Jan 1, 1999 12:00 PM, George Petersen

Simplicity is an art unto itself. A master chef can cook an amazingly complex dinner requiring hours of work, but sometimes a simple meal-made with fresh ingredients-can taste better than an elaborate 9-course production. And the situation with electronic gear is similar: Flashing lights, hundreds of knobs and onboard LCD readouts may be pretty-and occasionally useful-but there's no substitute for high-quality parts and a straightforward circuit design.

Such is the case with the Great River Electronics MP-2, a distinctly non-flashy 2-channel mic preamp that provides excellent performance of its seemingly simple task, by placing top-grade components in a Class A discrete design in an unassuming chassis. And in a world filled with dozens of "me-too" mic preamps created from the same couple of chipsets, it's refreshing to pop the cover on the MP-2 and actually see a discrete transistor circuit, with Jensen input transformer coupling.

Like its name-the MP-2 refers to mic preamp/2-channels-the MP-2 is outwardly to the point. The rear panel only has four audio connectors: two XLR inputs and two XLR outputs (all pin 2 hot), along with a removable IEC power cord socket for the internal power supply-no wall warts here! On the front panel, the controls for each channel are plainly laid out, with toggle switches to select -15dB pad, polarity (phase) invert and phantom power on/off. You won't find plasma metering with an infrared remote for tweaking meter ballistics: The MP-2 has a simple (there's that word again) clipping LED on each channel that lights when the output is -3 dB below clipping; it ain't fancy but it does the job. Gain is set by a 24-position rotary switch with 22 steps in 2dB increments for 22 to 64 dB of gain. Besides the ability to get from maximum to minimum settings easily, this continuously rotary control offers one other hidden advantage: The two settings on either side of the control's "6 o'clock" position set the input to +14 dB unity gain, although this is not marked or indicated on the front panel.

Each channel also has a front panel 1 1/4 4-inch, high-impedance (greater than 500kilohm) input, which is useful for direct injection applications. There is no external mic/DI input switch-plugging into the 11/44-inch jack automatically disables the mic input and brings the Hi-Z signal into the gain section after the phase reverse and pad circuit. Used with the High-Z input, the stepped gain control has a range of 8 to 50 dB.

Other than the unmarked unity gain positions, running the MP-2 is plug-and-go. My first session with the preamps turned out to be percussion overdubs on an acoustic guitar album, using an AKG C414 ULS in omni position to record a suspended finger cymbal hit with a metal striker. The track was cut directly to an Alesis M20 20-bit ADAT, and in this particular case, I was looking for a triangle-like tone, but with a faster attack and less sustain than a triangle. This would provide a good test of the MP-2's ability to track transients as well as offer a chance to check out its high-end frequency response. The results in both cases were excellent; the attack was crystal-clear, with a nice, shimmering decay that was exactly what I wanted.

Next up, I used the MP-2 with a pair of CAD's excellent VX2 tube microphones, criss-crossing the mics' figure-8 patterns in a Blumlein arrangement to record a group of singers cutting background tracks. This track featured very wide dynamics, ranging from fortissimo to a quiet murmur, and spotlighted the MP-2's quiet EIN spec of -129 dBv (unweighted, 22kHz bandwidth). The sound was pure, uncolored and there was no trace of noise whatsoever. A few days later, using the MP-2 on two Audio-Technica AT-4051s used as drum overheads on a rock session emphasized the fact that this preamp offers ample headroom when you need it most. Even on snare-using an Audix D4 dynamic-the difference between the MP-2 and the stock preamps on my Soundcraft 600 console was immediately apparent.

The front panel High-Z inputs are a nice touch, and while they won't cause me to replace the tube DIs I already have, the MP-2's high-impedance did a fine job of capturing different guitar pickups, from my 1964 Hofner Beatle bass to my 1997 Gibson Les Paul Special Double Cutaway. The sound was clean and punchy, and adding a tube compressor after the preamp provided everything I was looking for.

At $1,250 ($625/channel), the Great River MP-2 offers a clean, natural, preamp and DI reproduction at a great price. So who could ask for more? Well, Great River offers the MP-2 in alternate versions: The MP-2M ($1,550) and 4-channel MP-4M ($2,575) add output transformers; the MP-2H ($1,575) has output transformers and unbalanced 11/44-inch outputs. An MP-4 ($1,975) 4-channel preamp is also available. In addition, a transformerless model is $1,250 for two channels (MP-2X), $1,975 for four channels (MP-4X).

Great River Electronics, 3056 East 65th Street, Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076; 651/455-1846; fax 651/455-3224. Web site: www. greatriverelectronics.com.

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