Members average number of rack units and a list...

How many rack units do you have ?

  • 1

    Votes: 67 12.5%

  • 2

    Votes: 49 9.1%

  • 3

    Votes: 44 8.2%

  • 4

    Votes: 45 8.4%

  • 5-7

    Votes: 128 23.8%

  • 8-10

    Votes: 68 12.7%

  • 12-15

    Votes: 33 6.1%

  • 16-20

    Votes: 35 6.5%

  • 21-30

    Votes: 25 4.7%

  • 31+

    Votes: 43 8.0%
  • Total voters
    537
OK, fairs, fair. This is a pretty short list-
Furman PM8 and RP8 power units
Joemeek twinQcs
DBX386
POD Pro
Rolls HA62 headphone amp
Carver PM125 power amp
TC Electronics M300 multi fx
RNC

Soon, I will add Davisound TB-10, I think, for a couple more good channels.

About the units, I will say this-
The twinQ is a workhorse. It functions exceptionally well as a DI, and you get a very different sound if you compress it with the RNC as an insert, and leave the optocompressor off. I would recommend this pre to anyone, in it's pricerange.

The DBX is clean and useable, but quirky. It's indicators suck, and it's front end tube drive is useless for anything I would do. It's a pretty good A-D convertor, and rugged.

The POD does what I need it to do, and yeah, I would like more clean sounds. Mostly, I play acoustic guitar, but I have gotten some use out of the tube preamp model, and every so often, I just have to play Rock and Roll.

The M-300 is a heavy verb, and I wish it could do very subtle reverb better, especially for vocals. It don't matter though, I'm leaving tracks dry and we'll let Littledog add the 'verbs. This box reminds me of some good stage reverb units, it might work really well in that application.

The Carver power amp is clean, but there just is some hum. I like it better for live than studio, to feed signal from POD to Marshall cab. At least theres no fan.

Well, that's it. I think the addition of two channels of higher end pre should round out the rack. Then I will stick the whole thing into an isoraxx!-Richie
 
The DBX is clean and useable, but quirky. It's indicators suck, and it's front end tube drive is useless for anything I would do. It's a pretty good A-D convertor, and rugged.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I was considering that in the past, but you just ruled it out for me.

I'm looking right now at the Focusrite. It was going to be after the TASCAM burner, but it may have to wait now. Depends.
 
Richard Monroe,

Regarding the TC, I have the M-one which is also very lush. I generally end up putting a delay around 70ms on the track inserts to the unit along with light compression so things don't hit it so hard. This gives you some control over the animal.
 
Thanks, Middleman. When I get to a little mixing of my own, I'll try that, but right now, and probably for 2-3 months more, I'm tracking dry tracks on a schedule. Somebody else's FX.
And Sennheiser, I'm curious, what rules the 386 out for you? You don't need to use drive much, and with just a smidgen, you gan get about 40dB of clean gain out of it, but that's it. It's a fair solid state amp. I'd be perfectly happy if I could get 60dB of gain out of it without using drive. I decided it'll make an OK 5th and 6th channel for a drum kit.
As near as I can tell for you, the only question on a pre is whether it sounds good with a 441 plugged into it. Somehow I think the voltage of the phantom power output will not be a major issue in your purchase! Heh.-Richie
 
1....TC 300 -- TC MOne-- Manley Dual Vocal Combo -- TL Audio Pre --- TC Gold Channel

2....Tascam 5000 --- Tascam CD A 500--- QPS CD Recorder/and SCSI Drive (Roland) -- Furman AC

3....RODE Power supply--- Fostex Digital Convertor

4....MasterLink-- Lexicon Lp5 & LXp1 --- RNC--- Furman AC

5....SPL TUBE Vitalizer--- Orban 424a Comp/Desesser--- TC Finalizer --- Orban 622b EQ

6....Panasonic SV 3800 --- CD Rom reader

7....Kurzweil 2500R--- Furman AC

8....AMPs for surround


http://fp2k.redshift.com/cjogo/crystalrecording.htm
 
Thanks for that information Richard. Noooo, phantom power isn't a priority at this time.

As near as I can tell for you, the only question on a pre is whether it sounds good with a 441 plugged into it.
Click to expand...

Actually that is my only concern. I want to get something to tape using the 441 that is better than anything I've ever heard to date. Until recently. I've taken pre-amps pretty much for granted. Hey, you buy a console, you use what's on board, and that's it.

Well I guess that's the way it used to be, but not anymore.

Unless you're pushing faders and turning knobs on a Neve.

Early on, and until recently I was lead to believe that most console pre-'s were decent enough to use for recording. Why would anyone be selling a console with crappy pre-'s if that is where the signal chain starts??? I mean, beside the signal routing, aren't you buying the console for how the pre-'s and EQ sound?

Maybe that is the way it was in the past and my pre-'s aren't that bad because I have an older console. I've been using the console pre-'s for six months and I never heard anyone critique my music and say "you're pre-'s are crappy". Drums yes, pre-'s no.

But I know that the 441 is capable of producing a better signal than what I'm getting out of it now using the TASCAM on-board pre-'s. At least that's what I've been lead to believe.

Is the DBX 386 a Class A pre? That's the only thing I think of to get the 441 to sound as good as it can.
 
Middleman said:
Blue Bear, I was checking your site and saw you have an LA Audio EQ. What do you think of their gear as I was thinking of picking up one of their PS-10 preamps?
Click to expand...
I'd say it's just decent - it does what it needs to without undue coloration....

I'd recommend the Speck over it, as far as EQ goes...

I'm not sure what their other gear is like, though!
 
Bruce, although I know you preferred the MPX500 over the M-One, Pundit and I were talking about the M-One XL, which seems to be quite an improvement over its older brother.
Pundit, although I haven't tested it myself, I hear lots of similar stories from sound reinforcement guys about the idea that Lexicon 'doesn't get serious until the PCM stuff'.
But Lexicon vs. TC as a whole, seems to be a matter of preference. Usually I hear that the Lex verbs sound thicker and nicer, and the TC verbs sound more realistic and natural. But some might see that as sterile, I guess.

Anyway, I'm still working on my Sony V55 buy, I'll keep ya guys informed.
 
HHB Radius 5 - 3U
HHB Radius 10 - 2U
Envoice MindPrint - 1U
DBX 386 - 1U
Lucid GenX6
MOTU 2408 mkII - 1U
Alesis HD24 - 3U (does this stuff count? Not a processor but it is racked)
Two FMR RNCs - 1U
Behringer Composer Pro- 1U
DBX 266 - 1U
DOD 866 - 1U
Three Radio Design Labs compressors - 1U
Two Lexicon MPX-200 - 1U each
ART DR-X - 1U
ART LT-X - 1U
Alesis Midiverb II - 1U
Yamaha 1005E - 2U
BBE 422A - 1U
Korg SDD-1000 - 1U
DOD RDS-1900 - 1U
Crate GFX-1000 -1U
Hughes & Kettner BATT - 2U
Tom Sholtz Rockman - 2U
Tom Sholtz Distortion Generator - 1U
ART SGX-2000 -2U

That's 35 rack spaces for just this crap. There's lots more racked.
 
Rack from the ground up:

Carvin DCM600 power amp
8 line surge unit
8 line surge unit
Nady GEQ231 31band EQ...cheap but effective
DOD R825 compressor
Ross RX NR4 4 channel noise reduction
Korg tuner DTR-2
DOD Dimension3 effects
ART SGX200Express
Blue tube mic pre
Alesis SR-16 drum machine
Carvin SM162 16 channel board
 
I don't have great gear - but it's functional

Pres: Presonus MP20, Focusrite Voicemaster, Behringer VX2000

Processing: Presonus ACP22, Behringer DX2200, Behringer GEQ3102, 2-dbx 163x, dbx 110x, Fostex 3070, , Ibenez GE1500, BBE 462

Effects: Lexicon MPX100, 2 - Alesis Midivrb II, Roland SDE1000, Digitech Studio Quad, Digitech Vocalist, Yamaha R1000, Peavey Ultraverb

Plus 6 sound modules and rack mounter power amps and headphone systems.
 
Even said:
Rack from the ground up:


Alesis SR-16 drum machine
Click to expand...
I don't know about you, but an SR-16 is NOT rackmountable!
You might be able to put it on some shelf or something.

Hell, if we all start to add our drumcomputers and direct recording tools, the shit hits the fan... :rolleyes:

Boss DR670
Digitech Genesis 3
:p
 
Speeddemon said:
...Usually I hear that the Lex verbs sound thicker and nicer, and the TC verbs sound more realistic and natural. But some might see that as sterile, I guess...
Click to expand...

That's pretty much how I see it. The MPX reverbs sound kind of 'nice' but that's the problem for me.... 'nice' and not quite right. The TC just doen't sound so 'effected'. I would not say thin or sterile... just not as thick. Granted, plenty of people do like that Lexicon sound. It's made them plenty of dollars over the years. The Lexicon PCM range offers much more in terms of algorithms and tweakabilty so the sonic options are far greater.. at of course more dollars.

It is no doubt difficult to have marketed products for 25 years, which have been at the cutting edge of digital effects technology both in terms of quality and price (bloody expensive!!), and now the same company has to compete in the budget priced home studio marketplace and turn out $200 all singing, all dancing boxes with the name Lexicon stamped on the front. Of course their reputation gives Lexicon a distinct advantage here, but you can't compare $200 with $20,000. Now even Joe Blow is going to expect miracles because of the name... even for only $200!! Well they can't make it sound like a 480L, or even a PCM91 or everyone that's bought one of these will revolt and go and burn the factory down. So they have to define sort of a 'Lexiconish' signature sound, which is what the MPX range seems to demonstrate to my ears, at least. Do to less tweakbility of this range I find it hard to escape from this sound even if I want to.

For me in the lo-end of the market the TC gives me closer to what I like straight out of the box.

Cheers
 
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Yamaha DMP11 Digital Mixer 4U
2X Alesis Micro EQs 1/3U each
Peavey VMP-2 2U
Urei 546 Parametric EQ 3U
MOTU Midi Express XT 1U
Boss GX700 Guitar Preamp/Processor 1U
EMU Procussion Drum Module !U
Yamaha TG55 Synth Module
Roland JV2080 Synth Module 2U
Behringer Ultrafex 1U
Lexicon LXP1 Effect 1/2U
JoeMeek C2 Stereo Compressor 1/2U
JoeMeek VC3 Preamp/Compressor 1/2U
Alesis RA100 Power Amp 2U
Crown DC300a Power Amp 4U
2X Valley Micro Compressors 1/3U each
FMR Audio RNC Compressor 1/3U
Rane HC6 Headphone Amp
5X Neutrik TRS Patchbays 1U each
TC Electronic M3000 Effect 1U
TC Electronic Gold Channel Preamp/Processor 1U
SPL Transient Designer 4 1U
Empirical Labs Fatso EL-7 Compressor 1U
Avalon VT-747sp Compressor/EQ 2U
Alesis Masterlink 2U
Tascam DA88 4U
Tascam DA38 3U
Tascam 122mkII Cassette Deck 3U

34 total

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S. Cruz
Cruzified Music
Florida
 
I am presently housing WAYYYYYY to much outboard sh#t to list here in 6, 5 foot Raxess racks!
I got gear racked up that hasn't even been turned on in over a year!
As a matter a fact, my dumb-@ss is presently sitting with 4 different boards of which I don't even intend to sell!!
Had 4 ADAT's and sold 2 of 'em just to purchase the HD24.
True, stoned-to-the-bone, GEAR JUNKIE!!!!
 
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