Recommend me a studio preamp

[mcasey1]

What I'm looking for is a studio quality preamp for microphones and direct guitar and bass recording.  I see kits around the internet, but they are often line stage preamps or they are very expensive.  I am interested in getting the best sound quality possible within a price range of about $300 for parts.  If anyone has experience with a kit or favors a particular circuit please let me know.  Right now I am using an ART Tube MP and I know I could do much better if I built it myself.  My preamp is the main component in nearly all the types of recording I do.  Nearly everything I record has something to do with it.  So I figure the preamp upgrade would be the most bang for my buck as far as overall recording equipment is concerned.

[Pushtone]

I've priced out a few designs...

The stock api preamp using their op-amp;

Neve 1272;

Great River clone;

SSL G series preamp;

all with Hammond power and Jensen output transformers.

All where in the $500 per channel range to DIY build.

I would be interested in seeing a BOM that got the price down to $300.00.
IMO, You will HAVE to make some compromises somewhere in parts selection to reach that price.
And that might be counter productive to the goal of building something that sounds better than a Art Tube pre.

[sfx1999]

http://www.record-producer.com/learn.cfm?a=3080

$5 mic preamp. Actually, it will cost more than that because of the power supplies, etc. Probably less than $40, for sure.

[mcasey1]

This looks like a good deal to me:  http://www.seventhcirclestudios.com/SCA/SCA.htm. 

[sfx1999]

I forgot to post a link to sound clips:

http://www.record-producer.com/learn.cfm?a=3062

The ones with number 2 are the $5 one.

[Pushtone]

This looks like a good deal to me:  http://www.seventhcirclestudios.com/SCA/SCA.htm. 

From that site:
$324 J99 Preamp card Channel 1
$324 J99 Preamp card Channel 2
$269 Power supply
$100 diy chassis

$1017 total for stereo mic pre

Thats what I said, $500 bucks per channel for anything worth building as opposed to buying.

Thats is a bargain for a mic preamp that will sound much better than what you will find in a Mack*e or mixing console product save the consoles the preamps are cloned from.
Anything less and I would just go out and buy a mic preamp from a commercial producer cause what you build will not sound any better and the commercial one will have more useful features than you would want to build in.

Come on, build a classic. Go big sound or go home.
or do you want to build a Mr. $5 Mic. 



Here's a strange little diy preamp site. Scroll down to see several types of preamp projects.
Could be cheap, he only sells boards, you source the parts.
http://www.fivefish.net/diy/

And if you want to know what the pros are using to record those big names have a look at www.mercenary.com
Although I still hold Fletcher responsible for the destruction of rec.audio.pro and I don't think I can ever forgive him 

[mcasey1]

Why stereo?

[sfx1999]

Come on, build a classic. Go big sound or go home.
or do you want to build a Mr. $5 Mic. 

The $5 mic preamp is highly praised, I'll have you know.

[Pushtone]

That $5 preamp price per channel would be around $15, plus the cost of a power supply and a rackmount chassis.
$100 bucks tops for a stereo unit. That sounds very good indeed.

It lacks some features you could add at extra cost like HP filter, 20dB PAD and phase reverse.
The INA217 chip is non-stocking at Mouser and DigiKey. Can you get one?
You would need to figure out a PSU that does bi-polar 15V and 48VDC.
Too many ifs there for me.

Just seems to me a mic pre would be a good thing to buy instead of build unless
the object is to build a well know classic like a Neve 1073, no compromise.

IMHO the best, low cost, microphone preamp is this from FMR Audio.
Sells for $475,  or  $237.50 per channel.

So yeah the INA217 would be cheaper and sound like a good diy alternative.
It just won't be much of an upgrade from what you have now.

But if your going to the trouble to build something then build something with sex-appeal like a 1073.
Otherwise I would buy a commercial preamp in a nice package with handy features. I would look for preamps that
use 24 volt rails instead of 15V.

I haven't found too many mic kits available on the net. But API and Jensen offer their op amps in neat little epoxy blocks.
One would be interested in a good solid power supply to power any premap project. CanaKits offer several PSU in kit form.

Paia has their tube mic preamp kit.
http://www.paia.com/tubestuff.asp

This blog talks about PCB kits, but I could find any
http://www.fivefish.net/diy/


Looks like that Seventh Circle Studios are the premier makers of a Neve kit, home of the SCA 72 Neve Mic Pre Kit

[Ben N]

Why stereo?

+1??

[sfx1999]

Man I just looked at that Tube Head schematic from PAiA. It looks dangerous; it takes its power supply directly from the power line. There are no transformers or anything. They had other ones like that.

Hmm, I didn't realize that IC wasn't available.

I found a few studio schematics here -> http://www.triodeel.com/studio.htm

[Pushtone]

Why stereo?

+1??

If your only ever going to record one source (guitar) at a time then by all means, one channel.


But on the side of a two channel "Front End" for computer recording...
If your going to record a piano or synthesizer, stereo would be nice.
If you have a digital guitar processor like a POD, stereo would be nice.
PODcasting in stereo (although the podcasts I've been involved with require 6 to 8 mixer channels)


But Don't think of it as stereo since most home recordist rarely record in stereo.

Think of it as dual mono.

I can think of a bunch of dual mono applications.
1. Guitar (using a mic) and E. Bass (using DI Box) record together with sequenced drum tracks for that live feeling.
2. Acoustic guitar recorded with a mix of microphone and direct box.
3. Drums: kick and snare mics (overhead mics use Mack*e mixer preamps)
4. Marshal 4x12 close mic and distant room mic or off axis mic.
5. Time saver, set up two mics (dynamic and condenser) on a source and use the one that sounds best.
6. The stereo output from a Roland V-Drum kit.
7. Background group vocals - two mics set up in x/y for a wide stereo field.
8. Interview mode - two mics for interviewer and interviewie


I'm kinda surprised there aren't more kits out there.

There must be a middle of the road IC op-amp based preamp project out there somewhere.

Is there a replacement for the INA chip from TI?

[moosapotamus]

Check out the JLM Baby Animal, too...
http://jlmaudio.com/Baby_Animal_Mic_Pre.htm

Or the Green Mic Preamp...
http://1176neve.tripod.com/id10.html

The Green is not really a kit. But you can probably get PCBs, parts and info for the Green and lots of other preamps and pro audio gear projects here...
http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=0442c41f69a9d33235c89e86881882ac

~ Charlie

[Rodgre]

I've been wondering for a while where I could find DIP INA217 op-amps to make up a quick and cheap 8-channel pre, and like the rest, I see that Mouser doesn't stock it, and I'm not about to order enough to make it worth their while.

Does anyone have a source for these?

Roger

[mcasey1]

I think I'm gonna buy the full Baby Animal 4 Channel Kit with the Chassis and all the parts.  4 channels for less than $1000, and it looks like a nice solid design that will offer that transformer-based pre sound along with nice fidelity and DI.  Got the pad, 48V, and phase reversal options, prebuilt power supply, pre-drilled chassis.  Just buy and assemble.  Looks like a good deal to me.  Its what I'm most heavily leaning towards now.

[Pushtone]

That looks like a good one! $250.00 a channel!
http://www.jlmaudio.com/Baby_Animal_Mic_Pre.htm

Looks like they have their own discreet op amp in an epoxy block. Does JLM make that themselves?

Thanks, I didn't know about it.

[Red2112]

You could consider the new Joemeek stuff. I have the Joemeek Six Q and very happy with it 

The SPL Gold Channel is also cool, even dough they are out of production now, you can still find them.

Aphex 207 pre is good too.

Good luck!


Mike

[Joe Kramer]

This stuff has always looked good to me:

http://www.hamptone.com/index.html

More than you want to spend right now, but maybe in the future. . . .

Regards,
Joe

[Minion]

If you are in the US or Canada you can get the INA217 Mic preamp chips directly from TI.....They sent me 12 of them as free samples and I have just finnished building a 2 ch mic preamp that uses them and it sound extremely good....

I basicly used the Datasheet Curcuit for the Mic preamp accept I added a couple ferrite beads at the input for RF/EMI interferance supression and I added a Ballanced Line driver at the output to get a ballanced output signal and I also used the DC Ofset controll loop feature and the Hot plugging protection feature......

These Preamp sound quite well but if you really wanted to Juice them up you could add an Input and output transformer ......


Cheers

[vanessa]

If you want an excellent mic pre for a number of applications and you are on a budget I would recommend the SSL 9000 DIY preamp project. You could build 4, possibly 8 high end pre channels for under $100-150 depending on the rack case you get. It only uses one transformer for power (about $35 at Digikey). That helps big time with keeping the cost down for a preamp project.
You could build only one channel but the question would be why? If you can get 4 or 8 channels of high end preamp for that little of an investment I would say do it!  There's also the Green Pre. In a shootout I have read that they sound very close. The SSL would have a better resale value should you need to sell it at a later date.

Here's the PDF for the project:

http://www.studio21.ch/diy/neeno/ssl9k/DIY_9k_Preamp.pdf

I believe that there is a couple schematic issues but the PCB's are correct. There's also a gain switch mod that would be worth adding. More information over here:

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8852&highlight=ssl+9000