of like asking "what is the best mic for..................." <g>

Bri

I have Neve's, API's and TG2's.

The API is not my favorite but is still great.

I probably would just buy preamps that you "need" for tracking and try them with your mixer.

You don't need to buy a specific pre amp for this purpose. They all work.

Cool... thanks for the replies everyone.

heh

these days i'm using a d.w. fearn vt-2 or (for a completely different flavor) a great river mp-2nv. between the 2 i can usually find what i'm looking for.
joshua