I have several because I record all kinds of different instruments, and things like drums need more channels. I like having the variety, for some things I like to take advantage of the different features each of them have. For home users, if they really want something fancy a single channel of Neve (or dual channel if they ever stereo mic) is usually plenty. If you get into room mics or recording multiple sources at once, then it's more fun to have more variety (than banks of 8 reliable but boring similar pres).
I've gone into other studios and just used the desk preamps for everything, Im not really too precious about it. But if there is something cool and available there, it's also more inspiring to plug into. Its similar with guitar amps and other gear too - a Bugera might be hard to pick out against
a Marshall but I know what I'd rather use.
I agree here, but I also think the best sounding records were, and still are, made with big budgets by teams of professionals in the best environments. I think it's amazing that gear is so accessible to anyone now, and that anyone can make music anywhere that can be really successful. Tons of chart stuff is done on pretty basic gear and often in hotel rooms or at writing camps hosted in all kinds of locations. I dont think the abundance of cheap gear has necessarily led to better sounding music, but it has allowed for a lot of things to be possible that probably wouldn't have been feasible otherwise.
I'm not sure the gear has ever really been the barrier too, so much great stuff has been done by breaking the rules and using whatever was available to capture inspired moments of genius.
This post makes a lot of sense to me; I feel the same way.
Even in the early 2010's semi-pro-consumer audio interfaces were perfectly flat, distortion-free, and available for hobbyist prices, Focusrite Saffire series for example.
This test pretty much confirms to me that I don't need an expensive mic preamp, any additional character/coloration can be easily added in DAW with greater control or removed with a click of a button.
Well, they weren't perfectly flat, distortion free and available for hobbyist prices and still aren't; for example, the mic preamps on my highly regarded Universal Audio Apollo are still far more easily overloaded by a dynamic vocal than, say, my SPL preamp with its 30 volt rails. And when the UA preamps overload the distortion sounds...blecccchhhh.
Headroom matters; most people don't even look for that in the specs when shopping because they don't know they need to.
Then there's the question of how distortion comes into play when it does on certain preamps. Is it going to be hash and crap, or is it going to be creamy and add to the vibe? Again, that doesn't show in a spec sheet. Check a BAE 1073 clone against something that comes on a converter box like the Apollo with its software, or via a plugin. It's not difficult to hear the difference. It's real.
Pertinent to this demo, I think perhaps the least revealing, and therefore not the best test for a mic and preamp, might be an overdriven guitar amplifier.
There's very little dynamic range and tons of distortion in the source. Coloration under the circumstances is nearly irrelevant, the amp is so highly colored, and yes, things can be adjusted with plugins in these cases.
These picture changes when other sources come into play.
A more revealing test would be an acoustic instrument with wide dynamic range - for example, a classical grand piano - or a great singer.
If you cut vocal tracks and acoustic instruments, you find that the mic preamp makes a substantial difference; lesser preamps create artifacts and issues that aren't easily 'fixed in the mix'.
Moreover, the goal is usually to be able to achieve a desired sound each step along the way, starting with the microphone and associated mic preamp (as well as cables, but I'll leave that out for purposes of this discussion).
Sometimes, it's true, you want to futz with a vocal, go for something different, highly colored or distorted. Great!
But there are times you want to have the vocal pop out of the speakers as beautiful as you can make it, to bring out the emotion and beauty of some aspects of the voice and performance, or the nuance of the player on an acoustic instrument.
That becomes a horse of a different color. If the vocal is powerful and has a lot of dynamics, or the instrument, you don't want the preamp to overload, yet you want it to be hot enough to reveal its character.
Try recording an opera singer at full tilt with a shit preamp. You'll regret it very quickly. Same thing happens with pop vocals, though perhaps in a more easy or forgiving context.
That's when you want a very good mic preamp, something perhaps a little special, something that can help support the voice the way a great amp supports a guitar signal.
I've never regretted buying a great mic preamp or a great mic (or a great amp, for that matter). And I know for a fact that at a certain point, for the most part you do get what you pay for.
In the 37 or so years I've been recording professionally, some of the things I've learned are that if you really want what you record to 'sound like a record', and you have skill at recording and mixing, the right tool for the job is usually the most professional tool you can get.
Yes, records and hits are made with lesser gear every day. Great. They're working with the power of the song and I'll admit that's most important. But it never hurts to have fine gear on tap, if that's what the creative object requires.
It's a big 'if', of course, and it's why all of our takes on recording are different. I know in my work, however, that at the very least good vocalist deserves and benefits from a great mic and mic preamp, not because people's eyeballs need to pop at the appearance of the studio, but because they need to pop when they hear the mix. So having good gear matters.
It's also wonderful to be able to record and get a great performance, knowing that the mic preamp has plenty of headroom, but if it overloads, it'll do so very gently. If the vocalist gets a little too close to the mic, the recording still sounds good, and maybe the gear even adds a little good vibe.
That's when gear pays for itself, and in my humble opinion, it's what separates the heavy hitters from the lightweights.
If you believe that the Telefunken preamps that came in the old EMI consoles can be duplicated with a computer interface and a plugin, I can tell you from long experience with both, dream on.
