[Pete Thomas]

There isn't really a specific preamp for recording saxophone. You have some decent mics. The only thing might be that the Coles needs more gain than other mics (not sure but that is my experience with ribbons in general).

Once you get into the realms of decent preamps (as opposed to your computer mic input) that are then quailty ids often down to personal preference - provided you follow basic good gain structure and mic placement)

A couple of my ribbons need exceedingly high gain and for those I use a dedicated ribbon mic preamp: the AEA TRP. However for my other mics I will use either that or the built in preamp with my A/D converter which is a Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt.

When I used to record to tape or 16 bit digital I would use some gentle compression while recording but since 24 bit digital there is no need and all compression is done in mixing.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Thank you all for your responses. My main issue is getting that warm, fat sound to translate onto the recording. When I play back my recording, the sound I hear is different from what I hear (or at least think I hear) as I'm playing. There's a bit more of a "honky" tone to the recorded sound. The sound is also thinner. It may be the room as well. I do use a portable vocal filter that's set up at the back of the mic, but maybe that's not enough? The room is carpeted, has plaster walls and is pretty small (maybe around 100-150 sq. ft.). One side of it has a make-shift open "closet" where I hang a lot of my clothes (the girlfriend has pretty much commandeered all the regular closets in the condo unit).

On the other hand, it also may be that I just don't know how to use my current Daking equipment properly as I've only had them for about 4 months now. I used to have an ISA Two and no compressor.

OK well this all makes sense, given the high end mics you mentioned I had presumed you already had a well designed acoustic for recording. Sounds like you are using a room in a house as opposed to a studio. The pre-amp is probably the least thing to worry about then.

I would look into some acoustic design for the room - that is really the first stage in the recording sound quality chain. Yopu can spend thousands on a pre-amp, but if the studio room is not right then it's all a waste.