M-Audio DMP3 pre-amp? Any good? (trying to make a solo demo)

hunta · #1 09-20-2006, 05:37 PM

Heyo everyone.

Here's the problem I'm trying to solve. I need to put together a "professional" quality demo of my own work, as I'm going to be graduating from college and I need something that I feel is truly representative of my talent, sound, and compositional skills. I have various CD's that I've done with groups, but nothing that I can really put out there and say "look business dudes, this is my genuine work, this is what I can do."

I currently use a Carvin Bunny Brunel 5 string (getting a Fender Jazz Deluxe fretless any day now..), have an Echo Mia PCI card for my PC, a Carvin mixer, and an Edirol MIDI keyboard with NI Battery and B4 plugins to work with. Generally I use Cubase for tracking. There's no problem with any of my hardware, I can produce good sounding stuff with all the virtual instrument junk, but my bass sound is very weak. The best recording sound I was ever able to get was just going directly into a Digidesign Control-24 board, which has really nice focusrite preamps on it (and it sounded amazing), but I simply don't have access to that kind of studio any more.

I definitely know way more about the musicality and bass performance end of things than the recording hardware stuff. I think what I'm missing is a good recording pre-amp? I've thought about purchasing a different interface like an Mbox-2 or the M-Audio Fasttrack Pro (which has preamps.. but I don't know how good).

Any advice would be appreciated. I just honestly can't put off getting a demo out there any longer, and even though I really can't afford to buy much more equipment, I'm willing to go into debt or whatever I have to do to get it done. I want to make sure I'm buying the right kind of hardware first though before I waste any more money. Thanks guys!

lemur821 · #2 09-20-2006, 07:00 PM

Mightn't it be better to get a professional recording done? It would cost money, but so would a good preamp. If you're not a recording expert you're not going to become one that quickly. If you want a professional demo, hire a professional.

If there's a college in your area that has a recording program, I'll bet you anything that the students are looking for musicians to record for their assigned projects. Try hanging out near any college recording departments asking people if they'd like to record you. I don't know how your recording skill compares to that of a third- or fourth-year engineer-in-training, but they surely have access to gear you don't have. If you can manage this, I can't recommend it highly enough -- best way to get a good (probably) recording without spending any money.

hunta · #3 09-21-2006, 08:02 AM

Ehhh.. I've heard the kinds of stuff coming out of the recording program here and I would much rather do it myself. I am not a pro audio engineer by any means, but I've taken 2 years of audio production classes myself and I'm fully confident in my own ability to do the work. I need to do it myself anyway because I compose on the fly in the studio, and that doesn't work when I'm not the one working the console. If I can manage to get a good bass signal out of my home setup, the end product will sound very good believe me.

lemur821 · #4 09-21-2006, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hunta

Ehhh.. I've heard the kinds of stuff coming out of the recording program here and I would much rather do it myself. I am not a pro audio engineer by any means, but I've taken 2 years of audio production classes myself and I'm fully confident in my own ability to do the work. I need to do it myself anyway because I compose on the fly in the studio, and that doesn't work when I'm not the one working the console. If I can manage to get a good bass signal out of my home setup, the end product will sound very good believe me.

Cool. Just wanted to make sure you weren't buying gear when it's not the best solution. Sadly, I don't buy much, so I can't give advice on that.

chrisp2u · #5 09-21-2006, 03:13 PM

The DMP-3 isn't too bad for the $$$. Got mine for $130 shipped from ebay.

I needed a couple more pre channels for my bands live setup, so I picked one up. I run my guitarists Marshall half mic'd with a sm57 into one channel, which sounds great, and the DI from my amp into the other, which also sounds pretty good. I haven't messed with recording through it at all or compared it directly to any of my other higher-end pres side-by-side, but I have to say that it sounds pretty nice and warmish to me.

I thought S.U.N.Y Fredonia was supposed to have a decent recording program?
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hunta · #6 09-21-2006, 04:07 PM

Quote:

I thought S.U.N.Y Fredonia was supposed to have a decent recording program?

Haha... Yeah, I don't know if it's the program, or the students, or the fact that the main studio they use has an exposed, and very noisy, ventilation system running through the ceiliing (they sure don't tell you about that in the brochure eh). I'm not sure that everything they do sounds shoddy, but everything I've heard has.

Good to hear a good experience with the DMP3. I hope it's what my signal is missing..

bullshark · #7 09-23-2006, 08:29 AM

I have the DMP3 here, it's not bad but certainly not great. The faders are noisy, the meters are useless and noise floor is not that good either, mine's going on ebay in a few; that said, it's probably the best one out there in it's price bracket.

FWIW, in your situation I would just get a DI box instead (cheaper) and reamp the signal using something like Voxengo Boogex and loading some cab impulses from the the noise vault.

anderbass · #8 09-23-2006, 11:36 AM

The DMP-3 is a good choice in this price range, the Symetrix SX-202 (used) is also a good choice.
Have you considered renting a real high-end preamp for this project?

hunta · #9 09-24-2006, 11:10 AM

Hmm.. Renting is an interesting idea.. I actually ordered a DMP3 now, it should be here in a few days. Once it arrives, at least I'll know if that's really what my problem is. I guess I can always return it and do something else if it is really awful.

This kind of thing makes me really jealous of my graphics arts friends.. All they have to do is diddle around on any old computer with a cheap 3d card. Granted there is the whole rendering process to bother with...