Eureka!!!

[87PRS]

Thanks audiodude, I own some Presonus gear and love the stuff. If anyone is using an Eureka mic-pre chime in and let me know how you are using the unit. I'd like to hear about it.

I've been using mine for vocal, guitars and bass guitar, works well with all three. I'm running the Eureka analog through my Ghost console, no eq and then into the Alesis HD24XR. Been getting some stunning results. I don't have the update card yet, if anyone is using it full digital how's it working for you?

[Audiodude]

I own one...

I use it in my home studio, mostly for vocals. But since I don't record at home all that often (we've got some killer studios (http://productions.sweetwater.com) here at Sweetwater, so I do most of my recording up here), my main use for it is as a vocal channel for my live sound rig.

Most of the time when I run sound, I'm working with a mixer that I'm not familiar with. I keep a Eureka in my rack so I have at least one channel I can count on with a good preamp, good EQ, and a good compressor.

[dcwave]

Cool. I'll be picking up a little Firebox for the laptop to capture some sounds when ever I travel.

[87PRS]

I haven't used my Eureka for a live performance as I don't do live sound that much anymore, but I do have a big FOH gig lined up for Labor Day and I may just pull that puppy outta the studio rack and take 'er along. Lead vocalist need all the help they can get!

I've been running my studio without the computer for two years now and when I do hook the comp up I'm thinking Firepod, but it'll take two of these to get at least 16 tracks going and at that price I can get a MOTU2408 with dedicated card.

[Audiodude]

Another trick for live sound... Get a few of their 1/3 rack EQ's - the EQ3b and insert them on channels to use in place of the lackluster "not-really-parametric" eq's found on most live sound consoles.

One of their MaxRack systems loaded with 3 EQ's and 3 comps and an insert snake makes for a great live sound toolkit on a low budget.

[passerby3141]

Anyone used the Eureka as a preamp for an acoustic guitar pickup? Seems promising with the pra-eq and compression. I recently had a D Tar Wavelength installed in my Guild jumbo, it's awesome BTW. Very high output, but the Eureka has a line level input right?

[ricknaqvi]

The Eureka has a line input that bypasses the mic and instrument preamp. So if your pickup has a ton of output, this would be the way to go probably.

We have a lot of customers that use it on acoustic instruments. Something about the transformer balanced input that really works nicely with acoustic stuff. Also, the compressor sounds very natural and won't 'squash' the life out of your acoustic.

I don't know if you like country stuff, but Tony King from Brookes and Dunn owns a Eureka that he uses on acoustic in the studio. Also, I believe Tim McGraw's guitarist, Bob Minner, just started using one as well.

Hope you get to check one out. Let us know how it works for you.

Regards,

[passerby3141]

Thanks for the reply Rick.

No, I am not really into most newer country acts, but the fact that they use the Eureka doesn't put me off it. This is a preamp I have been interested in for a while, just haven't gotten around to really checking it out. It looks like a really versatile piece of gear, and it is on my "someday" list!

[TnMike]

I have a AKG 414 condenser mic I use with the Eureka preamp. How should I set the impedence control on the Eureka to match it??
Thanks,
TnMike:)

[87PRS]

TNMike I couldn't find any ohms match on Sweetwater's page for the AKG 414, my suggestion would be to start at the lower 200 ohms setting, and try that first, seems to me the ohms settings get little hotter as you increase them . I use the 200 ohm setting on my Rode K2 tube mic and it works nice.

One other thing about the Eureka is its ability to record female vocals and not have alot of spiking issues. i set the Eureka as designed in the owners manual and tweak from there, the comp and eq section really help out in obtaining a true natural sound for the vocal.

btw: I have nothing but respect for some of today's country musicians and the new sound they are generating sounds like a mixture or 70's rock and southern rock, so....rock on!

[ricknaqvi]

From AKG's site, it says that the recommended load impedance for the current version of the 414 is 2.2k Ohms.

I own several 414's and find that I usually use the higher impedance settings if I'm needing a lot of high/mid presence. However, since the 414 has a natural high/mid spike in the frequency range, this mic doesn't work on all vocalists. If the vocalist has a midrangey quality to their voice, you will probably find that a lower impedance setting on the Eureka will work better to mellow out the high/mid bite.

So in other words, if you are recording a vocalist that has a darker quality to their voice, you'll probably want to go high on the input impedance of the Eureka and vice versa if the singer has a piercing voice.

Hope this helps.

[87PRS]

Can the Eureka be used as a Re-amp?

[87PRS]

guess not 'eh?

[Audiodude]

Not to my knowledge, no. The only outputs are line level, nothing you'd take into a guitar amp.

[ricknaqvi]

Not really.

By re-amp I'm assuming you want to send a line level signal out and convert it to instrument level as well as go from lo to hi impedance.

The impedance switching on the Eureka is for the mic input only. So if you go into the line input, you are basically bypassing the mic preamp circuitry.

Hope this helps!

[87PRS]

I really appreciate the response, both Audiodude and Rick thanks.
The main reason i was asking about the re-amp possibilty is that I have one bass track that was recorded with a bass amp, and a whole albums worth of material recorded using the Eureka pre for bass guitar (sounds good btw) and without re-recording this whole bass track, which is a live studio take, was thinking I could re-send the instrument out of my Ghost "insert" (maybe?) back to the Eureka and line it out to another track...otherwise the bass guitar track will have to be re-done, and it will surely lose some of the feeling that it had during the take in the studio. For some reason :o the bass was recorded line-out amp on one song and the rest of the album's 11 songs via Eureka. Any suggestions, other than re-doing the track?

[Audiodude]

Yes - you can do that. That's not really the same as re-amping. Go line out from the Ghost, into the Eureka's line input, then back into a new track on your DAW. The result won't be the same as if you had tracked with the Eureka to begin with, but it will give you some of the same character, the EQ, compression, and that enigmatic "saturate" knob from the Eureka.

[87PRS]

Audiodude, I've seriously never used the saturate knob, its a cool effect just not my thing (i have tubes). Thanks alot for your help. I'll report back with the results.

[87PRS]

reporting back...nada, zilch, nil...no sig

[Audiodude]

Are you sure you've got it hooked up right? I run line-level signals through my Eureka all the time with no problems. It's the 1/4" input on the back panel, right-hand side.

Routing should be:
Direct output from your DAW or console -> Eureka Line In -> Line input on your DAW or console to a new mono track

[87PRS]

Are you sure you've got it hooked up right? I run line-level signals through my Eureka all the time with no problems. It's the 1/4" input on the back panel, right-hand side.

Routing should be:
Direct output from your DAW or console -> Eureka Line In -> Line input on your DAW or console to a new mono track

Audiodude, I did have it routed exactly as quoted and went back out today, tried it again and it worked, unbeknownst to me why it didn't before...but i am here to report to all Eureka (not the TV show ) owners that the unit will work with a line-out and do a very nice job....so good in fact that it is now hooked up to my Neutrix.

My main problem was with an active eq bass track (recorded through board) that has a lot of open note thumping and then in the middle of the song broke down into a slap thumb/finger pickin' mo-jo-that I can't even attempt to duplicate....know what I mean? Anyhow it was in the the higher 4k range on the octave that was missing, now it is there, plus compression ...good eq there Presonus, its an aural sense thing, subjective to the ear that is trying to find a harmonic range, I found it and it does make the bass sound better. Thanks