0:00 - The Holy Grail Preamp 4:00 - The Quest For The Missing Preamp Tone 5:12 - Full Band Comparisons 6:34 - "Scientific" Frequency Response Graphs 8:27 - "Punchy" Subtle Compression 9:43 - Is There Special Vintage Distortion? 14:05 - But I Want The Special Distortion! 17:43 - Distortion Comparison: Vintage vs Dumb 19:28 - But Analog Gear Is ALWAYS Distorting! 23:50 - But What About Slew Rate! 28:46 - But What About Impedance! 30:12 - But What About Analog EQ! 32:39 - But What About Ocean Way's Actual Console? 35:31 - But What About Ocean Way's Actual EQ? 39:48 - Getting Ahead Of It 43:49 - Rapid Fire! 47:19 - What Did You Hear? https://jimlillmusic.com/store for the "Find Your Gear's Hidden EQ" course. https://paypal.me/JimLill if I saved you money. @ActuallySoundsLike or https://ActuallySoundsLike.com for the new show that happens every week instead of like once a year. @jimlill on Instagram ___ My favorite music was made with a Neve console. My favorite engineers have told me they love Neve consoles. So I loved Neve consoles. I loved Neve consoles so much I bought a very expensive piece of one. But once I did, what I was hearing didn't match up with what I thought was true. So I started a no-stone-left-unturned quest for the missing preamp sound. This is that journey. Every question any of us have ever had about microphone preamps gets answered. -Jim 2026-06-09
ADVERTISEMENT
I guess the real neve sound is the friends we made along the way.
Don't tell Beato
When the world needed him the most, the man has returned
I got tone wood watching this.
Oh ok so I have to crank the gain and lower the fader. Got it thanks Jim.
At this rate you're going to be assassinated by the Neve Corporation
Audio R/D engineer here. Fantastic video, I'm deeply impressed! I've watched all your videos one after the other and I have to say: this stuff should be mandatory for engineers. Thumbs up!
This guy is systematically dismantling the music gear industry's decades of marketing bullshit and hype. KEEP GOING DUDE
"I'm just a performer" Bro is halfway to DIYing an electrical engineering degree and still humble as hell
Focusrite isn’t going to know whether to sue you for defemation or send you a percentage of all future Scarlett sales indefinitely.
This guy has the most important audio channel in the world
Honestly I'm just amazed that a 1970s preamp is actually just... pretty much perfect, like a modern digital preamp. They worked their hardest to make it perfect and transparent, and they succeeded.
Every time I watch one of these videos I immediately feel so much relief from GAS and audio-tech imposter syndrome.
Listening to this from compressed YouTube audio through my phone speakers that are filled with dust
Man, you are a soldier. When you decided you were gonna manually test the slew rates of different preamps I just started chuckling.
The GOAT returns! Also that summoning salt reference was awesome haha
Speaking as a former audio engineering professor who can recognize the subtle stuff, you are absolutely correct that it almost never matters in any practical application. Nobody listening to music is cork-sniffing slight phase shifts in the upper-mids or whatever. Keep on bringing the the diligent evidence based work. I wish you'd been around when I was still teaching.
Also I gotta say I love how much of your frustrations you voiced in this video. Going on forums is very much a menagerie of anecdotes and claims of expertise with nothing to back it up
paypal.me/jimlill jimlillmusic.com/store for the Hidden EQ course actuallysoundslike.com for the new weekly show Thanks for waiting. I appreciate it.
I love this video series because it shows that the sounds we love are the results of human labour and talent rather than some circuit fairy