Mic/Guitar preamp

[arfo]

Hi everybody,
hope this is the right place for posting...
Both my MOTU828mkII mic inputs are ‘out’ and I don’t know if repairing them again makes sense (I still have to talk with the technician) as I did it yet, not a long time ago.
As I’m working on some tunes and I need to record guitars, I was thinking if I could buy a little mic preamp (that I could use for voices too) - in the meanwhile - and address its outputs to MOTU line, or even digital, inputs.
I started a first quick search on Thomann and I was considering two or three models, with different specs and characteristics

Behringer MIC2200 V2

ART Tube MP Studio V3 BK 1

ART Dual Pre USB

I really would appreciate opinions and advices,
thank you!

Art

[Drew Stephenson]

I'm not familiar with the others on the list but I've got the Art Studio V3 and it's a reasonable unit. I use it with bass guitar a lot because driving it hard introduces some nice distortion.
The swing side of that is mine is a few years old now and it's not the cleanest pre-amp. If you're recording quiet sources that might be an issue.

[arfo]

Hi Blinddrew,
thank you for answering; I tried to insert the links to all the devices but something went wrong, clearly...

I mainly would use preamp for direct electric guitar recording and, more seldom, voices; I also have an electric bass but it has active pickups so I think I can put it in the line input directly.

I just started my search but I wouldn't spend a fortune (I know good quality pre are very expensive...); a digital output would be really good but I'm afraid it would raise the cost...

Best,

Art

[sonics]

Many cheaper interfaces are not optimised for DI guitar recording and will affect tone. Something like the IK Multimedia AXE series is, and works well. I've no doubt many others will work well, but bear that in mind when purchasing.

[Stuart79]

Cranborne Camden EC1.

[arfo]

Many cheaper interfaces are not optimised for DI guitar recording and will affect tone. Something like the IK Multimedia AXE series is, and works well. I've no doubt many others will work well, but bear that in mind when purchasing.

Thank you @sonics! I'll have a look at it

Cranborne Camden EC1.

Thank you too, @Stuart79!

[lowlines]

I bought a Hughes & Kettner Spirit of Vintage nano head for recording guitar. It has a line out for recording that sounds really nice and has the bonus of being a great sounding amp as well.

Obviously you can only use it for guitar though, so not quite matching all your criteria. But very well priced for what you get.

[arfo]

Obviously you can only use it for guitar though, so not quite matching all your criteria. But very well priced for what you get.

Hi lowlines,
it’s a really interesting tool, per se, but as you write it’s ‘guitar only’ but I also record vocals, sometimes and I would prefer something less specific…
Thank you for answering, anyway!
Art

[ef37a]

I'm not familiar with the others on the list but I've got the Art Studio V3 and it's a reasonable unit. I use it with bass guitar a lot because driving it hard introduces some nice distortion.
The swing side of that is mine is a few years old now and it's not the cleanest pre-amp. If you're recording quiet sources that might be an issue.

I have read elsewhere that the Art V3 is a nice pre amp for guitar and bass. The less than stellar microphone noise performance should be easily countered by the use of a modest capacitor microphone where one is needed. There are some very decent cap' mics around now at the £100 point.

The Mackie EM-91C is one such.

Dave.

[arfo]

Hi Dave,
thank you for your opinion and advice!
I've read about Art pre too (that's curiously is also my name) but I'm starting to consider a little soundcard that I've read so well about: Audient ID14 mkII (how do I put link text?...) while I'm trying to contact the technician for my MOTU mics pre...
It's not very expensive and it's also 'portable', and I could use it with my ipad too.
I think I could also use digitl input to connect it with MOTU, someway..

At the moment I can record using the pre section of my old Alesis Quadraverb GT2, that I use in bitimbral mode so I can also use digital effects section and I can do mic recording using my ZOOM H4N but I have to switch from MOTU to ZOOM and viceversa and this is not really very confortable (I don't need mics now because I own a RODE NT3 and the glorious SURE SM57 and that's enough for me).

Best wishes,

Art

[ef37a]

Well Art! The SM57 is a very serviceable microphone and tough as old boots but don't think I have ever before heard it described as "glorious"!

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/rode-nt3 Hugh was quite taken with that Rode mic it would seem? (links? I just copy and paste them in)
The decently low noise and high'ish sensitivity of the NT-3 mean, as I said would counter the slightly poor noise performance of the Art pre amp. Should you want to use the SM 57 on a quiet source a "FetHead" or similar 'pre pre' would sort that.

I don't know if you have a guitar amplifier but if so, the '57 in front of that would be fine, no noise problem there.

Dave.

[Drew Stephenson]

I don't think we need to get too carried away about the noise from the ART unit.

I doubt I could lay my hands on any samples right now but in its early years I had no problems at all running vocals or acoustic guitar recordings through a Beta 87A into my ART and then to a hard disc recorder.
It was plenty 'clean' enough for a domestic environment.

It's definitely more noisy now, but it must be 15 or more years old and it had some heavy live use on my pedal board for a while as well. Fresh out of the box I'd have no qualms about using it for most pop/rock jobs.

[arfo]

@Dave: ‘glorious’ wanted to be ironic as I’ve read about SURE SM57 much more than any other mic…
I know there are better microphones and I also tried large diaphragm ones (AKG 414 as an example) but I’m not sure it would be a good choice in an untreated apartment room where it probably would capture even more noises.
I’ve been using Rode nt3 for at least fifteen years so I know it very well.

My question was more about mic pre, actually, in the likely case I can’t repair my MOTU ones again…

@blinddrew: I would like to try one, maybe I can get one from my usual shop…
After I’ve read about Audient id14 mkII pre quality, however, I started to seriously consider it…

[Drew Stephenson]

After I’ve read about Audient id14 mkII pre quality, however, I started to seriously consider it…

The Audient will almost certainly thump on almost any measure you can think of, unless you want that extra harmonic distortion available from driving the valve. But this is easy to replicate in software afterwards of course...

[arfo]

I think this is definitely the case and, in addition, I think (quite sure but I have to check it) I could use the Audient digital input to connect my MOTU via ADAT port, keeping all his inputs (I think it depends on which sampling rate is set in Audient) and it wouldn’t be completely out of service.
Could

[ef37a]

Drew, I did not mean to suggest that the Art pre amp had a poor noise performance. I have never used one but based on your comment I surmised that, like the pre amps of many budget devices a few years ago, it would not be suitable for quiet speech into a dynamic. Rock vocals, no problem.

Dave.

[Drew Stephenson]

No worries Dave, I did start the subject up-thread when I mentioned that mine had got a bit noisy.
I don't think I've ever tried quiet speech into a dynamic with that device. I suspect there'd be plenty of gain, background noise wouldn't be too bad but I think you'd be getting a bit of colouration coming in.
If I get chance I'll have a bit of play this week.