I've looked at that thing numerous times and almost bought it.
I'll be looking at it again I guess.

Me too. I actually bought one and returned it because of some other little doodad I wanted. Stupid me, because it REALLY makes a difference in gain, and the quality of said gain that I'm recording. Really sounds good through the roland VS880, I just wish that there was a way to visualize things on it a bit better, that small screen is uber annoying. Still, it's great for those instances where I might have to go somewhere to record. The ART unit will go with me, heck I may buy a couple more just because i like 'em. I REALLY like it when I'm using the Boss GT8 on a distorted patch, man it cleans that saturation up a bit, makes for a bit more 'real' sounding. The xt sounds a lot better too, but I'm quite sick of that little guy, and I own every model pack available for it! lol They all sound 'Pod' to me... Maybe I need to learn to play better, and it will sound better...

The other cool thing is that I had a major breakthrough on my drumming technique; lol I learned to adjust my kick pedal for better responsiveness. No one really showed me, it just seemed like I was working WAY too hard. The drummer I was working with tuned the kit up, and for the most part, pretty good BUT... there's some stuff that shows up in my recordings I just don't dig. lol My drums sound just like his, suprise, suprise... And while it's not bad I definitely have different tastes in what I want it to sound like. So I shortened the beater which improved responsiveness and seems to give a more thwack and a rounded thud instead of the 'boom' I was getting. Boom's cool, but I need definition for the sound I hear. So better responsiveness and tighter attack = easier execution, which means all the practicing I've put in over the last couple weeks is payin off, like 'double'. Add the ART Tube MP to that and I'm a LOT happier with the sounds I'm getting into my mac. Way less fiddling with EQ and compression and such. All I want is a good, tight sound going in... lol

I'm not 'there' yet, but getting closer. Tone is coming...

For mic pres, ART has always been top of my list for inexpensive ones. I have owned the tube mp, dual mp, pro mpa, and the DPS. I still own the dps actually, and use it for the sp/dif output. Though they do sound a little dark for my tastes, they add a whole lot of warmth to the tone. Try cranking the gain up to the moon and then controlling the output level with the ummm output level knob. That was my kick drum secret for a long time... adds a little bit of grit to it and a byproduct of overdriving a tube is a smooth, natural compression.