[S Hardin]

A little over a year ago I started to build my home/project studio - after many years out on the road. Having produced, and co-mixed a number of albums in the early-mid 90s - back then, I was fortunate enough to have worked in a studio using 2" decks about 95% of the time.

Needless to say - when I started the mission of building a home studio - I knew I was tackling getting into the digital world, and building my proficiency with PT. Through all that though - I knew that the main course I wanted to plot in building the studio was to have as much analog character as possible (with pre's and mikes) to try to set the "warmth bar" as high as possible in my recordings.

Enter stage left - the UA610. A great engineer and touring friend of mine told me "if your goal is to start with a warm, tube-pre, you need to get the 610. And if you ever decide to play out, you've got a really cool looking D.I."

WOW was he right! After doing a bunch of recording and testing, testing and recording over the last year to get things where I want them - the 610 has stood out every time as a KILLER source for vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin - just about anything I can throw at it with the right mic.

I was so impressed with it in the first three months, I went out and bought a second one. And I'm really glad I did. Recently bought a 4-710 about a month ago, and am about to start a new album session with some friends. This round I'm going focus on just using the 610s for vocals, to try and make them stick out a little farther in the mix.

No complaints - and in my opinion, a must own for any studio.