Focusrite Platinum VoiceMaster Pro...

[drbluezz]

...Are they really all that bad? I bought one thinking I was getting something in the midrange price and quality-wise. But the way people talk it sounds more like they're an overpriced, entry level, preamp. By the way, I am seriously considering a Universal Audio LA-610 or Solo 610 (if I can find a way to pay for one) as I would like to produce high quality home recordings. But I'm currently using both a Royer R-122 ribbon mic and Sennheiser e906 to mic my guitar amp and for vocals and my VoiceMaster Pro into my Digi 002R. I thought I was getting decent recordings but evidently the VoiceMaster Pro is the weak link in the chain? Are they really not that good? Thanks for your comments.


Tom

 

[pipelineaudio]

If you are getting decent recordings, you are getting decent recordings. If you want the sound of the UA coloration system on all your recordings ( I don't usually) then get one.

To me the focusrite low end mic pres certainly arent worth the money or hype they usually command, but once you get up into the red series, you get a well made standard jensen tranny/5534 style IC mic pre, very good, low noise, transformer color mic pre, certainly not worth the price, but certainly decent.

Either way, unless your mic pres are excessively noisy, distorted or bandlimited, they really arent going to be the weak link in your chain, regardless of how much money people spend on ads to convince you otherwise

 

[tnjazz]

The Platinum stuff is not garbage, but it's not really platinum either. They really should rename that line to Focusrite "Zinc" or something to conform more closely to truth in advertising laws.

I had a Platinum Octopre with A/D card for a while. Sounded pretty good on drums. Can't say it was all that great on anything else though. I don't own it anymore and I don't really miss it.

Still I'm sure that it can accomplish decent or even fairly good results, depending on the source and what mic you run through it, etc. It also depends on where your "decent" threshold is.

 

[MCI2424]

...Are they really all that bad? I bought one thinking I was getting something in the midrange price and quality-wise. But the way people talk it sounds more like they're an overpriced, entry level, preamp. By the way, I am seriously considering a Universal Audio LA-610 or Solo 610 (if I can find a way to pay for one) as I would like to produce high quality home recordings. But I'm currently using both a Royer R-122 ribbon mic and Sennheiser e906 to mic my guitar amp and for vocals and my VoiceMaster Pro into my Digi 002R. I thought I was getting decent recordings but evidently the VoiceMaster Pro is the weak link in the chain? Are they really not that good? Thanks for your comments.


Tom

The VM Pro is a great pre-amp put in the wrong hands entirely. It has too many toys under the hood and every one of them needs to be learned before you can get decent results. In short, I use mine frequently because it is pretty powerful *BUT* it took me some time to learn how to not overuse these tools. I have over 30 years in recording, pro and now home, and I can't believe that Focusrite designed this thing to be so "touchy". it really is not for the beginner at all. I love mine and use it right up with the Avalons, Hardys ETC.

So, it has a bad rep because too many don't know how to use it properly.

 

[mikeh]

So, it has a bad rep because too many don't know how to use it properly.

I agree completely. I have one and it took a lot of effort and endless tweaking to really utilize all the bells and whistles. In fact, for a while, I simply turned off everything except the pre...which made it much easier to use effectively.

It's not a bad piece of equipment - but it is difficult to use all the processing without compromising the signal.