putting them in perspective of the times, the cheap IC interface preamps and beginning digital everything wasnt so good sounding then.
these early outboards were loaded with good stuff, the transformers in the VC1 same as some of the BAE stuff, the huge amount of the channel strips loaded like one high end channel of something....vs a brittle Alesis IC 16 track mixing board that weighed about 2 lbs of plastic and worse... kind of a era that grew from people wanting some mojo vsrsus the IC plastic sound.
but now theres an ocean of preamps and comps...and the interface preamps and plugins came in slowly and a lot of the hardware either died off or were conglomerated into some larger fish company to survive.
maybe its just me, but of the several Joe Meek old ones, I never had a scratchy pot or any bad issues, strange.
without the compressor ON, the preamp gain sounds like a lot of others, I dont have the golden ears for sure to tell miniscule subtle things. I guess alot of it is Marketing too, getting the Stars to promote the namebrands and the producers and engineers in SoundCity to name drop the gear.
but compared to a interface preamp....IC and a knob, these Voice Channels have a lot going on. I suppose like the Gibson Les Pauls I sold and 335....in 10 yrs the JoeMeeks will be selling for $3000 too.
