moosers
Published on 11/23/11 at 14:16
The Seventh Circle Audio A12 is an API clone designed to fit into Seventh Circle's custom chassis. For those who aren't familiar with Seventh Circle Audio, they offer up build your own microphone preamps for all different kinds of clones. They also offer them pre-assembeld, and the prices are much much cheaper than any preamps that they are modeled after. You'll need to buy their chassis/casing, but once you've got that you can put any of their modules in there that you'd like, and they have a ton to choose from. This clone API certainly sounds like the real thing! You can't use it without the chassis, so technically it's not rackable, although the chassis is of course.
UTILIZATION
Using the Seventh Circle Audio A12 API clone is super simple. All of their preamps have pretty much the same make up on the outside. Of course putting this together will be the hard part, but if you can solder it probably isn't too difficult. I personally haven't put this together but have used one that was assembled at home. On the outside of the preamp you'll find your main gain control that moves in set increments along with a finer trim knob. It also has a phantom power switch and a switch for polarity as well. The manual is definitely necessary if you're looking to assemble this yourself, otherwise it's probably not.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound of the Seventh Circle Audio A12 is outstanding. It definitely has that super clean sound that you'll find with real API preamps. I haven't used it next to a real API 512 or something like that, but I'm fairly confident that this will sound pretty much just like it if not better. It really sounds that good. It's perfect for recording just about anything where you'd be looking for a very clean mic preamp without too much coloring.
OVERALL OPINION
The Seventh Circle Audio A12 API clone is a must see if you've got a Seventh Circle Audio casing or if you're thinking about putting together your own preamps. As far as I'm concerned, getting one of these casings and choosing your own modules is the best bang for your buck for preamps that I've ever seen. Sure it takes a little bit of work if you want to put them together yourself, but even if you buy them premade you'll be saving a bunch of cash and in the end you'll have more options. Do yourself a favor and see what Seventh Circle Audio is all about!
UTILIZATION
Using the Seventh Circle Audio A12 API clone is super simple. All of their preamps have pretty much the same make up on the outside. Of course putting this together will be the hard part, but if you can solder it probably isn't too difficult. I personally haven't put this together but have used one that was assembled at home. On the outside of the preamp you'll find your main gain control that moves in set increments along with a finer trim knob. It also has a phantom power switch and a switch for polarity as well. The manual is definitely necessary if you're looking to assemble this yourself, otherwise it's probably not.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound of the Seventh Circle Audio A12 is outstanding. It definitely has that super clean sound that you'll find with real API preamps. I haven't used it next to a real API 512 or something like that, but I'm fairly confident that this will sound pretty much just like it if not better. It really sounds that good. It's perfect for recording just about anything where you'd be looking for a very clean mic preamp without too much coloring.
OVERALL OPINION
The Seventh Circle Audio A12 API clone is a must see if you've got a Seventh Circle Audio casing or if you're thinking about putting together your own preamps. As far as I'm concerned, getting one of these casings and choosing your own modules is the best bang for your buck for preamps that I've ever seen. Sure it takes a little bit of work if you want to put them together yourself, but even if you buy them premade you'll be saving a bunch of cash and in the end you'll have more options. Do yourself a favor and see what Seventh Circle Audio is all about!