Preamps. the definitive characteristics and sounds

Exactly.

Like Ward said, the cohesion that recording everything through a great console provided to me is unmatched. 

I would jump on a REDD47-based console any day of the week, especially with a pair or handful of RS124s built in. 

Greg Mackie: "Onyx Console Pre's?" "Boutique!"
(the only Console Pre's artistically that have Fletcher's sculpturing endorsement)

Well yeah, the thing about a console was everything that was summed together and it really helps to minimize comb filtering when everything pretty much has the same phase and freq response. Drums, horns, BG’s just seam to mesh and sound like a section vs a bunch of soloists. Now we all found in the grand old days of mid priced consoles it was an easy cheat to put the lead vocals through a different pre even a Symetrix 200 series if you wanted it to cut through everything else. Then came the Mackie who’s pres were better than all the pres’s we were using to cut through, at least that’s what Greg and all the famous people he promised a free meter bridge or automation or if you were really special both, but never delivered. *
Well when you soloed a kit recorded through the Mackie pre’s they did gel, compared to a typical mixed bag of pre’s, not that a enough of just about any pre you would own as separate pre. This is why I own 8 Dan Alexander Neve clones! Because I like a kit to sound like a kit!!

* Well after the 3rd person Mackie “ quoted” told me after over 3 years they hadn’t seen the promised gear Greg promised them I felt sorry for those who we’re supposed to get free gear and managed to contact 3 or 4 dozen through friends reps studios, etc and offered them their promised Mackie accessories at cost plus 7%. Most didn’t take advantage of the opportunity, mostly because they were really disappointed in Mackie, but most remembered the kind offer and became very loyal clients. Even if they had taken me up on it the no profit sales ( or commission was based on actual cost plus getting ITB there and various built in costs) it would have been worth it for the many times you would hear “ Eric Nelson, Paging Eric Nelson for ….”. Why I hate to admit it but I can think of at least 3 nice sized deals I closed because “ Eric Nelson, paging Eric for Eddy Van Halen, he was not my personal client but he knew U wouldn’t BS him and could Dive way deeper than our own Diamond Dave, we both agreed we never wanted to see mine shirtless, I’ll never forget telling him about our Dave and Jon Amstedaerd In coconut bikin tops and grass skirts at our luau.

I personally think this “console cohesive sound” thing is bullshit. At least extremely mythical and misleading. It’s gonna make you pick different mics for the job, just like using different pre types is gonna do the same. But different.

It didn't sound like bullshit when I was in some of the finest studios in the world when I was younger. I've heard productions by the same engineer, one with dozens and dozens of different preamps, and the other on a Helios console. One sounded perfect and natural, the other over-processed. Of course the artist was different, but my ears noticed a significant difference.

I'll take one console any day, but I can't afford that anymore. Besides, I use different mics regardless of whether it's a console or separate preamps, so I don't understand your last statement.

I've been in the studio when Steve Winwood recorded Back in the Highlife with Nile Rogers, recorded on the same console that Jimi Hendrix recorded on at Electric Lady through his Marshall 100, sat in for mixes of Brad Paisley, Neo, James Blunt, done through a giant Neve. I've recorded at Bell Sound, Plaza Sound, Unique Recording, and a dozen other great studios. Listened to early mixes of Blondie, Talking Heads "Once in a Lifetime", and the Rolling Stones all with one console EQ, Neve, API, Trident and others.

I'm not saying you can't sound great and have a very interesting color palette using different preamps, just that there was something about the cohesion of those classic records like Pink Floyd's great albums that has never been surpassed IMO.

My 7 year old is an avid artist and colorist, to give him a little extra credit, and his way to create the color of mud is to blend all the colors together.

There's something to be said for the clarity of vision children possess.

Not yet, but it's in the works. My 22 year old is!

When tracking live bands I used a console but with a bunch of outboard preamps via patchbays.

This allowed for picking the mic/pre combination that best suited each source.

Obviously you choose the mic first and then a preamp to compliment the mic that gets you close to where you want to be before even reaching for EQ.

The console pres were never used and neither was the console EQ.

The signals from the outboard pres went direct to the recorder and never through the console when tracking.

The console was for used monitoring and cue sends when tracking which is being ‘hands on’ is far easier to change on the fly in a dynamic live band situation.

The console was also used during mixdown (yeah old school!) basically as a line level summing mixer with outboard hardware, EQ’s, dynamics, effects (EMT140, Lexicon 480L).

i am a  believer myself of this. I do not have a console to execute it with but noticed as I am tracking with cohesive gear and space. Mixing itb with a very limited and cohesive palette of comps, eq’s and reverbs. The sound throughout the production remains very homogenous and easy to approach mixing wise. Very hard to end up in a situation where something falls out of sound. Despite a certain limiting factor involved regarding directions to take the project there is also an enormous freedom to work within the frames of what you have and still retain the red line. So in a way I think it’s possible to build a workflow digitally which resemble and holds some of the limiting essence working on a console in the way you describe.

I think this was one of the primary inspirations for the Silver Bullet, was it not?