Harvey...

[tubedude]

Harvey,
(Quick request from the group 1st: If you read this and feel you must start a fight or add anything not directly relative to exactly what I am asking, take it to that other thread, or the Cave where that other thread really SHOULD be. Please respect Harvey and myself, both of whom have done nothing to harm anyone here. Have some respect and be stupid in your own thread.)
Now, I know you have reviewed and are reviewing the VTB-1. I am about to order a pair of these things, I think, tomorrow.
I have read the 1st part of your "early" review, and to be honest, there has been so much crap surrounding the rest of it that I dont have the patience to rummage through the little kids throwing names at each other to see if you added anything valuable to it. I hope you dont mind if I ask you anything you may have already answered elsewhere...
Anway... I was wondering if you find it to be a step above and beyond the standard Mackie pre's overall sonic quality. What about how it stands up to the Great River that you have. Thats some pretty steep competition there, I know. (If you have already answered this stuff, point the way) Any thing else you have compared it to?
Tried it on a dirty guitar with a simple Sm57 yet? What about the D.I.? Sound good? If you could liken it to the character of any well known preamps, which would they be? Does it have a nice open sound to it in SS mode with better than Mackie detail?
I just want to feel confident that this is truly something on an affordable level that has a truly better-than-average sound and build quality. Since the VTB-1 is the same price, channel-wise, as the Sytek, I wonder how they compare? The Sytek is considered Great Rivers little brother by some and is a pretty nice preamp.
If anyone else here can offer some in depth feelings on the sound of this thing in COMPARISON to other well known pres, cheapo or otherwise, please offer them. No clutter with bickering please.
Thanks!
P

 

[Harvey Gerst]

Harvey,

Now, I know you have reviewed and are reviewing the VTB-1. I am about to order a pair of these things, I think, tomorrow.
I have read the 1st part of your "early" review, and to be honest, there has been so much crap surrounding the rest of it that I dont have the patience to rummage through the little kids throwing names at each other to see if you added anything valuable to it. I hope you dont mind if I ask you anything you may have already answered elsewhere...
Anway... I was wondering if you find it to be a step above and beyond the standard Mackie pre's overall sonic quality. What about how it stands up to the Great River that you have. Thats some pretty steep competition there, I know. (If you have already answered this stuff, point the way) Any thing else you have compared it to?

I haven't had a chance to compare it to any other preamps directly yet, but I think it is several steps beyond the pres in a Mackie.

Tried it on a dirty guitar with a simple Sm57 yet? What about the D.I.? Sound good? If you could liken it to the character of any well known preamps, which would they be? Does it have a nice open sound to it in SS mode with better than Mackie detail?

I can't answer any of those questions yet, which is why I labeled my first report a "quicky review". Here's why I can't answer your questions right now:

At the moment, I'm involved in 3 different recording projects:

Mixing a bluegrass group (with all the recording already done, so no opportunity to try the pre with them).

Recording a "bluegrass type" of gospel group, made up of a lot of very old people (the lead singer is 75 years old), and they can only play for about 3 hours once a week before they tire out, so no time to experiment with them, nor would I have any relevant results.

I've got a rock band coming in tonight and the rest of the weekend, but they're on a really tight budget, so every minute is gonna be used getting as much on tape as I can.

Most of my testing consists of two people, me and my son Alex. He'll listen in the control room, while I'm in the studio, and we'll compare notes. He does the switching between pres, and I do the switching between mics, and supply the sounds.

If we're checking DIs, he'll do the switching between the pres while I play bass or guitar. It's important that we switch things very fast while our last impression is still fresh, and having two of us do the testing seems to give the best results.

Now, while I have these three projects going on in one studio, Alex has his own projects going on in the other studio, so the times we can get together to test stuff is limited, plus it has to be when there are no session for either of us so we don't test with "fried ears".

So the minus side of our testing stuff is that we don't always have the time to do much more than a quick test at first, followed by a more in-depth test later. On the plus side, we seem to come up with pretty accurate results and we have a wide range of equipment to try new stuff with.

I just want to feel confident that this is truly something on an affordable level that has a truly better-than-average sound and build quality. Since the VTB-1 is the same price, channel-wise, as the Sytek, I wonder how they compare? The Sytek is considered Great Rivers little brother by some and is a pretty nice preamp.
If anyone else here can offer some in depth feelings on the sound of this thing in COMPARISON to other well known pres, cheapo or otherwise, please offer them. No clutter with bickering please.
Thanks!
P

Just based on my quickie test of the VTB-1, I have to say it's an amazing value and should hold it's own nicely against more expensive preamps. It's feature ladened, and more important, the features are useful - and they work!.But without doing a full test on the VTB-1, I can't offer more insights into the unit, or state exactly how it will compare to other preamps in actual details. That will come, but it will have to be a little later.

For what it's worth, we have the same problem in coming out with a full review of the RNP, and the whole line of SP mics; we just don't have the time right now to do the complete testing we need to do on these products.

 

[tubedude]

Excellent! Thank you much.