What makes a good microphone preamplifier? What makes one mic preamp better for an application than another? Why even bother with “outboard” preamps?

Frankly, there are no standard “correct” answers to these questions, it’s all about a subjective sense of aesthetic that users have to determine their own bad selves.

Mic preamps – like wine, cars, guitars, and the brand of cigarettes you smoke – are all a very personal decision.

What I may find remarkably mundane and boring may be absolute perfection to another user. Just as some men make perfect mates for some women, other women may consider these same men to be psycho-losers from hell. It’s all that subjective.

There are tools that have made my life a miserable ball of living nightmare, while others I’ve found over the years have served me well. The latter have enabled me to give my audio a sense of “three dimensions,” a sense of character and texture that help me to get the various tones that comprise music to work and play well with each other.

Sometimes my choice of preamp will enable tones to blend with each other in a way I find musically pleasing, other times my preamp choices will enable the tones to gain greater independence and separation within the context of the musical presentation.

Other times I have found that trying to get any kind of clarity or dimension from these same tools is probably a little easier than wringing blood from a stone.

I tend to gravitate to preamps with a distinct and unique personality. I have found that some mics work better with some pre-amps than with others.

This is a whole other can of worms that doesn’t really need to be opened at the moment. And I’ve found that there are fewer than zero rules when it comes to mic-pre selection.