Anyone using the focusrite voicemaster pro???

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DonGraham

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I am looking for a nice pre/channel strip in the under $1000 (U.S) range.....I am running the DIGI002 rack and using it's pre's right now.........Anyone with experience or other favorites???? Main use is female vocals......My current mic is a Groove tubes GT55 condenser-----(yeah yeah I will be upgrading soon, but it's actually a decent sounding mic). Thanks in advance :)
 
Do a search on the Voicemaster Pro. There are a lot of threads here on this one.
 
My brother has a Voicemaster Pro. It's okay, but not great. There are better out there.

The thing about the Voicemaster Pro is that it has a lot of features, but to me some of them almost seem gimmicky. Using my brother's Voicemaster Pro, I felt like I got the best sound out of it when I disabled pretty much everything except the preamp.

So if that is the way it is going to be, I'd rather own a channel strip that has just the basics, but the basics are really good. Or even just a preamp without any other features, but just a really good preamp.

If you are looking under $1,000, I'd say take a look at the Safe Sound P1. It has a compressor and limiter built in.

http://www.safesoundaudio.com/

Here are some that are preamps only. What you would do is follow them with a compressor if needed. So basically, you build a channel strip out of separate units.

http://www.speck.com/mp50/mp50.shtml

http://www.gracedesign.com/products/101/model101.htm

There's the Summit 2BA-221:

http://www.summitaudio.com/

Also worth a look is the Groove Tubes BRICK;

http://www.groovetubes.com/product.cfm?Product_ID=2084

I know you mentioned channel strips specifically, but in the below $1,000 range I think you might get better quality buying a preamp and the compressor/eq sections separately. Most of the "all in one" channel strips in that price range are compromised in one way or another.

On eBay there are some great compressors going for not much money. One in particular is the Aphex Expressor. There are basically two versions of it, the older 651 and the newer 661. These go for between $150 to 200 or so, which is stupid cheap for what is a great pro quality compressor. The Expressor is a full featured compressor that works very well on voice. One of the preamps I mentioned above followed by the Expressor would be a great channel strip.

Another compressor I personally like that's a couple hundred on eBay is the DBX 160X and the 160XT. Not quite as versatile as the Expressor, but very commonly used on voice, and again a fine pro compressor, not a toy.

So there's a few extra thoughts for ya!
 
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I worked with the voicemaster pro and I like it alot for what it was.. but then again I spent about 500 bucks for mine at the time. In the $1000 range I would've gotten something a little nicer. Actually I did.. my avalon. =0)
 
I have one and used it extensively over the last 2 years. I have written this elsewhere but here goes.

I did a shootout of this unit against a Great River, in the $1100 range. Preamp to preamp there was probably less than a 5% difference in sound using both an NTK mic and a TLM103. The Focusrite VM Pro has a very good sounding preamp. At its price point it was one of the best preamps I have heard. I also had a DMP3 and the RNP for the test.

The Great River of course has variable impedence so it would work across more microphones but for the basics the VM Pro is in the ball park.

The opto compressor is also very good for tracking vocals. It has its own flavor which is not universally applicable but for some things works well.

The rest of the features run from just OK to useless. The de-esser is very usable. The show however is the preamp and the compressor. I have done some stellar vocals and bass DI with the unit.

The only thing that comes close in this price range is the Envoice, possibly the Brick, if you like the tube sound, maybe the P1 but I have not heard that unit, just going from others input.
 
omtayslick said:
And..... How'd they do?
Click to expand...

Neither were as clear and defined or, how should I say, big sounding. The Great River and VMPro have that big transformer, larger than life type sound. Another thing was transient response. Neither the RNP or the DMP3 reveal the subtle details of an intimate vocal performance like the other two.

That said, I would use the DMP3 any day on my acoustic guitar. It has a sweet spot for that use. Hope this helps.
 
Yeah, it does help. Thanks for the reply middleman. I use a DMP3, and get really good acoustic guitar sounds with it. But there seems to be a little something missing in the vocals. Not bad, but could be better. I have wondered if perhaps I need a better one channel pre specifically for vocals.
 
omtayslick said:
Yeah, it does help. Thanks for the reply middleman. I use a DMP3, and get really good acoustic guitar sounds with it. But there seems to be a little something missing in the vocals. Not bad, but could be better. I have wondered if perhaps I need a better one channel pre specifically for vocals.
Click to expand...

Hey if you want to check out a vocal sample using the Voicemaster Pro check out this song I tracked using it along with the BLUE Dragonfly.

 
Very nice

Very nice song. I think tracking some female background singers on the chorus would give it a sexy/fun/party feel especially with the lyrics. It would also solidify the chorus as the hook. Do you have a deal? If you don’t you should, real nice.
Frank Military
 
omtayslick said:
Yes sir, nice job indeed. Thanks for posting the clip.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comments guys. That's actually not me singing, that's my brother "Gab Gacha". He's pretty much the reason I got into home recording in the first place. We're in the process of shopping for deals as we speak.

As far as the hook we've thought about having someone else either do the chorus altogether or do it with him kind of a back and forth kind of thing but who knows if we'll ever get back around to doing it. We've recorded a couple tracks since then so I somehow doubt we're gonna go back and make changes now. Thanks again for everyone's comments.

PS: I really did love that voicemaster pro.
 
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