jimmarchi1's Electronic Studio Setup

I was never impressed with the polysix until I got one home, but I didn't spend a lot of time with them and mainly did bass sounds. WHOA WRONG. This is like John Carpenter city.... I don't think he used one but everything it does is like a carpenter flick. Real horrorshow. The chorus is cool, the ensemble is wooly and lush.... the phaser is pure horror movie. Okay back this up. Architechture is a juno 6 basically. But it ahs VCOs.... but no high pass... but the modulation is chorus, phaser or string machine ensemble, OTA and BBD stuff, wicked. Dark and moody Also, no simultaneous waveforms, just Saw, Square (adjustable PW) andPWN with its own LFO dedicated. Yup. But no ADSR modulation. Bummer. But still. The SSM oscillators and fitler are midrangey and not upper midrange prophet turn, lower midrange nastiness. And there's this wicked sub oscillator. Divide down 1 or 2 octaves. And and and.... Its simple but capable of snappy plucky, huge strings, pads of weirdness and you name it. anyway. Good synth. I have the kiwi6 mod on mine. I find it to be less abrasive and far more ush than a juno, though less punchy. Don't let anyone say the envelop is less snappy. Its fast and tight. Its deceptive because of the swirly free running VCOs versus retriggering DCOs.

On day 3 I'm giving this another star. Damn does it sound good.

I prefer the VLA 1 to the more popular 2. Its a little less hifi sounding for starters, the tube stages are grittier which is great for parallel bus use and its got a fast and dirty like it or lump it fixed or program dependent attack and release system that makes working with it fast. You want fidelity and precision get a 2, but if you want something that excels at trashy special effect jobs? This is it. Don't expect an LA2A, expect a stereo unit that can make anything sound like zep.... just kidding, but its got this loose vibey thing. The differences are minor between this and the 2 but its worth having both at these prices as one is clinical and precise and the other is a budget mojo machine. They can be made to sound similar but never the same.... both versions feature a big dollop of output that can be used to overload a console bus. Remember to back off those faders once you're in the red, kids. This baby gets LOUD

HEADS UP, the VLAs aren't in starved plate but they're not high voltage tube circuits, its more sort of a hybrid opto, slid state does most of the real work for in and out amps. Don't expect an LA2A but it has a vintagey charm of its own...

Is this a pultec? I s there any chance a behringer product will be a vintage pultec? And that at under $300 new it'll have magic inductors?If it was, who would know but me and dudes like me who have had the privilege of using some old cool shit like this.What you get here is a passive EQ that acts a lot like a pultec. The amplifiers should be retubed right outta the damn box. The knobs are kinda detented, you know? So in a pair you could be fooled into thinking they match but use your ears. Use your ears ANYWAY. What sounds good is good. They have that open high end thing you want once some GE 12ax7s and mullard 12AT7s go in. These are a PITA to open by the way. How much mileage you get depends on your application. For my uses which are very specific and light handed they do the business. Big thumbs up. Its not apultec but find me another EQ that soudns this good for this kidna coin. Really, try me. Maybe a used Orban or Ashley but they don't sound this good. They work. They do a lot more. This DOES add something extra when you boost, maybe not what a real one does but it doesn't suck. Don't stop saving for a real pultec if you want one but remember this is an option and you can get piles of them if you have the space. I might buy 2 more. If you wanna get fancy you can mod a pair for better caps, mybe inductors and transformers but there's nothing WRONG with this unit stock.

My story is that I mentioned to my best friend Uli did these guys and since I'm the defacto mixer for everything he ever records he just called me one day and said "get anything from UPS?" I was like no, but they came the next day! Surprise present! In this context they're really outstanding.

I have 2 small gripes. only 1 gain reduction meter that only shows reduction and can't monitor input and output. I would like to see what's going in and out in stereo sometimes. Gripe 2, its always linked. This is mostly good but sometimes I want unlinked stereo bus compression. I know this isn't very SSL and this is a budget SSL copy mainly, but as they've tweaked the feature set why not give me unlink, 2 meters and make them assignable?

For all that whinging I love this compressor. It sounds pretty SSLish and has that glue everyone (myself included) has a h@rd on for. It has all the attack and release constants I could ask for. It has a very responsive threshold control allowing me to just tickle the meter in 1.5:1 ratio as I like to, no plugin jackassery where subtle settings produce SLAM for the meathead market. Slam if you must, but it does so much more in capable hands. Finally it has all the ratios one might need as well as a very well implemented sidechain high pass for those club pounders that just pump the thing way too hard. I know this was built to a price point but it outperforms the G bus in many ways thanks to the augmented feature set while maintaining those non-linear feeling envelope curves and the mysterious knee that never does ya dirty. Knobs are mainly detented, other pots are smooth and of good quality. The meter they DID give you is super fast and accurate. XLR and TRS connectors feel solid.

Heres the real jam on this guy though. Its switchable from an electronically balanced IC outut stage in true SSL spirit OR a discrete transistor transformer balanced stage with cinemags. They're heavy, use all 4 rack screws, okay? I gave this thing a bit of a workout day 1 with the IC stage and was dead pleased. Then I took a mix I finished with ITB compression and looped it through. I tried it with the VST buscomp with Warm comp in bypass with the transformers off, then the transformers on, then bypassed the VST and did comp with IC output and then switched to transformers. In both transformer use cases the cinemags added an audible sheen to the top, weight to the bottom and a depth to reverbs and delays as well as pushing the stereo field outside the speakers a bit. Headphone width was really noticeable as was kick punch wether the comp was in or out.... without the transformers the mix of DI synths and chopped samples with a bit of guitar became less interesting and the song's balls shrunk from elephantitis size to "I just took a dip in freezing water". To be sure I wasn't having a honeymoon reaction I also recorded a pass of every combination I mentioned and waited a few days, then sat down and lipped between them on my favorite tannoys. No change in my perception! I didn't label the tracks and when I looked at the file names, lo and behold the compressor-in, transformer-in tracks were my hands down favorite. Its not science exactly, but its rock n roll science, which is good enough for Uncle Jim.

You have to look at the equally wonderful API 2500 or their JDK audio budget version to touch this performance. This is one of my 3 favorite API designs of all time the others being the 512 and the 560 (the only graphic I know fit for use by humans) so I'm shooting high here. On sale on amazon of all places this compressor was very affordable at $600 and tax.... a used JDK is $800 all day. Its also 2u and I have rack woes all the time. Every big gadget I get could overturn the balance and force me to disconnect a 1u or two for space or buy yet another rack and that makes a 2u even more expensive. Especially if I get another rack and then get depressed at how empty it looks and wanna fill it. OH THE HUMANITY! Hardware is a cruel mistress, ain't it?

This has not come off my master bus. It moved from one console to the next this week. It is not in the patch bay, its just hardwired as I don't want to be tempted to experiment. I think it would be a waste of time. Nothing I own will outperform this unit in this roll. For weeks I've been tempted to pull it from the rack and give it a big hug. This has made my desert island island list.

I give this 5 stars as my complaints are far outweighed by the responsive controls, familiar interface, predictable performance and superlative sound quality. The metering and unlink will not be a problem for most folks, only serious compression connoisseurs and control freaks. Buy one. If you can mess up your music with this thing you should stop mixing and just hire me. I'm home all the time these days and I'll fix you up right.

EDIT: be sure to read ALL my compressor reviews

I think a lot of solid dudes will back me that soundcraft boards of the 80s nd 90s make great mix room consoles. Mine was meant as a 16:8:2 monitor mixer for live. It has full submix in stereo on 8 sub masters but no aux/fx return card n mine so my timebased effects kinda route a weird stupid way, but I knew that going in. I use a lot of stuff ITB for verbs as well as my outbaord so its fine. The submixes. Yes. My submaster setup is hella developed and I need at least 3 of those busses going all the time to be truly happy. I do this kinda not-so-brauer, post-NY compression thing a lot. I keep refining my personal methods for my mediocre little home post-room.

Mine is all serviced, upgraded in a few places. Sounds very tridenty. 80 series. EQ is wonderful, if you get silly the opamps in it add a little hiss, just a twinge. THhe balancing on this board stock sucks because they didn't bother but I never have issues. There are mods to that effect plus I have a slew of radial and jensen ISO transformer boxes. ISO transformers of good quality like this tend to improve your lows. A lot of guy put tweaky burr brown opamps in these and open them up but for a lot of what I do working with the people I work with an imperfectly defined sum with some haze and smoke can be really helpful. The board is well defined and musical but forgiving and flattering. Man-sized stereo width. Preamps aren't bad. Line amps are just the preamps padded down and you're thinking 'ow, shut' but its fine. They bring some vibe back to all the digital stuff that goes into them. I just wish I ahd room for a larger frame ebcause I would do it or buy a later model. Any 2 digit numbered soundcraft sounds similar. A lot of the 4 digit ones do too. And they're all very pleasant to work with and have a nice 70s british sound. Early Bowie all day....