Hand Crafted Lab Tube micamp and compressor, Blind test against 1176,v72,ADL and more

[lowswing]

Like many other I was very interested in the products of this small new company.
the specs, look and description made me curios especially at their very low retail price.
as their products are not available on shops I asked their man in Berlin to bring me the compressor and micamp for a pro test in my studio (www.lowswing.de).
Just to clear thing: I'm not connected by any means to hand crafted labs!, I'm just a costumer and i thought I'd do here a favor for other by posting here my test files.

these were the test:

acoustic guitar: a vintage km54 was recording guild acoustic guitar through 4 pres :Telefunken v676a (I got 4 of them,they were NOS), tele V72 (in real great condition!),Cadac g268 (very neve-ish class A pre) and the Hand Crafted labs tube micpre. no ee, compressor or any processing direct to swissonic ad24(better than my RME) at 24bit 44.1khz into SX3.1 ditherd to 16bit by apogge UV22HR
Vocals: Gefell um92.1s through the pres above.
ac gtr compressed: one of the files above compressed by 1176, adr compex, ADL cl1000, Hand Crafted tube compressor.
voc compressed: one of the files above compressed by the above compressors.
bass compressed: a 70' vintage Fender fretless precision was recorded through DI in the v676 (this basic file called bass a) and than compressed by the compressors above (files bass b-bass e)

Listen to the files and say your opinion. soon I'll post what is what as well the result we got in the studio (main, my assistant-Andy, and guitarist/vocalist Johannes opinions)

to this post are attached the acoustic guitar test ac a,b,c and d
Enjoy

FILES WORKING NOW!

[Mattsson]

Great idea Low Swing, and I am really excited to hear your recordings!

But for some reason I can open your files but not hear anything! It is just silence...

Strange

I'll try again later,

Rob

[lowswing]

thanks for the worning the files i took from the studio are empty... something went wrong while boucing,it was a long night...
sorry I'll post the right files tomorrow.

[lowswing]

here is the vocal preamp test

[lowswing]

one of the files of the vocal test compressed (ca 5db reduction ) .

[lowswing]

a file from the first post compressed

[lowswing]

a vintage fretless precision was recorded through a DI into v676 mic amp (file "bass a") and than compressed ca. -9db (files "bass b" to "bass e")

[Stisse]

Great work Lowswing. It'll be interesting to see the results on this one.

Stisse

[HandCrafted Lab]

I join. Thanks Guy- good works.

[lowswing]

so anyone want to give it a try and say what is your favorite file?

[SoZo]

On the compressor A. or D. B is grany C is flat and boaring.

[lowswing]

sozo which compressor test (bass,voc,ac gtr)? they are not them same (same goes to pres, the order of the test was change between the vocals and guitar)

[ISedlacek]

Originally Posted by lowswing

Like many other I was very interested in the products of this small new company.

Which company is it ? Any link ?

[lowswing]

Originally Posted by ISedlacek

Which company is it ? Any link ?

see thread : http://gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php3?t=37823

[matucha]

guitar > i like A and D the best, A being fuller and D being brighter/tilted to highs... the other two was not bad, but a bit nasal sounding... probably I liked C the least.

voc > A is my favorite, B is interesting - some mild distortion and hifreq rolloff, could be nice to use sometimes, C and D are not bad, but I don't like the HF so much

I can't comment compressor tracks, because they are so different... though vox b has some hum and compressor d is the most even imo. The other 3 seems to be slow at the beginning... slowly going down with volume in the first few seconds.

(and sorry I'm listening only through Apogee MiniDAC > AKG K270 headphones, because I'm at Barcelona without my precious speakers. This headphones sounds really bright, so it may influence my judgement.)

[HCL Trading]

Hi Lowswing,

thanx for uploading these wonderful files.

I am the German distributor of HCL gear and I´m very pleased that there is so much interest worldwide in this stuff.

HCL Trading

[HCL Trading]

@ everybody:

please also visit our tests against SPL & RME preamps:
www.hcl-trading.de.vu
I recommend the Dobro guitar recordings

Cheers,
HCL Trading

[lowswing]

common be brave and post your insight on these files!
here are my studio crew opinions:
AC guitar file "A" was by far number one after "D" which most thought was nice but not as real as "A" after came "C" and than "B" which i thought was too dark for this application.
for Vocal Pre here was a very tight run between "A" and "D" in the end we agreed that "a" is better but "d" would fit better a rockier singer, "c" was to our hears a bit boring while "b" was good but a bit too dark and seems to call for EQ.
on the compressor files there was less clear results I presonally loved "D" on Guitar "B" and "A" on Voc and "B" on bass.

[tubesandteles]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! PM me if you aren't ready to let the cat out of the bag! Thanks.

[lowswing]

Originally Posted by tubesandteles

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! PM me if you aren't ready to let the cat out of the bag! Thanks.

I'll do .....



in few days

why don't you post your impression, i'm really curios on what people think.

[RKrizman]

ac gtr I liked A the best. Clear, 3d, real, less "thickener" than the others.

-R

[Paul David]

AC guitar I liked

A
D
C
B

Compressed I liked A. But the rest sounded pretty similar and not cool to me. I guess the whole 240 hz thing was bugging me and they all seemed to make it worse.

Compressed vox I like

B
A
C
D

[macmod]

Is it capable of nicely doing 2bus compression ?
cheers,
Macmo

[Lagerfeldt]

Originally Posted by Paul David

AC guitar I liked

A
D
C
B

Originally Posted by SoZo

On the compressor A. or D. B is grany C is flat and boaring.

Exactly the same here, amazing.

A
D
C
B

Haven't checked the vox yet.

[lowswing]

ok I'll start to reveal the fact...
Acoustic guitar Preamp test :
A= v676a
B= V72
C= Cadac
D= Hand carfted labs tube pream

[matucha]

not bad for the HC ;-)

V72 sounded interesting on voc, is it the 100% condition one?

[HandCrafted Lab]

Thanks.
Separate thanks to LowSwing Studio,Berlin in person of Guy Sternberg and to his employees for the done interesting testing.

But continue to state your opinions and wishes, please.

It would be desirable to specify, that for today leveller has received fast/hard mode in addition (opto also) - therefore opportunities of its use have extended. Stereo Link possible also, if need.

[lowswing]

Originally Posted by HandCrafted Lab

Thanks.
Separate thanks to Slowjazz Studio,Berlin in person of Guy Sternberg and to his employees for the done interesting testing.

hmm, it's LowSwing studio
the vocal pre results:
pre A=cadac
pre B=V72
pre C=V676a
pre D=Hand Crafted

in this test the HCL pres was our winner.

matucha, My v72 is in top condition recaped and taken care by engineer recomended by Oliver of Tab/telefunken USA

the copmressor results will be published soon ...

[musical5]

Any ideas on the costs of these units in US dollars?


Thanks

[lowswing]

compressor files:
acoustic guitar compressed by:
A=HCL
B=1176
c=compex
D=ADL

vocal compressed by:
A=compex
B=1176
C=HCL
D=ADL

bass compressed=
A=none compressed pure file (precision->passive DI->v676)
B=1176
C=ADL
D=compex
E=HCL