Loving the SP-828

[RockStarzUSA]

Hi all,
Recently, I decided to update my studio. (isn't a studio always evolving though?) I was running a MOTU 896HD firewire interface into Logic on my PowerMac G5. It worked and did the job, however, it is always nice to get more than 'good enough'

I needed more inputs for my rack gear than the 8 analog inputs the MOTU offered. Now I could have just bought one of the new rack mxers that offer direct outs and firewire features, but there was always some compromise. Either the recording specs ere ordinary, or the recording specs were great, and the mic pres were ordinary, or both specs were good, and the price was less than appealing....

I read up about the ECHO AudioFire 12 with it's 12 ins/outs. Even better there were no mic pres on board, so it was ideal to run my mic pre's directly into it. Now where the heck was I going to find a multi channel mic pre!!!

Well from hearing many many solid reports about SP, I realised the SP-828 was exactly what I wanted. 8 solid mic pre's with burr brown, direct outs, quality design, solid feel-even looks attractive too....

Well, I hooked it up tonight (fast shipping coutesy of PMI-as always) ran all my racks through it, tweaked everything minamally, took direct outs from there into the AudioFore 12 and ran to the monitors via the 1 & 2 analog outs into my KRK 2.1 monitoring.

Rock n' roll!! That was the sound I was looking for, Guitars just cleaned up nicely, bass sounded rich...

....and back to business as usual.

Just the way it should be!

Where to now? Well I have my Joe Meek OneQ, but would like to add a new sound palette.... I have my eyes on either a pair of Toft EC-1's or the Toft ATC-2.... Just hunting around for the right price!!

Well done Alan, Justin and all at PMI. You are easily my favorite pro audio company. exceptionally solid tools, with the right sound, and right price!

-Fletch
www.rockstarzusa.com
www.fallrivermusic.com

[Alan Hyatt]

Thanks Fletch,

We try hard to make all our products as best we can... Pretty cool unit the SP828, especially at that price. If you do not have anything plugged into the line input, and only use a mic into the channel, the mic/line switch defaults to a 20dB pad.

Not too many people know that. If a line input is inserted, then it goes back to a mic/line switch and stops operation as a pad...

You may know this, but if you don't, you do now. Pads come in handy and it is good to know they are there, even if you have to unplug the line input to the channel to get it..They are there!!!!

Glad you like it....

[Gilliland]

I've got three of the SP828s in my mobile recording rack, and I've found them to be ideal for my needs. They're not esoteric "color" mic pres, but they are solid and great sounding, and have allowed me to get some great recordings in live settings. And the mix bus makes it easy to monitor everything as it happens, as well as to capture a stereo safety recording in case something goes wrong with the multitrack.

Here's a live recording that was made with this rig. The various tracks here came from a variety of different mics, mostly condensers, but it all came in through the SP828s.

http://users.adelphia.net/~gilliland/Gone.mp3

[Professor]

I'm curious how that trio of 828 preamp/mixer is treating on your location rig since that is precisely what I am planning to assemble over this summer so we have a nice location multi-track rig together for the school in the fall.
I could ask how the preamps sound, but that's such a difficult thing to describe anyway. Mostly I'm curious about how they have functioned, how the mixer feature & linking has treated you, and how they have held up on the road?
Thanks.

-Jeremy

[Gilliland]

I could ask how the preamps sound, but that's such a difficult thing to describe anyway. Mostly I'm curious about how they have functioned, how the mixer feature & linking has treated you, and how they have held up on the road?
I've only had them for about six months now, so they've been used for only about eight shows. They've worked quite well for me in that time, but they really don't get a lot of abuse. The mixer is pretty rudimentary - it's fine for monitoring a rough mix, but if I were going to try to create a live stereo mix, I'd probably bring along a real mixer. The SP828 works fine, and it's easy to chain them together, but it has no EQ, no compression, and no reverb, so I really can't do anything very sophisticated with it. For monitoring, though, it's perfect. I'd be very uncomfortable if I tried to make an on-location multitrack recording without some means of listening to what I was capturing.

The SP828 does have inserts on the main stereo bus, so it's not hard to add effects if I want to, but I think I'd be better off with a real board if I were going to try to create a mix to keep. I really use the 828's mix bus only for monitoring. Even at that, I tend to patch in an RNC to the mix bus just to keep the levels manageable.

When I do bring a separate mixer (with channel EQ, effects, and compression), I simply draw the digital outs from the HD24 and let that feed the digital mixer. That way I still get the benefits of the SP828's mic pres on the inputs.

The SP828 doesn't offer any sort of "boutique" sound (nor does it claim to), but it really is a nice sounding unit. Back when I was first shopping for it, I compared it with a Brick mic pre, and I wound up returning the Brick and keeping the SP828. There was nothing wrong with the Brick, but it costs more for two channels than the SP828 did for eight channels, and I found no significant benefit to the Brick over the SP828 for my live on-location recordings.

I will probably buy another mic pre at some point to use in conjunction with the SP828s (I've been looking at the Hamptone stereo tube kit), but I've been very happy with the results that I've gotten using them all by themselves. In fact, one of the artists who I recorded last fall just called this week to tell me that he plans to make my recording into his next album. (My recordings are normally used for broadcast, but don't often wind up on a commercial release.)

[Nik Keefe]

I'm still very tempted by one of these as I have a few standalone pres and a Soundcraft M12 here going into two lots of converters into firewire. Sticking one of these boxes on the front of my Motu 2408 mkII might work out quite nicely I suspect.