View other reviews for this product:
peepsaudio
Published on 09/11/08 at 06:34
This is a little one channel tube preamp made by Behringer. There are no effects other than gain and a built-in limiter. There are a couple other features though. There is a 20dB pad in case you have a very hot signal that is clipping even with the gain all the way down. There is a switch for phantom power for condenser mics. There is a switch for phase reversal if you are doing multi-miking or stereo miking. Then there is a switch to engage the limiter if you want it. The gain is controlled in two stages - a tube gain stage, and then an output stage with another 10db of gain and attenuation down to 0. The connections are XLR mic connectors. It is not rackable, it is a small table-top preamp. It is powered by a 9V wall wart plug.
UTILIZATION
This preamp is very, very easy to use. The controls are very simple so you pretty much just plug it in, decide which features you want engaged, and fiddle with the gains from there. The manual does explain everything it can do, though there is not much documentation necessary because the device is pretty simple.
SOUND QUALITY
This preamp does color your sound a bit, it's not a very transparent pre-amp. It seems to make things sound a little bit crispier and thinner. It sounds pretty good for electric guitars, but not so good for something that is generally more full featured like lead vocals. Overall I was impressed with its sound considering it's from Behringer, but you definitely don't want to use this on anything with a wide frequency spectrum because this will mess with the sound too much.
OVERALL OPINION
I used this at a studio about a year ago. I liked what it does to electric guitars, it definitely helped the sound for the track we were recording. It made them more raw and present. I don't like what it does to most other sources, because the coloration usually seems detrimental. I have used a lot of preamps. This one is very cheap, so if you want a starter preamp and you'll be recording a lot of distorted guitars, you may want to consider this one. I wouldn't buy one for my own.
UTILIZATION
This preamp is very, very easy to use. The controls are very simple so you pretty much just plug it in, decide which features you want engaged, and fiddle with the gains from there. The manual does explain everything it can do, though there is not much documentation necessary because the device is pretty simple.
SOUND QUALITY
This preamp does color your sound a bit, it's not a very transparent pre-amp. It seems to make things sound a little bit crispier and thinner. It sounds pretty good for electric guitars, but not so good for something that is generally more full featured like lead vocals. Overall I was impressed with its sound considering it's from Behringer, but you definitely don't want to use this on anything with a wide frequency spectrum because this will mess with the sound too much.
OVERALL OPINION
I used this at a studio about a year ago. I liked what it does to electric guitars, it definitely helped the sound for the track we were recording. It made them more raw and present. I don't like what it does to most other sources, because the coloration usually seems detrimental. I have used a lot of preamps. This one is very cheap, so if you want a starter preamp and you'll be recording a lot of distorted guitars, you may want to consider this one. I wouldn't buy one for my own.