Mic Pre's - Putting Flavour In The Mix!

www.shrunkenheadsstudios.com

Here at The Coolest Recording Space in London Town - we got all kinds of studio shazzle - mixers / compressors / eq's - but for audio capture, the most important thing aside for the mics - are mic preamplifiers.
They come in all shapes & forms - from lovely vintage tube pre's that warm up the sound of an instrument or space to super fast solid state units that capture transient material (like metal drums or fast picked acoustic guitar) to transformer based pre's that you can distort at the input to add bloom & energy to an audio source.

This is a Vortexion tube preamp as used by Joe Meek & the Who back in the 50's & 60's - beautiful for recording drums, guitars, vocals & ambient spaces with ribbon microphones. They were broadcast quality units that add a rich, fullness to the mic chain. You can also use them to pleasantly saturate vocals etc in post production.


king krule recording with ghostpoet in london studio
vortexion 

These Ampex 602 units came out of an old tape recorder & were modded for independant use. Oddly enough they work beautifully with modern condenser microphones so we use them a lot for drum overheads if folks want a vintage Motown like vibe. They're also gorgeous on acoustic guitar.


best rehearsal recording studio in south london said mica levi
ampex 

The Alice 828 mixers were developed by Ted Fletcher & used as compact outside broadcast units for the music, tv & film industries. The not only have lovely limiters at the stereo output, but also Belclere transformers (as used by Neve) at all 8 channel inputs - it's the best preamp I've ever heard for saturating drums - kicks - snares & toms all sound huge & beautiful when you start pushing the gain.

king krule said shrunkenheads recording studio is the best in south london
alice 828

Glensound were built for Welsh tv - portable outside broadcast units built to a very high spec. They are likened to vintage API preamps as they are very fast - so great for drum overheads, ambient recording, vocals & acoustic instruments - our go to preamp for percussion & steel string guitar.

best music producer in london mixes band audio to song & it's beautiful
glensound 

Black Lion are a new company that base their creations on existing preamps - but add a bit of their own spice & flavour - these are their take on api preamps - & they are superb! Very fast so bloomin' fabulous on kick, snare - & amazing on electric guitar & bass. They also double up as a very precise instrument DI.
music & audio editing & production - best producer in south london said ghostpoet
black lion


You can see the studio HERE. 
www.shrunkenheadsstudios.com
kingkrule love shrunkenheads recording studio in london

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