Sytek Sucks

[60's guy]

wow....sytek sucks eh?? I've never heard one but only heard good things. I've heard the original channels sound better than the burr-brown ones.. and a neotek desk is on my imaginary wish-list. I was looking at all of the studios that all of my favorite cd's came out of and a sytek was on every single list. I know that doesn't make it good but, come on man...at least back your claims up. this is just silly.

Ummm, Falken, did you read every post?

You just killed the joke.

 

[Dogman]

dogman... you working third shift at Sytek?

Work?? Me???? You have got to be kidding.....

 

[FALKEN]

Ummm, Falken, did you read every post?

You just killed the joke.

ummm...yea i did....did you read every post? there were about 5-6 posts exactly like mine and I am the one who killed it?

 

[60's guy]

ummm...yea i did....did you read every post? there were about 5-6 posts exactly like mine and I am the one who killed it?

 

[fraserhutch]

ummm...yea i did....did you read every post? there were about 5-6 posts exactly like mine and I am the one who killed it?

Yours was the final nail in the coffin......

 

[fraserhutch]

Yours was the final nail in the coffin......

So what was the feeble point of neg repping this joke if you don't attempt a witty remark and you have no rep power???

Needless to say it was anonymous.

I mean, the blue chicklet was pretty and all, but really, how lame........ at least leave a comment.

 

[60's guy]

You got a red one too, Hutch?

I got a red one for the Sum Yung girl comment from someone who didn't even post in the thread. He called me a racist. I am not!

I give him credit for signing it though. I can repect that.

 

[fraserhutch]

You got a red one too, Hutch?

I got a red one for the Sum Yung girl comment from someone who didn't even post in the thread. He called me a racist. I am not!

I give him credit for signing it though. I can repect that.

Actually, mine was blue or gray (not quite sure which ( which implies that the poster has no rep power.

 

[chessrock]

But if they have any one obvious weakness (besides having no character, which is not always a bad thing) it would be lack of headroom. API's these things ain't.

Or maybe I just got the one built at 4:55 p.m. on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend. You never know...

I actually think that, overall, the headroom issue isn't ever going to be a problem for 99.9% of the people out there. We're still talking about a $200 / channel mic pre. And as far as I'm concerned, the Sytek still outperforms it's $200 / channel price tag in just about every other aspect.

As long as you're not mic'ing gun shots or explosions in close range, then what you have is a piece of gear that you could easily use on any level of project (comercial release or whatever) and not be embarassed or feel that it's going to hold you back in any way.
.

 

[nwsoundman]

I actually think that, overall, the headroom issue isn't ever going to be a problem for 99.9% of the people out there. We're still talking about a $200 / channel mic pre. And as far as I'm concerned, the Sytek still outperforms it's $200 / channel price tag in just about every other aspect.

As long as you're not mic'ing gun shots or explosions in close range, then what you have is a piece of gear that you could easily use on any level of project (comercial release or whatever) and not be embarassed or feel that it's going to hold you back in any way.
.

I will go on record and say I think the Syteks pretty much suck for the amount of buzz surrounding them when they hit the streets. I found them truly boring. I would have been just as happy using the console pre's on a decent board.

Also regarding the headroom, API's usually require a pad on loud sources. My experience with the sytek was that it handled level better than alot of API's.

 

[FALKEN]

isn't that what they are supposed to be though? pre's from their console? what were you expecting? most of us don't have a "decent console"...I know I don't..... out of curiousity, what is the headroom problem? at what level does what occur?

 

[littledog]

perhaps I am using the term "headroom" incorrectly.

We all have had the experience of setting up what seems like decent levels based on a pracitce take, and then in the middle of a real take, the energy level of the band goes up and things get a whole lot louder than you were expecting. What I was trying to describe is what happens if the signal source momentarily drives the preamp into distortion - how forgiving is the preamp, i.e. how musical is a slight distortion? Will the track still be useable, or will you have to trash the take?

I find API's to be very forgiving in that respect. And Syteks not. That doesn't make Syteks useless. I have a DACS micamp pre that sounds horrible when it distorts, but it is one of my first choices for classical music recording. I just have to be extra careful about levels.

Remember, I wasn't saying that Sytek sucks. That was just a joke based on the Studio Projects sucks thread. I think we all understand that. But some of us, and obviously not just me, felt that Sytek didn't quite live up to the hype when a few years back it was kind of the RNC of preamps on these discussion forums.

I have no problem with some people loving them. Just trying to point out that the feeling wasn't unanimous.

 

[chessrock]

isn't that what they are supposed to be though? pre's from their console?

Yea. It's basically a channel strip of 4 pres from a Neotek console. Maybe you do / don't like the Neoteks, but good stuff can be produced on them, and having 4 channels of them won't break the bank.
.

 

[nwsoundman]

isn't that what they are supposed to be though? pre's from their console? what were you expecting? most of us don't have a "decent console"...I know I don't..... out of curiousity, what is the headroom problem? at what level does what occur?

Ok so they are basicly board pre's from a neotek. Why did they get so much buzz? All I was implying is that I found them to be boring and not much of an upgrade from even a mackie unless you maybe used like 16 to 24 channels of em. I haven't but have to guess based on using 4 channels of sytek that the syteks would stack better in a decent track count mix than budget console pre's.

As far as headroom goes, people complained it was too easy to clip the input on loud sources. I haven't experienced that problem myself. People say they aint API in that regard. In my experience API pre's are prone to clip at the input on loud sources and require the use of a pad at the input.

I stand by my statement that the sytek is in the suck catagory to me. Not my thing for sure.

 

[60's guy]

I’m enjoying reading all comments about the Sytek. I record mostly acoustic stuff and I normally don’t run the risk of running pres into distortion at input.

Good info, guys!

 

[xstatic]

If you have ever mixed on a Neoek, you would understand that the Sytek pre is very similar. So you don't like the Sytek? Don't use it. Does it suck? Hell no. Does it live up to they hype? In my opinion it does in all aspects. Maybe not the hype on THIS BBS, but once you leave this particularly small section of the audio industry, they are not hyped as much by others. If you don't like the Sytek, you might want to avoid Neoteks too, although at HR.com that probably is not much of an issue./ It's too bad though, because Neotek Eq's are pretty cool. I wish Mike would release a 4 channel Sytek EQ, or maybe single channel strips. Anyhow, the Sytek is a fairly neutral preamp. It will never get in your way, but will never really stand out and outwardly impress you either. I can certainly understand in this day and age why people might not enjoy or appreciate that. However, if you only have 2 to 4 channels of top notch preamps, having another 8 channels of Sytek is a great thing to make sure that those other tracks get a good feel come mix time.

 

[FALKEN]

I'm actually considering a neotek at some point in the next couple years. I really want a phat board. Something with ample headroom and solid sound. Something built like a rock but also something new. something that would fit in a home studio yet really give a "big" sound. I was thinking neotek....now maybe not so much....

 

[littledog]

If you have ever mixed on a Neoek, you would understand that the Sytek pre is very similar. So you don't like the Sytek? Don't use it. Does it suck? Hell no. Does it live up to they hype? In my opinion it does in all aspects. Maybe not the hype on THIS BBS, but once you leave this particularly small section of the audio industry, they are not hyped as much by others. If you don't like the Sytek, you might want to avoid Neoteks too, although at HR.com that probably is not much of an issue./ It's too bad though, because Neotek Eq's are pretty cool. I wish Mike would release a 4 channel Sytek EQ, or maybe single channel strips. Anyhow, the Sytek is a fairly neutral preamp. It will never get in your way, but will never really stand out and outwardly impress you either. I can certainly understand in this day and age why people might not enjoy or appreciate that. However, if you only have 2 to 4 channels of top notch preamps, having another 8 channels of Sytek is a great thing to make sure that those other tracks get a good feel come mix time.

I don't quite understand the first half of this post. What would mixing on a Neotek, or whether or not the Neotek has great EQ have anything to do with the Sytek four channel preamp? You can't mix on it, and it has no EQ.

There still seems to be some confusion about "Sytek Sucks". It was a joke - a parody of another thread. But since someone brought it up, even in jest, a few of us (like me) commented on how maybe the Sytek unit, while not sucking, was not what a few of us hoped it would be. Some people here really like it, some people here sort of like it, and others think it's a bit over-rated. Nobody was saying that it sucked, except in jest.

Eight channels of Sytek might seem like a good thing to have to you. That's cool. Chessrock said that for a lot less money you could get eight channels of Mackie preamps and do just about as well. I haven't directly A-B'd them, so I can't say for sure, but based on what a experience I've had with both, I might be leaning towards Chessrock's position. Either way, for the price of eight Sytek channels, I know for sure I'd rather either get 4 channels of something a little better, or two channels of something a lot better.

By the way, while I don't have a Neotek board myself, the studios that I know that do have one still use a collection of outboard mic preamps for their critical tracks.

 

[pohaku]

Actually, Mike from time to time lists racked Neotek Elan channels strips on E-bay. Usually two strips to a rack for @$800 or so. None up at the moment. I've thought about picking one up for the EQ rather than the pres.

If you have ever mixed on a Neoek, you would understand that the Sytek pre is very similar. So you don't like the Sytek? Don't use it. Does it suck? Hell no. Does it live up to they hype? In my opinion it does in all aspects. Maybe not the hype on THIS BBS, but once you leave this particularly small section of the audio industry, they are not hyped as much by others. If you don't like the Sytek, you might want to avoid Neoteks too, although at HR.com that probably is not much of an issue./ It's too bad though, because Neotek Eq's are pretty cool. I wish Mike would release a 4 channel Sytek EQ, or maybe single channel strips. Anyhow, the Sytek is a fairly neutral preamp. It will never get in your way, but will never really stand out and outwardly impress you either. I can certainly understand in this day and age why people might not enjoy or appreciate that. However, if you only have 2 to 4 channels of top notch preamps, having another 8 channels of Sytek is a great thing to make sure that those other tracks get a good feel come mix time.

 

[60's guy]

It was a joke - a parody of another thread.

Yes it was! Perhaps I should have restrained myself and not started this thread, but all in all, I think the discussion here is helpful and civil.

For the record, I DO like my Sytek regardless of the fact that there's a problem with one Burr Op channel.

Continue on guys.