Paul and Rene sit down and discuss the new Sound Devices mixpre 3 and 6, and they wax philosophical about the thought process you go through when buying and learning new gear.
Visit Paul! @paulvirostek, creativefieldrecording.com and airbornesound.com
Hey guys.
I’m a sound editor/field recordist and I really enjoyed listening to this podcast. Keep more of those coming for the sake of the sound pro community, I actually heard a lot of useful ideas and opinions in this specific episode.
As a Mix-Pre 6 owner, I agree with pretty much everything you said here and you made me want to try to use it in custom mode aswell, the advanced mode did the job for me so far but actually when recording SFX or Ambiances most of the time it would be handier to use the knobs as gain controls.
I had the opportunity to use SD 6xx series in the past but I couldn’t tell which preamps sound better/quieter between 6xx and Mix-Pre, I guess it’s very subjective.
That said, I personally think that Mix-Pre preamps coupled with MKH8040+8050 in LCR configuration (ORTF+Hypercardiod center mic) is just perfect to record ambiences.
Your thoughts on how to think about upgrading a sound kit were very useful to me.
Ps: the sound of the podcast itself is just right to me, not heavily compressed and your voices are just natural with the perfect amount of air although Paul seemed a little bit ” behind ” Rene in terms of distance.
Thanks a lot for your work.
Axel
With MixPre-3, I can effectively boost about 12dB more in post than the USB digital output of MixPre-D, a huge ADC improvement imho. But this thing, being class A preamp, is a battery eater. I get only 1hour 40mins of runtime with 4x fresh eneloops. It is much less if the device is used intermittently. I guess it draws a big gulp of power at startup. It even gets quite warm after running for 20 mins. Limiters cannot be disabled if I want to use knobs as gain. Power button is awkwardly placed above the USB port. Having no dedicated buttons for lpf and p48 sucks.
As a beginner there is an element of “is it me or is it the gear”. If you can afford better gear then you can cut out the “it is the gear” element and come to terms with the fact that it is actually you who is the problem and thus learn faster. But as you say hours of using whatever you have still trumps everything else.
I worked with the Zoom F8 for a couple of years and really liked it. I especially enjoyed the ability to be able to record backup up tracks at lower volumes. And then after reading up on the mixpre6 decided to give it a try. Wow. Extremely happy with it. Incredible preamps and I love the size. Amazing design. Not missing my F8 at all.
Thanks for the feedback. Glad you are happy with your purchases. Always great to not have remorse when you upgrade you kit.