What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

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garrettmiller
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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by garrettmiller » Sat May 29, 2010 8:30 pm

Hey ck Happy (soon to be) birthday!

+ 1 on the preamp. Since you already have a tube pre, I recommend get something clean like one of these: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/m101/

along with the apogee duet.


I have one of the older models from grace design. No frills, just clean. Sounds great with acoustic guitar...



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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by Kolstad » Sun May 30, 2010 12:35 am

Allthough the Twin Infinity looks nice, it's on the UA budget line. The Great River is a tried and tested workhorse pre and sound great on everything, so it wouldn't be a match, if I had your opportunity.

But you should hear them, of course.
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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by ckbarlow » Sun May 30, 2010 6:15 am

thesongcabinet wrote:Allthough the Twin Infinity looks nice, it's on the UA budget line. The Great River is a tried and tested workhorse pre and sound great on everything, so it wouldn't be a match, if I had your opportunity.

But you should hear them, of course.
Hmm... well, one thing I've said is that at this point, I don't want to compromise. I would rather spend on the "one great thing."

That said, would the Twinfinity sound "budget"? The next UA device up looks to be the LA-610 Mk II, which at roughly double the price includes EQ and compression, such that we're comparing apples and oranges (pure preamp vs. channel strip).

Would the Great River be as versatile in tone range as the Twinfinity is set up to be?

I could certainly ask my Sweetwater rep what it would take to try them both.

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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by mazz » Sun May 30, 2010 7:24 am

I doubt the UA would sound "budget", it's going to be head's and shoulders above the ART, that's for sure. UA doesn't really make budget quality gear, particularly when you consider you can get a tube preamp from ART or others for less than 100 bucks and the entry level device from UA is several times that. You get what you pay for! I'm a big UA fan from using their UAD cards and I also like that their lineage is from their father, Bill Putnam, who was a pioneer in recording and they've incorporated his designs from 50+ years ago into all of their gear, because those designs are tried and true and they still sound fantastic.

The question really becomes: Do you want to add the "vibe" to your recordings during the recording or after? With the UA, you have the choice by dialing in some of the tube sound sometimes and also having the ultra clean solid state sound and a continuously variable mix of the two in between. With the Great River, you'll get a very clean recording and then you can put whatever vibey stuff you want to during the mix. You can't go wrong either way, it's just really more about how you want to work and at what point do you make those coloration decisions.

With either one, your mics will sound better than you ever thought they could, they're both a big step up in quality from what you've been using.
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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by Len911 » Sun May 30, 2010 9:18 am

Just my 2 cents. If I was going to choose between the twin finity or the Green River, and without hearing them, I would choose the Green River. I think both are offering color, but I agree more in the design philosophy of the gr, use of the class A transistor and transformer saturation, versus a fet i saw mentioned in the twinfin. FETs are fine but they have a fuzzy warmth, and I would prefer a cleaner warmth. For a preamp I would much prefer accuracy first, and effect as a secondary benefit, rather than effect first and accuracy second, as a focus. Versatility depends on how many of the "settings" you might actually use or are useable. I have a button on my api preamp where I can saturate the transformer, so I can relate more to the gr, as far as that goes. I used to read gear literature more for what they said they did, and skim over the "how they did it", but I quickly learned to pay more attention on how they did it, because that is more revealing to me on how well and how long I am going to be satisfied with the end product. I don't think you are going to find a world of difference though myself whichever one you choose, but that said, it is that small little difference sometimes that will nag you to death, and cause you to spend a lot of money that is hard to justify,lol!!
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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by ckbarlow » Sun May 30, 2010 10:00 am

I'm seeing more and more reviewers and users refer to the GR as their desert-island preamp. And my perspective at the moment is "spend on one great thing," period. It's not that money is no object; it is. But I can handle that.

I'm confident that either would be great. Leaning back toward GR. :-)

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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by matto » Sun May 30, 2010 10:03 am

I think it's important to keep things in perspective...

Cause there's always something more expensive, esoteric and "boutique" that you could buy...

But the simple bottom line is that, if you can't get a killer guitar sound with either of these pres, it's not gonna be the pre's fault...

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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by ckbarlow » Sun May 30, 2010 1:07 pm

matto wrote:I think it's important to keep things in perspective...

Cause there's always something more expensive, esoteric and "boutique" that you could buy...

But the simple bottom line is that, if you can't get a killer guitar sound with either of these pres, it's not gonna be the pre's fault...
Party pooper! Just kidding. And you're absolutely right. In fact I just a few minutes ago did a simple jazz-type rhythm part using my '63 Granada thru the $40 TubeMP, and it sounds pretty cool. ;)

I'm well aware that I'm not Satriani, Matto. I also know that I'm tired of investing in compromises.

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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by ckbarlow » Sun May 30, 2010 1:29 pm

matto wrote:I think it's important to keep things in perspective...

Cause there's always something more expensive, esoteric and "boutique" that you could buy...

But the simple bottom line is that, if you can't get a killer guitar sound with either of these pres, it's not gonna be the pre's fault...

What preamp(s) do you use when mic'ing an acoustic guitar, Matto?

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Re: What should I get for my birthday???? eeeee!

Post by matto » Sun May 30, 2010 1:37 pm

LOL I didn't mean the playing so much as to say:

These are both great pres. If you don't get a killer guitar sound with either one of them, then you very very likely also wouldn't with the other. It would then be time to look at the other links in the chain, including mics, the guitar(s) itself/themselves (some great sounding guitars don't record particularly well), and your engineering chops.

IMHO the best results are acheived (without completely breaking the bank) when all the links in your recording chain are at about the same level of quality.

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