Hi guys,

I have a Røde NT1-A. Does it even make sense to use a mic preamp or mic modelling plugin? I think that your recording can never get better than the original. Or am I missing something? After all, there are,quite a few plugins for this out there...

Thanks,

RexBo

 

Hey RexBo.
I'm not sure I understand what you're really askin here. Exactly which plugins are you talkin about?

When you have recorded sth you can use preamp plugs just like any others (like EQ, reverb, dist etc) to process and color your sound.
But if you only want the basic clean sound of course you already got that after recording with your mic and hardware pre.

 

Good question.
For my side it's always a creativity question. You can use a fantastic preamp(s) or mic(s), or both but have really bad result.
Why ? Because sometimes you have a bad mic placement ? A bad preamp gain ? Not really in fact. Obviously if you got enough knowledge about how to have a good sound take, you're ok.
But that doesn't exempt the fact that what you will do with this nice take after? Because good take rhyme with good arrangement, good mix. Find the place for this take. And that is where creativity is coming, not only technical knowledges. Because you can have a bad sound take, meaning by this, let say noisy, dirty, not enough body or too much etc… But you can use this "bad" sign to reverse it in a really good material to be used for your work.
So using a vst which is modeling this or this, using a real think isn't the real problem in fact. May I tell you use your hears, use your sensibility. And you will be ok.

Loads of production today are quiet the same as usual because charts, it's fashion, or every reason people can have. But for me, the end doesn't justifies the means when creativity, poetry, sensibility are lost.

Well, my humble 2cc, sorry if I extrapole a bit .But why a fantastic drummer would be a cunt on a shitty drum kit ? ;-)

Cheers.

 

Hi,

As I understand, plugins like Waves Scheps 73, which includes a mic pre amp emulation, and Antares Mic Mod EFX, which lets you emulate microphone models, would enable me to use one microphone for a whole range of hardware. I could see how the latter could have some effect, but a pre amp in software just seems a bit weird to me. It may color the sound a bit but is it useful? There's a new plugin out (forgot the name of it) that even includes models of twelve pre amps. Initially I want to record male and female vocals, and acoustic guitar. As you can tell, I just got my first mic and I'm wondering if this would improve my recordings.

 

what is your sound card ?

 

If you want it to try (despite it's intuitive workflow) Nebula has the best preamps flavours which was captured straight from the real deal, and it's not only an IR snapshot, but it contains also harmonic distortion and dynamic behaviour which sometimes you can't even tell the difference between Nebula's programs and a real hardware.
Difference between an IR snapshot (like QClone from Waves) and Nebula's VVKT is like you would compare some strings libraries/vstis. The QClone sounds like it has no round robin and realistic legato, while Nebula sounds like it got plenty of them sounding much closer to the real deal.

Anyway, when it comes about tracking, IMO a real preamp can't be replaced not even by Nebula ones, because a real preamp will influence alot the way your microphone will pick up the sound, room ambience, etc. so you'd better go with the real deal.

Davea is right somehow, but a real high-end preamp it does really makes a difference! And yea', if you don't know how to use them, then your results will get pretty bad for sure, but hey. If you're willing to buy one, that doesn't mean that is going to be useless. We're not born with knowledge, we have to earn it so if you don't know how to use one, that doesn't mean that you're not going to learn. Maybe the first hundreds of takes are going to sound bad, but if you keep practicing and experiment with a particular pream and mic, the sound is going to improve alot.
And another thing i agree with him is the fact that there's no reason to search for quality if your musical aspects are not improved enough in the first place. I'd rather listen to great music with shitty quality rather than shit music with great quality. Processing shit with hi-end equippment it just turns it into "gold shit" and nothing more.

 

Hey guys,

Thanks! I have a modest Focusrite 2i2 interface that I bought for its supposedly very good pre amp. My take-away from this is: music comes first, gear (a close) second. For now, I'll just experiment and learn. The Waves,summer sale will be back so no need to spend money now...

Thanks everyone for your input (get it, input...

 

When I started running my Rode NT-2A through an ART MPA II, and dialing in the tube section and the impedance, I can't tell you how much happier I was with the sounds I was getting for voice and acoustic instruments. There, that cuts right to it. If you are a singer, and you hear the right sound of your voice in the cans, it just makes you sing better. Really improves my Blue Reactor, too. In fact, monkeying with the impedance can improve the sound of just about any mic, condenser or dynamic. I also use the ART when I do a mid-side set up for drum overheads or to mic anything in stereo. Getting the best sound going in to the basic track saves you a lot of time and work later. If you use plug ins, the best models are usually the same people who build the best rack hardware. Universal Audio, for instance. They don't want anything out there that doesn't live up to their reputation. Another opinion: The cliche "really good for the price range" is overused-(except for top end stuff, don't the all say that?)-but from my experience, it really does apply to Rode mics (+excellent warranty and cust. service) and ART products (built road rack worthy).

 

The microphone is the ear of your chain and is at the apex of importance followed by the preamp as a close second (in my opinion). Both cannot as yet be duplicated virtually to give one the true depth and breadth that the ones you can touch can impart on your signal. That said, your Focusrite 2i2 is a nifty piece of kit and sounds really good to my ears. In addition, Algae's ART MPA II is fairly inexpensive and lets one enjoy the the space in your mix that tube saturation can impart on individual tracks as well as being a sound sculpting tool. Enjoy your new box and make great music with it.

 

These mic pre modelers are more of a CREATIVE tool IMO; and not something to see as a replacement for a quality preamp. They can add a cool color or something DIFFERENT to your audio but as far as wanting or seeking authenticity, my opinion is no.

Signal chain comes first. Source > Mic > Pre > Converter... that's where I'd start for quality sounds right from the get-go. =D

But as I said, they CAN be fun, especially when used to extremes =D