Interesting Hybrid mic/DI preamp

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 11 Nov 2006 11:35 pm

I saw this Studio Projects zZounds preamp.

Looks interesting, and an interesting concept.
Plus the price is right $99
http://www.zzounds.com/item--STUVTB1

So you can be straight opAmp or straight tube,
or a blended combination.

I think this is the same guys making the C1 mic.

Anybody try one of these.

I just got email back from them.
They won't sell me one, to be sent to Thailand...
Not at all happy about that.
Must be sent to 'verfied' USA adress whatever THAT means.
Of course double the shipping costs.[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 12 November 2006 at 11:34 PM.]

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 13 Nov 2006 7:26 am

Hi David,
I bought one right after they came out, I think were $129 bucks then. I like it, seems plenty quiet, even with a good bit of gain.

I didn't find the tube effect to be all that 'special' although it does sound different and the variable blend of the tube circuit into the output is a nice touch.

I tend to use it in the full counter clock-wise position (more like a wire with gain mode). It matches well with C1, no surprise there...

Good value I think... I may pick up a second one and buy the little 19" rack adapter that holds two. Wall wart power BTW...

Edited to add, I like it for DI bass guitar as well.[This message was edited by Bill Terry on 13 November 2006 at 07:28 AM.]

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 13 Nov 2006 11:09 am

I can buy one and ship it to you if you want--just let me know...

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 14 Nov 2006 6:38 am

David,
Even though it is a shameless plug, if you want the best in DI boxes, I reccomend the TD1, a product from the company I work for.
We ship worldwide http://www.mil-media.com/docs/products/td1.shtml
It will work for vocals, bass, guitar, or anything else you want to plug into it.
Jay
edited for spelling[This message was edited by Jay Fagerlie on 14 November 2006 at 06:38 AM.]

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 14 Nov 2006 6:55 pm

Hey Jay, wow!! that looks great.. How many can I get for 99 bucks???

Seriously, nice looking pre/DI. It looks like it's also got a speaker level in? So it can do the 'power soak' thing as well? Nice...

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 14 Nov 2006 8:10 pm

Hey Jay,

Do we get any steel guitar discounts???

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 15 Nov 2006 1:14 am

Nice looking little DI box.
I have an Avalon U5 which I like a lot,
but this box is pretty cool.

Interesting controls and input choices too.
I wonder how it works with a Revelation preamp?

John M., I may take you up on that offer next month.

It seems like a nice preamp especially for the price.
For me either it sounds good or it don't.

I love the top end Avalon and Manely stuff,
but the prices are too esoteric for me...

I just did a Shineybox lead guitar recording last night.
It was on different tracks either 3 feet away,
or 1.5 feet away with a Pearl C-22
up and 6 feet back on another tracks.

In general Roland prefered the Pearl back, but the Shineybox did nice ambience.

There was a hard rock guitar trio from the 80's that had this same sound. Interesting.
I can't remember the name, sort of like the Clash, but not The Clash. The.... ???

A really massive Black Sabbath type sound.[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 15 November 2006 at 01:15 AM.]

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 15 Nov 2006 6:40 am

Bill, the speaker in is not actually a 'soak', it is designed to be used in parallel with a speaker cabinet. In other words, you can't plug a tube amp into this thing and crank it then use the TD1 to lower the output level. It was designed to extract the sound from the speaker level signal. Mellennia Media is all about the accurate capturing of sound, not about coloring it.
For a project studio, the TD1 is a killer product- it is basically an Millennia Origin without the compressor.

Allright, enough of the commercial, now back to our scheduled topic

Jay

PS No steel guitar player discount-but I'm working on it!!!

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 15 Nov 2006 8:19 am

Jay. It's cool to know that you work for Millennia. Fantastic stuff.

David D.,

That little preamp you mention in this thread appears to be typical of many cheap preamps. It's actually a pretty cheap solid state preamp. The tube circuit is a starved voltage tube circuit that is designed to have some dirt to its sound. You aren't really given the option of a pure tube preamp in there, it's basically a solid state device that will let you blend in some lo-fi tube dirt with it. That seems to be the case with every one of these cheap little "tube" preamps. I'm not saying that it won't sound ok, but it's not really going to offer a good clean tube preamp sound.

Brad

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 15 Nov 2006 9:08 am

Well Brad, I might disagree with the word 'cheap'... inexpensive maybe???

There is a subtle difference.

I agree it's not an Avalon, but not everybody can spend 2K or 3K on a pre, and IMO, you can do worse.. Yes, the starved tube thing is kinda common, but I find it more useful in the 'solid state mode' anyway. It's not the only pre I have, but it is quite usable.

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 15 Nov 2006 10:53 am

Brad I suspected as much.
Blend in etc.

I am waitin' on you making a simple clean tube mic pre to line.
as a cojoint for the Revalation...
HINT HINT.... !
D