ART Tube MP

Whew! What a frenetic couple of days. As I mentioned, B Original is down to the wire but we made it! Deadline met. But not without a lot of hard work and FAST work. And I'm just the audio guy. I can't imagine what the atmosphere was like in the video editing room...Kudos to the people at 2 Chics and a Camera Productions for a job well done.

Anyway, today I'd like to talk about one of my oldest and most frequently used pieces of gear. The ART Tube MP is a single channel tube microphone preamplifier that is insanely inexpensive. I picked mine up for $80 I think, about 5 years ago. Now they can be had for as little as half that.
It's a simple thing really. Just two rotary knobs on top combined with three push buttons and an LED make up the entire face of the unit. Knob #1 is for input and shockingly [sarc] Knob #2 is output. But honestly this feature is one reason I like this pre so much. Many of my other pres only have a Gain knob and no output so I end up having to back off the input of the next thing in my signal chain. Often the next thing in line is this old graphic EQ unit I like and it doesn't have an input gain so I'm screwed without a way to control the output of the pre. But I digress...
The first button is a gain booster that adds 20db of gain to the input. This gives you a ton of flexibility to use mics and sources that are really hot. When depressed, you can still get enough gain to record those quiet sources. Excellent. Button #2 is for 48volt phantom power. Obviously useful and important. The third button is for phase inversion. I don't use it a whole lot (usually just for top or bottom snare and such), but it sure is nice to have when it's needed.
The LED is a single light that goes through a few colors depending on how loud the signal is. Green is good; yellow, getting warmer; orange, tube saturation; red, crunched. Which brings me to the tube. It's a 12AX7 as with most modern tube gear. I had a problem after a few months of ownership where the unit was not working at all. I called ART (Applied Research and Technology) and asked them if it could be a tube problem. I was assured it wasn't. But we couldn't figure it out over the phone so I sent it back (under warranty) and when it was returned there was a tube in the box with it with a piece of masking tape on it to label it 'BAD.'
So much for the tube never going bad. Anyway, since then it's been working well although every now and then I get some sizzle and distortion from the tube for no reason. This has yet to really bite me in the ass, but I'm sure it will sometime.
Those problems aside, this is a great unit. It really warms the sound and has a great sounding tube saturation. I've also used it many times as a DI for bass and other things and it does the job splendidly. On Gavin Beaudry's self-titled album, Jared Wilayto played electric guitar and for one of the songs I simply ran his semi-hollow body (I think it was a Gibson 335?) directly into the Tube MP and into the recorder. I pushed the MP pretty hard and got a really fat, fuzzy, distortion that worked great for the track.
So needless to say, I really like this unit and will probably buy a couple more in the coming months. For a 'budget' pre, very much a good start for any studio or recordist.
Oh yeah, it's got XLR I/O as well as 1/4" unbalanced I/O and plugs in with a wall-wart (ugh).
There you have it. Definitely at least 4 out of 5 stars (just because of the tube problems).

Right now I'm listening to Sister Hazel's Chasing Daylight but I just finished listening to Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer Drum Hat Buddha as I typed. Check out the song "Gentle Arms of Eden" if you get the chance.

Rock on

Ben
www.javboyrecords.com