Toft ATC-2 Impressions/Thanks to Fletcher

[tkingen]

Received my Toft ATC-2 from Mercenary on friday. Initial impressions are joyous. The eq responds exactly as I was hoping and the compressor works great for gently taming peaks. The pres themselves exhibit wonderfully increased detail and presence over my other pres.
With a TLM103, the ATC-2 helped my wife's voice to have the "larger then life" sound that we were looking for. A KSM44 on my voice (Mark Knopflerish) was somehow reminiscent of of the Neumann M49(?) sound on the Gillian Welch Revelator and Buddy Guy Blues Singer albums (please note that the word was "reminiscent").
I haven't had an opportunity to try stereo micing on acoustic guitar yet, but some quick testing with a single KM184 sounded splendidly realistic. I've always had a love/hate relationship with the KM184 but now it's obvious why this mic is so commonly used.
Anyway, many thanks to Fletcher for championing the ATC-2 for the home recordist. Anyone looking to upgrade their prosumer stuff could benefit by giving it a try. It would be great to see Malcolm Toft stay in business!
And, last but not least, as my wife and I look to purchase upgrades for our humble home studio, we will certainly look to Mercenary. Their gear is fairly priced, they double the warranty, and the customer service was excellent. An all around positive experience.

Terry

 

[tkingen]

Just have to add one more thing...I'm amazed that the ATC-2's pres are what Fletcher considers just okay. They are miles beyond the other pres that we've had around the house. I can't wait till the day comes when I can try out a Great River, Pendulum, Fearn, or some of the other highend units. They must be like heaven.

Terry

 

[Shakuan]

Nice!

Wow thanks alot for your comments about the ATC-2. I got mine like 2 months ago but I still haven't finished my whole studio installation so I didnt even try it yet. I'm really happy to hear such great things about it, makes me wanna work harder to finish the studio and finally try all the nice gear laying around here!

 

[Altruist]

Yeah My Great River is like heaven. Enjoy your new toy. I love getting new stuff.

 

[sdelsolray]

Just have to add one more thing...I'm amazed that the ATC-2's pres are what Fletcher considers just okay. They are miles beyond the other pres that we've had around the house. I can't wait till the day comes when I can try out a Great River, Pendulum, Fearn, or some of the other highend units. They must be like heaven.

Terry

Good choice. What's your monitoring chain look like?

 

[tkingen]

sdelsolray,
Monitoring chain is: Delta1010 s/pdif out (from the card, not the breakout box, which bypasses the Delta D/A convertors) into a Presonus Central Station, which routes to either Mackie HR624's or Hafler TA1600 power amp into passive Event 20/20's. I'm sure there's room for monitoring chain upgrade but this is the best I've had to date. Any recommendations?

Shakuan,
Good luck on getting your studio together. After all that work it'll be time for some fun!

Altruist,
I'm jealous of your Great River. Did you a/b it against any other units?

Regards,
Terry

 

[sdelsolray]

sdelsolray,
Monitoring chain is: Delta1010 s/pdif out (from the card, not the breakout box, which bypasses the Delta D/A convertors) into a Presonus Central Station, which routes to either Mackie HR624's or Hafler TA1600 power amp into passive Event 20/20's. I'm sure there's room for monitoring chain upgrade but this is the best I've had to date. Any recommendations?

Shakuan,
Good luck on getting your studio together. After all that work it'll be time for some fun!

Altruist,
I'm jealous of your Great River. Did you a/b it against any other units?

Regards,
Terry

That monitoring chain should be fine, particularly for the type of music you are doing. How's your room(s)?

 

[tkingen]

That monitoring chain should be fine, particularly for the type of music you are doing. How's your room(s)?

sdelsolray,

The room is problematic - an 11 x 11 spare bedroom. I have invested in some bass traps and wall absorption and, while it has helped, it is still not the best. My idea is to diminish the room sound and add ambience after the fact. When the day comes when we move into a larger house, studio space will be a prime consideration.
Thanks for asking.

Terry

 

[MOFO Pro]

Please tell me it's not a 10' ceiling in that room!!!

 

[Altruist]

I actually tried it out at a friends and was like...Yup this is exactly the sound I want. Nice and big and stands right out.( I am a rapper) It replaced my old crappy Blue Tube so the step up was more of a gigantic leep into space for me.

 

[Shakuan]

oh god...

sdelsolray,

Shakuan,
Good luck on getting your studio together. After all that work it'll be time for some fun!

Regards,
Terry

Guess what, I tried mine yesterday for the first time, and channel 1 is defective. I can't beleive I ordered that damn thing from the states and paid over 1k for it and it's defective. My cheap behringer v-amp works amazingly well in comparison. I'm really upset.

 

[acorec]

Just have to add one more thing...I'm amazed that the ATC-2's pres are what Fletcher considers just okay. They are miles beyond the other pres that we've had around the house. I can't wait till the day comes when I can try out a Great River, Pendulum, Fearn, or some of the other highend units. They must be like heaven.

Terry

Bear in mind that someone like Fletcher lives in a world of total high-end stuff. Once you live in that world for many years, it is too hard to go back. His opinion is great for pro engineers. Where most of us live is in the medium range of equipment and stuff that Fletcher thinks is OK blows away the lower end stuff completely.

 

[Justin Hyatt]

Guess what, I tried mine yesterday for the first time, and channel 1 is defective. I can't beleive I ordered that damn thing from the states and paid over 1k for it and it's defective. My cheap behringer v-amp works amazingly well in comparison. I'm really upset.

Shakuan,
Be sure that when you are connecting your ATC-2 that you are not using the outputs of Channel 2 for Channel 1 as they are reversed on the back. We recently changed it around so that it is straight through on newer units but there are still the others out there.

 

[Shakuan]

Shakuan,
Be sure that when you are connecting your ATC-2 that you are not using the outputs of Channel 2 for Channel 1 as they are reversed on the back. We recently changed it around so that it is straight through on newer units but there are still the others out there.

Yeah I'm aware of that, don't worry. I e-mailed shane at frontendaudio, here's a quote:

I received my ATC-2 approximately 2 months ago but didn't have the chance to unpack it until tonight. I'm really disapointed to find the channel 1 "huming" loudly. Everything seems fine with the channel 2 tought.

My chain is: guitar -> ATC-2 -> QSC RMX 850 -> Eminence The Tonker 12" speaker.

It's easy to tell something's wrong with channel 1 since channel 2 is perfectly quiet using the same configuration. I get the same constant "hum" even with the Line Gain turned all the way down to -20.

What should I do now?

He quickly replied saying he would contact his Toft rep today and get back to me asap.

Anyways, I just hope everything turns out alright in the end. I wish I could make an A/B comparison and record that hum but my setup isnt ready yet.

 

[tkingen]

Shakuan,

Hang in there...I know from personal experience that the Toft distributor (PMI Audio Group) stands firmly behind their products and will do you right.

Good luck
Terry

 

[DJL]

Shakuan,

Hang in there...I know from personal experience that the Toft distributor (PMI Audio Group) stands firmly behind their products and will do you right.

Good luck
Terry

Right on, and so does Mercenary... you're in good hands Shakuan.

 

[tkingen]

Right on, and so does Mercenary... you're in good hands Shakuan.

Oh yeah...can't forget about Mercenary. Their website is cool, too, with the 40's style pinup girls!

 

[Shakuan]

Quick update about my problem:

I'm almost ready to be able to record with both channels at the same time, same source, same setup etc, just to make sure and have the proof that channel1 is really humming loudly compared to channel2.

I know it's been a while since I first reported the problem but my studio wasnt quite ready to record anything and I really wanted to do extensive testing before sending it back (shipping and customs can eat your wallet pretty fast) so... anyways, I didn't even use the ATC-2 since 12-10-2004 when I first realised there was a problem so it's still pretty close from "brand new in the box".

I'll be recording the test within 2 weeks or so.
More to come.

For DJL: I bought it from frontendaudio

 

[DJL]

Quick update about my problem:

I'm almost ready to be able to record with both channels at the same time, same source, same setup etc, just to make sure and have the proof that channel1 is really humming loudly compared to channel2.

I know it's been a while since I first reported the problem but my studio wasnt quite ready to record anything and I really wanted to do extensive testing before sending it back (shipping and customs can eat your wallet pretty fast) so... anyways, I didn't even use the ATC-2 since 12-10-2004 when I first realised there was a problem so it's still pretty close from "brand new in the box".

I'll be recording the test within 2 weeks or so.
More to come.

For DJL: I bought it from frontendaudio

War at Frontendaudio is kool... and PMI-AG has one of best electronic warranties on planet earth. PMI-AG even guarantees second ownership products... so, I wouldn't worry about it... you're still in good hands. Be sure to post the test results.

 

[fraserhutch]

Wow thanks alot for your comments about the ATC-2. I got mine like 2 months ago but I still haven't finished my whole studio installation so I didnt even try it yet.

Haaha! You and me both! I got a preamp and a couple of mics at about the same time and haven't yet had a chance to try them out I just now finished my studiio, so this weekend's gonna be a blast!