Ua Solo 610, Warm Audio WA12, Pre 73 dlx?

[Eraserfish]

Dickie Funk- I think you may be in the same boat that I found myself in recently. I want pro gear and I like comparing stuff and doing research, but no single device is going to satisfy all of our needs. Because of that I'm entertaining the thought of jumping into the 500 series game. I really love some of the cards for that platform, and it's going to be supported for many years to come. You can find used cards on ebay or even build your own. If you have a favorite pre amp that you only love on a certain guitar then keep it around until it's time to record that guitar. The support for the platform is incredible and there are many choices for which case you want from 1 - 10 cards per unit. You can even rack mount them if you want. I want a radial workhorse case because the routing is very easy and support the optional connection on some cards. You can also grab your whole unit for a trip to a friends studio which is pretty cool. Over time there will be a significant investment, but I believe that the tailored sound we will get by picking and choosing the right cards to shape our specific tone will be more than worth it. I was going to pick up the WA12, which would probably cut it, but I don't want to cut it; I want to own it and tweak it and create a custom sound that I love. Best of luck on whatever you choose..


Eraserfish
-Music is my Psychologist-

[dickiefunk]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I've decided to stick with the Liquid Channel and ISA One digital. I find that these two cover all the bases I need extremely well. I have considered the 500 series but to be honest I don't really want a whole collection of pres. I want one killer channel strip for vocals and any other duties it may excel at. I would then buy another complimentary pre to go with it.

The Liquid Channel is actually a very serious channel strip indeed and I would probably need to spend £2000 + for anything significantly better. The ISA One is a very nice neutral clean sounding preamp and guitars and bass sound great through it.

I've sold my UA 610 and just bought some Avantone Mixcubes. I'm very happy with this decision.

[richgilb]

Interesting. I have the Liquid 4pre which is going back to Focusrite for the second time in a year for a noisy channel. It will be sold as soon as it is fixed. As a mobile recorder, reliability is a priority. The owner of recording-microphones.co.uk lives on my street and he had an ISA 428 that died on him on a mobile session.

In the meantime, I found myself looking for 4 great channels to replace it. The Liquid was good - flat for a clean sound, choose a preset for a warm sound. I was going to miss it. And then I bought the Lake People C360 from Thomman a couple of weeks ago. A German company that supplies predominantly the German broadcast industry, but also seems to have a good reputation worldwide for headphone preamps

The Lake People is better than the Liquid 4pre in its 'flat' model setting. It is actually flatter and has less hiss at 66db. The Focusrite gets really hot, which I suspect has something to do with channels breaking. The Lake People gives off hardly any heat, so I can now rack with confidence. The switches all feel higher quality too. This is the best value for money I have found anywhere so far for a clean sounding preamp. It is also tiny, at a third of 1U. So now I am still 2 channels short and am circling around buying 2 Warm preamps. I have just speculatively bought a Joemeek MQ3 and borrowed a Warm from John at Recording Microphones. I hope the Joemeek will be better (or nearly as good), as they can be found for as little as £50, but I am not confident about it.

Update: the Warm is better than both! Seems to have valve punch and smoothness.

[guitarboy94]

Dickie,

I think you'd regret selling that ISA ONE. I love the combination of clarity and fullness it delivers on vocals.

[dickiefunk]

Originally Posted by guitarboy94

Dickie,

I think you'd regret selling that ISA ONE. I love the combination of clarity and fullness it delivers on vocals.

Yes I agree! I really do like the ISA ONE. I think the ISA One has an excellent balance of being clean/transparent-ish and having a certain amount of color. This pre sounds great with acoustic guitar and some vocals. It is also a great bass di and sounds nice and full yet under control.

[guitarboy94]

Originally Posted by dickiefunk

Yes I agree! I really do like the ISA ONE. I think the ISA One has an excellent balance of being clean/transparent-ish and having a certain amount of color. This pre sounds great with acoustic guitar and some vocals. It is also a great bass di and sounds nice and full yet under control.

Completely agree. The ISA ONE has this clean, yet colored sound going on that's hard to describe. I ran an SM7b on vocals through it and compared it with with a DMP3 and can definitely say that the ISA ONE has something going on with the transformer that enhances the fullness and clarity of the tracks. It's definitely colored, but in a very transparent, clean way if that makes sense.