You don't seem to understand the outrageous conclusion: Xupito is people

 

I have 2 star washers, a soldering lug and a sheet metal screw.
Can you hear the difference?

 

I hate absolute statements either way when there are so many moving parts and the only reasonable answer is the hated: it depends.

Besides, we all know that the best pre is an older Mackie with the gain all cranked up. Everything else is plain false.

 

Hey guys, make music, not videos—it really looks like you aren't musicians at all, but are just generating click counts or sell his Courses!

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Last edited: Jun 23, 2026 at 2:59 PM

The best part of his video is how he made a bunch of butthurt gear fans go crazy, if you want to disprove anything he says, take the time he took to prove it with science, otherwise you are just talking shit

 

This guy is full of shit...eg .. BAE 1073 has a massive body over Neve 1073

 

This was proven some 25 years back in the Nashville preamp testing, and NOT by a Youtuber with 2 preamps. Search yourself, it was as scientific and professional as it gets with full wav files for everyone to test.
Lynn Fuston and team tested around 35 different preamps. They did a full amazing mic shootout too with the largest collection ever done, all for the audio community.

Unfortunately this is the type of unprofessional video that spreads today, when the testing is left to untrained amateurs.

http://www.3daudioinc.com/mics.html
http://www.3daudioinc.com/3daudio_prelp.html
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/3d-audio-ad-pre-mic-cds
https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/vocal-mic-preamplifiers-can-you-hear-a-difference/
https://www.sweetwater.com/feature/vocal-mic-shootout/

Some here are just showing up very late to the party, trying to convince themselves and others what we've tested, known, and experienced is wrong... lol.

This all would be funny if it was not so damn sad.
I guess the blind lead the blind today.

FWIW, google me and you'll learn I'm a 35 year multi-platinum pro. I've got millions of scoundscan full analog, millions full digital, and I work hybrid today using the best of all tools. I don't care what tool gets the job done best, I just want the best tools.

To each their own.

 

Last edited: Jun 23, 2026 at 6:57 PM

I am a prof. musician . But I am not an engineer .I have trained ears but not "Frequency trained" ears. I did check some preamp comparisons before . While i did hear differences sometimes i also thought about how significant those might be in the big picture . i am sure when everything else was done right ( composition , arrangement , playing , right mics at the right spots , good mix balance ) the difference might be the last few percent making the result almost perfect . There are certainly some guys/girls who can do it all . I cannot .So I would not drive a micpre to not ruin a take and leave possibilities for a prof . engineer to enhance the signal afterwards (if necessary) . I always find enough other musical problems for myself to solve

 

"clean preamp sounds like a clean preamp" is all good, but every engineer i've ever met or worked with drives their pres and trims the outputs. neglecting that concept seems like a combo of both inexperience and willful ignorance. i liked that popular guitar tone video he made a while back, but his videos have gotten progressively goofier since

 

Say that to George Massenburg. Yeah, you and your crew must be more experienced than him. What you get when you overdrives the preamp just because "the pros" do it's a clipped signal that can't be unclipped. So, you're damaging the performance with distortion. Why destroy the performance while you can add a distortion module/clipper later on the console or the DAW if you want distortion? The Bypass button will not break and no one will get mad because the performance is too much distorted. Not everyone is CLA and Tchad Blake. They do it because they know how the artists they are working with like it. Have you ever heard Black Keys?

 

Good for you Will, I'm just having some fun really.

The reality is that most people (including a lot of "mixing-engineer" YouTubers) can't bring any argument against what Jim has shown in that video. In my case I found his pre-amp video fun to watch and I didn't give it much more importance than that, it was very short sighted in comparison to other videos he made in the past, he recognises the Nashville technique as the only possible path, he missed a few technical aspects and of course comparing two preamps isn't enough. Yet I love that his videos are thought provoking, the guitar test and the amp/cab tests definitely demystify a lot of crap being sold in the e-guitar world, and most importantly it helps to put things in perspective. We give too much importance to gear and we forget what matters the most, the music and the arrangement, no one on YouTube will ever tell you that your mixes will sound bad unless the songs are well arranged and recorded, instead everyone is trying to sell us a new plugin, a new piece of gear, everything that they need to sell you always seems to be a better solution than to study music and learn how to arrange.

You are in a very privileged position to have the tools you have but for most of us folks those prices are ridiculously high, specially nowadays when trying to make it in the music industry without being nepo baby is almost impossible. I rather have 1000 kids not giving a fuck about what preamp they have but having fun making songs than them thinking they won't be good enough unless they own some unattainable box.

 

That is precisely why you should buy good reference books and read them; they can serve as useful resources throughout your life. If you have an exceptionally great song, pay a qualified sound engineer to master it; they have the right equipment and the necessary experience. You don't need the videos—it’s a mystery to me where people find the time to watch that nonsense.

Bobby Owsinski is an American audio engineer, producer, musician, and author based in Los Angeles.
He is best known as author of over 20 books in the field ... https://bobbyowsinski.com

 

Nah, there's no connection electronically, the old Neve stuff uses FET's & transformers, all of which have a sound, & everything Focusrite after the original ISA 110, 215 etc just uses chip based preamps, no transformers except for the original Red series. Bear in mind Neve did not design everything with his name on it, e.g. compressors, and the RND stuff was designed by other designers with RN consulting. These companies are just using his name which is ultimately what they bought. The microphone makes more difference to the sound than the pre-amp anyway.

 

Why do Focusrite bother to manufacture their $700 ISA Preamp when they have a Neve 1073 inside their $200 2i2 Scarlett? Is the interface subsizidized somehow, as compensation for having to use (read: perpetually beta test) their software and the rest of the interface?
Might not be a bad idea....

 

I think the way to go these days for many people, is to use very transparent pre's with pre-amp plugins. Metric Halo, Kush, Slate Digital & UAD have been doing this for a while. That way you're not tied into the sound of the preamp you tracked with, and there are times when transparent is the right choice,

 

I read them and I use them, unfortunately I have no money to pay anyone anything, so I've learnt to do everything myself. I have no credits like our friend Will here but if you are interested you can check what I do:

https://untitled.stream/library/track/SxmMlwBEtryg0l0qOT4YA

https://untitled.stream/library/track/lS5JlWEV4Qhp8oAqZTWYc

https://untitled.stream/library/track/hAuYJkKdOPcASi546jIXP
I'll check Bobby's books tho, I don't think I've read any of his. Thanks!

 

This is great if you are tracking synths, drum machines, etc. Even if you want to use outboard processing, you can just use an IO plugin and set up a hardware print loop to send the audio out and back, effectively re-tracking the take. Clean capture and flexible processing after tracking works well, no controversy. It can be a plugin, local hardware, or even some cloud-based hardware service.


But this doesn’t fully account for human performers, where the recording chain is part of the real-time feedback loop that can influence the performance itself in real time. Recording “pristine” isn’t always what produces the best takes in practice, because the monitoring chain can change how a performance is delivered. At that point, the decision stops being about engineering and becomes about production, intentional shaping of the music itself, not just capturing the audio as accurately as possible.

 

More likely, since the Scarletts are built in Shenzhen, they just picked whatever mic pres built at the same factory fit the product brief and price point of the product most closely.

Best to leave Rupert Neve in peace with this - he's long earned it.

 

Veteran producer, recording engineer, gear nerd, and super bluesy-groovy guitar player J.J. Blair has (reluctantly) pitched in.

Watch the video here, or on his Instagram or Facebook page.

He also has a mentoring course on ProMixAcademy, if anyone's interested.