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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

After doing my research for many months, I decided on the Mike-E preamp. I could not be happier with my decision. I’ve used it on vocals, guitars, bass guitars, synths, drum room mic, and more. Also used the line in for printing a few tracks made at other spots with no pre amps. They say the Distressor by Imperical Labs is the Swiss Army knife of compressors. WELL, this should be the Swiss Army knife of preamps!!! Ease of use is unbelievable. You can drive this thing and it sounds good or you can get crystal clear, clean, audio. When the “warm” or “toasty” light illuminate, you really get that musical saturation and warmth so many engineers love. I love the fact it has a build in saturator/ compressor with the Comp/Sat section. It’s like it has a built in Distressor, so you can get some great compression while tracking if that’s your thing. Having mix knob gives you the ability to use unit for parallel compressing or finding the exact amount that you want while tracking. Honestly, my drive sits at 10 cranked for most sources I just adjust the input signal accordingly with the pre amp level, and the ratios- attack/release times. Having used a Distressor in all the studios I’ve worked in, I can’t believe I’ve never seen one of these before. It was quite surprising. I believe it’s one, if not the most, underrated preamps on the market. Currently running this preamp, into a warm eqp-1, and it’s my go to chain for most things.

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

The mic pre is gorgeous all on its own. Absolutely dead silent. It’s forward and deep with fine professional polish - on par with other first-choice mic pres. The Comp/Sat is magic - hence Dave Derr is a witch. Only a witch could conjure this kind of magic. There is no other explanation. The knob starts at good and goes to heavenly satanic. You know the part in the song that gets real quiet and intimate and the lights dim way down and then fifteen-thousand bass drums explode into a planet-shifting magnetic plasma with a harmonic intensity that nearly bursts your pleasure button from inside all your souls throughout the multiverse? That’s the range of this unit. Buy two.