Mic Preamp Test - Free IRs

Which Mic Preamp is your favorite?


  • Total voters
    32

York Audio

Fractal Fanatic
Vendor
There's been some recent discussion about mic preamps, so I wanted to try something fun with you all. I captured IRs of the same mic placement through six different popular analog mic preamps to see if you have any preference or if you can tell which mic pre was used for a certain option. You're hearing a total of $9,000 worth of high end outboard mic preamps through $5,000 worth of mastering grade conversion without any EQ or post-processing of any kind, so you're hearing an honest and accurate representation of each mic preamp's color and personality.

The IR is based on a 4x12 loaded with Greenbacks mic'd with a single 57. So pull up an amp, dial it in to sound good with the IR, and try them all. I'm curious to hear what you guys think.

The .zip contains SYX files for easy drag n' drop into your Fractal's User Cab slots.

Enjoy!

-Justin York
 

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  • YA Mic Preamp Test.zip
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Oh wow, this will be fun. Will try these out in a few. What a great geeky way to spend a Saturday! :cool:

EDIT: I personally preferred F over anything else although B was a close second. F seemed to have a nicer top-end grind for high gain compared to the others. However, I think having IRs that are as neutral as humanly possible would allow for more flexibility in recordings, like if someone wanted to run their guitar tracks through a preamp emulation VST, for example. At gig volumes, none of this would make any difference and no one will notice. Cool little experiment, though. Thanks for sharing.
 
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... but isn't saturation a huge part of color and personality of mic pres or maybe even the most interesting part? since saturation can't really be captured in an IR, all you're left with is mostly EQ color which would then color the tone of the actual speaker and cab that's being captured...
I guess that's all fine but saturation is usually the reason why I go for a certain preamp.
still cool of you to do such an extensive test :) !
 
... but isn't saturation a huge part of color and personality of mic pres or maybe even the most interesting part? since saturation can't really be captured in an IR, all you're left with is mostly EQ color which would then color the tone of the actual speaker and cab that's being captured...
I guess that's all fine but saturation is usually the reason why I go for a certain preamp.
still cool of you to do such an extensive test :) !
I just made a comparison of a mic pre dimed out on a live cab vs an IR of the dimed mic pre to see how the saturation comes across. I used a looper, so it's the same performance for all three sections with hard chords as well as soft picking to see if it brought out any differences. It all sounds pretty similar to my ears.

 
Thanks a lot Justin... I tried them all and my fav' is the Preamp C, because the Highs are present but very smooth, and the lows are there to add body to the tone... Smoothness and punch is what I like in this preamp, even if all of them are very good.
 
36 downloads and only 3 votes so far? The results are already surprising since most players tend to prefer warmer tones and those two mic pres accentuate top end the most. Maybe my mic placement was darker than usual… I just threw a 57 on the cab and went with it.

it sure does. but how about running an entirely clean signal into a dimed mic pre and only geting saturation / overdrive from the pre and not the amp? would that still sound the same?
You’re correct that the IR doesn’t distort the same way as a clean signal into the dimed preamp. The test just shows that they are very similar tonally in a use case that applies to the vast majority of players. I’m sure Cliff could model the saturation of a mic pre for the application you mentioned, but I imagine he’s got higher priorities demanding his time and resources at the moment. Either way, I thought it was cool that the clips aren’t drastically night and day comparing the analog chain to the IR.

Thanks a lot Justin... I tried them all and my fav' is the Preamp C, because the Highs are present but very smooth, and the lows are there to add body to the tone... Smoothness and punch is what I like in this preamp, even if all of them are very good.
I bought that mic pre after an artist recommended it to me. It has a color the company is known for and has a pretty aggressive nature when it comes to guitar tones. I have a couple mics in mind that should sound great through that thing.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
Thanks for sharing them. I'm away from my Axe III at the moment. I'll post my thoughts when I'm reunited.
 
I like preamp B the most, all the highs are balanced, preamp C was a bit spiky, preamp D is a bit louder than the others so this can throw you off. Do you have a Coles microphone? Every time I've heard it on an IR it sounded really good, a friend of mine who has a few albums under his belt noticed the same thing.

Thanks for this by the way!
 
I went through tons of info online not too long ago trying to figure out for rock/metal tones how much does the mic pre effect the end result.

I wanted to know for taking my own IR's. I ended up with the Warm audio WA273. Why? From what I could tell the actual biggest difference you will hear especially in this situation of making IR's is the impedance. Each mic has its own impedance level that is was designed for, older mics typically have much lower impedance like an SM57. The WA273 has a "tone" button that lets you change the impedance.
 
By the way Justin, this IR is something stellar, this cab with these GB is amazing, it would be good to have this cab as a product and have all mixes with it... just a thought ;-)
 
By the way Justin, this IR is something stellar, this cab with these GB is amazing, it would be good to have this cab as a product and have all mixes with it... just a thought ;-)
Maybe this one is from an upcoming pack , I know he mentioned he was working on a pre rola GB into checker grill cab
 
I went through tons of info online not too long ago trying to figure out for rock/metal tones how much does the mic pre effect the end result.

I wanted to know for taking my own IR's. I ended up with the Warm audio WA273. Why? From what I could tell the actual biggest difference you will hear especially in this situation of making IR's is the impedance. Each mic has its own impedance level that is was designed for, older mics typically have much lower impedance like an SM57. The WA273 has a "tone" button that lets you change the impedance.
The mic pre can have a pretty substantial impact on your tone. The one you mentioned is a 1073 clone. One of the options above is a 1073 and one is a 1073 clone.

A lot of mic preamps will let you switch the impedance for different mics or different color options. Four of the six examples I used have that feature. Sometimes matching the impedance sounds better… sometimes mismatching impedance sounds better. A lot of factors come into play, but you never know unless you experiment and explore your gear. :)

By the way Justin, this IR is something stellar, this cab with these GB is amazing, it would be good to have this cab as a product and have all mixes with it... just a thought ;-)
This cab will definitely be a product with all the bells and whistles, however, it isn’t the pre-Rola Marshall cab. That’s all I can say for now.
 
Strat->'59SLP Jumped. I voted all sound the same. But I thought D was a little darker. They were all Darker than the M25 m57-1 IR I used as a comparison.

@York Audio I think your process is so consistent that your "just threw a mic up" captures still smoke the competition. lol :D
 
Grt-Brit JM45-Cab-out...mostly clean at room volume didn't hear anything that stood out in the sense of OH YEAH THAT'S it! at first play through. All good or my old ears just don't hear anything major. With more drive/crunch in the amp, the only diff I seemed to hear was with Pre F but not much still.

shrug ? All great.
 
I liked F but C was a very close 2nd. Maybe F a bit better for a lead tone and C best for rhythm tone. I think they all sounded different but not by a large amount.
Will you eventually list which was what mic pre?
BTW, that IR sounds pretty darn good for just throwing a 57 on the cab.
 
Strat->'59SLP Jumped. I voted all sound the same. But I thought D was a little darker. They were all Darker than the M25 m57-1 IR I used as a comparison.

@York Audio I think your process is so consistent that your "just threw a mic up" captures still smoke the competition. lol :D
Hahaha! Thanks man, I’m glad you like the IR.

I liked F but C was a very close 2nd. Maybe F a bit better for a lead tone and C best for rhythm tone. I think they all sounded different but not by a large amount.
Will you eventually list which was what mic pre?
BTW, that IR sounds pretty darn good for just throwing a 57 on the cab.
I’m still surprised that people are picking the brighter mic preamps, but hey, our ears like what they like. :) I haven’t decided if I’m going to list which option is which or just list the preamps I used. No one has taken any guesses yet on specific options being a certain preamp, and I want to avoid bias based on what we “think” we should choose simply because of the brand.
 
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