Art Tubefire 8

[Herman Munster]

Anyone heard this unit yet? I tried to get joel patterson's review in TapeOp, but am having a hard time getting my hands on the issue. He raves about this thing in previous posts and even states the AD/DA is good. With a $500 price tag I'm just a little curious. Sweetwater said they've sold 15 already. Anyone have one of these? Thoughts????

[backhair]

i've been really curious about this as well. i was tempted to pick up an ADA8000 and get the blacklion mod, but this would be around the same price and has more features (it's basically an interface, right?).

plus, a little birdie told me that if you click the "email me a better price" link on the tubefire over at the B&H Photo site, you can get it for under $500

[Acoustic Cloud]

Originally Posted by backhair

i've been really curious about this as well. i was tempted to pick up an ADA8000 and get the blacklion mod, but this would be around the same price and has more features (it's basically an interface, right?).

plus, a little birdie told me that if you click the "email me a better price" link on the tubefire over at the B&H Photo site, you can get it for under $500

After speaking to JP several times about this thing, I know he really thinks its a good product, not just someone peeing about in a circle about a new piece of gear.

I would buy ART before "them" any day, if at all possible. But thats just me. ART has been around for quite a while, and been thru alot of changes as well, but is still kicken!! I think they deserve the niches they have carved out. Unlike the "other" company....

[Herman Munster]

Originally Posted by backhair

i've been really curious about this as well. i was tempted to pick up an ADA8000 and get the blacklion mod, but this would be around the same price and has more features (it's basically an interface, right?).

plus, a little birdie told me that if you click the "email me a better price" link on the tubefire over at the B&H Photo site, you can get it for under $500

I don't believe the tubefire has ADAT out. Don't know if that makes a difference....

[backhair]

Originally Posted by Herman Munster

I don't believe the tubefire has ADAT out. Don't know if that makes a difference....

you're right, the tubefire doesn't have any digital i/o except firewire, which makes integration into existing setups more tricky

[AudioWorksRecord]

I used the TubeFire to record a live album for an all-acoustic, high-energy band. The audio quality was outstanding from the TRS audio outs fed into an Alesis HD24XR. When using ribbon mics, the pre amps are clean, quiet (70dB of gain) and a wonderful playback experience. After 2 nights in the trenches, there were zero problems, just stunning detail captured from using mics every pro band has in their mic collection. In studio use has proved the TubeFire 8 to be even more impressive. After 30+ years as an audio professional, I have used many mic preamps and find the playback of recordings made with the TubeFire 8 to be amazing! With the $4,000.00 saved I will add a few more TubeFire 8's to the studio and mobile setup.
All I was looking for was a stand-alone 8-channel mic preamp (most need a computer to access the line outs) with high-resolution audio (12 to 60k this is the only gear with those specs) from the TRS lineouts. I found it all in the TubeFire 8 plus I have a firewire audio interface. Did I mention these are class-A preamps? Or that the input/output controls are solid and offer precise level control along with differing tonal colors by varying their relative levels? Too cool!

[tnjazz]

Originally Posted by AudioWorksRecord

I used the TubeFire to record a live album for an all-acoustic, high-energy band. The audio quality was outstanding from the TRS audio outs fed into an Alesis HD24XR. When using ribbon mics, the pre amps are clean, quiet (70dB of gain) and a wonderful playback experience. After 2 nights in the trenches, there were zero problems, just stunning detail captured from using mics every pro band has in their mic collection. In studio use has proved the TubeFire 8 to be even more impressive. After 30+ years as an audio professional, I have used many mic preamps and find the playback of recordings made with the TubeFire 8 to be amazing! With the $4,000.00 saved I will add a few more TubeFire 8's to the studio and mobile setup.
All I was looking for was a stand-alone 8-channel mic preamp (most need a computer to access the line outs) with high-resolution audio (12 to 60k this is the only gear with those specs) from the TRS lineouts. I found it all in the TubeFire 8 plus I have a firewire audio interface. Did I mention these are class-A preamps? Or that the input/output controls are solid and offer precise level control along with differing tonal colors by varying their relative levels? Too cool!

Your endorsement of these preamps would probably carry a little more weight if you didn't copy and paste the exact same post into 4 different threads about the Tubefire in a span of 20 minutes.

Just makes you look like a shill for the company, ya know? Newly registered, 4 posts all the exact same wording. Uh huh. You're a credible reviewer.

[joelpatterson]

My thoughts exactly! Much better scheme is to start a thread, "Hey, what does anyone think of the Tubefire?" and then create another new false identity and come back and say, "My brother works in Nashville for Sony Records and he swears by the things! They tore out all the API's last week to install a bunch of 'em!"

I hope that doesn't give anyone ideas.....

[origin35]

That sort of Spam-vertisement makes me not want to purchase ART products.

Ryan Origin

[joelpatterson]

But see, origin35, with only two posts, you look like a COUNTER spamster!

I don't know when this will ever end....

[Yago]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

But see, origin35, with only two posts, you look like a COUNTER spamster!

I don't know when this will ever end....

Holy sockpuppets abound Batman

[AudioWorksRecord]

SorryDidn't mean any harm. Just saw many questions.

Originally Posted by tnjazz

Your endorsement of these preamps would probably carry a little more weight if you didn't copy and paste the exact same post into 4 different threads about the Tubefire in a span of 20 minutes.

Just makes you look like a shill for the company, ya know? Newly registered, 4 posts all the exact same wording. Uh huh. You're a credible reviewer.

[AudioWorksRecord]

The May 2008 issue of EQ has a review on the TubeFire. He liked it...do you think he works for ART too?
Don't understand the fear here...afraid the unit is a good deal? Afraid because you don't have one? Afraid everyone will find out how good the piece is and will be able to make recordings as good as you? Don't understand? Why so much fear?

I sure like mine!thumbsup

Originally Posted by Yago

Holy sockpuppets abound Batman

[travisinhell]

joel, your opinion of the tubefire has me interested in hearing one in action. i've owned (own) a handful of bottom feeder preamps (yamaha mg, b#@$#@, maudio, studio projects, etc.) and i gots no satisfaction. i'd love to hear a comparison of the tubefire and any other stock interface preamp. how does it stand up to art's non-MP stuff?

you mentioned that you use the tubefire only for it's preamps. i'm wondering how this thing stands up as an interface. surely you've at least tried the interface side of it? you mentioned that the converters are good. in comparison to what? is the tubefire stable? at what latency? all of the all-in-one interfaces seem to suffer from one thing or another. i'm wondering where the tubefire's weakness lies.

i've misplaced my last few issues of tapeop. i think they got mixed in with the pile of GAS catalogs (which i usually trash). can you give us a recap of your review in tapeop?

[joelpatterson]

If they ever get this MP3 thing sorted out, I'll post a clip of something done a'la the Tubefire.

In the meantime, here is the fabled TapeOp review, of course reading it I think violates several copyrights... beware.

Applied Research and Technology
Tubefire 8 preamp & more

The majorly major thing that's cool about this excellently realized single rackspace 8 channel mic + line preamp/DI/firewire computer interface/monitor is what I'd call the "Fairy Godmother" factor: all your wishes are granted, and just enough of each one so as not to play favorites or stomp on competing wishes, because some of your wishes are contradictory. If I have to start somewhere, I'll start with a telling detail.
There is visual level metering on every channel. It's not just "signal present" and "clip," it's four LEDs that give a nicely fluid and informative picture of any activity above -30 dB. Right away immediately, you can tell at a glance where everything stands, you don't even need to glance anywhere else. Also telling--the great blessing of a built-in monitor, and the monitoring is phenomenal, a study in minimalism that succeeds beyond all reason. There is a headphone out that gives you either A) the preamps, in mono or stereo hard-panned sets (1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8), and/or B) the D/A output from the computer in the same sets-of-two, and you mix and match what you'd like to hear. The sonic quality of this summed mono/stereo signal is terrifically expansive, detailed and revealing, it was just like listening on a monitor. And it's capable of deafening levels, you don't need to worry about that. I SAID, "YOU DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THAT!" Point being: there is one headphone out. There is one knob that controls the mono/stereo levels. Four buttons to switch from preamps to D/As. And with just the slightest creativity with setting levels and monitoring, you can go on and craft whatever elaborate multi-track creations you can imagine (the unit ships with Steinberg's CubaseLE4 for Mac or PC), recording eight tracks at once if you want to, through eight discrete Class A preamps, where every channel has a lowcut filter, a pad, a phase invert, and two of them have instrument DIs. And the digital to analog and vice versa conversion processing (rates up to 96kKHz) is comparable to... uh... help me out, here, Andy!
I used this for a pre-production session with an acoustic trio, think of the Everly Brothers with a third kid brother. All singers, all guitarists, with some mandolin and percussion thrown in. The first thing that became apparent-- if you have a mic that can deliver a solid low end, this Tubefire will bag it up. You will, I repeat "will," be using the lowcut filter off and on, but no worries, it has a nice sweet slope that starts dipping at 100Hz, moderating out the excess baggage while leaving the sound natural-sounding. And if it sounds natural, it is, right? Dynamic mics in particular sounded glorious through the Tubefire, with heightened definition and presence. The 70 dB worth of gain is PLENTY for even shy ribbon mics. Collectively, too, the "mixes" from these sessions, recorded directly from the balanced outs onto an Alesis HD24XR, had a great and wonderful "reality" to them, but then sometimes it's the quick mixes that have a magic you'll never get by laboring over things.
However much you want to argue-- and I hope you will-- that these "starved-plate" tube arrangements where the tubes are powered at 50 volts (and are really an effect, to dial in) as opposed to real, United Nations-approved tube preamps that run at 300 volts, go for it, draft a treaty or something. It certainly is a dastardly fraud and all that. That's missing the point. Tubes-- any tubes-- are a multi-tasking boon to the digital world. Not only do they inherently "tame the harshness," they guarantee against overs by reaching "compressor-style" limits of their own, I mean in a way of speaking. By jockeying back and forth between the two gain knobs for each channel, you can dial in the 2nd-order harmonics from the starved-plate tube, or just leave it as clean gain. At times in this session I had both of them pegged, and that's when it really sounded great. The only values noted on these knobs are the minimum and maximum, and the "output" knob does double duty as a mute. It's much more common to chart the incremental values along the path of a knob, but with just a series of dots to look at, I found myself really listening to the source to determine the proper level. I don't know if this is just me, or some self-conscious mind-control on the part of ART, or some trivial, meaningless detail. The DIs are exquisite for bass guitar, which reminds me I have a Dual MP from 1998 that still gets used as a bass DI.
I'm glad you brought up the Dual MP. I had a friend in the early 1990's who set up a "recording studio" at the edge of town, in the living room of his house. This was the dawn of when you could truly craft radio-ready recordings on a shoestring, anywhere. He had a pretty impressive array of gear all going onto one blackface ADAT. Alot of it was ART, as I recall, this was their gray and pink era when everything had that "spraypainted with graffiti" look. Four-channel gates, the whole thing, even the mixing board was an ART design. I was inspired to get the Dual MP when I set up shop, with the "indescribably delicious ART sound" or whatever they said. Comparing the specs of that vintage piece to the Tubefire, THD has gone from 0.1% to 0.015% Frequency response, from 10 Hz -- 20kHz to 12Hz -- 65kHz. Equivalent noise has even skittered down from -129 dB to -130dB. That was two channels, this is eight. That was analog out only, this has that PLUS digital firewire. And the monitoring system, don't forget. In some ways, it wasn't that long ago, and in other ways it's like it's been billions of years.
You've come a long, long way. ($529.00 conventional on-line price; www.artproaudio.com)

--Joel Patterson, mountaintop@taconic.net

[travisinhell]

so the tubefire is essentially 8 channels of tube mp studio preamp with wacky monitoring and conversion via firewire? that's how i'm reading it.

free mp3 host: LightningMP3.com

[joelpatterson]

Don't believe everything you read.

[travisinhell]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

Don't believe everything you read.

where else can a guy get comedy this good?

[mckenzie]

I wonder, because the tubefire 8 doesn't seem to have phantom power and because I have a SPL goldmike that I like to use, could I run out of the goldmike thru the tubefire (gain and volume down of course) without a problem?

Thanks

[joelpatterson]

The Tubefire has phantom power, ganged in groups (1-4, 5-8).

Another odd little use (for the harried remote engineer who FORGOT to bring the box with the monitor board, holy #!%&$#!!!) is you can run the outs from your HD-24 into a few spare channesl of the Tubefire and use its onboard monitor... VERY hot signal, but look, who was the idiot who FORGOT the monitor? Alright then!

[Corran]

Huh, sounds like the Tubefire might be a great addition to the 8-channel preamp/converter market.

Thanks for the review joel but you are giving me too many ideas on what to spend money on

[RobDrmz]

Sounds good!

Question - how are the drivers/software console? I understand Cubase LE is shipped with it, that is great. Currently, I am returning a FIRESTUDIO because the mixer runs so poorly on my PC. I have a nice machine also.

Real close to picking one up tommorrow.
Thanks!

[travisinhell]

Originally Posted by RobDrmz

Sounds good!

i didn't hear anything.

[dr jazz]

Hi I own two units of tubefire
I can confirm some points: even with low level ribbon mic the noise stay very low!!!
I changed the originals chinese tubes with a lot of vintage tubes like Tung Sol, Sylvania, RCA, GE, miniwatts and I finally putted height Telefunken smooth plates in it...really a better sound and more "spacy" feeling.
It seem that the tubes also work when you read music. so inoutputs too.
I compared inputs directly in the firetube and same signal via the Presonus ADL600 and the PA1 TLAUDIO and the sound is richer with those preamps...
General dynamic is really good and for drums, acoustic guitars, piano it's amazing...for voices, horns and sax I use dif preamp.

I have a big problem with the Tube fire I think it's because of temperature...
Art told me to remove the covers and to separate the units in the rack I'll do it soon.
But for that money I have a classy round, warm sound that would have cost me lot more...

[travisinhell]

Originally Posted by dr jazz

Hi I own two units of tubefire
I can confirm some points: even with low level ribbon mic the noise stay very low!!!
I changed the originals chinese tubes with a lot of vintage tubes like Tung Sol, Sylvania, RCA, GE, miniwatts and I finally putted height Telefunken smooth plates in it...really a better sound and more "spacy" feeling.
It seem that the tubes also work when you read music. so inoutputs too.
I compared inputs directly in the firetube and same signal via the Presonus ADL600 and the PA1 TLAUDIO and the sound is richer with those preamps...
General dynamic is really good and for drums, acoustic guitars, piano it's amazing...for voices, horns and sax I use dif preamp.

I have a big problem with the Tube fire I think it's because of temperature...
Art told me to remove the covers and to separate the units in the rack I'll do it soon.
But for that money I have a classy round, warm sound that would have cost me lot more...

so just drop in like $600 in tubes and and we're good to go? but it gets hot, and it has some routing issues. at least it's not hot pink.

[origin35]

I've posted a few more times now, I'm not a counter-spammer. =)

-origin

[broham]

I just got one of these. I haven't used the firewire yet.
I've worked in a large (indie) studio and I own Syteks an RNP and some other lower end guys (m-audio, Studio Projects)
I really really love this unit, full bodied and soulful. Its sweet!! I LOVE my syteks on everything and if I didn't have them I would buy them again. but value-wise, twice the channels and two thirds of the price...
If I had to start from scratch I would get these first and I don't see myself getting rid of them (Although I don't plan to buy neves even if I win the lottery. More syteks though!)
You can certainly use these to help make beautiful and lasting recordings. Low end heaven (did somebody say that already?)
My 2 cents on this one.

[broham]

.. I also haven't swapped any tubes. but its good right out of the box. Will get to it though

[HeavyG]

Originally Posted by travisinhell

so just drop in like $600 in tubes and and we're good to go? but it gets hot, and it has some routing issues. at least it's not hot pink.

FYI for others who may read this and be interested in the unit...YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SWAP OUT THE TUBES TO GET A GOOD SOUND. Some festidious sluts may want to lovingly pamper their gear with vintage tubes and a spongebath...but this unit sounds great right out of the box. 8 Channels...usable DA conversion...and nice, hi gain clean preamps for $429 (that is what I paid for mine)? How the heck can you shoot holes in that? Sure, it doesnt have all of the ADAT/Lightpipe/IO patching that you would want for a larger or more complex recording application...but what the heck do you want for $500? I want good sound...and I want something that works. I was recording five minutes after I popped it out of the box. I can work around the rest. You cant work around crappy sound or design...

[Bobalou]

I have an RME adi 8pro (8 channel converter) I'm looking to add a dedictaed 8 channel pre to pair up with it for extra drum inputs. ($500.00 or less budget)

I've been looking into the recently discontinued Yamaha mla8 $515.00, (which is said to be an industry secret for additional preamps since the pre was designed as an add-on for the $10k DM2000 acclaimed console), or a used digimax lt $300.00ish which i have tracked drums with very successfully in the past.

I have had some bad experiences with low end art products in the past, so I'm a bit gun shy regarding the tubefire. owning the older art pro mpa which I will be selling and using there tube pack, I never was "totally" convinced with Art's whole tube approach for "warming" up signal and the lack of headroom in those products.

I've used the digimax, RNP, sytek, clean type pre's in the digital environment and do like that approach for drums.

I'm not quite sure what I'm askin here? but maybe the question has more to do with the Art tube approach and if anything has changed in their tube path design since their inception? or what the headroom is like on the tubefire?