What's your favourite DIY preamp for vocals and guitar?

I'm still looking for the best possible option for a preamp. What would you recommend? It would be used with several mics, but especially with ioaudios U47 clone.

Color would be OK if it is a thickening (= sort of compression), creamy etc., but it should be clear sounding nonetheless, not hazy, veiled etc. Alive, sparkly, huge... yeah.

Thanks!

VP26 for guitars and VP312 for vocals.  I love them with the red dots.

I also really like the N72' from SCA.  I want to try out a nice tube pre but to many other things on the list.

I would recommend to you an API type preamp! Simple design, sounds great and with the right transformers has that creamy hugeness that can sound so nice.

Thanks! API for vocals goes contrary to what seems to be the norm though (e.g. Neve for vocals, API for drums, bass). Also, I was referring to acoustic guitar mostly, don't record a lot of much electric guitars.


It would be nice to be able to use the preamp as a DI for synths and for some colour on the master bus. Vocals are the priority though.

I love the G9 for (female) vocals. Channel with OEP-transformers if you want coloring, channel with Lundahls if you want (hifi) crispness.

Nele said:

I love the G9 for (female) vocals. Channel with OEP-transformers if you want coloring, channel with Lundahls if you want (hifi) crispness.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'm somewhat hesitant about a tube preamp, since I'm going to use it mostly with a tube mic.

A combination people generally like seems to be U47 + Neve (1073 etc.) preamp...

living sounds said:

Thanks! API for vocals goes contrary to what seems to be the norm though (e.g. Neve for vocals, API for drums, bass). Also, I was referring to acoustic guitar mostly, don't record a lot of much electric guitars.


It would be nice to be able to use the preamp as a DI for synths and for some colour on the master bus. Vocals are the priority though.

Click to expand...

APIs also sound great on vocals....its like the 1176 you get some people that swear by them for drums others swear by them for vocals others for guitars. When it comes down to it good sounding equipment can sound great anything. It all comes down to perosnal taste...
+1 on a tube preamp like the G9 but you run the risk of getting into the more colored side of things (which is awesome) and it sounds like this is going to be you "go to" pre?
Why not make a 990 preamp ?? Those sound fantastic!!

Since I have lent all my outboard pres to a friend I had to record the last few gigs with the onboard pres of our ADT desk. And guess what? I don´t miss my outboard pres. There was no single signal of which I thought that it´s not right (what used to happen often when I was recording with my outboard pres and forced me to swap preamps). On top of that I love the luxuroy of having routing switches, direct outs, switchable inserts,.... whatever a console offers without the need for a patchcord orgy.

Anyway, this probably doesn´t help the OP since a console is not an option when asking for a preamp. From my outboard stuff I very much like my racked V476 and RCA BA71 for vocals and my racked Langevin AM16 for guitars. Supergreens are very good workhorse pres (my buddy´s favorite, who doesn´t want to give them back on the neutral side. They are not always the best choice but alway good.

i would go with a VP312 for acoustic guitar and vocals.  its great for both!

JLM99v or Baby Animals, Neve 1290, API312. So many options, and they've all sounded great when I've used them. ;D

After building a few different preamps in the past year, my favorite for vocals is the ez1290. It kind of sounds

Alive, sparkly, huge... yeah.

Click to expand...

 
For acoustic guitar the ez1290 is also great, as well as API types. APIs on instruments sound very accurate. Recently, I've really started to notice fuzzy sounding acoustic guitar recordings on songs - the curse of learning I guess. I've found the SSLs a little boring, but have yet to soundtest other instruments with them (on the to-do list: Elec guitar, elec and acoustic bass guitar, fiddle, accordion, pedal steel guitar...)
I posted some sound samples of acoustic guitar and vocals through various pres if you are interested in hearing them, including API from Classic API, EZ1290, SSL 9k, UA 1108, and NYD 1-bottle. http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=42068.0
Next, I'm planning some 990s and then maybe something else with tubes.

I have j99's from SCA.  They are nice.  I like them a lot on acoustics's.  But they are to boring for vocals IMHO.  This is why I prefer the VP312's.  They are clear, big, warm, not to colored but not boring.  The J99's are really great at making the source sound like the source but often times that isn't really what is wanted. But when it its the J99 is great.  Usually I find my self only doing that on acoustic guitars and over heads for certain songs.

living sounds said:

I'm still looking for the best possible option for a preamp. What would you recommend? It would be used with several mics, but especially with ioaudios U47 clone.

Color would be OK if it is a thickening (= sort of compression), creamy etc., but it should be clear sounding nonetheless, not hazy, veiled etc. Alive, sparkly, huge... yeah.

Click to expand...

You really really should get into tube preamps. And I don't mean the obvious kit project choices around here. There are so many other candidates to choose from, and they are really easy to combine and mix to your taste and local availability of parts.

It all starts from a really good input and output transformer.

The fact you are hesitant with tube preamps hints that you have very limited experience with them, or have only used designs that are too linear or with far too obvious "modern" tube choices.

Thanks a lot, guys!

Right now I've got a Baby Animal with OEP input xformer and and DIY 990 op amp, but it doesn't really work that well for me. For clean I've got my heavily modified console, not discrete like the ADT (I guess), but the signal path is pretty much transparent with only one (heavily bypassed) pair of electrolytics at the input, and then just a transistor pair and some quality monolytic op amps biased into Class A.

I was actually set on the EZ1290 and already ordered the PCBs, but then read about "Neve haze" somewhere. I've become really picky about sound quality, just spend a lot of time modding my console to perfection, converters, and most of my DIY gear (again)...

From the examples I've listend to (thanks a lot, BTW!) the EZ1290 sounds good to me, and the 1-bottle sounds great, too. Right now I'd like a project that doesn't require much testing and trying out, since I spent way too much time on all the other gear... The NYD preamp sounds very good already with modest transformers, so maybe that's what I'm looking for. Haven't got any ribbons, and my converter is quite sensitive, so I don't need a lot of gain.

And yes, maximum excitement, larger-than-life etc. is what I'm looking for, it shouldn't sound neutral, but better. Silky, sparkly, in-your-face, whatever the buzz words are. Not warm (never understood that term anyway). And it would be cool also to be able to use them for instruments and as a bus coloration device.

So what do you think? NYD Tube? EZ1290? Something JLM?

Stick this between some very good transformers (read: lundahl) and use even higher B+ than marked (maybe 300-330VDC), and you have a larger than life line amp in your hands. Use a 1:10 ratio input transformer and there's even decent gain for preamp use with those tube mics you mention.



Here's another similar "wasteful" design: http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=42991.0

Another somewhat proven "big" sound is the Slow Blow project, but that one has so many variations you might as well design your own based on all the (better?) building blocks given elsewhere on this forum.

I've personally found all solid state projects mentioned above lacking in the "big and sparkly" department, including the neves. They can only really compete in accuracy and lack of distortion, and with all of them the choice of transformer plays the most important role.

By the way, NYD one bottle and mila-1 are awfully linear and can be somewhat disappointing because you can't hear the tubes. 12AV7 aren't awfully good sounding tubes anyway. If you want that sound, the solid state department might have easier projects on offer. REDD is one of these as well. Avoid if you already have clean preamps and "plain transformer sound" elsewhere.

I've asked myself this question and I keep wanting to start a tube pre, but one thing that has scared me off from even simple tube pre's is the power supply.  It really scares me working with 300V, it just seems like a crazy amount of power to be playing around with.  I have a project or two I'd like to take up but every time I look over a schematic I think "holy hell, 300V... yikes"

I spend all day working with nice friendly voltages like 12 and 15, I guess I'm just a little paranoid.

Thanks, this looks very interesting! I've got an LL1538 lying around, guess I'll try it. But what about the "optional feedback"?

feedback is for tuning in the right amount of distortion and the low end bump that happens with large values of C3, but it can be left out completely. The easily available LL5402 is a good output transformer candidate. You can leave out R1, R2, C1 with that LL1538 and connect it directly to tube grid. Keep in mind it's not a very high gain stage. Something like 40-50dB of gain with those lundahls and even less if you dial in any feedback. Should be ok for most tube mics at least.

living sounds said:

Right now I've got a Baby Animal with OEP input xformer and and DIY 990 op amp, but it doesn't really work that well for me.

Click to expand...

Which OEP? The one most people use in BA's (1:6.45) is not the right ratio for a 990, and could be why it "doesn't work" for you.  I too did not originally like the 990 (no bass compared to a melcor or 2520) until I found out I had the "wrong" input trafo (1:8 or 1:10 or something).  If that's the OEP you're using, either swap the 990 for a 2520, or swap the trafo for a 1:2 (there is another OEP that works if you're on a budget, but a lundahl/sowter may be better since you're in EU, or ask nielsk if he has any of the group buy altrans left). Change the 990 max gain to 54dB to get you back to 60dB.  If yours is already set up like this then I apologize for ASS-uming things.  8)

As far as all the suggestions, I've been wanting to build that tube stage since Kingston posted that passive EQ he built with it. 

mitsos said:

Which OEP? The one most people use in BA's (1:6.45) is not the right ratio for a 990, and could be why it "doesn't work" for you.  I too did not originally like the 990 (no bass compared to a melcor or 2520) until I found out I had the "wrong" input trafo (1:8 or 1:10 or something).  If that's the OEP you're using, either swap the 990 for a 2520, or swap the trafo for a 1:2 (there is another OEP that works if you're on a budget, but a lundahl/sowter may be better since you're in EU, or ask nielsk if he has any of the group buy altrans left). Change the 990 max gain to 54dB to get you back to 60dB.  If yours is already set up like this then I apologize for ASS-uming things.  8)

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll put in the LL1538, it can be wired 1:2.5.