The Steel Guitar Forum

API is great--I hire in 312's and 550's a lot. Definitely punchy for drums especially.

I'd still take the Neves in an either/or situation.

YMMV

I just find that the API has better punch in the low end. To me the Neve 1073 has sort of a flabby low end. It's softer sounding. There's an ex Neve guy in California who makes a custom output amplifier for the 1073 that fixes that, I think the company is called Phoenix Audio. When I saw this guy's web site I knew I wasn't nuts. What I'd like to get my hands on is a Neve 1081 strip. That is supposedly the cream of the crop of Neve modules, but I have never tried one.

I think this thread is gonna get locked, because it's turning into an English vs American battle of the mic preamps. Are you a studio guy, Greg?

John, I'll send you an email tomorrow, Are you the guy on the Fessenden site?

Pheonix Audio makes a 2 channel mic pre/EQ. A friend has it and raves about it. It's based on Neve.

A studio guy? Who isn't these days,
It reminds me of a saying someone said when
the adat came out,
The good thing about the adat is everybody
has exposure to one, and
The bad thing about adat is everyone has
exposure to one,
By the way John, didn't you call those the
"lockless monstar's" one time?
Thanx for the insight on those classic
pre amps, I would love to put one in front
of my old Ampex, Greg

Old Ampex! Fill us in.

Yeah, we named them the Lockless Monsters....

I think Greg has a 2" 16 track. I am getting ready to restore a MM1100 16 myself.

I still think Paris is the closest thing to analog I have heard.

Mine's a 1" 8 track, I suppose I could add
the other modules , it has the room for it,
I believe ATR services Ampex, I can cut
beds on it now and throw them right into
the computer, The old Ampex's transport is
a little hard on tape, but maybe the finest sounding modules on the planet,
John I guess that means You'll have
pro (Tape) tools (Razor) ! Greg