J
jeff0633
Member
Hi folks.
Man oh man, I feel like the folks at Focusrite screwed me.
I purchased a Focusrite VoiceMaster Pro on Ebay. I had been searching
for a channel strip. I had heard good things about this unit.
I got it and it seemed ok, but still, the sounds were not what I had
been expecting.
I have a friend who is much more experienced at recording. He lives
fifty miles away and I don't get up there much. I realize now I
should have took him up on his offer to come check some stuff out
before I spent my money.
I told him that I was not satisfied with the VM Pro and he said come
up and we would test it out and do some comparisons to his pres.
I get there and we setup a test with his Seagull acoustic guitar
(awesome sound). He has a nice room and a big Mackie board. Well,
he says we will compare my VM pro with a couple pres in the same price
range that he has.
First we recorded the song amazing grace with the seagull. He puts
two guitar tracks, far left and far right and he does a vocal down the
center. The first unit he used was an FMR RNP in front of an RNC
compressor. When I heard the three tracks over his studio monitors
and then his studio headphones, I was dumbfounded at the delicate
color, the detail, the beauty of the recording.
Then, he did the same three tracks again and used a Presonus Eureka
preamp strip. Again, the recording was stunning. Magical, delicate,
Different than the RNP, but not better or worse. The rnp had a type
of color while the Eureka had intimate detail and a 3d quality. Both
sent chills down my spine, literally, goose bumps. I swear, I could
not stop listening to the tracks made with these two preamps. They
sounded like I had bought a CD of the song at a store, that's how
good.
Well, then he hooked up my VM pro and did the same three tracks again,
and I was heart broken. My VM pro didn't even come close to the RNP
and Eureka. NOT EVEN CLOSE. The poorer quality was instantly heard.
My friend thought that it could be that he wasn't used to the
compressor settings on the VM, so he recorded the 3 tracks twice more,
each time playing with the controls, but nothing changed. It wasn't
the eq or the compression, the damn VM pro just sounded no where near
as good as the RNP and Eureka. He tried to console me and said I
would probably make many bad decisions on my road to recording.
I feel so po'ed at Focusrite. When they made this product, didn't
they sit down and compare it to other units in the same price range?
No way they compared it to the RNP and Eureka cause they would have
been too ashamed to release the thing had they done that. I feel like
I wasted my money and I got a sound not much better than my hundred
dollar M-audio DMP3. The RNP and Eureka were simply in another world.
What kills me is that I could have got a used RNP for 450 or so, I saw
used Eureka for around $350-400
My unit is supposed to be class A, just like the Eureka unit, so why
doesn't mine sound as good as his? Nothing was different when we
recorded the three. he sat in the same chair, same mic Tl103 and
position, same everything. The rnp and Eureka blew my unit out.
Focusrite, why even put these out on the market without comparing the
quality of sound to the competition and making sure you can compete?
had you compared these units you would have said to yourself "hmm, our
unit sucks in comparison to theirs, lets get it right before we
release this product."
Sorry for ranting, but I feel I wasted hundreds of bucks and could
have gotten something of better quality for the money.
Man oh man, I feel like the folks at Focusrite screwed me.
I purchased a Focusrite VoiceMaster Pro on Ebay. I had been searching
for a channel strip. I had heard good things about this unit.
I got it and it seemed ok, but still, the sounds were not what I had
been expecting.
I have a friend who is much more experienced at recording. He lives
fifty miles away and I don't get up there much. I realize now I
should have took him up on his offer to come check some stuff out
before I spent my money.
I told him that I was not satisfied with the VM Pro and he said come
up and we would test it out and do some comparisons to his pres.
I get there and we setup a test with his Seagull acoustic guitar
(awesome sound). He has a nice room and a big Mackie board. Well,
he says we will compare my VM pro with a couple pres in the same price
range that he has.
First we recorded the song amazing grace with the seagull. He puts
two guitar tracks, far left and far right and he does a vocal down the
center. The first unit he used was an FMR RNP in front of an RNC
compressor. When I heard the three tracks over his studio monitors
and then his studio headphones, I was dumbfounded at the delicate
color, the detail, the beauty of the recording.
Then, he did the same three tracks again and used a Presonus Eureka
preamp strip. Again, the recording was stunning. Magical, delicate,
Different than the RNP, but not better or worse. The rnp had a type
of color while the Eureka had intimate detail and a 3d quality. Both
sent chills down my spine, literally, goose bumps. I swear, I could
not stop listening to the tracks made with these two preamps. They
sounded like I had bought a CD of the song at a store, that's how
good.
Well, then he hooked up my VM pro and did the same three tracks again,
and I was heart broken. My VM pro didn't even come close to the RNP
and Eureka. NOT EVEN CLOSE. The poorer quality was instantly heard.
My friend thought that it could be that he wasn't used to the
compressor settings on the VM, so he recorded the 3 tracks twice more,
each time playing with the controls, but nothing changed. It wasn't
the eq or the compression, the damn VM pro just sounded no where near
as good as the RNP and Eureka. He tried to console me and said I
would probably make many bad decisions on my road to recording.
I feel so po'ed at Focusrite. When they made this product, didn't
they sit down and compare it to other units in the same price range?
No way they compared it to the RNP and Eureka cause they would have
been too ashamed to release the thing had they done that. I feel like
I wasted my money and I got a sound not much better than my hundred
dollar M-audio DMP3. The RNP and Eureka were simply in another world.
What kills me is that I could have got a used RNP for 450 or so, I saw
used Eureka for around $350-400
My unit is supposed to be class A, just like the Eureka unit, so why
doesn't mine sound as good as his? Nothing was different when we
recorded the three. he sat in the same chair, same mic Tl103 and
position, same everything. The rnp and Eureka blew my unit out.
Focusrite, why even put these out on the market without comparing the
quality of sound to the competition and making sure you can compete?
had you compared these units you would have said to yourself "hmm, our
unit sucks in comparison to theirs, lets get it right before we
release this product."
Sorry for ranting, but I feel I wasted hundreds of bucks and could
have gotten something of better quality for the money.
