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Post by mobeach on Mar 14, 2014 16:35:56 GMT -6
So what's an affordable NEVE preamp a rookie like me could utilize?
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 14, 2014 17:02:09 GMT -6
Heritage...I bought my Heritage 73jr. from Sweetwater for $809 for a demo unit.
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Post by odyssey76 on Mar 14, 2014 17:05:03 GMT -6
I just sold my Heritage Jr. again to fund some other stuff...but I sold it for $8 more than I bought it for  Anyway - I do love those pres...but I only need two pres, really - and the Helios and Heider aren't going anywhere...It also funded my Apollo Twin. I love the Heritage stuff, and if/when money isn't a factor, I'm gonna pick up two of the 1073 eq versions... What do you like more about the Heider sound than the Heritage? I've been very curious about the Heider and VP 28's but I also want to add a Heritage Jr. Would love to get your thoughts on the sonic differences between the two "breeds." |
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Post by popmann on Mar 14, 2014 17:10:34 GMT -6
Re: MoBeach....Waves NLS. OP didn't use it as a mic amp.
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 14, 2014 18:29:23 GMT -6
I wouldn't say one was better than the other at all. Just different. The Heider is definitely cleaner - more detailed. More mid forward, but really, really smooth. Both inputs can be pushed for really cool saturation/distortion. The Heritage sounds like the vintage 1073's I've used. It avoids the laser-beamy upper mids that many of the other Neve clones seem to have. I sold the Heritage because I knew I could sell it for what I paid for it - and the I've been using the Heider on acoustics and the Helios on vocals. I have kind've figured out that when you find something that works, just go with it. Too many other options and I start worrying about stuff I shouldn't worry about.
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Post by gouge on Mar 14, 2014 19:04:06 GMT -6
Well that was part of Nirvana ' s guitar sound. Feeding a neve with line level into the mic input. I love feeding strings into my pres and hitting them hard enough that they start saturating. You don't really notice and say hey thats distortion. It just thickens and smooths. Parallel process with original. This is a mix tool, not for tracking. this is what it is about for me. I use a pre because of what it does sonically. if I want clean then I'll use a clean pre. I'm not the type to turn up a pre until I hit unity and then record.....the pres are meant to be tweaked. that's why they have attenuation knobs, input pads and so on.
when I use a neve pre it's to get that warm smooth fat sound of the opamps and the saturation the transformer adds. it's not subtle by any means the way I use the pre. nothing I've used gets the saturation the neve design gets.
it's not so much the freq response where the preamps vary. all high end pres are going for flat responses. it's the distortion, noise, slew rate that tell the story. people can hear differences fairly easily down to 1db in listening tests. the way each preamp varies in distortion, noise, slew rate under different gain settings, different impedances is not subtle.
I agree that when used purely as a minimal gain device then differences between pres are more subtle. still audible but granted more subtle. ie, a neve pre still sounds nothing like a sytek pre. actually a sytek pre being driven does sound a little like a neve pre not being driven but I digress.
still that dos not mean all pres sound similar because the differences are extreme when you play in the other 30% of the sound scape. |
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Post by svart on Mar 14, 2014 20:24:59 GMT -6
Well that was part of Nirvana ' s guitar sound. Feeding a neve with line level into the mic input. I love feeding strings into my pres and hitting them hard enough that they start saturating. You don't really notice and say hey thats distortion. It just thickens and smooths. Parallel process with original. This is a mix tool, not for tracking.
when I use a neve pre it's to get that warm smooth fat sound of the opamps and the saturation the transformer adds. it's not subtle by any means the way I use the pre. nothing I've used gets the saturation the neve design gets.
The older neves don't have opamps.. |
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Post by jeromemason on Mar 14, 2014 20:37:02 GMT -6
So what's an affordable NEVE preamp a rookie like me could utilize? GAP 573's or the GAP 73. Go check out the shootout they did on GS where everyone chose that one as the best one. A lot of folks were about to bet their house the GAP was the most expensive one out of the bunch. |
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Post by gouge on Mar 14, 2014 21:25:21 GMT -6
Opamp, signal feedback, ic, it's all good because i like them driven.
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Post by jcoutu1 on Mar 15, 2014 5:44:16 GMT -6
So what's an affordable NEVE preamp a rookie like me could utilize? GAP 573's or the GAP 73. Go check out the shootout they did on GS where everyone chose that one as the best one. A lot of folks were about to bet their house the GAP was the most expensive one out of the bunch. They all chose the Gap because they don't know what a vintage Neve sounds like. I bet that 75% of the people who participated, did so on laptop speakers or cheap ear buds. I'm not saying that the Gap is bad, I haven't heard one, just that with these shootouts on GS, probably 75% of the people participating have no idea what they're doing, haven't heard high end equipment, or are in poor monitoring situations. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. |
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Post by mobeach on Mar 15, 2014 10:12:03 GMT -6
So I could have got one of those for basically the same money as the Presonus Studio Channel that I picked up.
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Post by jeromemason on Mar 15, 2014 11:29:27 GMT -6
GAP 573's or the GAP 73. Go check out the shootout they did on GS where everyone chose that one as the best one. A lot of folks were about to bet their house the GAP was the most expensive one out of the bunch. They all chose the Gap because they don't know what a vintage Neve sounds like. I bet that 75% of the people who participated, did so on laptop speakers or cheap ear buds. I'm not saying that the Gap is bad, I haven't heard one, just that with these shootouts on GS, probably 75% of the people participating have no idea what they're doing, haven't heard high end equipment, or are in poor monitoring situations. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. That's definitely the way things usually are over there. But I listened in that test too and I thought the GAP was the Vintech. That's not a vintage Neve, but it is a preamp that's almost 10x as much. |
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Anyway - I do love those pres...but I only need two pres, really - and the Helios and Heider aren't going anywhere...It also funded my Apollo Twin. I love the Heritage stuff, and if/when money isn't a factor, I'm gonna pick up two of the 1073 eq versions...
