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mooseherman « A good piece of gear with many features »
Published on 01/11/11 at 21:51This is a microphone pre-amp channel, which includes the pre-amp as well as compression, de-essing, and EQ. It's got a lot more features than your average mic preamp. The pre-amp itself has a phantom power switch as well as a phase reverse which is important. This is then followed by an EQ, which has several parameters to control. Then comes the compression and de-essing, followed by a master output. If you wanted to have your track as perfect as possible coming into a session this is a great tool to have.
UTILIZATION
This is definitely a little trickier to use than your average mic pre, unless you want to bypass the EQ and the compression as well as the De-eser. Otherwise you'll have to deal with an input gain knob as well as a six-knob Parametric EQ, a four-knob Shelving EQ, a five knob compressor, a two-knob de-esser, and a master output. There's a ton of options here and they all require time and attention. This is good news for people who aren't getting the sound they want immediately. However I will say that in general, getting EQs and compression down perfect is going to be tough to do right from the get-go.
SOUND QUALITY
This is a pretty transparent pre-amp in general. Like the other Focusrite pre-amps that I've tried, it's not incredible, but it's certainly very good. The extra features do a lot to help bring out the best of it too. I really like the way that the two EQs work, they help breath life into this piece of gear pretty well. I don't think the compression sounds the best I've used but the fact that it's right there on the pre-amp goes a long way. I rarely ever do de-essing on anything but vocals, and I don't usually do it right away. So basically I would say that it's a great sounding piece of gear that I can't always use, but when I do use it it's great.
OVERALL OPINION
I like the array of controls on this thing a lot. The sound of the pre itself is nothing to die for but the EQs and effects are all better than using plug-ins most likely. For that reason it comes close to justifying it's price, but not really. It's still really expensive. Even though it's a great piece of gear it doesn't get five starts mainly because of the price. There's better sounding things out there that don't need their own eq and compression to sound good.
UTILIZATION
This is definitely a little trickier to use than your average mic pre, unless you want to bypass the EQ and the compression as well as the De-eser. Otherwise you'll have to deal with an input gain knob as well as a six-knob Parametric EQ, a four-knob Shelving EQ, a five knob compressor, a two-knob de-esser, and a master output. There's a ton of options here and they all require time and attention. This is good news for people who aren't getting the sound they want immediately. However I will say that in general, getting EQs and compression down perfect is going to be tough to do right from the get-go.
SOUND QUALITY
This is a pretty transparent pre-amp in general. Like the other Focusrite pre-amps that I've tried, it's not incredible, but it's certainly very good. The extra features do a lot to help bring out the best of it too. I really like the way that the two EQs work, they help breath life into this piece of gear pretty well. I don't think the compression sounds the best I've used but the fact that it's right there on the pre-amp goes a long way. I rarely ever do de-essing on anything but vocals, and I don't usually do it right away. So basically I would say that it's a great sounding piece of gear that I can't always use, but when I do use it it's great.
OVERALL OPINION
I like the array of controls on this thing a lot. The sound of the pre itself is nothing to die for but the EQs and effects are all better than using plug-ins most likely. For that reason it comes close to justifying it's price, but not really. It's still really expensive. Even though it's a great piece of gear it doesn't get five starts mainly because of the price. There's better sounding things out there that don't need their own eq and compression to sound good.