Any recommendations for mic preamp (vocals into FM9)?

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Olli_A

Member
I just got the news that I'll be getting my FM9 in August. One thing I'm going to do with it is use it as a vocal processor for some gigs. I'm now looking for a small footprint vocal preamp or similar solution to get that mic signal into FM9. If anyone is doing this already, what are you using?

I came across some options. Cheap small footprint vocal preamps:

Behringer MIC300
Art Tube MP project series
Art Dual Pre USB
Art Tube MP/C
Art Tube MP Studio V3
Rolls MP 13

And couple of more expensive ones:

Eventide Mixing Link
JHS Pedals Color Box V2
Radial Engineering Vocoloco

Some of these are just never heard stuff for me. The cheap ones are kinda interesting cause I don't think I need anything too fancy for live setting, just as long as it doesn't degrade the signal/sound and doesn't add noise. Of course if it adds some vocal preamp goodness into the sound then its a bonus. The ART stuff is just confusing cause they seem to have a bunch of products out doing basically the same thing. I don't know which one to look at.

The expensive ones are interesting cause they can have other uses as well. The Color box V2 is a Neve preamp imitation, so if it is actually any good then I could also record vocals at home through it. But it is getting mixed reviews and is expensive.

Eventide Mixing Link seems super interesting, because it seems like a swiss army knife for connecting stuff. It can be the vocal preamp I'm looking for, and also be a DI box or ABY box for example. Also could use it to connect just about any guitar effects into vocal signals, or put HX stomp into its loop for vocal processing. Very flexible. Radial Vocoloco seems to do basically same thing, maybe not all of it I'm not sure, but very similar + additionally some simple EQ in there too.

Anyone have experience on any of these? Or other suggestions on how to connect vocal mic into FM9? Is preamp even really necessary, should I just use one of those xlr to 1/4" cables and plug that into one of the inputs and then boost the signal in FM9?
 
Thanks for the replies! That Shure A85F seems like the most simple and cheap solution to get the job done, and won't take any space on the pedal board either. If it works well and sounds good, it would be a no brainer.

My vocal mic currently is Sennheiser E935 but I'm just now upgrading to Shure KSM9 SH, which is basically a condenser mic designed for gigging. If it sounds good for my voice I'll be keeping it, will find out when the shipment arrives. So I would rather not degrade the vocal signal path.
 
Olli_A said:
Anyone have experience on any of these? Or other suggestions on how to connect vocal mic into FM9? Is preamp even really necessary, should I just use one of those xlr to 1/4" cables and plug that into one of the inputs and then boost the signal in FM9?
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With dynamic mic the preamp isn't necessary, you can boost in FM9. With condenser you will need some phantom power, a separate preamp or a mini mixer will do. Consider also the TC/Boss/... vocal stompbox just for phantom power (or additional eq/fx). I wish FM* had a separate mic input... ;)
 
I’d strongly recommend getting a real preamp. Using an adapter or cable (even the Shure impedance adapter) directly into the FM9 and is not unlike plugging your guitar straight into the FX return of an amp, bypassing the preamp! Will it make it loud enough? Sure… but if you’re after quality tone, “loud enough” is not really the only goal, is it? Lots of singer/guitarists spend a disproportionate amount of time and money on every detail of their guitar rig, without much regard to vocals. And for most genres of music, the vocals are the primary instrument in the band, right? Since you have invested good money in your guitar signal chain, check out a couple of studio-quality options in the same price range as the Eventide you were looking at:

Useful Arts Hornet (very pedalboard friendly): https://www.usefulartsaudio.com/hornet/

GAP Pre 73 Jr (based on the widely used Neve studio mic preamp): https://www.goldenageproject.com/outboard-hardware/preamps/pre-73-jr/
 
I just happen to have a GAP pre73 mk2 for sale if you’re interested. $250 shipped
the cool thing about Neve style pres is you can crank up the gain and the distortion will thicken your vocals. Think FM radio DJ voice tone.
 
I am in the same boat looking for suitable options. Getlostinthesound makes a solid point about getting a real pre, more so a nice one. We spend all this money on the best guitar technology, why not match that for the vocals…especially if you are the lead singer. I have tried some of the pedal options and the preamp is always the weakest link. So much that you are better off using the FOH pres/board. Fractal should make a singers edition, lol. World class effects with a killer preamp for vocalists would sell like hot cakes.

I am looking at small 500 racks. AML makes killer preamps and I am sure it would pair nicely with Fractal’s effects.
 
Again great responses and suggestions, thanks! I also came across another option to add for the list, for anyone else also looking for pedal board friendly vocal preamps for FM9.

Electro-Harmonix 12AY7, very compact size and some good reviews about sound quality

Also the GAP pre 73 JR that getlostinsound mentioned seems really interesting cause the jr model has different form factor than the usual GAP 73 model. Considering that FM9 is takes plenty of space sideways but is not very "tall", the jr model would fit nicely behind it on pedal board. There is also a "premier" version of the GAP pre 73, including the JR model, that is claimed to have improved noise and sound quality.

Also I really appreciate the vocal preamp having a low cut / high pass. Not necessary maybe, but TC Helicon Voicelive 3 doesn't have a low cut and it has come to annoy me a lot. For these preamps it's not an issue obviously since running it into FM9, but I still like to have that option there.

Edit: I'm very intrigued by GAP pre 73 JR now as it would double as a good preamp for home studio also. Something like Vocoloco, mixing link or one of the cheap preamps wouldn't do much good in that.
 
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Also one question about using a high quality pre for live gigs: Is it really going to make much difference in sound, when the sound is most likely going to go through soundboard preamps anyway, and they can be whatever quality. Even if I bring my high quality Neve preamp, it is still going through lesser quality mixer preamps after. And I don't know if there's even a possibility to bypass the mixer preamps. As far as I know, even the line inputs on mixers typically use pad and then go through the preamps anyway. I might be wrong about this tho.

Also then considering the room acoustics, loudspeakers, vocals sitting in the band mix and all, I doubt I myself can tell after all that whether my preamp is part of the signal chain or not lol. Maybe for acoustic gigs where vocals make up much bigger part of the total mix, it could be more noticeable.

So part of me is thinking that any good enough quality pre should do the job. And then on the other hand if I'm going to get a high quality pre like the GAP pre 73 premier for home studio, then why not use that also live then? But I probably wouldn't get such thing for only live use personally.
 
Olli_A said:
Also I really appreciate the vocal preamp having a low cut / high pass. Not necessary maybe, but TC Helicon Voicelive 3 doesn't have a low cut and it has come to annoy me a lot.
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I have the Voicelive 3 and it has a Lo Cut. Rather than use the baked in Tone settings switch
over to the Manual settings and in EQ you have the ability to set up a Lo Cut and Hi Cut.
 
la szum said:
I have the Voicelive 3 and it has a Lo Cut. Rather than use the baked in Tone settings switch
over to the Manual settings and in EQ you have the ability to set up a Lo Cut and Hi Cut.
Click to expand...
Really? I only have low gain, mid gain and high gain in there. What am I missing?
 

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That's it right there. It's all you need to surgically EQ your vocals. I shelve/cut the Low
around 120Hz massively.... like -20db... and then dial in your Mids with the Parametric,
and depending on the timbre of your voice boost or cut the Hi end.

I see you have it all flat--which won't do anything. Play around with Boosts in the Mids
and Cuts in the Lows. :)
 
la szum said:
That's it right there. It's all you need to surgically EQ your vocals. I shelve/cut the Low
around 120Hz massively.... like -20db... and then dial in your Mids with the Parametric,
and depending on the timbre of your voice boost or cut the Hi end.

I see you have it all flat--which won't do anything. Play around with Boosts in the Mids
and Cuts in the Lows. :)
Click to expand...
Oh ok I didn't realize it is shelf for low and high! No mention about that on manual either. But makes sense now since cannot adjust bandwidth for low and high. Thanks for tips!
 
I almost always employ the Cloud Lifter for dynamic and some ribbon mics. One drawback there is, it needs phantom power to provide the lift. However, if you can supply that, it does a very clean job of lifting the mic level. But the Cloud Lifter is NOT a preamp. I am lucky to have a friend who has lent me his Avalon Vt737sp. There is better stuff out there, but for the current price ($0) I am very happy with what this unit does as a mic preamp and may consider buying one when it gets taken away from me (although a Neve 1073 is on my permanent wish list). I have not tried it on guitar or keys or anything else at this point, but boy it sure sweetens things up on my sh!tty vocals with minimal effort! I also have a Boss VE8 that I have used a bit, but stopped using it when I got the Axe III.

From the Avalon, I am going into the Axe with a very strong mic signal, and then let the Axe do it's magic prior to output. Granted, not an FM9 I am going into, but same idea applies!7
 
Hey everyone, new to the community here. Was about to order an FM9 turbo and they went out of stock today! But I found a used one on Reverb that is on it's way, though it's not a turbo.

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how to route a preamp through the FM9 properly to get vocals running through it for recording. I have an old Art Dual USB Pre. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but that would only be required for a condenser requiring 48v phantom power? I should be able to run my Shure SM7B (a dynamic microphone) directly into the FM9 with an XLR to TRS cable, correct?
 
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