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ART DualPre 1st impression
  • brianlucebrianluce

    It's $69. What does $69 get you? So far, it seems like not much. Solid little thing. I put my DR100 at the end of the signal path. Since you are going through Line IN on DR100, no level bars will show on the Tascam, so all you get is the red clip light on the mixer. The mixer doesn't have full level readout, just a peak light. As far as I can tell, the phantom power doesn't work at all. And the upper end of the level dials seems to ramp things up really fast to distortion. Still testing, but early impulse is to return it to BH.

  • 5 Replies sorted by
  • stoneystoney

    Yeap return it.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    There are some decent pres out there for cheap, like the Mackie Onyx line, you can also but an audio upgrades high speed card and solder it into a cheap preamp--it will beat anything under $500.

  • brianlucebrianluce

    I just want a small field mixer, mainly to give my little recorder a hotter signal. I don't even want an interface right now. Some of the bloggers have been touting the ART but so far I'm not feeling the love. I'll be able to test it more thoroughly after vacation. Just winging it for now but early returns are promising.

  • JiveJive

    I tested the ART DualPre and did not find it predisposed to being used as a field mixer.

    • The gain jumps abruptly as you near the top end of the dial
    • Output was not clean enough for my use
    • As mentioned, only a peak light, so no way to determine how hot the signal actually is
    • Separate output for headphones, but level is tied to the single output level control (which also affects the line output)
    • My unit appeared to have a grounding issue (hum when housing touched). Others have noted the same issue in their unit, causing me to believe that this wasn't an isolated issue.
    • No way to mount unit to rig (1/4-20, etc.) without modification

    At $70, it was mighty tempting, but I would give it a pass and save up for something more purpose-built for field recording.

  • brianlucebrianluce

    @Jive Were you going straight to cam? Or a deck?

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