Welcome to Pro Tools on da cheap - I’m in no way an expert, and what follows is just “what works for me”. Have I missed something, made a glaring error, or flown in the face of common wisdom? By all means, post a (hopefully polite and cheery) comment and join the discussion.

By now you’ve got a working setup. Maybe your mixes are starting to sound pretty nice. But maybe there’s still some indefinable “sparkle” missing, something that just doesn’t sound as “pro” as the pro recordings. What’s the next step?

Chances are, the next step is “keep learning this stuff for the rest of my life”. It’s quite possible that a world-class engineer could come into your place, take a look at your rig, and get “the sound” you’re after. But dammit, we’re American musicians - we love to buy gear!

And maybe some smart gear upgrades are what you need to get to the next level - if you keep in mind that, after the expense (and earth-shaking life change) of your first Pro Tools system, everything else is going to feel like “diminishing returns”. Your next couple years of (carefully considered) gear purchases could well be subtle upgrades as opposed to “holy crap that sounds amazing”. The cool thing is, if you are really learning about recording, you’re likely to get to the point where even a subtle upgrade makes you say “holy crap”!

Sweet! A Gibson J-45

So what’s next? As a personal example, I use a lot of acoustic guitar in my music. Even if the song is pretty heavy, chances are there’s a bed of acoustic under that grunge for body and sparkle. I might even add a tiny bit of distortion to that acoustic, but ti’s still there. The smartest upgrade for me was to buy a world class acoustic guitar - to get my source instrument upgraded. I researched, shopped, and played and got a very reasonable price on a Gibson J-45. Well worth the price, I play it daily.

BUT… I noticed my setup just wasn’t capturing the big-bold-yet-delicate Gibson sound I was hearing on my couch. It was time to upgrade my microphones and mic pre amp.

By now you know what a microphone is… the preamp is the first part of your electric signal chain, turning the thin dribble of electrons from the microphone cable into a fat & healthy river your system can play with. Thus, it’s a circuit of huge importance  - especially for good microphones.

In fact, many people advocate you get your first professional preamp before you get your first professional mic, their reasoning being that a good pre will bring out a better sound from your cheap mic, while a so-so preamp will just make a pro microphone sound cheap and dull

BUT MY PRO TOOLS BOX HAS A VOLUME KNOB FOR THE MIC INPUT- THAT’S CONNECTED TO A PREAMP, RIGHT?

Right. But in the effort to be competitive, most audio interfaces cut some corners on the pre’s. Think about it… your Pro Tools LE interface cost somewhere between $100 and $1200; a pro quality mic pre can go from $500 to $4000.

SO WHAT DO I LOOK FOR IN A MIC PRE?

Well, they’ll all have some standard features. Mainly, an XLR mic input, and XLR (and maybe a TRS output); a phantom power switch; some sort of metering. Most will have a phase invert switch (really a polarity invert, I only add that so the tech-heads won’t flame me), and maybe a “pad” (which cuts the level for loud things, like kick drums and horns).  Some may be two channel, or even up to eight channels. Some may come with digital converters and digital outputs which is really nice to have as well.

Beyond that, there’s a staggering range of models, price, and features. But the main thing you want in a pro preamp - especially your first - is detail and accuracy.

By detail, I mean you should be hearing subtle things you never picked up before - a whispery high end to guitar strings and vocals, a sense of “depth” and realism, perhaps a nice “thump” in the low end.

Many preamps are designed to “color” the sound, perhaps with analog tube sound (including subtle but musical distortion) or a sense of “fatness” (phatness!) to some aspect of the tone. A pro studio may have dozens of wildly pricey pre’s, and engineers that can say “Wow, for that voice, we need this mic with this pre”. By the time they’re mixing the song, they hardly have to EQ a thing, because they planned the tonal changes from mics and gear. You’re probably not that guy yet.

Nope, you want a preamp that’s crystal clear and detailed, without a true “sound” of its own… and you want it for cheap! Less than a grand, right?

It’s fairly widely agreed that you can’t beat the RNP from FMR Audio, or “really nice preamp”, a sub-$500, two-channel unit. Black Lion also makes the Auteur, a well-regarded pre in the same range. (They also make a digital converter that would be a nice companion to it!)

There are other killer players in the $500 - $1100 range as well. Start googling, or look at the mic pre sections of Sweetwater or other on-line retailers. Read reviews, google the model name, do your homework.

CHANNEL STRIPS

One of the recent trends in preamps is the “channel strip” -  that’s a preamp which also has tone controls, maybe even a compressor. They’re handy to have, but for the novice, adjusting all those extras while recording means you’re “stuck” with what you did while tracking. On the other hand, they can be great pre’s for live vocals or acoustic guitar. But you’re paying for all those extra knobs… you may be better off with a simple preamp for starters.

GOING ALL THE WAY - A PREAMP THAT GOES DIGITAL

There’s a lot to be said for a preamp that also does the digital conversion. Chances are you’ll get better converters than what are inside your Pro Tools interface. If your interface has SPDIF or optical digital ins and outs, doing the preamp-with-converters route has a huge potential benefit - noise reduction.

Myself, I don’t make as much of my living with Pro Tools as I do with web design and photography. which means my Mac has all kinds of work-related stuff wired up to it - printers, scanners, stylus pads, two USB hubs, card readers, bla bla bla. When I first installed Pro Tools, I was cutting a voiceover for a video and there was this evil electronic “whine”. It would come and go, driving me insane. Just too much electronic interference going on. Moving to a pre with converters has given me dead quiet. 

So, if you’re interested in a pre that also converts - there are a lot of them. There are also a few pre amps that can be upgraded with a digital card down the road. 

ART makes a few lower-priced digital preamps, Aphex makes a couple that seem well-reviewed, and there are a few more every year - check them out and again, google like hell for reviews (and try to figure out if “the reviewer” is a kid trying to figure out which knob does what, or a pro!) Check the final page for links!

FEATURED PRODUCT - BLACK LION AUDIO

If you use a Digi 002 or 003 Rack, Black Lion will upgrade the entire preamp and conversion signal path. Prices start at $575.00 - but think about it, that’s the cost of a entry-level two channel preamp, and you’ll have killer pres and killer converters. It’s probably the best deal going in Pro Tools right now - get a new or used 002r, send it in and wait!