PreSonus BlueTube DP Microphone Preamp

01/14/2008 - The sound quality is good. It's not super pro, but it's quite, it has tube glassy-ness and warmth, and it is easy to push the 12AX7 smoothly into different zones. The gain stage also reacts predictably, and doesn't produce much hiss, and none at standard levels. I do get some weird hum off it with the gain on full, but that could be due to cables, sheilding, and proximity to all the electronic stuff it sits near. I never use the gain stage that high, so it's not a concern ...whether it is or isn't the unit causing it. Like I mentioned before, this is a good addition to get rid of solid state sterility. It's a good addition if you want your solid state Boss pedals to get along with your solid state practice amp. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, here the difference of putting a Boss SD-1 through a tube amp versus through a SS amp. There really is no comparison. Don't try to replicate tube sound at home, get tube sound at home, you'll be glad you did!

Rating: [4 of 5 Stars]

-- Learn Patterns

05/31/2007 - The sound is good for a $200 pre-amp. Anyone expecting to spend $200 and get Neve or UA quality sound should get out of the music business. The solid-state section is very clean and has a nice full spectrum sound. It sounds much better than the pre's on my small Soundcraft mixer. It is perfect for direct injection of a bass. Also very good for synthesizers. The tube "warmth" should be used more as an effect than amplification. At low values the warmth adds nice harmonics to deep drum machine bass and toms, and a nice grit to snare pops. It also makes a good dirty bass guitar sound when cranked up. The tube works good with digital electric pianos and organs too. Much better than software tube emulation. I started using organ patches that I had never used in the past because they sounded thin and artificial. The grit that the tube warmth provides is very nice. Analog synths (moog, junos) sound great with a little tube crunch added to them. I also run VST instruments and ReRirth back out of the computer through the tube to rough 'em up a bit, and I am really happy with the sound. Many people expect a preamp to magically take their sound from basement studio to Abbey Road...please get real. No preamp will make up for cheap instruments, mics, mixers, bad (inexperienced) audio engineer, bad tone, or no talent. If you have talent, you can get good and unique sounds out of even the cheapest equipment. Many people here have blasted the Bluetube's sound and recommended the ART TPS/DPS line. I would like to point out the reason many think the ART's tone is better is because its "variable voicing" gimmic is an EQ trick built into the hardware. It definitly sounds different because it is not a clean tube amplification stage. Personally I think any EQ should be non-destructive, and done in the mixing stage, not inside a $150 "preamp", and determined by one knob of presets. If you like the sound of the ART, then use it for your sound, but I do not like its added effect.

Rating: [4 of 5 Stars]

-- Jay B

02/27/2007 - Like I said, I am a recording musician mostly acoustic and vocals, so the nedd for pristine silence is a must. For folks recording rock vocals anything with drums or mic'd electric, this baby is for you. I think it's definately a stp up from the TubePre becuase it's way more quiet. The one bad thing is that it doesn't have an on/off switch. What's up with that??

Rating: [4 of 5 Stars]

-- BPP