My field trip to Bricasti

[Omicron_9]

Greetings.
DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with Bricasti.

One fine New England day last week, I found myself at Bricasti headquarters, as the guest of Brian Zolner and Casey Dowdell, the two driving forces behind Bricasti. Brian and Casey are both incredibly knowlegeable, brilliant guys; yet so friendly that I was made to feel as if I was an old friend. I'd like to publicly thank them both for their time.

I had been invited for a hands-on demo of the new M7. Brian's listening environment involved such goodies as a large 4000-series pair of JBL studio monitors which were tri-amped via six MacIntosh power amps. For sampling and comparison material, we had various source examples ranging from live recordings of the Boston Symphony Orchestra recorded in Symphony Hall in Boston, to solo studio-recorded drums; both in kit and long-spaced individual drums, to a Steely Dan-ish rhythm section of guitar/bass/drums, to spoken word.

Brian walked me though the controls of the M7 and the presets. Everything is very logical and intuive; it wouldn't take long to get up to speed on this unit; it is not like the PCM91 or other units which almost demand the user have a copy of the manual in one hand at all times. The layout and fucntioning of the controls is very simple; yet a tremendously wide range of control, from the general tweak to the most granular and molecular is possible.

First up was a comparison of the Bricasti's Boston Symphony Hall preset to the actual Boston Symphony Hall. This was of paramount interest to me, as I record only classical and acoustic music. The M7's preset sounded just a tiny bit brighter in the upper register to me, but when I mentioned this to Brian, just a tiny tweak made it indistinguishable from the BSO hall. There are presets for the hall full and empty; both are stunning. Tails die away cleanly and realistically into blackness. Adding a longer tail or more density does not degrade or alter the source sound. Shorter hall tails sound clean and pure; not like un-naturally truncated snippings of longer hall settings. No graininess; no terracing of tails; no ruler-flipped-on-the-edge-of-a-desk artifacts. The listener could "move" their seat to various locations in the hall, with the actual reverb changing to be accurate for that location. Brian and Casey demonstrated various reverb qualities, presets, locations, densities, tails, reflections, environments, and made some new user presets right there in front of me; all were wondrous. Even subtle ambiance settings sounded so lifelike that going back to the dry original sample made it sound lifeless and even wrong. Some of the ambiance and small space settings were so subtle that it was as if they only became palpable when turned off; adding them made the dry original still seem "dry" as in no effect had been applied, but as if life had been breathed into it. With the hall and church presets, the sense of space and realism was very palpable; not once did I feel as if I was listening to an effect. I felt as if I was in the space, and I have spent some time in Symphony Hall in Boston.

After listening to the M7 for the better part of three hours, the unit's stainless steel top was removed. No expense has been spared anywhere. This is a unit which its owners will no doubt have in their racks for many years to come, and probably without incident. Casey explained to me the story of how the converters and op aps were selected; specs were just about ignored. Instead, every possible chip was auditioned side by side, and the final components were selected based on sound, regardless of cost. The power supply, which includes a very solid torroidal transformer, is fan-cooled. I would also like to point out that only at the end of the listening session did Brian point out the fan to me; the M7 we had been using was not in a rack, but was on a table in front of us on a couple of feet away so as to be as accessible as possible for tweaking and controlling. Music or samples were not constantly on, as we would stop for questions and/or explanations from time to time, so there were moments of silence. I did not know of the fan's presence until Brian pointed out that it had been running the entire time. The front panel is a solid slab of milled and anodized aluminum, even the buttons for the presets are machined from aluminum. I point out these kinds of details because these are examples of how solid and unique the M7 is, from the sound through to the build quality. Impressive at every turn. I'd also like to mention that the entire unit is built right here in New England; nothing has been farmed out.

I could go on and on about the quality of the sound of the M7, but I think the best way to sum this up would be that, to my ears and in my opinion, everything leading up to the M7 (Lexicons, TCs, Kurzweils, et. al.) are reverb effects. The M7 is reverb. I know that many skeptics will read this; I went in not wanting to like it, as I have a beloved PCM91 and a Kurzweil Rumour; no doubt they'll soon be in the gearslutz classifieds.

Listening will be all the convincing anyone will need.

Kind regards,
-0.9

[Mastering101]

i would love to demo the unit but i think once Casey Dowdell found out i wasnt a major recording studio i got the hand ...funny thing i am the customer base these days...home project recording studios.i mean shit i have a 960l, rev 4000,h8000,eclipse....what unit would you compare it too? if you had to?
i heard some mp3's and heard tc sounds

[Omicron_9]

Originally Posted by effectsnut

i would love to demo the unit but i think once Casey Dowdell found out i wasnt a major recording studio i got the hand ...funny thing i am the customer base these days...home project recording studios.i mean shit i have a 960l, rev 4000,h8000,eclipse....what unit would you compare it too? if you had to?
i heard some mp3's and heard tc sounds

Hi,

I'm not a big commercial studio; my studio exists solely for my own small label. I made this very clear to Brian; he still invited me for some demo time, but this was after several months of e-mailing and getting to know each other a bit.

As to what unit I'd compare it to, I'd say it doesn't compare to any existing unit. In my opinion, the only fair comparison of the M7 is to real actual reverb.

Regards,
-0.9

[GYang]

I'll definitely wait for real opportunity to test it somewhere by myself, as what I understood from second hand opinions are mixed emotions, from glorification to modest appreciation.

[ten21studio]

For what it's worth guys, I just heard the Bricasti in my own studio on a drum session I had recorded a few days earlier. I won't pontificate about different reverb this and reverb that. THIS UNIT IS FANTASTIC. I was trying out some really short ambiences on the kit and they were totally part of the sound (WHAT REVERB?).

I have had a lot of outgoings lately so sadly I can't afford this unit at the moment.

That said I'm buying one anyway and I'll worry about it later.

BEST OF LUCK GUYS

www.ten21.biz

Originally Posted by Omicron_9

Greetings.
DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with Bricasti.

One fine New England day last week, I found myself at Bricasti headquarters, as the guest of Brian Zolner and Casey Dowdell, the two driving forces behind Bricasti. Brian and Casey are both incredibly knowlegeable, brilliant guys; yet so friendly that I was made to feel as if I was an old friend. I'd like to publicly thank them both for their time.

I had been invited for a hands-on demo of the new M7. Brian's listening environment involved such goodies as a large 4000-series pair of JBL studio monitors which were tri-amped via six MacIntosh power amps. For sampling and comparison material, we had various source examples ranging from live recordings of the Boston Symphony Orchestra recorded in Symphony Hall in Boston, to solo studio-recorded drums; both in kit and long-spaced individual drums, to a Steely Dan-ish rhythm section of guitar/bass/drums, to spoken word.

Brian walked me though the controls of the M7 and the presets. Everything is very logical and intuive; it wouldn't take long to get up to speed on this unit; it is not like the PCM91 or other units which almost demand the user have a copy of the manual in one hand at all times. The layout and fucntioning of the controls is very simple; yet a tremendously wide range of control, from the general tweak to the most granular and molecular is possible.

First up was a comparison of the Bricasti's Boston Symphony Hall preset to the actual Boston Symphony Hall. This was of paramount interest to me, as I record only classical and acoustic music. The M7's preset sounded just a tiny bit brighter in the upper register to me, but when I mentioned this to Brian, just a tiny tweak made it indistinguishable from the BSO hall. There are presets for the hall full and empty; both are stunning. Tails die away cleanly and realistically into blackness. Adding a longer tail or more density does not degrade or alter the source sound. Shorter hall tails sound clean and pure; not like un-naturally truncated snippings of longer hall settings. No graininess; no terracing of tails; no ruler-flipped-on-the-edge-of-a-desk artifacts. The listener could "move" their seat to various locations in the hall, with the actual reverb changing to be accurate for that location. Brian and Casey demonstrated various reverb qualities, presets, locations, densities, tails, reflections, environments, and made some new user presets right there in front of me; all were wondrous. Even subtle ambiance settings sounded so lifelike that going back to the dry original sample made it sound lifeless and even wrong. Some of the ambiance and small space settings were so subtle that it was as if they only became palpable when turned off; adding them made the dry original still seem "dry" as in no effect had been applied, but as if life had been breathed into it. With the hall and church presets, the sense of space and realism was very palpable; not once did I feel as if I was listening to an effect. I felt as if I was in the space, and I have spent some time in Symphony Hall in Boston.

After listening to the M7 for the better part of three hours, the unit's stainless steel top was removed. No expense has been spared anywhere. This is a unit which its owners will no doubt have in their racks for many years to come, and probably without incident. Casey explained to me the story of how the converters and op aps were selected; specs were just about ignored. Instead, every possible chip was auditioned side by side, and the final components were selected based on sound, regardless of cost. The power supply, which includes a very solid torroidal transformer, is fan-cooled. I would also like to point out that only at the end of the listening session did Brian point out the fan to me; the M7 we had been using was not in a rack, but was on a table in front of us on a couple of feet away so as to be as accessible as possible for tweaking and controlling. Music or samples were not constantly on, as we would stop for questions and/or explanations from time to time, so there were moments of silence. I did not know of the fan's presence until Brian pointed out that it had been running the entire time. The front panel is a solid slab of milled and anodized aluminum, even the buttons for the presets are machined from aluminum. I point out these kinds of details because these are examples of how solid and unique the M7 is, from the sound through to the build quality. Impressive at every turn. I'd also like to mention that the entire unit is built right here in New England; nothing has been farmed out.

I could go on and on about the quality of the sound of the M7, but I think the best way to sum this up would be that, to my ears and in my opinion, everything leading up to the M7 (Lexicons, TCs, Kurzweils, et. al.) are reverb effects. The M7 is reverb. I know that many skeptics will read this; I went in not wanting to like it, as I have a beloved PCM91 and a Kurzweil Rumour; no doubt they'll soon be in the gearslutz classifieds.

Listening will be all the convincing anyone will need.

Kind regards,
-0.9

[bakerman]

will be test driving one soon myself. looking forward to it, been a while since I've been excited about reverb.

[Doc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by Omicron_9

The M7 is reverb.

Agreed.

Casey is the man.

Great post.

I love that box.