I bought a yamaha md-8 mini disc 8 track recorder. Its real nice and very mobile, and i bought it for the purpose of recording bands at bars and rehearsal spaces. My normal recording equipment is a real drag for making mobile and after some research and recomendations i decided on this.

Here is the situation.
It records 8 tracks at a time.
It has two xlr inputs with 48v phantom power. The other 6 are unbalanced 1/2". I need a cheap mic preamp to power some good mics I have into at least 4 of the remaining 6 open. I realise for the $ I want to spend there are only bottom tier options available.

Here is what i came up with.
1. That big Behringer t1953 that looks way cooler than I know it is. It has 4 preamps and sells on ebay for about $135. I have found that Behringer is usually crap.
2. SM pro audio pr8mk11 - It has 8 preamps and phase reverse options. It sells for about $200. Also, there is its cheaper brother that sells for $99 but does not have phase reverse and a few less options.
3. Yamaha mla7 - its got 8 preamps, looks real simple, and sells for about $125 on ebay.
4. Buy a whole bunch of cheap ART mp stuidio preamps.
5. Same as above, but PreSonus - Audio Buddy - Bellari - etc......
6. HHB radius 10 - it has 4 preamps, is real simple, has phase reverse and sells for about $300.

Any suggestions people. I don't really want to spend more than $70 per mic channel.

I've always had a good feeling about that Yamaha thing, although I have not used it.

C

i wouldn't bother with the t1953. i have one, first preamp i bought back before i knew what i was doing, and as such it was quite good as an introduction - better than the pres on my portastudio and not bad as a line input/DI etc., but really it ain't up to much.

the preamps themselves are notably poor compared to everything else i've ever tried. the vu meters are totally noddy. the tube thing is hilarious ... should be labelled 'make thin and crispy distorted a bit, like a bad attempt at a 12k boost' rather than 'warm'.

some of the switches/knobs feel incredibly breakable.

and it doesn't kick out 48v phantom power. it's meant to, but it's about 40 according to my meter. not sure how much of a problem that actually is, but for a thing that size and with all the claims behringer made for it, i'd expect it to be doing stuff properly.

and yes, the size of the thing. it *does* look bad-ass. it looks like big box of bad-ass things. but actually, most of the box is empty. except for the power supply the stuff inside goes no further than an inch.

the xlr connectors 'round the back are poor quality, cheap.

and it's only two channels, not four, so may not be what you want at all.

i'd like to get rid of mine. but hell, it has no real resale value except to people who don't know how unimpressive it is, and i'd just feel bad getting rid of it that way.

g

the symetrix sx202 is a 2 channel mic pre with xlr in, 1/4" out and can be had on ebay for about $125. they sound surprisingly good.

-wiesner