In October's SOS, we set out to see how much of a difference the choice of mic preamp made in one real-world recording situation: recording a close-miked grand piano. Thanks to Jonathan Dodd's Realpiano service, we were able to use a Yamaha Disklavier player piano to reproduce the same performance very precisely over and over again. This was recorded 24 times, through three different stereo mic arrays and eight different preamps.

Subscribers can read the full article here, and the files are available for everyone to download here. The catch is that all reference to the name of the preamp has been removed from the files, to make it a true blind test -- until now!

Many SOS readers and forum users have now downloaded the files and given us their opinions. The overwhelming verdict is that the differences are very slight, and many people felt that they could not reliably tell them apart in a blind test. However, many other people did have favourites. Hugh Robjohns collated readers' opinions and created a rating system based on these positive and negative comments. Each preamp/mic combination is given a score, though it should be pointed out that this is not at all scientific! The table below also lists the number of respondents who rated each preamp/mic combination as their favourite, and summarises some of the subjective comments that have been made about the sound. Thanks for listening!

The table below also lists the number of respondents who rated each preamp/mic combination as their favourite, and summarises the subjective comments that have been made about the sound. Thanks for listening!

Round 1: Preamp letter codes for the Brauner mic files:

A - ART Pro MPA II Rating: 7.5 Chosen as Favourite: 5 times
Comments: Smooth tubey top end, neutral and rich, especially roasty, more warmth and body

B - AMS Neve 1073LB Rating: 3.4 Chosen as Favourite: 1 times
Comments: Classy vintage sound, too strident in midrange, veiled top end, rich mids and lows, brittle, sounded grainy

C - API 3124+ Rating: 2.9 Chosen as Favourite: 0 times
Comments: Vague, dreamy, a touch boxy, slightly harsh midrange, disliked, clean but smooth, strident

D - Mackie VLZ Pro Rating: 6.8 Chosen as Favourite: 2 times
Comments: Not much character, big bottom end

E - SSL XLogic VHD Pre Rating: 6.5 Chosen as Favourite: 4 times
Comments: Clean, accurate, neutral, more transparent, warm lows, more depth and evenness, brittle, less solid, little dull, most information and naturalness

F - GP Electronics PML200E Rating: 4.2 Chosen as Favourite: 1 times
Comments: Dark, slightly plasticky, close and intimate

G - Maselec MMX-4XR Rating: 6.4 Chosen as Favourite: 2 times
Comments: Clean, accurate and neutral, muffled top end, slightly distant, smooth character, sharper transients

H - Prism Sound Orpheus Rating: 6 Chosen as Favourite: 4 times
Comments: Sounds more stereo, zingy, closed in, veiled or murky, prominent low end, smooth
character, more clarity and separation, smooth without sounding dull, disliked and would
avoid

Round 2: preamp letter codes for Sennheiser MKH20s

A - GP Electronics PML200E Rating: 5 Chosen as Favourite: 2 times
Comments: No particular sound, warm clean and detailed, on the dull side, probably txfm-less

B - ART Pro MPA II Rating: 7.4 Chosen as Favourite: 3 times
Comments: Intimate, can hear further in, more depth and ambience, sounds more musical and dynamic (same preamp as Brauner A and Royer D?), most information and naturalness

C - Maselec MMA-4XR Rating: 3.5 Chosen as Favourite: 1 times
Comments: Slightly hard midrange, Mackie/ART?, slightly dull

D - AMS Neve 1073LB Rating: 5 Chosen as Favourite: 1 times
Comments: Neutral, natural, rich quality

E - SSL XLogic VHD Rating: 5.5 Chosen as Favourite: 1 times
Comments: Intimate, great clarity, nothing objectionable

F - Prism Sound Orpheus Rating: 7 Chosen as Favourite: 1 times
Comments: Warm, close and detailed, best overall balance, slightly dull

G - Mackie VLZ Pro Rating: 5.6 Chosen as Favourite: 0 times
Comments: Warm and intimate, detailed, ART/Mackie?, sharp in the mids, probably txfr-less

H - API 3124+ Rating: 5.5 Chosen as Favourite: 1 times
Comments: Rich mids, nice frequency balance, not as detailed, possibly Mackie?

Round 3: Preamp letter codes for Royer SF12

A - Mackie VLZ Pro Rating: 3.8 Chosen as Favourite: 0 times
Comments: Less detailed, slight edge, not as detailed, slightly dull, Neve/API?

B - Maselec MMA-4XR Rating: 3.5 Chosen as Favourite: 0 times
Comments: Shrill top notes, slightly dull, bad!

C - Prism Sound Orpheus Rating: 6.8 Chosen as Favourite: 2 times
Comments: Warmer bottom end, delicacy, nicest so far, very accurate and fast, deep and tight lows, neutral, Maselec?

D - SSL XLogic VHD Rating: 6.6 Chosen as Favourite: 3 times
Comments: Delicate, Intimate, Richness, more detail, least natural (same preamp as Brauner A and MKH B?), delicate, precise, detailed and warm

E - API 3124+ Rating: 3.8 Chosen as Favourite: 1 times
Comments: Less detailed, slightly dull, nice colour, valve preamp?

F - GP Electronics PML200E Rating: 5.6 Chosen as Favourite: 1 times
Comments: Detailed yet neutral, midrange richness, slight edge, slightly dull

G - AMS Neve 1073LB Rating: 6.4 Chosen as Favourite: 3 times
Comments: Less detailed, slight edge, clearer, bright and clean with more dynamics, Neve/API?

H - ART Pro MPA II Rating: 5.6 Chosen as Favourite: 2 times
Comments: Shrill and slightly harsh, bright clear and dynamic

Well, it seems to me that one of the reasons for having a high end pre is that you can get a lot of different tones out of it depending on how you drive it. API's for instance are famous for having a warm mildly distorted sound, if you drive them hard using the pad, which is why they're great on rock vocals, and if you don't can be very clean if that's what you want. So, not really getting the point of this 'test'.

The 'point' as was made pretty clear in the article and the follow-up piece, was to show that even budget preamps perform extremely well, and are certainly not a hindrance to capturing excellent recordings.

The impetus for the feature was the continual claims seen, and 'advice' posed, that you must have an API or a Neve (or whatever) preamp to make decent recordings. And that claim just doesnt stand up to scrutinee. The biggest hindrance is more typically the recording venue acoustics, the recording techniques, or the performance itself. The preamp is never the weakest link these days, although sure, some nice preamps do nice things when deliberately pushed (abused? ), and that point was recognised.

H

--------------------
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Very interesting results
having just glanced through this months magazine I was interested in the article on miking up drum kits, I was especially interested in the higher end mics that were used on the kit, I cant afford 1 AKG414 let alone 2 used on the snare so what about doing a similar test using lower cost microphones on a drum kit.