Langevin turned my recordings around

[Revelation]

What I love about the unit is the following;

1. Limter does not affect the sound of the track. It is an excellent transparent limiter that is $1,400 if you buy the dual limiter alone which is worth it! Controlled the peaks very well.
2. Sound of the mic pre
3. Sound of the mic pre
4. Sound of the mic pre
5. Looks great
6. Nice meters
7. Easy to use
8. Very useful EQ

Outstanding smooth, detailed, and open sound, but a little warm at the same time.

When I used a mic (vocals) and bass on the DVC, I got the WOW factor as soon as I heard myself through the cans. I compared this unit to some other equipment in its price range and it blew the competition away. Tech support at Manley also talked to me about all their gear and answered all my questions. Excellent customer service, very friendly, and patient in educating a project studio owner on their gear. I have their catalog now, and am thinking already about my next Manley purchase.

I have a project studio and this is one of the few dual channel strips that is in the price range that us project studio owner can afford. I was going to get the Focusrite ISA 220, but this DVC sounds just as good, and it gives you My recordings are smoother, the high end has opened up and I need less compression with the amazing limiter.

[Ruphus]

Congrats, man!

Isn´t it fantastic to plug in great gear and hear what it can do? I had gotten me a nice mic lately and was flabbergasted too.

Wish ya lots of fun with your new baby

Ruphus

[Faderjockey]

Cool, I like the DVC much better then the ISA220 or430 so I think you made the right choice.

[groove guru]

I'm interested in the DVC also. Have you tried it on female vocals yet? It's right in my price range for a new pre, along with the 220 and Calrec 1161. I've only heard the DVC on tape, but I really liked what I heard. Congrats on your new pre!

[groove guru]

From the recordings that I've heard, the pre sounded similar in character to the avalon M5.
Do you think they are close? Like I've said, I don't have either but have compared recordings.

[ProFool]

This one is on my butget list to, so good too hear I've made a good choice.

[Bob Amirian]

Originally Posted by Faderjockey

Cool, I like the DVC much better then the ISA220 or430 so I think you made the right choice.

Disagree.

ISA 220 is a standard (at least in Europe) for a reason, don't you think so?

DVC is nice, but it never made its way to the history.

ISA 110 made the history happen, its offspring 220 continues the tradition.

It's one of the best Rupert Neve's units, absolute classic.

I've got both ISA and DVC and ISA gets used all the time for its wonderfully detailed, creamy and million-dollar sound.

There's no comparison between these two actually, since ISA is a full-blown mono channel strip with excellent EQ and tweakability twice as vast as DVC's, and Langevin is a dual channel strip, pretty bold featurewise.

Would you get a Porsche or Toyota?

I'd get Porsche

[666666]

The DVC is a killer unit... I'd say it's the very best deal in pro-audio that exists when you consider dollar per quality. Both the pres and limiters are outstanding and the lay-out is extremely versatile. I'd say this unit WILL be in the history books as the cheapest way to get one's hands on professional level audio gear. I've never heard anything else in this price range (with 2-channels of pres and 2-channels of limiters) that I'd consider using on a pro-level production... but we use DVCs all the time around here, even when there are Neve's APIs etc available.

How do the DVC pres stack up against Avalon? Hmmm, interesting question. Similar but different! Certainly cannot say one is "better" than the other as this would only be a false statement. They are BOTH excellent. Both the DVC and Avalon pres are on the "clean" side of the spectrum of course. But the DVC pres perhaps have a bit of grain and earthiness to them, where as the Avalons are a bit smoother, more velvety, maybe a bit more airy. The DVC pres are perhaps a tad bit more "aggressive" where as the Avalons are a tad bit more "high class". But I'm really splitting hairs here. Both are great and get used often along with APIs, Neves and GMLs. For a lot of things, you could probably interchange them and still be 100% happy.

Focusrite... can't comment here, never owned one. I've used some at different studios and never really got too excited by them, though I do not remember what models I tried... but I was never inspired to buy any. Had to work on a mix recently where some tracks had be taken in through ISA 110s (according to the tracking sheets)... the 110 tracks sounded "ok" at best, nothing great... maybe not the fault of the pres alone, but... in all these years I have yet to get my socks knocked off by a Focusrite. That's just my personal experience anyway, I'm sure they're good.

But, one thing I don't like about the DVC is that the pre gain knobs have no detents and zero resistance... once you get your levels set it's easy to accidentally bump a gain knob and knock out the levels. I guess this is one reason why the unit is not terribly expensive... they did take a few short-cuts like this. However, this issue is easily fixed with an O-ring modification... remove the gain knobs, place an appropriately sized O-ring behind the knob over the shaft, and reinstall the knob pushing in on it so it rubs against the O-ring... if done correctly, this mod gives the gain knobs a nice resistance.

[Roc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by Bob Amirian

DVC is nice, but it never made its way to the history.

Who cares? If it sounds good and is improving the OP's music than that's all that matters. Besides, how do we know what the OP likes aesthetically? The ISA 220 might be the biggest POS to him in the free world. Its great that you've found it to be "better", but I assure you, its up to the end user to define what works and what doesn't, just as you have in this thread. Anything else is a waste of time in my opinion.

[Benmrx]

I've gone through quite a bit of gear this past 5-6 years that I've been serious about recording. The DVC was the first piece of "nice" gear I ever purchased brand new, and was my first good preamp and opto limiter. Just like the OP, my recordings (particularly vocals) immediatly started sounding better. After all the gear I've gone through, and all the gear that's found a home in my studio, it's still here. I still use it on nearly every session.