Nate Najar wrote:
So I've spent most of the day experimenting with mic placement and
preamp usage for recording my nylon string guitar. I own a mackie onyx
board, presonus blue tube 2 channel pre, dbx386 pre going into an
maudio pro tools setup. I've kind of settled on an oktava 012 for the
mic, although based on some suggestions here I'm going to audition both
a josephson and a schoeps for future use. I only have the cardioid
capsule but I've just ordered the omni from the soundroom so I'll try
that out when it gets here. First observation, presonus blue tube
suckks ass. I never realized how bad it was. Not much gain and very
very noisy. Kind of dull sounding too, in a noisy way. 2nd
observation, dbx pre is very very quiet, but still not much gain and
it's a bit muddy sounding. The pres in the onyx board have the most
gain, are the quietest and have the most clarity. By far the best of
the lot.

Interesting report, thanks. I've only compared my Onyx to significantly
more expensive external preamps and thus have not really appreciated its
preamps as much as I might.



I think I'll ebay the presonus and dbx and pick up a pari
of RNP's and maybve a single channel Grace. I'd like to be able to try
them out first but enough of you here have said good things about both
so i bet I'll be in good shape.

You won't regret it, though I predict it will make your Onyx preamps
seem a little thin by comparison ;