Adam Spade

Outstanding bang for the buck if you want a lot of quality preamps. The Onyx preamps are similar to the Focusrite ISA preamps. The EQ is nothing to sneeze at either. 2 d-subs for 16 analogue outputs to infect your A/D converter with all that Onyx flavor. (one of these paired with an UA Apollo 16 would be quite nice in the studio.) + Talk-back and plenty of sends. As always, the Mackie boards are built solid and the sound that the Onyx 1640 adds to the live setting is bounds beyond the standard Mackie boards. It's a clear difference. I'm glad to own it. The rubber feet on the bottom aren't to be trusted though. Scratched my desk. :P

What else is there to say? One of the best compressors ever made will now fit in your 500 series chassis. If you aren't familiar with the 160a, a quick search will show you nothing but praise for these. Good value.

Expanding on the WA12, which is based on the API 312, the TB12 adds enough options to make any gear-head tremble with joy. This is really a superb preamp, or multiple preamps in one, I should say. Unlike the API 512c and WA12, The TB12 has a built in attenuator so you can drive this pre all day. Figure the price of a 512c with an attenuator, you could have two TB12's instead. If you want value that reaches to the heavenly gates of the gear gods, start investing into Warm Audio.

I really love this software package, especially Kontakt, but it does come with its fair share of issues that need to be fixed. At the time of this review, it is worth buying, but comes with some hassle.

It's decent stock. Good quality. Can't drive it as much as I'd liked so I dropped some "preferred" 12ax7's in there and wow! Butter. I recommend! Sounded so great I bought another to experiment with tubes. I definitely like it better than most of my plugins. Has the analog joy we're all after. It's slow compression, so good on vocals, acoustic guitar, strings, etc. I might run vocals into a fast DBX or 1176 first and then into this, maybe even through both channels. But this is a keeper. An affordable compressor that has a home right in between the 1176's, Distressor's, LA2A's, DBX 160's etc. Great first compressor to learn with if you are thinking about getting into outboard gear. Don't hesitate. Buy.

You might hear it said that the MP20 is from the days where Presonus was GOOD. However, many are under the impression that the MP20 is at the low-end of the preamp hierarchy. So, the good part is that you get to see these pop up in gear trading land quite often as home studio owners upgrade, and they go cheap! What these guys don't know is that the MP20 is just a few affordable parts away from being in the top-end of the hierarchy, whether they are the originals with the Jensen transformers or not. Out of the box, the MP20 is a very good preamp with enough bells and whistles to excite the tweaker. Pres are clean, low noise, and the IDSS gives an adjustable warmth. It's good enough for Voice work. Acoustic guitars sound brilliant and warm, instrument in, phantom power. Everything you need is there. Clearly there is room for improvement. But if you need something cheap that you can upgrade later on, check out the MP20.

JBL’s natural sound with a really wide sweet spot. These have a live concert feel to them that I really enjoy. They will work for any style of music. Versatile, and perfect for theater. This is exactly what I need in a monitor while I compose music for films. The matching sub is suggested for theater. Buy what fits your ear, but I can’t see anyone going wrong with these very easily.