These audio examples accompany my review of the Soyuz Lakeside preamp from SOS June 2025 issue.
www.soundonsound.com/reviews/soyuz-lakeside
To help inform my review, I performed several A/B tests using a good-quality splitter to send the output of a microphone simultaneously to two preamps, allowing me to compare the Soyuz against the preamps of my Audient ASP8024 mixing desk (which have a reputation as good, clean and relatively affordable preamps).
It was interesting to observe the subtle — and sometimes unsubtle! — differences between the two, so I thought it might be useful to share those test recordings. The examples are numbered sequentially at the beginning of the filename, while the suffix at the end denotes which preamp you’re hearing.
01_Electric GTR_Lake
For my first test, I reamped a DI guitar part and used a Shure SM58 mic to capture a heavily distorted sound from a Fender Supersonic amp going into an Orange 4x10 cab. The mic was pointed just off the centre of the speaker cone, and I had the high-pass filter set at 55Hz for this example.
02_Electric GTR_Aud
The same guitar part through my console preamp, with no additional processing.
03_Snare Top_Lake
This is how the Lakeside sounded when an amplifying an SM57 top-snare mic. For this example, I liked how the filter sounded two clicks above the 55Hz setting. In fact, this preamp worked very well for me on drums in a number of sessions.
04_Snare Top_Aud
The same mic and performance through my desk preamps. If you take a look at the waveforms in your DAW, you can clearly see how the Lakeside is ‘levelling off’ the dynamic range of the snare hits.
05_Drum Overhead_Lake
Staying on drums for this example, I wanted to demonstrate how the Lakeside can be used to add more of an obvious saturation effect. The mic was an AKG C414 B-ULS, positioned directly above the kit at a height of around one metre from the snare drum.
06_Drum Overhead_Aud
The Audient preamp, as a point of reference.
07_Acoustic Guitar_Lake
Things are a lot more subtle in this example, in which the Lakeside was paired with a Soyuz 011 small-diagram capacitor microphone to record a very quiet finger-picked acoustic guitar part.
08_Acoustic Guitar_Aud
The Audient mic preamp used on the same source.
09_Female Vox_Lake
Another example that highlights the subtle differences between mic preamps when used at ‘non-driven’ levels. Thanks to folk singer Naomi Randall for providing this quick vocal example, captured using a vintage Neumann U87.
10_Female Vox_Aud
Finally, the Audient preamp on the same source.