Blue Robbie vs. Sebatron VMP-2000e

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rightbrainnow

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Any opinions? Wanting to drop some dollars on a decent piece of equipment.
 
I've heard tons of good things about the sebatrons and absolutely nothing either way on the robbie. Nobody seems at all interested the robbie and I'd almost bet if you waited another year on it you'll find them being blown out at like 699 or some crap. Don't take my word for it do some searches but if it were me i'd rather go with something people use and have talked about, not something that apparently nobody owns.
 
I have the same take on the Robbie. It may be a fine piece, but for the price I just think there are many more proven single channel options (Sebatron, Speck, True, Universal Audio). And for a little more (or less) than the $1,000 Robbie you can pick up two channels of Sebatron, Vintech, Langevin, Apogee, Hamptone.

Edit: The True and UA single channel units are new but based on existing multichannel designs.
 
Yea, ive read nothing but good things about the sebatron...and nearly NOTHING on the Robbie. Blue's site has a message board where people praise the robbie...but that IS Blue's site. Now im contemplating the Sebatron to Spl's gainmaster. Ive read reviews on the Sebatron regarding to how much mood it can add to your sound. Im not sure if i should appreciate that too much. I would want fluidity in my sound, yet keep it interesting. Im thinking that with too much of the same "mood" and "color"..it could be repetative...however, my mind also goes to a place where that could be really cool, and that i could achieve adversity with its EQ controls. The Gainmaster has a really cool function of combining the tube gain with various other controls. The world of sound on a budget is a bitch.
 
The Sebatron is very versatile. It can go from relatively clean (though it will never sound like a Grace) to downright gritty when needed. It has three eq switches and a pad that really affect the sound and give you many colors, and if you have the two channel version you can daisychain one channel into the next, so you can adjust the gain in each channel to give you even more sound options (I like this on DI elec guit).
 
Actually, I know a few people who have used the Robbie. All of them were pretty surprised. Blue is known for making pieces that all have distinct sonic characteristics. The Robbie is a tube preamp that does not. They all expected it to be more of a "colored" sound, when actually very clean and clear, very dimensional. The common comparison seems to be to Millenia. However, the Robbie is only a preamp, not mountable, with some necessary switches in the rear of the unit. It is also much larger thanmany people expected, and fairly pricey per channel.
 
rightbrainnow said:
Yea, ive read nothing but good things about the sebatron...and nearly NOTHING on the Robbie.
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That says a lot more about how each company uses recording forums to market their products than it does about which is the better unit.
 
nkjanssen said:
That says a lot more about how each company uses recording forums to market their products than it does about which is the better unit.
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I think this is somewhat true. But it wouldn't just be limited to recording forums. I've searched for reviews on the Robbie and they're so scarce its crazy. Even at GC which pushes Blue products due to the nice profit margin and commision they steered me away from the Blue. I have their Baby Bottle and thought the Robbie would be a nice match, the guy at GC didn't really have anything good to say about it. I normally don't listen to the fools at GC but I know this guy and he's very very talented when it comes to recording and he really seems to know his gear. So again I agree that the reason the Robbie isn't more popular is because of advertising, you just don't see anything about it anywhere, hell we could all be missing out.
 
nkjanssen said:
That says a lot more about how each company uses recording forums to market their products than it does about which is the better unit.
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No it doesn't. It says a lot more people have used, commented on, and even reviewed the Sebatron. Therefore Sebatron is a fairly well known commodity. The Robbie isn't. That's what it says.
 
tdukex said:
No it doesn't. It says a lot more people have used, commented on, and even reviewed the Sebatron. Therefore Sebatron is a fairly well known commodity. The Robbie isn't. That's what it says.
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Whomever has the most internet chatter is the best known and most widely used commodity? That's a bit naive, don't you think? By that rationale, Studio Projects mics must be used by more people than all other mics combined by a factor of 1,000 and the RNC must be the best known and most widely used compressor in the history of music production.
 
nkjanssen said:
Whomever has the most internet chatter is the best known and most widely used commodity? That's a bit naive, don't you think? By that rationale, Studio Projects mics must be used by more people than all other mics combined by a factor of 1,000 and the RNC must be the best known and most widely used compressor in the history of music production.
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nkj, I'm anything but naive. And your Studio Projects/RNC diatribe reveals more about your way of thinking than it does mine. But it's ok if, for whatever reason, you don't like Sebatron. And if you feel that Sebatron's growing popularity is solely achieved via recording forum marketing and internet chatter...well, that's ok, too.

I still wouldn't fork out a grand for a Robbie. :D Would you?
 
I would certainly fork over a grand for a Robbie if that was the sound I wanted out of a preamp. My friends that have used it really liked it, just in the opposite way they thought they would. I also might drop money on some Sebatron stuff. However, the Sebatron's and the Robbie are kind of at opposite ends of the preamp spectrum.
 
tdukex said:
And your Studio Projects/RNC diatribe reveals more about your way of thinking than it does mine.
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"Diatribe"? Do you know what that word means?

But it's ok if, for whatever reason, you don't like Sebatron.
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I've never tried a Sebatron. They don't have much of a distribution network, so it's pretty much impossible to find one to try out. I've never tried a Robbie either, but I know a couple of places in town that have them in stock, and I could go try one out today if I wanted to. I mention this because your assertion of the Sebatron being the more ubiquitous unit goes totally against my personal experience.

And if you feel that Sebatron's growing popularity is solely achieved via recording forum marketing and internet chatter...well, that's ok, too.
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Are you denying that Sebatron has made extensive use of the internet and recording forums to market its products? The fact that they have says absolutely nothing about the quality of the product, good or bad. It is relevant, however, if you are going to make the assertion that whomever has the strongest internet presence is the most popular piece of gear. You see that, don't you?

I still wouldn't fork out a grand for a Robbie.
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I wouldn't fork out a grand for either of them. I have plenty of top notch pre's at my disposal as-is. I'm not in the market.
 
oh yea...ive also been looking at the spl gainstation...all of them seem like the could be good choices.
 
rightbrainnow said:
nkjanssen..what pre's do you like to use, why?
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I personally own Great Rivers (both styles: MP-2MH and MP-2NV), 4 channels of API 300-series, 4 channels of Sytek, and a few other lower end things. I have access to Altecs, Ampex 300-series tube pres, some UA stuff, a few different Telefunken models (V72, 76 and 78), some Summit stuff, some Neve channels, API 500-series, Mil Media, Focusrite Blues and Reds, Avalon, some Amek stuff, Drawmer, and a few other things. It's all good. Honestly, once you get to a certain quality level, I'd be hard pressed to say that anything is "better" than anything else. They're all just different colors.

If you want some good, clean utility pre's for not too much cash, though, the Sytek's are a good bet.
 
nkjanssen said:
"Diatribe"? Do you know what that word means?
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Yes, I do know what "that" word means. I know what ubiquitous means, too, but I would never use it in a sentence as you did. I guess we just see things differently, and I doubt either of us will change the other's mind. :D
 
Here is 4 reviews of the Robbie

Hi,

I own neither preamp currently. I have been doing my homework on which to purchase. I am still not sure but have heard lots of rumblings about no reviews of the Robbie. I don't know where you guys are searching, but here are 4 that I have found in my quest:

http://www.eqmag.com/story.asp?sectioncode=41&storycode=7675

http://www.proaudioreview.com/june05/blue_microphones.shtml

http://remixmag.com/recording_hardware/remix_blue_robbie/

http://www.barryrudolph.com/mix/robbie.html
 
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