Groove Tubes - The Brick

Your problem, though, will be that you probably won’t be able to try out dozens of pre amps through every price range, and possibly, find an inexpensive nugget. Having said that, I can say, with all confidence, that the finest sounding pre amp for vocals (under $1,000) I’ve ever used is a little box called The Brick. Made by Groove Tubes, it’s an all tube mic preamp, and best of all, it costs only $400. I try not to make too many definitive statements, though I feel pretty confident that The Brick will always be my favorite preamp under $1,000. Unfortunately, I can’t say whether it will sound great with every voice.

Presonus - Comp16

The cool thing about it, for us tweekers is that we can swap out several different tubes in the pre for different tones (some for brighter sounds, others for darker tones). But a tube mic pre will always have a slower, less defined transient response, so it’s not always suited for everyone’s voice. One downside to The Brick is it only has one knob, “gain.” There’s not a lot of control over how hard you can push the tubes, unless you can provide another gain/attenuation stage after The Brick (a compressor or equalizer). Thus your solution requires another investment, like a cheap EQ or compressor, which will run you between $150 & $300, pushing your $400 mic pre to around $600 or $700.

FMR Audio - RNC1773

The Brick is a solid, well-built, high-quality mic pre made in the U.S.A. with the best parts available.  And it’s what I’d get if I were on a budget and starting from scratch.  Then I’d probably get a Presonus Comp 16 compressor (because it has balanced ins & outs) for $159 or an FMR Audio RNC1773 (unbalanced, but a great sounding compressor) for $199 to control the volume.  Keep in mind you’ll also have to buy good quality patch cables to go between the boxes (another $20 to $40).  And none of these items are rack mountable (they’ll just sit on your table).

Joe Meek - SixQ

Now, if what you want a sub $500 mic pre that does it all and does it all pretty well, the Joe Meek SixQ, mic preamp, compressor and EQ at $499 is a damn good bargain. I don’t think it sounds nearly as interesting as The Brick but it is a quality channel strip and it is very flexible. It uses Burr-Brown Op amps (made in Tucson, AZ) and features separate EQ and compressor stages, both designed by Fletcher Electronics in Torquay, England. This preamp also has a nifty button on the front panel called “Iron.” It sends a bit more voltage to the transformers, making it sound a little fatter a little more “British” (like a Neve or a Trident)–not half bad.

My last mic preamp recommendation would be the $700 Toft EC-1. Again, the Toft uses Burr-Brown Op amps, with an all British design (by Malcolm Toft, the man who designed all those Trident mixing consoles in the 70′s) and made in China. I actually think the preamp section of both the Joe Meek and the Toft sound identical as far as quality of sound goes, with the nod going to the Joe Meek because of the “Iron” button (adds more flexibility). But the EQ part of the Toft preamp is some of the best sounding analog EQs I’ve heard in any channel strip under $2000—I believe it sounds better and is more useful than the EQ in my Avalon.  But if you’re using this mic pre primarily for your vocals, you probably won’t be using a lot of EQ.

Toft - EC-1

The reason I don’t mention any ART pre amps is because I haven’t found them to meet my needs sonically with the projects I’ve worked on over the last five years, and I don’t think they sound any better than an M-Audio box. I think people like them because they’re so forgiving.  Being tube preamps, you can push them into peak levels and they just give you that warm, pleasant, even order, harmonic distortion. They’re not very detailed or present.  On the other hand, your voice could very well be one that just sounds great through it.  Though any of my three recommendations are for a mic preamp that would not just be really useful for vocals, but also for acoustic guitar, electric bass and guitar, piano, finger cymbals, hand claps, congas, mandolin, just about anything!

And by the way, if you decide that you’re willing to spend more than $1,000 for a mic preamp, then your options will get much bigger.  I’ll address that cornucopia of options in my next article… Mic Preamps Pt. II.

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