tube mic pre..

[raysolinski]

Okay..from poking around, modding, breaking and fixing etc.. I now have some parts laying around on the bench..a nice lundahl 1:7 input transformer, a handfull of nos/old tubes (12ax7,12au7, 5971..some nice telefunkens), caps, resistors, xlr's..so I was googling trying to find a simple, single channel tube mic pre..point to point , bread board or pcb..nothing fancy...gain control, output control...no phantom needed as I have a few outboard units around from the old Tascam 388 days...nothing quite fit this bill..any suggestions? Not that I am a tube crazy guy (I am finding I like the transformer balanced, transistor based pres ala the 312's or even my pm1000's) but, what the heck..might as well use what I have , I will definately learn something and hopefully end up with a good pre in the process...any suggestions will be entertained (except, "beat it, newbie!).

Ray

 

[CJ]

G9

 

[pstamler]

If you have a couple of 12AV7's in your collection, New York Dave's one-tube preamp looks mighty nice. Dig through the metas.

Peace,
Paul

 

[raysolinski]

yeah, the G9 looks good, gets raves and I will definately get around to it or the pultec but it is chock full of things I don't need right now and I am trying to use my spare parts..I looked at NYDAve's pre but I don't have any 12AV7's and I am not smart/experienced enough to adapt the circuit to what I have on hand...

Ray

 

[kiira]

This one could use 12ax7s and is really simple just a mu follower and srpp stage and your 1:7 xformer should be ok for input... no output needed. It sounds good.

http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/preamp.html

The other simple pre I was thinking of is the Hamptone tube pre. The schematics for that are around too and I have them. I would use an unregulated power supply in it though.

 

[peterc]

Hi all

Has anyone tried the Taos mic pre?

http://www7.taosnet.com/f10/micpre.html

Based on a very nice cct by Alan Kimmel called the Mu-stage.

I tried something out a while ago, building 2 Mu-stages & using one for the hot signal & another for the cold.

It is my favourite mic pre ever. Problem is, without a transformer to match the inputs to the mic, the noise is HORRIBLE. It's about 30dB below signal, but most of it seems to be out of the audio range.

I try & use it for the close-miked TV voice over stuff that I do. Have to really cut the clips tight to the start & end of the audio. But our other engineers ***** if they have to work on my stuff, so I go back to the Green.

My next project is to build one of these with a transformer front end. I have built mu-stages for line level work & I simply love them.

I recall an interview with an engineer in one of the mags, I can't recall who, & the story goes he was in the control room & a voice went into the booth and said something to him. He thought the voice was in the room with him, swung around & saw he was in the booth. That was the quality he liked about valve gear, the "realness".

Whether you agree with this or not, this is the very reaction I had when trying out my Mu-stage-bastard mic pre. Round & beautiful.

I think we all have this reaction to audio at one time or another in our lives, & this was one of mine.

Peter