Sound:
Art mic pre's as a guideline are known to have a "dark" sound. But with features like semi parametric EQ, adjustable impedance and selectable plate voltage you can achieve more airy sounds with judicious use of an aural exciter it can be quite an airy sound. I use it with several good mics -A sony c38b, SE z5600a mkii, Rode NT1A, Samson VR88 and a cheap Apex 420 large diaphragm condenser. Curiously enough it is not the kind of pre that will make an 800 dollar mic (z5600amkii) sound like a million dollars. But it wont make my $2000 Sony sound like crap either. Its a good mic preamp with its own very usable sounds. But if you're thinking you can match it up against a really great mic pre and come out even then it will fall a little shy, still for just over 400 dollars? Grab it. Its one of the best in the price range only the Joe Meek OneQ is in its league Then again I havent used the Eureka or the GT Brick.
Feature:
The most useful feature is semi parametric EQ, followed by the selectable plate voltage and adjustable impedance selection. Not super crazy about the compressor. Metering is amazingly good on a unit at this price so are the output options. I dont think anyone has a system that this won't integrate into perfectly. I mean it, that's one of its strongest features.
Ease of Use:
Like anything the deeper the feature list -the trickier it gets. Still its all right there labeled in creme avec noir. no menus and sub menus though (I'm sure one day even tube pre's will be plagued by this.)
Quality:
Its a tube pre i'm not gonna through it up against a brick wall to find out. Tubes are sensitive. thats the way life goes. looks pretty though espescially when that VU meter is lit up and the compresser is working away. Use it on the road? no I would not. worst aspect of quality is probably that they dont use a premier tube then again one premier tube can set you back fifty dollars.
Value:
I own a few mic pres and a few bundled mic pres
its better than the pres on my behringer eurorack because it has higher headroom.
Better than the pres on my Emu 1616m for the same reason.
I prefer it over my focusrite twintrak about 60 percent of the time.
equal to "my" (okay its a loaner...) joe meek oneq
Manufacturer Support:
not applicable. Thank God.
The Wow Factor:
Its beautiful actually.
Overall:
Well i think anyone who takes the studio aspect of music as being more creative than utilitarian has to go out and search for more sounds and more ways to capture sounds I'm not getting rid of this thing even when i can afford a Focusrite 220
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Sound:
The Voice Channel has improved my Vocal recordings tremendously. I use a Bluebird mic running through the voice channel and was blown away by the improvement of the quality of recording the ability to add warmth via the tube setting. Since my homestudio enviorment has not been treated for recording and the gate function on the Voice Channel has worked phenomenal in keeping backgoud sounds out. I'm pretty new home recording but love this Voice Channel.
The only thing is I wasn't able to record a acoustic guitar very well through it but that's most likely to my lack of knowledge of recording instruments for vocals it's awesome.
Feature:
So much you can do with this thing. Love it.
Ease of Use:
I took it out of the box and started recording. Knobs are well labeled and pretty easy to figure out. Still learning though.
Quality:
Well for the price you can't beat it. I've been researching a mic pre-amp w/ gate and compressor etc. This all-in-one machine is a whole lot of
Value:
Well for the price you can't beat it. I've been researching a mic pre-amp w/ gate and compressor etc. This all-in-one machine is a whole lot of function for the price. I'm vey pleased at what I got forthe price.
Manufacturer Support:
haven't had any problems yet.
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