jimmarchi1's Reviews

I wasn't going to upgrade cubase

I'm mixing hours of live material for my bst friend. He records into cubase sx2 on a win xp svc pack3 machine. Shit you not. Its stable. My copy of cubase 8 or whatever that I never updated wound up migrating to my new machine and then wouldn't see my motu gear. So he offered to buy me 11 after a friend made sure the SX files still basically opened, edits and time signatures etc, in 11 pro.

It took my a full day, like 12 hours of fiddling to figure out that my usual MOTU internal routing isn't to cubase's liking.... so I made a cubase template for my routing and now I just kick that shit on to work on Mike's stuff. I dock 1 star for being unlike every other DAW I have in how it deals with my MOTU's multiple monitors routing... and also for the dreary stock, gray look.... but all my outboard cheers me up fine. It also can't import basic mixer settings from older versions, so i have to reebuild any routing on this stuff,however I was ererouting to my console anyway. Otherwise this the best cubase ever. A real contender to this day. SX was my jam for 3 versions so this is like going home. The latency compensation allows me to use stuff in loops in real time like protools HD systems

I think Harrison and Steinberg need to team up and build the world beating DAW with the sonics, perfect latency compensaton track by track.... and workkflow both in mixing and midi.... it could be called Innuendo LOL or Mixbase 32C

OH YEAH! USB dongles are bullshit.

You can mix some stuff live with this.

I repeat my 1620i review:

Sounds like a mackie with passable mic and line amps and watered down soundcraft EQ This was a cheap solution when I needed more than my rane and ashly line mixers could provide me like stereo returns for aux sends etc.... it mixes my live keybaord rig and FX. The Eq is tolerably okay and sounds vaguelly british in the toft/soundcraft/A&H vein, but not as good. Its not good or bad but tis harder to screw up your sound than with any other mackie. I've tried the mic preamps, they're not actually awful. The board imparts zero coloration unless you use the EQ and it ahs lots and lots of headroom like an old 8 bus or CR series, better than a vlz in that regard. DO NOT OVERLOAD A MACKIE. Worst clipping ever. They specialize in cheap and clean because you can't make 'em this cheap and get pleasant and gradual harmonic distortion from your busses. Totally serviceable stage mixer. Could do monitors.... wouldn't try FOH with it unless it was essential to be portable. This mixer is light for what it is...

You can't kill a mackie unless you sledgehammer it or immerse it in a pool for a week. Mine was dropped by the 1st owner, works fine. Its just dented. Does its job and nothing else.

Sounds like a mackie with passable mic and line amps and watered down soundcraft EQ

This was a cheap solution when I needed more than my rane and ashly line mixers could provide me like stereo returns for aux sends etc.... it mixes my live keybaord rig and FX. The Eq is tolerably okay and sounds vaguelly british in the toft/soundcraft/A&H vein, but not as good. Its not good or bad but tis harder to screw up your sound than with any other mackie. I've tried the mic preamps, they're not actually awful. The board imparts zero coloration unless you use the EQ and it ahs lots and lots of headroom like an old 8 bus or CR series, better than a vlz in that regard. DO NOT OVERLOAD A MACKIE. Worst clipping ever. They specialize in cheap and clean because you can't make 'em this cheap and get pleasant and gradual harmonic distortion from your busses. Totally serviceable stage mixer. Could do monitors.... wouldn't try FOH with it unless it was essential to be portable. This mixer is light for what it is... even lighter than the 1620 in the wedge shape,

You can't kill a mackie unless you sledgehammer it or immerse it in a pool for a week. My regular 1620 dropped by the 1st owner, works fine. Its just dented. Does its job and nothing else.

This is my racked one, the dented wedge shaped one is for travelling even though this is lighter. The wedge is sturdier and its predisastered.

pretty good for all the features and the price point

another hard knee, valley people VCA loaded broadcast compressor from symetrix.... this one isn't quite as nice sounding as the 501, but first off its stereo (or dual mono obviously, but the sides are well matched, whatever) and unlike the 525 its not an only auto time constant affair.... there isnt an independent brickwall limiter but the comrpessor will defintiely get above 20:1, it'll just smash shit if you want... so its not a compressor into a limiter like a 501 unless you run channel 1 into channel 2 i guess, but it can be reconfigured via a button to do expansion/gating.... and DUCKING MODE, (this is not the same as sidechaining, okay? Its a radio industry feature, look it up.

I have 2 of these, they are great in series, one ducking one smashing room mics or anything ambient n vibey, even like convolution reverb sends! Shapes everything in weird ways. love this guy, or guys, there's 2, and I have 2, so its 4.... this is also a little bit dirtier than the 522. Not your dad's compressor, which of course was a dbx 160a!

not as cheap as they used to be ($50 at pawn shops all day every day), people have caught on :( they only trade for about 150 these days with the toggle switch in good shape but sometimes can be found for 70 or less when the market is flooded. Like now.... thinking of getting some more of these or some 525s just for shits and giggles. Very useful, workmanlike dynamics control. Don't let anyone tell you symetrix is cheap broadcast gear, its excellent quality, its just not from the era of vibe gear, it does its job, sometimes in the extreme.... but that's all. And often that's a good thing.

NOT a dbx/rnc/alesis, NOT generic

you want an old toggle switch version with the valley people VCA.... its not quite a dynamite but its got that hard knee sound.... fucks up overheads and room mics, reverb busses in pairs but also is perfect for taming bass guitar! use gently while tracking or hit harder while mixing, the lows will prevail.... not as cheap as they used to be but a lot of compressor for the coin... very sophisticated detection and time constant circuitry that is unrivaled in the rest of the 5xx line although other compressors from this series provide similar compression but with gating or ducking in stereo but less control.... did I mention the limiter, its NAAAAZZZTY

a lot of VCA gain reduction on the cheap that goes from utilitarian to rude easily.... don't expect distressor coloration but it has a character when overused that's ow on bad artifacts and big on helpful ones as well as lending some grit; or if used with subtlety it does the job and gets the hell out of the way.

The later ones are great too but they are really characterless being even cleaner, even when slamming.... they probably went from VA VCAs to THAT VCAS or something.

I've had these in my live racks and though they were sold at one point they came back and live in my bedroom mix space now...

more hifi than the 1 with precision time constant control

clearly the VLA2 was made to turn the original into a budget competitor for the big boys like avalon etc.... but I like the old one better for submix bus work.... this one is great as 2 individual compressors or as a master bus comp used gently in link.... hifi and not too squishy. Still, I don't use opto comrpession on my master so I like the 1, although in unlinked stereo use the 2 can have different time constants on each side that cna be dialed in for interesting stereo effects. Also useful for processing mid side recordings, far moreso than the 1. Botha re good but if I have to pick its the 1. This version is really clean and modern comparatively and it also can be a time suck with the continuously variable time constants, you'll often wind up with similar settings to what the 1 does in auto. Opto excels at program dependent att and rel. See my other review for my against-the-common-wisdom opinion of the VLA1.

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 modern vactrol charm of its own with lots of color from the undervolted dual triodes...

Outsstanding bang for buck

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...

can't go wrong for free

I forgot how much I liked this little thing.... it belonged to Robert Hazard in his demo studio in the 80s, then went to my Uncle with a couple tascam decks, then I had it for a bit in the 90s, then it went back to my uncle, now he gave it back to me... Limited but musical EQ, not enough balanced connections, onboard PSU adds some noise and the headrooms mediocre by mackie standards, but the opamps breakup great! Lots of connections and every single one has the impedance and voltage spec printed on it. Why don't they do that anymore? Preamps are smokey but sweet, what I always liked about it back when... everything you pass through a channel takes on some character, its not Neve or anything, but its not bad. A nice atlernative to my focusrite preamps. Line inputs impart a lot of character too though they're unbalanced, hence the poor PSU noise rejection. Sidecar isnerts in the FX return as well as the master stereo bus, nice touch. Clever 4 bus (2 stereo bus) structure but a lack of submix otions from the sole fx/mon submix section below the EQ, still, its got a sound that's dark and growly and everything else can be made to work for you. Currently trying it for summing. Definitely works for ome stuff and its nice to have an option between using my outboard reverbs with it or creating a send in my DAW and just shooting the stereo pair out tfrom my interface into the master bus so as not to waste channels and analog buses. Worth picking up.... these trade for epanuts and have a great sound of their own like the old soundcraft 200b and TAC stuff, its just a different sound than the brit stuff. Very somparable to the teac mdoel 24 but with sweepable midrange EQ, 2 less channels, a stereo true master bus, better connections and better preamps.... and a lot smaller. Not modular though and the onboard pwoer supply created noise floor hassle.... tis not terrible, but its there.

you have t appreciate it from the right perspective

the Planet P sounds terrible but its got a killer aternative to a real EP or the DX7's ubiquitous FM tine sound and the piano and clav are really classic 80s key sounds in their own right. The harpsi does less for me. Awesome chorus. Superceded by the MKS20 which is also lovely in a similar 'bad at emulating the real thing but great at being itself' way

functional GM rompler in a small form factory

I purchsed this second hand very cheaply with the thought I might use it for some extra layered textures when I ahd fewer programmable synths and no dedicated orchestral library. I believe its been recorded a few times but sparingly. Currently resides in a drawer. Its worth so little and takes up so little space being a little table top brick (somewhat taller than a TX7 or TG33 but really small) that its pointless to sell it. There are some respectable mid 90s type of JD/JX series sounds ranging from sample-based analog-alike sounds to chimey D50 and FMish tones and goofy world instrument and orchestral samples. If I recall this has some cheeseball gated drums too, but maybe not as cheesey as the yamaha SY series kits from the 35, 77 and 99... it sines most in key type sounds where its EP and piano sounds are drawn from the old roland digital piano modules (I think) like the MKS20 rack unit.

I think this is basically a rehoused SC-88 with a few more sounds. Mine says edirol on it. The Edirol brand also made a smaller one with elss controls. Those are HELLA cheap now. Skip if you insist programmability.... buy if you want some dated sounds that can't all be found in rompler plugins and sample packs for your DAW for 200 bucks or less.

if you must let our DAW do your work for you?

this is a very cool 'learning' AI type of dynamic EQ.... I have yet to use it in earnest. i just fiddled with it. Purchased while on sale.

worth it when you need your home studio cables to survive your kid's antics

I've switched over to kirlin cables for my long cable runs in the home studio. i think these may even replace my trusty 90s spectraflexes for guitar. On synths I use red and green 20' premium plus.... red for right, green for left.... mono outputs get black or yellow. So far the durability and sound quality strikes the right balance. These are even more tangle-resistant than other cloth covered cables and they also wrap up much more neatly, they really want to wind up perfectly with little effort. The cloth braid is just better for this than any other braided cable I've used and I've used a lot.

An excellent machine and a bloatware nightmare.

I have an i9 10th gen, 64g ram, 1tb SSD, Intel optane enabled.... yada yada

this PC is a nightmare to optimize for audio. Plus Win10 loves to fuck with you, even when you do manual updates... I almost regret not going mac. If I had it to do over again I would either get the equivalent macbook pro or try a customized precision workstation, although this was quite a savings compared to those 2 options, particularly the dell precision. I really saved less than a grand versus the apple when both companies were running promotions, but I really don't like the way apple wants to make me their bitch.... Its my machine, damnit. Plug n play when new, but next thing you know you have to trade her in for a loss to run the new OS properly so your interface will work and and and.... this is also annoying. I dunno.

I miss the Atari ST and tape machines sometimes.

Roland's answer to the DX7 was a totally new thing and drove yamaha to create the SY series

I got this rack version awhile ago but forgot about until now when i was redoing the studio. Why? Well its unique sounding and super cool, right? A unique take on digital synthesis for the time that informed all the stuff that came after and not just from roland. Capable of crazy evolving soundscapes. I mean, you know what this is and that it has quite a famous sound... but like the dx7 its arcane itnerface (worse on the rack) turned it into a preset box. Unlike the years I spent learning the dx7 with the d550 I plugged it in, tested it out, discovered all the Enya presets and then never used it again because my patience for the UI had gone way down from when I was a teenager. At 40 I just don't have the time or inclination to learn this thing properly. Its prodigiously tedious. I've dug in a little lately during coronavirus, but I gotta get a bellyfulla wine! I think I need a PG1000 programmer or a DT01 programmer to get anything out of this. As it stands when i clear time for music I tend to go with something easier or at least familiar. I an squeak a lot of similar stuff out of say my SY35 with a lot more ease because I'm sued to the DX and SY yamahas. For more traditional sounds, well, I have a Juno! And there's a lot of stuff this does I can do with my modern stuff like the modal or summit. But there's those attack samples man, I need to explore this more because it does thigns all its own and apart from the D05 boutique or a Vsynth with the D50 cartridge no other synth seems to replicate it. I find these roland units to be particularly irritating though. Being a yamaha man I've just never gotten into anything mroe complex than the mks50 unless I have a programmer.

I gotta be honest I think part of my motivation in purchasing this is that it still looks the part against MKS synths and I've been trying to make a big rack of roland synths for the home studio. And this looked the part... I knew it would be frustrating, but I was like "but it'll look cool whenever I get some more MKS synths!"

look, the no reverb amps sound better, sorry guys its true

They only made a blackface deluxe for a year or so before switching to just deluxe reverbs.... having played one it just plain sounds better without the reverb. The way a tremolux head or a blackface concert kicks butt on a super reverb with the reverb off. Sorry reverb people.

worth using

apart from the magical 'air band' which is, well, magical when you need all the mystical toppiness without shrieking SSL highs, this is such a nice EQ. Gives you another flavor besides fake pultec... I've not used a real one yet but the plugin delivers. Worth using over channel EQ, even the really good Harrison 32c EQ in Mixbus.

its a teensy weensy dx7 mk1

no data slider (and no failure prone membranes) but small and with all the features of the keyboard dx7 mk1 and furry 12 bit D to A.... just won one of these, need to get rid of some boards in favor of modules and rack units due to space concerns. When this arrives and proves itself functional my dx7 mk1 will have to go out, or at least in storage. Anyone have and ESQM nodule and want an ESQ1?

5 stars of bad bad sound that's so cool

when it must sound crappy why not start with the microphone? The copperphone soudns screwy as hell. Weird internal resonances.... weird. It sounds a bit retro lofi but also not in a familiar way really because its so unique anyway. Its like the sound of an alternate timeline circa 1920 maybe. I should use this more. First ran into one of these while meeting with a producer in the early days of Under Your Bed. He had a few of them set up for an upcoming session with a trashy garage band. I really liked where he went with that stuff too although I really didn't wind up liking him. No names named here.

buy it

this guy just owns on other VCA bus comp emualtions.... since its not actually an SSL design it brings something fresh and better to the table. Indispensible for rock mixing but good for much, much ore. I'm more into the diode bridge emulations lately but this guy is the bees knees... good on a rhythm section group too, where like you have live drums with NY compression from a couple 1176es or LA2As maybe and bass guitar slammed by an 1176 but want to gel those elements together, this guy just shines more than like the waves ssl, cytomic's glue, dcam free comp... its really great, and not just great for a plugin. I will use this thing over a real bus comp.

edit: no I won't.... its too hard to tickle this thing just right for that bus glue effect without it compressing drastically whereas a real VCA bus comp is easier to dial in.... in the A/B test the townhouse won for heavy handed comrpession but the warm was easy to dial in subtley in a way the townhouse can't contend with.... every virtual knob ahs resolution whereas a dual threshold potentiometer is infinitely variable. Just twist a round gently until the ballistic meter makes ears happy... also, real needle VU versus simulated meters relying on your GPU refresh rate for accuracy.... and od course the warm ahs switchable discreet output. Not sure what the townhouse circuit utilized, but the bottom end and depth through the warm are very pleasing in a way the townhouse is not, although tis compression time constants and 'shape' to the VCA attack and decay are really pelasing.

meh

I got this free during a promotion.... its not my favorite 1176 emualtion. I would not pay for it over the waves or purple... It does fast fet compression with some saturation and coloration of the signal though. It doesn't sound bad.... also I'm not that fond of the whole t racks setup anyway.