focusrite trakmaster

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deibid

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i'm considering one of the Focusrite trakmaster units for recording vocals/ acoustic guitar, the older version seems more appealing than the newer "pro" version. the older one has "tube" settings & a more variable eq apparently. the problem is i can only track the older one down on ebay & the units will probably be quite old.

anybody here have experience with the trakmaster new or older version?

also, i'm looking for other options similar to the original focusrite trakmaster if anybody has any recommendations that would be greatly appreciated.

so basically looking for compressor, eq with tube option
budget around £400

thanks in advance
 
deibid said:
i'm considering one of the Focusrite trakmaster units for recording vocals/ acoustic guitar, the older version seems more appealing than the newer "pro" version. the older one has "tube" settings & a more variable eq apparently. the problem is i can only track the older one down on ebay & the units will probably be quite old.

anybody here have experience with the trakmaster new or older version?

also, i'm looking for other options similar to the original focusrite trakmaster if anybody has any recommendations that would be greatly appreciated.

so basically looking for compressor, eq with tube option
budget around £400

thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Opinions on the Trackmaster and Voice Master Pro are going to vary widely. I can tell you that I *hated* both of them. I'd actually advise you to skip the channel strips and go with a decent preamp, then just use the plugins that come with your sequencer. The M-Audio DMP3 is a great preamp for the money, as is the ART MPA Gold.

Frank
 
I'm with Frank. Get a good preamp - Not some "all in one" POS with a cheapie preamp running into a cheapie EQ, through a cheapie compressor, etc. (along with all the goofy "tube flavor" garbage and whatever else they decided to throw in those things).

The DMP3's (also amazingly cheap, but not necessarily crappy sounding) preamps are better. Around your price range, you could probably find a FMR RNP also - Probably the best preamp available for the price.
 
deibid said:
i'm considering one of the Focusrite trakmaster units for recording vocals/ acoustic guitar, the older version seems more appealing than the newer "pro" version. the older one has "tube" settings & a more variable eq apparently. the problem is i can only track the older one down on ebay & the units will probably be quite old.

anybody here have experience with the trakmaster new or older version?

also, i'm looking for other options similar to the original focusrite trakmaster if anybody has any recommendations that would be greatly appreciated.

so basically looking for compressor, eq with tube option
budget around £400

thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I have a Voicemaster Pro that I use quite alot. The pre-amp is quite good. The rest of the toys are very touchy. If someone took my two racks of stuff away, I could get by with just the VM Pro. I don't know about the other Focusrite stuff other than the RED series. The DMP3 (which I have) is least used. Not that it is bad sounding, but just about every track I find something that sounds better. The DMP3 sound alot like my A&H pre-amps. That is the closest comparison I have found.
 
I have extensively used the TwinTrak Pro and the VoiceMaster Pro. I have been able to get very good sounds out of both units for many different applications. However, I will admit there are a few controls on each that are pretty worthless in the sense that you might get lucky turning knobs and get a good sound for one thing, but using your brain to make an educated guess will often yield poor results. Sucks, I know.

Anyway, here's my breakdown.
VoiceMaster Pro
first thing I say is I love the ability to on/off each section of the channel strip for a/b comparisons. REALLY helps.

Front side 1/4" and XLR inputs were very convenient for so many things I used it for. Of course, it's got them in the rear also. Ouch!!!

Decent quality Class-A Preamp... not necessarily a great pre-amp for the price range, but considering the unit's other goodies, it's still a decent sound.

Sweepable Low Cut filter (which I loved, and used almost every time)

Compressor is very average and you're better off with a different unit here. Even a low budget like a DBX 266 or 166. Don't like the metering, as it isn't detailed enough for fine adjustments of around a db or two.

Vintage Harmonics and Tube Sound can give some truly Terrific and unique sounds, but this is more of a turn the knob til it sounds good type of feature, and if it still sounds bad, turn it back off. Kinda lame I know.

The De-Esser is pretty nice, it is identical to some very expensive units like the ISA 430, but I can get pretty similar results from the de-esser built into Logic Pro for free.

EQ section is pretty useful, if you're recording live to tape or something to that effect, but I am much more a fan of EQing in the mix, and forcing the EQ to be close as recorded.

Overall, good for vocals as I'm sure you'd imagine. The upper-mids are very clear with this setup, and you can get just a little bit of clean grit out of it for a sound that can really cut through the mix. Also sounds really damn good as a Bass DI in some applications.


TwinTrak Pro
Pretty decent unit for the money, but there's not a single thing it does better than factory logic plugins imho. Granted, I've gotten some really good stereo recordings out of this thing for Yamaha C5 piano, acoustic guitars, and even drum Overheads. Like the sidechaining for the comp, but not sure if the single channel version has this??? anybody?
 
well, excellent input & advice folks, appreciated. i'm pretty sure now i'm gonna go for separate units. a good pre & a good compressor ;)

cheers
 
I wonder how many people posting advice here actually *own* a MK 1 Trakmaster?

Spike Stent used them for Madonna's vocals.

With the digital I/O card, they are completely transparent.

The EQ is subtle.

The compressor is transparent and quite useful for taming some peaks in the signal. They don't really add much colour at all.

I haven't used a MK2.

But with the MK 1 you'd be purchasing something that is OK for domestic use.

Yeah - I've got Brent Averills and such lying around, but the Trakmaster is in my regular rig too.
 
Late to the party here, but I do own a TrakMaster Pro (new version) that I use from time to time for VO.

I like the Focusrite preamp circuit. When I use this for tracking now, I typically switch off every option except for the low-cut filter and occasionally, the compressor. I did use the "squash" when tracking a bass once, but found myself using an outboard or plugin compressor more often than I used the Focusrite's built-in compressor.

The preamp by itself is excellent, and if you opt for the ADC card, the A/D conversion is very high quality (though it adds $150 to the price tag).
 
if it's relevant still, I owned and used the mk2 for a couple of years. it's compressor was amazing for me. a really great opto comp, on vocals with levels run properly it was fantastic. (I can't say how it would be run badly, I know how to run gain structures and don't really think about it consciously).

there's nothing wrong with it's preamp and it's actually really really accurate and very clean. however it's not necessarily the most attractive pre out there, depending on your intended use. it's very slightly mid scooped. it moved tracks to the back of the mix as a result. but with a warm mic it works great. and for bass it was really good. definitely it's own sound though. slightly modern sound I guess you'd say.

it's funny how every preamp I own has a marketed frequency response that is virtually flat from 20hz to 20khz +-1db or whatever. and yet there are easily measurable frequency response differences between for example my mpa gold and my trackmaster pro (back when I had one) that were several db different @ 800k while matching @ 100k for example. how do manufacturers get away with that?

anyway, I sold it eventually cuz needed cash. I still miss it, but not like I can't mimick it's sound really easily with my remaining gear. My other pres are all quite different from what it sounded like, much warmer, more my thing these days. I do miss it's compressor though quite a bit.

but yea, for that price get a good preamp and a great compressor. I suggest dmp+la2a or dmp+rnc or mpa gold+pro vla (= more cash but wildly more flexible and imho better sounding yet).

cheers,
Don
 
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