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Mackie Vrs. Mackie


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Originally posted by LatinMusic:

What peopple refer exactly to when say BEST PRE AMP, or BETTER PRE AMP? what does do it better than the another one? how do you notice that in sound?

 

IMO, there really is no preamp that is 'better' than another. It all depends on your style and what type of music you record. For me, if I'm recording some classical - I go for my Millenia HV-3B or the Martech MSS-10 because of their pristine, uncolored sound. If it's rock and roll though, I go for something with a little more bite to it like a Neve 1272, the Presonus MP-20 or any other preamp with a colorful trannie stage in it somewhere, tube preamps are also nice for this application. I can't say that a Millenia is better than a Neve or vice-versa because IMO, they're apples and oranges. They each have their own special character and signature sound. Also, some preamps sound better or worse with different mics. So, it's hard (for me at least) to classify one preamp being better than another unless it's a cheapie preamp. Even the cheapie preamps like the Art and Behringer have a decent sound to them - not the best, but still viable. I like to think of a selection of preamps as a painter's pallette. No one color is better than the other, just different.

 

I hope that this helped.

Regards,

-nt

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some preamps are noisier than others. also, based on the name (VLZ stands for 'very low impedance'), the mackie VLZ has less chance of loading down your signal for a better match with a wider range of microphones.

 

in other words, the preamps are better because they:

 

A. contribute less noise to your recording

B. sound better on a wider range of microphones

 

while notape is technically correct that a noisy, POS preamp has some sort of vague, arcane application, the rest of world may prefer a more versatile, less noisy preamp.

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sorry to be so acid-tongued, notape, but that's not what latinmusic was asking for.

 

the guy is looking at buying a mackie vlz or cfx for his home studio. he doesn't even own an ART preamp, let alone the pristine millenia HV-3B. while you're correct that even the lowliest of preamps has an application somewhere, take latinmusic's question for what it is. he was searching for advice.

 

it is really pretentious to mention neve, presonus, et. al. when asking about the difference between two mackie mixer preamps.

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Yes, it looks like the VLZ Pro series have better sounding preamps, but I wouldn't rule out the CFX as it's preamps are probably the same found in older VLZ boards, which still sound good to my ears. The CFX boards do seem to be aimed more towards live sound than the VLZ, but that doesn't mean that you can't use it for recording as well.

 

-Dylan

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Originally posted by synaes:

sorry to be so acid-tongued, notape, but that's not what latinmusic was asking for.

 

the guy is looking at buying a mackie vlz or cfx for his home studio. he doesn't even own an ART preamp, let alone the pristine millenia HV-3B. while you're correct that even the lowliest of preamps has an application somewhere, take latinmusic's question for what it is. he was searching for advice.

 

it is really pretentious to mention neve, presonus, et. al. when asking about the difference between two mackie mixer preamps.

 

Meanwhile back at police headquarters......

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The VLZ Mackies have 6 aux busses vs the cfx which has 2. For studio I would go with the vlz, for live I might take the cfx if I didn't need the extra busses, which I do. CFX has some really decent reverb for a "works in a drawer" mixer though.
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