Art Tubefire 8

[tzer0]

I'm starting to think all ART Gear is the same. Sure it's GREAT, if you swap out the tubes and Mod the hell out of it. By the time you spent all that time and money you could have bought something good to start with.

[HeavyG]

Originally Posted by tzer0

I'm starting to think all ART Gear is the same. Sure it's GREAT, if you swap out the tubes and Mod the hell out of it. By the time you spent all that time and money you could have bought something good to start with.

I am not sure anyone has said that you have to mod the tubefire to get a good sound. Some choose to...that is cool...but it is inaccurate (in my opinion) to say that you can not capture a quality recording with this gear straight out of the box.

[mercurydime]

i purchased one a few weeks ago and have used it to record 5 bands out on location with a true precision 8 and some drawmer compression (actually, just limiting with the drawmer to be specific so as to catch any potential 'overs').

i used the tubefire for guitars (some fiddles, too), and vocals.

i have to say the thing has performed beautifully. i am in the processs of mixing some tunes down...my audio will be used for the three-camera video shoot.

i do intend to change the tubes at some point, but i will attest that this piece of equipment sounds more than just fine right of the box...lots of "wham for the wampum" if you ask me...

[Track 7]

Originally Posted by HeavyG

I am not sure anyone has said that you have to mod the tubefire to get a good sound. Some choose to...that is cool...but it is inaccurate (in my opinion) to say that you can not capture a quality recording with this gear straight out of the box.

Heavy G... you are absolutely correct

[HeavyG]

Originally Posted by mercurydime

i purchased one a few weeks ago and have used it to record 5 bands out on location with a true precision 8 and some drawmer compression (actually, just limiting with the drawmer to be specific so as to catch any potential 'overs').

i used the tubefire for guitars (some fiddles, too), and vocals.

i have to say the thing has performed beautifully. i am in the processs of mixing some tunes down...my audio will be used for the three-camera video shoot.

i do intend to change the tubes at some point, but i will attest that this piece of equipment sounds more than just fine right of the box...lots of "wham for the wampum" if you ask me...

"Wham for the wampum"...that is beautiful. I will make sure I give you songwriting credit when I cover your material, Mercury.

I was doing a session last night and I can not get over how easy it is to use...the low latency...and the high quality of the unit. I am a salesperson during the day...so I get excited about things and tend to "sell them"...so take my endorsement and enthusiasm with the appropriate perspective.

[troggg]

I just wanted to thank the posters on this thread for turning me on to affordable ART tube gear. As I've committed to PT/MP, I can't use the Tubefire for I/O, but I am ordering an ART Pro Channel to combine with an M-Audio Profire 610 and a POD UX2 - another "secret weapon."

In my last recording phase, I used a $2000 Groove Tubes Vipre to warm up POD and other sounds. I have every reason to anticipate that the ART Pro Channel can do the deed for roughly a tenth of the price.

Lastly, while I may attempt a tube upgrade at some point, minds I trust have pointed out that the stock tubes are carefully chosen, not scraped from the bottom of a bargain bin.

[sleeper1400]

Originally Posted by troggg

I just wanted to thank the posters on this thread for turning me on to affordable ART tube gear. As I've committed to PT/MP, I can't use the Tubefire for I/O, but I am ordering an ART Pro Channel to combine with an M-Audio Profire 610 and a POD UX2 - another "secret weapon."

In my last recording phase, I used a $2000 Groove Tubes Vipre to warm up POD and other sounds. I have every reason to anticipate that the ART Pro Channel can do the deed for roughly a tenth of the price.

Lastly, while I may attempt a tube upgrade at some point, minds I trust have pointed out that the stock tubes are carefully chosen, not scraped from the bottom of a bargain bin.

agreed.
why is everyone hating on ART?
they make reasonabley priced gear, i have the limiting amp and it sounds fine.(the name escapes me...)
why would they be compared to behringer?
thats nonsense.

[Fast_Fingers]

Man, there seems to be a lot of good 8 FW channelers...this, the Presonus Firestudios, and the Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 i/o. Though I find it really interesting that the Emusician reviewer said he couldn't distinguish the TF from the RME 800...has anyone here A/B'd the two?

[Track 7]

Originally Posted by sleeper1400

agreed.
why is everyone hating on ART?
they make reasonabley priced gear, i have the limiting amp and it sounds fine.(the name escapes me...)
why would they be compared to behringer?
thats nonsense.

+1 no idea why people here are hating Art... must not have ever used it or perhaps did not use it in with good settings... certainly didn't blind test it against something supposedly better... while I have a lot of high end stuff I still use Art units and love the results. People around here are VERY FREAKIN OPINONATED!

[Corran]

My only real experience with ART preamps was the Tube MP, which to me was a terrible preamp for the brief time it actually worked. That leads me to be slightly hesitant about other preamps from them.

This however looks like a quality piece. If only I could actually afford one right now!

[lotspoop]

Has anyone here used it in high-gain situations? At one point does it tend to get a little dirtier. I was going to get a dmp3 for my re20 but it's been backordered (at least from MF). The guys that sell the tubefires for the best price on ebay (proaudiostar) are actually right down the street from me so I was thinking I might just hop over and get one. As u can see at some point I had a slutty thought and can now rationalize spending 3x the amount for 4x the number of preamps. err wait maybe I can't do that.

[troggg]

Wouldn't shock me if they gave you an in-the-hood evaluation period at which point you could answer your own questions. No harm in asking!

[daal]

Hi there,

I'm thinking about buying this stuff but I'm actually running Vista and I didn't find any information about drivers compatibility.

No one tested it ?

By the way I just mailed ART so I will post the response if it's interesting. But i'd prefer to see someone who tried it.

Vincent

[mercurydime]

Originally Posted by HeavyG

"Wham for the wampum"...that is beautiful. I will make sure I give you songwriting credit when I cover your material, Mercury.

I was doing a session last night and I can not get over how easy it is to use...the low latency...and the high quality of the unit. I am a salesperson during the day...so I get excited about things and tend to "sell them"...so take my endorsement and enthusiasm with the appropriate perspective.

glad you like, it Heavy Gand carry on...

i will post a couple mixes from the live performances in a few days so folks can hear the unit on electric guitars/vocals...

i think most here will be able to appreciate the vocals and guitar work of one of my local acts...smokin'...

[moon_unit]

Originally Posted by Corran

My only real experience with ART preamps was the Tube MP, which to me was a terrible preamp for the brief time it actually worked. That leads me to be slightly hesitant about other preamps from them.

Same here. Also had a DI/O converter and one of their leveller compressors. Of the three, the leveller was kind of decent for what it was, but the other two sounded hazy, and had really goofy gain stages. And they were all really sensitive to RF and just about any other kind of noise imaginable.

I don't doubt that they're capable of making good stuff from time to time, just like a blind squirrel will eventually find a nut if he's at it long enough.

[HeavyG]

Right...and Fender, Neumann, Vox, AKG, Yamaha, etc. don't make products that may not be of the best quality? I am sorry that you had a bad experience with something from their line...but have you listened to the feedback of those using MPA Golds, Pro Channels, Tubefires, etc? Most have had great results with the gear that they are making now...

Your "blind squirrel" analogy is like me saying "you know, that Fender piece of crap red knob solid state combo I bought when I was 19 SUCKED"...so I will never buy another Fender amp as long as I live." Then I go tell everyone how much Fender sucks...

[hgen]

Anyone got some samples of the tubefire? Got me interested!

[rolo95]

Gezzzzzzzz

The tubefire uses a starved plate pre amp design
all pres based on the starved plate design sound like dfegad

Nuff said.

[knobbie]

Originally Posted by dr jazz

It seem that the tubes also work when you read music. so inoutputs too.

Are you stating that the tubes can be used on the 8 channels of output? If so, this could be a great piece of gear to warm up any soft synths, etc. during an OTB mixdown. Can anyone else confirm/deny this feature? Thanks!

[ma_pa]

Well I own an Art Tubefire for about a year or so now. I'm using it as an firewire interface with my Toshiba labtop running vista. When I tried the tubefire out for the first time it sounded really good to me as I had just upgraded from an Alesis Multimix mixer.
Nevertheless the drivers have been extremely awful and I got ASIO dropouts every few minutes. After talking to the ART support guys and doing some research on the internet things became better. Last year ART also fixed some of the driver issues and now the unit runs stable on my system.

ma_pa

[HeavyG]

Originally Posted by knobbie

Are you stating that the tubes can be used on the 8 channels of output? If so, this could be a great piece of gear to warm up any soft synths, etc. during an OTB mixdown. Can anyone else confirm/deny this feature? Thanks!

Warm it up, Chris...I'm about to.


Sorry to go Kriss Kross on you guys...I couldnt resist. Yes, you can warm up your signal with some toasty tube output goodness.

[HeavyG]

Originally Posted by rolo95

Gezzzzzzzz

The tubefire uses a starved plate pre amp design
all pres based on the starved plate design sound like dfegad

Nuff said.

Words of wisdom. So...what else can you get for $429-529 (depending on where you buy it) US that gives you eight channels of solid sounding pres and does not use this design? How about a suggestion from your infinite powers of audio Gandalfary instead of a hatchet job?

I may not be Daniel Lanois...so I do not know what starved plate means...what I do know is that this unit sounds pretty darned good to my ears.

[Corran]

Really? "Starved-plate" is thrown around the low-end forum all the time it seems.

It just means the tubes aren't being run at the proper high-voltage (which would cost a lot more) and therefore aren't really providing "real" tube sound.

Of course the addage of "If it sounds good, it is good" applies here, so if the preamp sounds fine, great. My initial comments basically alluded to the fact that from the outside, one could possibly think this preamp is just 8 Tube MP preamps with AD and ADAT.

Seriously though, I'm still interested in one. But for my money I'd rather get a Sytek right now, even if there is only 4 channels. I'm at the point where I don't want "budget" gear anymore.

[HeavyG]

Originally Posted by Corran

Really? "Starved-plate" is thrown around the low-end forum all the time it seems.

It just means the tubes aren't being run at the proper high-voltage (which would cost a lot more) and therefore aren't really providing "real" tube sound.

Of course the addage of "If it sounds good, it is good" applies here, so if the preamp sounds fine, great. My initial comments basically alluded to the fact that from the outside, one could possibly think this preamp is just 8 Tube MP preamps with AD and ADAT.

Seriously though, I'm still interested in one. But for my money I'd rather get a Sytek right now, even if there is only 4 channels. I'm at the point where I don't want "budget" gear anymore.

I have heard that the Sytek may be the best pre for the money out there...not low end...but under a grand for 4 channels is pretty darned good for a pre that rivals API (again what others have said).

[mamm7215]

Starved plate is only using one side of the tube to get some "toob" harmonics/saturation/distortion. Which is fine. It is what it is. The ART TubeMP is not a good sounding box to my ears for critical stuff but is good for effecty things
like bass DI or something. I have an MPA Gold with NOS Mullards and it's nice. I've worked with it for a couple of years now and can get good recordings from it. I just got the Toft ATC-2 and it's pres are not tube, not quite high-end, but useable and actually a bit of a step up from the MPA as far as overall clarity and "bigness" on a reasonable controlled shootout. Most of the time, sometimes the MPA is still the choice. I don't have a Pacifica to go up against, though. I'm sure the Tubefire8 is just as useable. I've had 3 songs on small market radio in Canada last year I cut with the MPA and a 57, Apex 460 or SP C1. Just sayin...

[lotspoop]

Well I got one and am already pretty happy with it. I used it as a DI for an old Hohner electric piano I have and that thing sounded the best it ever has. I heard the "warming" factor that likes to get thrown around a lot and I definitely liked it. I also used it on my re20 and I was getting much more useable gain out of it than what I'd had before. Now I just gotta see if it can completely replace my alesis io26 as an interface, or see if i can get 2 interfaces running. Of course I must preface all my comments by saying that I have no experience with high-end gear but the unit sounds better to me.

Although I must say that if I had seen this thing in the store before having read about it, I would have been completely blown off by it just due to the packaging. Yeah it's got tubes but do they really have to market everything with tubes as if its gonna explode out of the packaging and burn your house down.

[BOWIE]

Originally Posted by mamm7215

Starved plate is only using one side of the tube to get some "toob" harmonics/saturation/distortion.

Sorry, I've got to correct you there. Tapping only one triode is not "starved plate". Some of the best gear ever made uses only one triode, but at normal voltages. "Starved" refers to the use of lower than normal plate voltages which is usually done to save money on costly power supplies, regardless of the triodes(s) used.
With that said, starved plate designs get a notoriously bad rep because some some real crap has been made with starved plate so people automaticly think it means that the tube has no effect on the sound, which is not always the case. If it sounds good, that should really be all that matters.

[Corran]

Originally Posted by HeavyG

I have heard that the Sytek may be the best pre for the money out there...not low end...but under a grand for 4 channels is pretty darned good for a pre that rivals API (again what others have said).

Yeah, exactly, which is why I'm making myself not buy any preamps until I can afford the Sytek.

Now if I can just stop buying mics

[mamm7215]

Originally Posted by BOWIE

Sorry, I've got to correct you there. Tapping only one triode is not "starved plate". Some of the best gear ever made uses only one triode, but at normal voltages. "Starved" refers to the use of lower than normal plate voltages which is usually done to save money on costly power supplies, regardless of the triodes(s) used.
With that said, starved plate designs get a notoriously bad rep because some some real crap has been made with starved plate so people automaticly think it means that the tube has no effect on the sound, which is not always the case. If it sounds good, that should really be all that matters.

Yes, I stand corrected, I forgot to mention about the lower plate voltage as well.

[daal]

Originally Posted by ma_pa

Well I own an Art Tubefire for about a year or so now. I'm using it as an firewire interface with my Toshiba labtop running vista. When I tried the tubefire out for the first time it sounded really good to me as I had just upgraded from an Alesis Multimix mixer.
Nevertheless the drivers have been extremely awful and I got ASIO dropouts every few minutes. After talking to the ART support guys and doing some research on the internet things became better. Last year ART also fixed some of the driver issues and now the unit runs stable on my system.

ma_pa

So now you can use it on VISTA without any prob and without doing a lot of tweaking ? Which usual latency do you use for recording ?

Vincent