CHANNEL STRIP: Langevin DVC, Toft ATC-2........?

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Drumlea

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Hi all.

I'm trying to decide between these units:

Langevin DVC
Toft Audio ATC-2
TL Audio 5052
Joe Meek TwinQ

I will be recording in to a Yamaha N12. I'm looking for something under 2k euro, a clean warm sound. My main condenser mics are Microtech Gefell UMT800 and 2 x m300s.

I will be mainly recording live instruments, very little else. Im looking for something good as an acoustic guitar preamp and room/overhead mics for kit.

At the moment I'm biased towards the Langevin. Unfortunately I have no access to any of the units so I'm depending on advice from friends and forums.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
The Langevin sound wise is well above the others the others in that list (which I have all heard or used in person). But it is limited in functionality compared to, say, the ATC2. I hate the TL Audio unit, just think it stinks. The Langevin and the ATC would be my two choices, the DVC for its sound quality and the ATC2 for its functionality.
 
I have a DVC. I have little use for the rumble and hiss eq circuits on it, but the limiter, as much as I am usually against commiting compressors to tape, really kicks ass when recording bass thru the DVC's DI input
 
Great stuff.

I've heard the DVC preamps are good. And to be honest I would prefer to buy a U.S. made product. All I really want is a preamp with a little colour, not much, some useful eq and a compressor/limiter that can pump a little if I want to use it as an effect. The yamaha n12 has compression and eq also. So between the 2 I should get the sound in my head OUT.

I don't want a pristine bright modern sound so I'm doubtful the Toft ATC-2 would really be the sound I'm looking for even though it's less than half the price. Which worries me a little.

I'm 90% sold on the Langevin DVC at this stage. I just hope I haven't missed any other good buys. But I think I've done my research well enough.
 
Where do I find this "pristine, bright modern sound"?

All I hear is hypersmashed distortion which emphasises treble boosting in order to get more volume off of the same peak reading

The DVC is clean enough to where I don't consider it adding any sort of sound to my signal, it "sounds" pretty much like my manley dual mono, manley voxbox, though a bit less noisy than those two, a lot like the focusrite red-8 without worrying about transients making a bit of trouble
 
Ha ha sorry, I've exposed my inexperience. I've been a musician for a looonnng time and I'm relatively new to the recording scene. My goal is to record good quality demos to pitch to artists and publishers. I'd also like to record some local new acts for some experience.

I guess what I was trying to say is I want a warm, not too bright character to my sound and if the DVC can help me do that then that's fine with me.

Pipelineaudio, when you say "it sounds pretty much like my manley dual mono, manley voxbox", what do you mean? And In laymans terms if that's possible.
 
+2 on the DVC. The preamps are a little low on gain (around 50db IIRC), but yeah-- the limiter is great. If you buy used, try to get one of the later ones where you can use the pre/eq and limiter sections independently of each other (you can tell by serial number and the cutoff is listed on the Manley site-- I have the first one of the newer type :))
 
+3 or maybe more on the DVC. Theres nothing in its range with the huge dimensionality as well as that limiter. Gee, they do sound a lot like the Manley stuff...hmmmmmm.....


It'll really shine with those mics.
 
I have a DVC. It's my main pre for acoustic guitars and vocals. Also have ADK AP-1, modded PM-1000 racked strips, digimax 96, DMP3, Rane ms1b, EH 12ay7.
The Langevin sounds so much better than anything else I have for acoustics...get it!
 
Pipelineaudio, when you say "it sounds pretty much like my manley dual mono, manley voxbox", what do you mean? And In laymans terms if that's possible.

It doesn't really sound like anything to me, just stays out of the way. Makes my mic louder without fuss.
 
Thanks guys. I've ordered the Langevin DVC and it will be here in 3 weeks. Thanks so much for all the advice.

I will check back when I get a chance to play with it a bit.

Thanks again,

Brian.
 
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