Preamp worth investing in?

I have a Roland VS-100 that I believe have the same preamps in it as does the Quad Capture.

I plug my LP, SG, Carvin (with active pups), two Fender Squires, and an Ibanez bad through the VS-100 and have had good results.

I'm thinking what you have may do unless you really are looking for some pristine uncolored sound. But then that may cost more than you want to spend to get better than what you already have.

What don't you like about the sound your getting now?

A good transformer-based preamp can have all kinds of beneficial sonic impact - around the edges.  My standard set up (and 3rd choice here at home if I'm using the other preamps) is a warm audio WA12.  It is a good, basic professional preamp, API design.  Custom wound transformers.  And I DI the bass through it and mic the guitar amp (which is pretty standard).  Advantages over a bog standard interface DI:  the transformers round off the sound a little bit more so it is smoother, which, counterintuitively, allows you to drive a sound harder and still sound good, not spikey.  And in the digital medium a good analog front-end translates better - more like the big studios who use wholesome analog.  And if you use the Warm preamp w/ a mic, all these advantages are compounded.  Plus more gain w/o crapping out, which let's you use different mic techniques and place the source farther from the mic, giving more air in your recordings (something else the big studios use).  There is no reason not to use a good front end except for cost.
 
And there is the rub.  That $400-500 might be better spent on whatever that makes your recording life better.  A better computer or mic might further your music making more than a preamp, which only affects the last  5- 10% of the sound and, like everything else, needs to be learned how to use it best.  So your money might be better spent today on something else.  On the other hand, a good preamp can be a lifetime investment and, if you are into recording for the long haul, the subtle difference can really add up, esp. as you learn to take advantage of it for a couple of dollars a month.  And if you are worried about that last bit of sound quality, there ain't no cheap alternative.
 
One other thing - ART makes a little preamp/DI box for about $50 w/ a tube in it.  It is useful in its own right as a splitter, etc., the tube is a starved plate thing, and the preamp is no differently designed than the one you have in the Roland (the Roland might even be a tad better), but plug in a bass and add a little of the tube (output, if I recall) and you can achieve a nice fluffy bass sound.  Not for metal etc., but useful in some styles and different than what you have.  And it is a great piece for your live bag, if nothing else.  I still use it to split live bass, sending one output to the amp and the other to the house or FOH or wherever.
 
@

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Hey!
 
Thanks for all the replies. But this more or less confirms my suspicions. I record the guitar DI and after that I do all kinds of processing amp sim, comp, Waves NLS, tape sim etc... So I dont need a preamp for coloring the sound. I do all of that in post.
 
/M
 
 

Nope! Need a pre-amp for many a reason and effects. I also use a channel strip also.
The whole ball of wax!

The trick is that it is your song, you do it how you want to or have the means to do the sound, critics notwithstanding.
What is one person's music is another person's blah, or pain.
 
 

Hi Metz, My answer would be, you probably don't need another gain stage but it all depends.....Not a very good answer is it?
 
I agree Houndawg, impedence is a biggie not just in recording guitar but other sources as well.
 
My general rule of thumb has been that if I need to drive my sound card pre amp into an unusually high range to get decent results, and if this induces more harmonic distortion(loud hiss) into my mix, then it's probably time for a preamp. In that case the basic preamp demands another stage or a better match in order to be at optimum. Otherwise the results will be full of noise and the signal will suffer as a result.
 
If there is a problem it could be in gain staging . I would check that first. Setting the optimum gain without excessive distortion. Turning up , say, a guitar pedal all the way means that you go into the chain already pumped up too high and this affects all successive stages. The channel strip in Sonar has both a volume slider and a gain control at the top. All of these variables enter into it....guitar gain>preamp gain>software gain, which includes channel, master and sends.Gains in software tend to be cumulative to some extent. If you get the gain right on your guitar channel and add a send to it, and take that send to master, even if you don't add anything to it, you added a gain stage and you can hear the difference in overall sound with both stages running.Next thing you know the guitar is overloading the master.
 
I have heard some stunning guitar tracks recorded with stock preamps. Unfortunately none of those were mine....seriously you can get good results in many cases with stock preamps.
 
I bought a preamp not long ago..the ART MPA Pro 2. It isn't the kind of thing that anyone who is pro wants to be seen dead with, but I must say. I get good results with it. It's a step up from factory microphone preamps but a few steps below the really good stuff. I definitely notice an improvement in my sound with it. It has an impedence control,two channels,has a control for both input and output. It has tubes and they really do something more than warm the plates,comes with a 20bd boost switch,has M/S and even an increased plate voltage control....I think the largest single benefit it offers me is that it can make up impedence and also offer a gain stage so my other primary gains are are not straining and therefore the effect is a smoother more dynamic recording. Unfortunately if you bypass the XLR inputs and use 1/4" jacks, like an electric guitarist would do, then you bypass some of the controls. This is easy to get around with a few D-boxes. If I put my HD500 into it, it sounds way better than going into my stock amps. YMMV.
 
Some guitarists on this site recommend using a hardware compressor. No delay latency like you get with the software compressor, offers better control of your signal going in and an added benefit is that most hardware compressors have a gain make up stage.That gain stage could also make life easier on your stock preamps.
 
 
 
 

You probably won't find a preamp that sounds better for $300.  It may sound different, but not necessarily better.  Good quality preamps usually go from $850 to $3000 for stereo. 

"investment" implies that you are serious about upping your game, front end wise.
 
300 bucks aint gonna get you there.
 
for another 175, this would be a good 'investment' at entry level:
http://www.fmraudio.com/rnp.html

Mod Bod

Starise
 
 

A friend of mine, Mike Pachelli has a couple of the ART MPA Pros and he's replaced the stock tubes with some Telefunken tubes.  He says the MPA will fool you if you change out the tubes.

All that said, for the benefit of the OP, if he is going to run plugin amp simulators I wouldn't bother with an outboard preamp.

 
I still think it makes a difference Dave. The better sounding/stronger source will impact the sound a amp sim will further process. (ugggg, I sound so boring)  :)