Best Channel Strip in the $500-$600 Range...

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Best Channel Strip in the $500-$600 Range.


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tdukex said:
VC1Q has served me well for years, but there are a lot of new items out since I bought mine. The Safe Sound gets the most good comments on this Board. The new One Q (not out yet) would be a good choice according to richie's review of the Twin Q.

I just picked a used JMeek VC1Q at GC and liked it better than a focusrite-?model. at GC. and maybe a little more than my board pre.
It has a nice sound...noticeable IMO. $400+,

not for the person wanting
"clean,dry, uncolored tracking".

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug00/articles/joemeek.htm
 
Last edited:
interesting,
i'm about to sell my Joemeek VC8 preamp cause i want something in stereo, to record overheads..
am i still looking at Channel strips then? when its dual channel or stereo?
or do they get a different name then...

first thing i had in mind was a joemeek twinqs or similar,,,,,
but maybe it might be cool to try another brand,
i like the sound i get now, but sometimes the EQ's let me down...
so my next preamp should be a step up from the meequalizer

can anyone compare the VC8 or VC6 with the Maudio Tampa ?
seems like the tampa is more versatile...what about the sound?
 
Let me throw in here on the Meek Pre's...

I've got a VC6Q which I really like. I paid about $450 new for mine and I just noticed PMI is coming out with the 6Q which looks like an upgraded VC6Q. Here's a review on the VC6Q and the link below that is a pic of the new 6Q coming out.

http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_joemeek_vcq/
 
earworm said:
interesting,
i'm about to sell my Joemeek VC8 preamp cause i want something in stereo, to record overheads..
am i still looking at Channel strips then? when its dual channel or stereo?
or do they get a different name then...

first thing i had in mind was a joemeek twinqs or similar,,,,,
but maybe it might be cool to try another brand,
i like the sound i get now, but sometimes the EQ's let me down...
so my next preamp should be a step up from the meequalizer

can anyone compare the VC8 or VC6 with the Maudio Tampa ?
seems like the tampa is more versatile...what about the sound?

most pro's keep tellin' me not to use EQ on tracking...keep the chain
clean and EQ can cause like 4th dimension Interplanetary problems
later on... also causes socks to disappear out of your dryer!
if you ever wondered...where they went. :)

dual channel is like 2qty..seperate w/full knobs.
look up the TOFT ATC2- sweeeet, Dual channel/channel strip example.

my Meek VC1Q, look it up, its a Single Channel/ Channel strip.
 
WOW... I can't believe I started this thread like months ago and it's still up here.. lol. By the way If anyone cares I recently scored a great deal on the Voicemaster pro. Can't wait to try it out with my Blue Dragonfly.. =0)
 
another vote for the TAMPA. Forget the starting price, at todays prices it can't be matched. Here's a simple acoustic song I recorded in a bedroom using a Tampa and a Studio Projects B1...cheap mic with very clean results.

The Link

Also, the tampa doesn't get enough praise for its excelent opto compresor. I often find myself hotwiring it into an insert on mixdown with great results.

Alec
 
strip tease

scarboro78 said:
WOW... I can't believe I started this thread like months ago and it's still up here.. lol. By the way If anyone cares I recently scored a great deal on the Voicemaster pro. Can't wait to try it out with my Blue Dragonfly.. =0)

so you went single channel. $640ish. Class A pre-amp. looks fully loaded.
hope you like it.
i'm no doctorate...but these mic pre's are as different as mic's can be.
i had to sell my RNC/DMP3 for my strip...and am learning not to say one is
"better" than another...just different sounds.

Outboard gear??
i have a channel strip too but now keep reading to track IN without it!
but to use the send out>then thru channel strip>then back in on another Track(leaving the "clean dry" track).
I'm not doubting the gang, but damn it's more,more work making sht sound
better!

I just bought some ultra-mini-micro-oral-acoustic pads that block all frequencys beyond the human hearing range...
i think my room sounds better now.

.
 
COOLCAT said:
so you went single channel. $640ish. Class A pre-amp. looks fully loaded.
hope you like it.
i'm no doctorate...but these mic pre's are as different as mic's can be.
i had to sell my RNC/DMP3 for my strip...and am learning not to say one is
"better" than another...just different sounds.

I just bought some ultra-mini-micro-oral-acoustic pads that block all frequencys beyond the human hearing range...
i think my room sounds better now.

.

Yeah man I actually got it used for $450 shipped which I thought was a pretty decent deal. The Tampa is going for 330 new so I think I did the right thing. I think I'm pretty much done with my recording chain for now. Next thing for me will be working on the acoustics in my room as well (my bedroom).. Which should be an interesting challenge being that it's cluttered as hell already. How the hell do you work around bookshelves.. dressers.. tv.. second computer desk.. full size bed.. etc.. ::sigh:: I have no clue where to start.. but I know I need to do something BAD.
 
scarboro78 said:
How the hell do you work around bookshelves.. QUOTE]

i've read good stuff about bookshelves..deflection..or is it reflective
absorption... fill it with different shaped books.

i was laughing at one thread the newbie said (after many responses)..

something like.. "let me get this staright..so i'm supposed to spend
$2000 getting the room dead and then another $2000 making it reflective?"

i kinda go with one thread where it was mentioned (for bedroom type)
just fhk it ..and "get it dead as you can". which can be done.

i think they were refferring to the possible reality the person isn't going
to have angled walls & ceilings built in the bedroom and $100,000 to spend
on the rest.
bedroom...kinda like a huge Vocal booth...and add the reverbs and stuff best you can electronically.

drywall and speckled plaster ceilings isn't highly thought of as a good reflection surface from what i read. :)

.
 
Yeah I know tell me about it. I think i'm going to buy a bunch of those foam tiles and place them across whatever bare parts of the wall I have.. maybe that'll help somewhat. I was thinking maybe on the ceiling above my monitors too.. I saw that on some site and thought it kind of made sense to want to deaden the reflections off the ceiling as well. Who knows.. maybe I'm going at it all wrong.
 
To name one of these the "best" would be faulty. Perhaps you should have asked the question differently, such as "Which one of these preamps have pleased you and why?"
 
Just wanted to throw in my 2 pesos....
I've got 2 of the Tampa's (great for bass, btw) and I think they're a nice clean pre. The comp is good too. What I don't like is the lack of makeup gain. This seems like an oversight to me, but for the money....
I've also been looking at the ART Pro Channel. Another flavor. I read somewhere that if you change the tube for the pre to a Shugang (or something like that) ya get a cool pristine sound outta it. Gonna have to try it.
fwiw..............Kel
 
I've already tracked a couple of songs using the VoiceMaster Pro. and I must say I'm very happy with the results. The vocals just sound real crisp to me using this thing. Plus the built in compressor, high pass filter, eq, desser.. etc, makes it real easy to get a nice clean sound just the way I like it on the way in, so I have a minimum amount of eq'ing and light compression to be done during mixdown.. at least on the vocals. It's a great strip in my opinion.. but then again.. the hell do i know anyway. lol
 
scarboro78 said:
I've already tracked a couple of songs using the VoiceMaster Pro. and I must say I'm very happy with the results. The vocals just sound real crisp to me using this thing. Plus the built in compressor, high pass filter, eq, desser.. etc, makes it real easy to get a nice clean sound just the way I like it on the way in, so I have a minimum amount of eq'ing and light compression to be done during mixdown.. at least on the vocals. It's a great strip in my opinion.. but then again.. the hell do i know anyway. lol

Well, you know what sounds good to your ears. I agree by the way the VMPro is a really great box.
 
clean pre's

scarboro78 said:
makes it real easy to get a nice clean sound strip

from what little i know too... i think "clean" is more versatile.
if you have numerous pre's (like the pro-studio's), then
all this "colored" pre's would be nice tools.

A clean pre-amp would allow the mic's and placements
to be the "colors". This may agree with making a HR bedroom
studio "dead" and having to use mics,
placement, electronc reverbs,
etc..to add life.

I was just reading an article and the pro was saying one of the
most common downfalls of many Home Demo's was the HR's
tend to have everything thru the same Mic, the same pre,
the same room.... and unfortunately if it's a crappy sound it's on
everything.

but then a guy I know that goes to Nashville to a Producer said
the Producer was listening to his demo's thru a sht box on his desk??
he just listens for a hook or catchy something.
funny in a sarcastic way...all this work and the guy listens to it
thru a sht-audio playback unit...geeeez.

.
 
The room you record in will color everything. It’s most important to find a good spot to record in. Large rooms with slow or no reverberation reduce modal build up in the low frequencies. Well treated vocal booths isolate the voice. Most important are room responses and lack of parallel walls when recording acoustic instruments, vocals, bass and drums. You can get comb filtering and warbling very easy in these environments. Also, these instruments tend to set the ambient space to our ears when listening through stereo speakers. You can try and recreate ambient spaces with short delay times on reverbs and delays but the color of the room tends to hang in your recorded tracks.

Colored pres are generally used on the main vocal. Neve, DW Fearn, etc.

Fast transient edgy pres are used on drums i.e. API

Clean, full range pres are best used on all else. But this is art, no approach applies all of the time. But generally, I think most people use their most neutral pres for background vocals, or anything else which will sit back in the mix.

Last, you get into range specific preamps; characteristic of the lower end models. Always usable but not repeatedly because the final result turns into a massive range specific recording which you will end up EQing to death, over and over again, trying to turn it into something it can never be; a full range recording.
 
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