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Recording setup REDDI/Mic Preamp vs Tonehammer DI

Count Jodius

Count Jodius

Jul 28, 2005
20
8
UK
#1
Hi all,

I'm after a bit of advice from the studio/audiophile savvy! My current remote tracking set up is an Aguilar Tone Hammer DI into the RME Babyface Pro interface. I love the tones available, and have used this on a good few commercial/broadcast-level releases in the past few months. I've seen so many users praising the likes of the REDDI and Broughton P-15, and I was wondering if I'd see a significant step up in the quality of my bass tracks to justify the extra expense (whilst still using the Babyface as an interface)? I guess I'm talking more on transients/audio quality rather than just tone alone.

I would consider a general studio preamp also as I demo vocals on occasion too. I don't have the opportunity to A/B any of these options present unfortunately.

Thanks for any info/experience you can pass on!
 
#2
for me the call on the tone hammer was tone shaping and not necessarily the clean sound.

I did some sessions using a Great River half rack M1 (I think) that was XLR and 1/4" The noise floor was very, very low and the audio quality was very good. ProTools HD on the receiving end.

We did a comparison with my Eden Navigator and the GR. With everything turned off on the Eden, In Pre (so basically just a gain stage) was close. As soon as I went to post the noise floor on the Eden came up so it was pointless looking for a sound there. Engineer was real comfortable with an Ampeg VST he had and I was there to trigger notes essentially...

I've wanted one since then. No justification though...

Used to be a happy U5 owner. Still like that a lot but I moved on. Where I'm at now is the DI on a Mesa D-800+ Made the U5 redundant. If there were a rentable, demo able Mesa near you, I'd give that a shot. It is by far the best integrated DI I have worked with.
 
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#3
Interesting, thanks for your experience. So there was no noticeable loss in the fullness of your signal coming from the U5 to the Mesa DI out? I hear a lot of people praising the sound of a large transformer DI/preamp, so interesting if a Class D can achieve this too.

I hadn't heard of the Great River so thanks for the heads up there, seems to get a lot of love!
 

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