Any1 bought the Liquid channel test??

[Marogru]

Any 1 bought this test??

Record Pro Audio in your Home Recording Studio

Ant feeling about it?

[stevetgn]

... or loan 1 free of charge from your local dealer

[Marogru]

ye but this test is A/B wih the real deals.

[steveWall]

Hi there, although I do not own the unit, I have used it a couple of times. I went to SAE in Manhattan (opening up my studio, Gardentone, in Williamsburg Brooklyn at the end of August... Shameless Plug!) and during one of the AES conventions we had a SERIOUS blind shootout of the Liquid Channel versus many of the actual analog pre's it emulates (Neve, Focusrite Red, etc). I was invited by a bunch of teachers, friends, and Manhattan studio-rats from some big houses around here. Although I would never buy one of these because of the insane rate of depreciation in digital gear (...I also have a finance degree! ) it seriously held up in our 88r control room. With completely blind tests, on a U87, 414, 121, Solid Tube, 4050, and a KM84 the thing really had us baffled. We could not, or could barely tell (maybe lucky guesses?). I know this is subjective, but I can say that there were some big name mixers and mastering engineers here that all were dumbfounded. It was a totally rad time.

Once again, I personally wouldn't buy it, but hey, if you have the cash and need something that'll get you 95% there with pre's immediately, its not a bad idea.

I have the exact gear list in one of my notebooks somewhere. Ask and I can look for it. Word.

[Fletcher]

That's remarkable... when I checked it out when I was working with Michael Wagener a couple of years ago we couldn't believe that anyone could possibly put a piece of shit like the LC on the market with a straight face.

[steveWall]

Remarkable it may be (and was...), but I'm not lying! This was in the beginning of my training where my ears, and perception of what things sounded like, were very rough. I didn't know how to listen, or even perceive frequencies in the way I do now. Honestly, I found the results a bit sad and disheartening then (i.e. wow, this really works?). If I had the opportunity to do this test again I would hope that my impression would be different. But, to be honest, if I had the opportunity to do this test again I'd probably opt to skip it and grab a scotch, or 8.

Side note: I've been purchasing a long list of items from Tony in Mercenary Brooklyn, he's been totally rad.

[BlueSprocket]

I've spent some time with the unit. I'm not impressed. There are a few pieces of focusrite gear that I find very usable and would actually enjoy owning. The Liquid Channel is not one of them.

A friend of mine had the interesting idea of buying a liquid channel so he could "demo" vocal chains he might want to use on an artist before going to rent the actual chain from one of the local spots in Nashville.

I found his idea far more interesting than the sound of the unit.

[Ben F]

I didn't think it sounded much like the pre amps emulated either. How can you model the saturation or a tube or transformer in a mic preamp accurately? The tone is all in the circuit and how it handles the impedance load and voltage.

[rstreber]

Yeah, I'm with Fletcher on this one. I spent some time with one with no other motive than to check it out and see how it worked in various applications. I actually wasn't even trying to see how it stacked up to originals so much as to see if it was a cool sounding box by itself. I was pretty shocked at what I got (or didn't get) out of it. None of the sounds I got from it were all that useable, let alone interesting or good. Admittedly, I mostly was listening to the compression emulations, and didn't mess around too much with the preamp. Certainly with the dynamics emulations (as with the preamps), the fact that you absolutely can not drive it without it crapping out or clipping miserably makes it of severely limited use. As for its ability to emulate, I compared (among other things) a real Smart C2 in crush mode and a distressor to the LC's emulations of these, and it was a joke. It made me feel bad / embarrassed for Focusrite.

[VitaEtMusica]

I had a liquid channel for about two years. It was very difficult to get a sound that just worked- on anything, but especially on vocals. I was constantly eq'ing and compressing to try to make things usable. Money constraints and indecision kept me using the thing for as long as I did. While in my possession I had the chance to directly compare the LC to an original 1073, 1272 and a Helios type 69. The LC was not anything like those pres- it consistently lacked the high end and attitude of the originals. As I would record whole projects through it, changing up pre's as I went, I would end up with a lifeless track, eq'd to death (which made it even more crappy). Focusrite took a giant step backwards on this one IMO.

I was more ok with the compressor section. There were standouts, but overall the compressors lacked the grace of their hardware couterparts. You could never push any of the compressors or pres as hard as the real thing.

After a while I just kept the convolution bypassed and used the mic pre clean. It was pretty mediocre, especially for $3500. If you were paying attention years ago when this came out, there was a lot of hype building to the LC's release- then when it came out it was dead silent. I've learned a couple things from all of that; be a late adopter of any new technology, and get a guarantee that you can send back crappy gear within 30-60 days if you become disenchanted with your purchase.

[Rob King]

I had one on loan for a couple weeks and I personally thought it was the biggest piece of crap. The preamp clips!! and NOT in a good way. Every preset sounded like a haze on the signal. Seriously, I wouldn't even buy one for $199. I am dead serious. It sure isn't like their Red Series or old vintage ISA stuff that is for sure. I did however like the Software control, they did a good job on that, they should have spent more time on the sound or actually made something like an ISA 110 with a "Liquid" Compressor section in it if they were hell bent on that technology. At least you could bypass the emulations and have a decent preamp. Just my 2 cents.

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

That's remarkable... when I checked it out when I was working with Michael Wagener a couple of years ago we couldn't believe that anyone could possibly put a piece of shit like the LC on the market with a straight face.