Digi 003 Et Ses Préamplis Options

[ALLO]

Bonjour,

Ma question concerne les préamplis de la Digi 003. Peut-on considérer qu'ils sont de niveau professionnel ou bien vaut-il mieux acquérir de bons préamplis. En sachant que le niveau souhaité doit être de très bonne qualité.

Merci et A+

[lepurestyle]

juste en passant l'avis du testeur de Sound On Sound du mois de mai 2007 sur les préamps :

New Mic Preamps

Digidesign have apparently completely redesigned the mic preamps for the 003 and 003R, and I am surprised they haven't made more of a song and dance about it. The dynamic range has been improved by nearly 6dB and the total harmonic distortion has been reduced from 0.04 percent to 0.0007 percent, which is a five-fold improvement. The first four inputs no longer have separate line sockets, but reviewing the spec, the DI inputs on the first four inputs cover this role as well.

So do the technical improvements on these new preamps translate into a better sound? I used my Sennheiser MKH40 mic and compared the sound though a variety of routes, taking care to level-match each route so the comparisons would be valid:

MKH40 to 003 preamp

MKH40 to Focusrite Octopre to 003 via ADAT

MKH40 to 002R preamp

MKH40 to M Box preamp

The 002R was the poorest of the bunch — not bad, really, but the others were better. I was surprised at how good the preamps in the original M Box were, the only thing that let them down being a comparatively high noise floor. The 003 preamp compared very well with the Focusrite Octopre sound. If anything, the 003 sounded a little brighter, and it had the best low-frequency performance, with a richer and rounder sound. Consequently, popping was the most noticeable on the 003. The noise floor was every bit as good on the 003 as on the Octopre and subjectively was possibly slightly better. Having the word clock out on the 003 was great, as the 003 was the master clock on the system. With my 002R I have to clock Pro Tools with the Octopre, which always concerns me, as I don't know how stable the Octopre's clock is.

I have to say, though, that I am disappointed that Digidesign didn't take the opportunity to increase the number of mic preamps in the 003/003R up to eight. This would have made the units even less dependent on additional equipment for recording complex sessions. Having eight internal preamps, with the ability to add a further eight using something like a Focusrite Octopre, fed into the 003 via the ADAT port, would offer 16 channels of mic preamps in a very compact package.