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INTRODUCTION
READ ME!
While no one likes to read manuals, the Black Box Analog Design™ Vacuum
tube mic pre is different than any other microphone preamplifier both in
how it's built and how it functions so taking a few minutes to understand
the approach and controls will have you getting great tones MUCH faster!
WHAT IS SO DIFFERENT ABOUT IT?
(AND DOES IT REALLY CHANGE HOW I USE IT?)
Most microphone preamplifiers do one thing: increase the gain of a signal. While
that is great, we think a pre should do more. We think it should be able to help
you dial in tones and character right there at the first stage.
The Black Box Analog Design™ pre allows you to control how you capture a sound
and get it right before you ever hit tape or your converters! And yes, it does
change how you use it! In fact, once you get used to the controls, dialing in a
tone and finding the sweet spot feels more like playing an instrument than using
Can't I just use an EQ to get the same result?
Nope! While the pre does give you an incredible amount of control over the
frequency response, we don't do it with an EQ. When using a channel strip or EQing
a signal after the preamp stage, you can only cut or boost what the microphone
and preamp have captured. You cannot boost things that are not there and you
cannot change how the microphone and preamp picked up the sound. You also
have the artifacts and associated phase shifts of the EQ.
With this in mind, we designed our pre to actually give you control over how the
microphone hears! Our unique circuit topology not only allows you to change the
input impedance that the microphone sees, greatly affecting how it responds but
also the impedance between stages. In fact, as you turn the gain knobs you are
not only changing the gain of the tubes but also the impedance feeding the next
stage. The result is an incredible amount of control over how the microphone
and preamp "hears" and also changes how you use the controls to dial in a sound.
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A N A LO G D E S I G N
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