PreSonus DigiTube

It's pretty easy to get a decent sound out of this, but difficult to get a really good sound. That said, the layout is very familiar to anyone who has used a preamp before.

Vocals Setup= AT4040 Condenser - Digitube (RCA 12AU7) - Roland VS1680 Sp/dif. Sometimes I patch in the Bluemax Compressor. You have to be careful with the 'drive' setting, as anything over 9 o'clock will distort your vocals. The EQ has a sweepable midband, and gives the unit flexibility.

Bass Setup= MIM Fender Jazz - Digitube - Roland VS1680 sp/dif. This is the reason I still have the unit. While the bass doesn't sound awesome directly out of the Digitube, it gives me a signal that, for whatever reason, really takes to the VS1680's garbage internal effects. Put the drive around 11 O'clock, flat EQ and go. This is a much better signal than plugging into the hi-z guitar input, and I don't have a decent bass preamp or amp, so the Digitube has a new lease on life. And it is quiet no matter what I do.

I give this a 5 because I've started using a dbx channel strip to record vocals. I have yet to use this for guitars.

No problems yet, though this thing is really touchy with the Roland VS1680's sp/dif "digital lock". My DBX never goes into unlock, but the Digitube, for unknown reasons, goes into unlock even though no settings were changed, and sometimes I can't get it to record at all. I've chalked this up to "maybe if I knew what I was doing, I'd have solved this problem by now".

Haven't used it yet, but the people at Presonus are super-nice. Usually, it's hard to find super-nice people if your business policy is to screw people, so this is a good sign for PreSonus. But who knows?

I do folk music, punk rock, metal, and jazz. The Digitube is probably limited to rock, though I haven't tried it in other genres. I've been playing in bands and recording for 20 years or so. I wish this unit was a full-on channel strip. I don't know if I would buy this unit again, it's just too limited.

Very easy to use. To hook up digitally, all i need was a good spdif cable and hook it right up. To adjust the 3 level eq's was very easy. The drive, gain, and eq is right in front of the box.

This is a very clean and warm sounding tube mic-pre(depending on how you would set it and what youre using it for). I used to for home recording(to my digi 001). I mainly recorded vocals out of it and it sounded good. Before, the 001 pre's sucked ass. My vocals sounded so cold and flat before. Now it is cleaner, warmer(drive a little less than halfway) and more LIFELIKE.

I cant really rate this with an opinion. Ive had it for a couple months now and its still working perfectly. I use it often and nothing goes wrong with it. Very sturdy, metal all around(unlike other fragile plastic ones, not mentioning any names :p ) Never tried it live or nothing cause thats not what i do.

I have never had to contact them so i dont really know.

I think that this pre rocks. Im still fairly new to all this, but from before, oh yea, big difference. If it were lost, i would definitely buy it again. Yeah!!!

Unit is straightforward as long as you know how to use a parametric EQ. It has knobs for Tube Drive, Gain, and Bass, Mid, and Treble EQ (boost/cut and sweepable frequency. Q is hardwired). It also has switches for a 20db pad, 48V phantom power, an 80 Hz rumble filter, and an EQ defeat. Presonus also wisely included an insert jack. I give it an 8 because the smallness inhibits fast adjustments, but this is only an issue when using it live.

I was looking for a unit that could perform at LEAST three functions for me - a mic pre for recording, a bass pre for gigging and recording, and an acoustic guitar pre for gigging and recording. I knew going in that I would be compromising on one or more of the three, but I am impressed at how well this unit handles each. For vocals, I'm using it with an AKG C1000S into my digital recorder. Nice and warm with all the gain I need. The tube seems to add the most for vocals. With the bass, the tube seems to make it too "rubbery", BUT with the tube dialed out it is VERY nice. I'm using an old Yamaha BB bass and several sound professionals have commented on how GREAT the bass sounds though it. The Para EQ deserves a lot of the credit for this (bass frequency selectable down to 30 Hz). Same goes with an acoustic, though a phase reversal switch would be handy in live situations. Finally, this box has a -94 db noise floor, so it is plenty quiet. I give it an 8 because it doesn't do everything, but it does what I need it to do VERY well with the few caveats mentioned above.

I'm going to hedge my bets and give it an 8. It's built solidly (all metal) and it's currently my bass preamp to take to and from gigs (Fits nicely in my bass gig bag). I've had no problems so far, but I think it's built more for studio and rack use.

Haven't had to use them.

I play alt-pop stuff at home and CCM Praise music at church. This unit does exactly what I need it for at a reasonable price. I've been playing for over 17 years. Hooked up with my dbx compressor I can get tight warm vocals, punchy or rumbly bass, and snappy acoustic parts. The full 3 band Parametric really sold me on this unit and its viability as a bass pre. To buy a separate preamp for my mic, bass, and acoustic would cost at least three times what I paid for this one unit and take up six times as much rack space. The only features I gave up by going with this unit are a tuner out jack, phase reverse switch for the acoustic, and presence control. The fact that I got digital outputs in addition to the analog was just gravy. I compared this side by side with dedicated mic (Bellari, dbx), bass (Fishman, Sansamp), and acoustic (Fishman, Sansamp) preamps and the Digitube was the easiest to get good quiet signals out of. Again, the parametric EQ was key in being able to dial in needed or dial out trouble frequencies (for example, my bass can get very boingy sounding without the proper low frequencies boosted - old passive pickups at work). I wish I could dial in more tube distortion for the bass, but since the distortion is applied across all frequencies, it doesn't work too well on the low bass frequencies. Also, the analog out on this thing is HOT, make sure the pre's on your mixer/recorder are set to line. All in all, if it were stolen or lost, I'd have to get a new one just for its versatility. It doesn't do everything, doesn't allow for much tube saturation on the bass, and will handle only one instrument at a time, therefore it gets an 8.