Metric Halo ULN-2 pres + Character

[navitus]

So in my quest to upgrade my conversion and preamps, i have decided to buy an Metric Halo ULN-2 2D expanded.

Can u guys please share your experience with the Character options ? Someone on another forum said he sold all his hi-end pres after getting the ULN-2 and Character. (Sounds too good to be true!)

Have u ever emulated a certain preamp with the Character option ?

I have not heard the ULN-2 pres myself and i know they are not colored, which sometimes equals to "COLD and STERILE"! (typical audio forum lingo!)
So can character plugs get me "warm", "Gooey" , "Full", "Vintage" colors or do the emulations sound very digital ?

I need the pres for Vocals, Violin, Tabla and Guitars(Acoustic and Electric).
Thanks.
F

[kedbear]

Originally Posted by navitus

So in my quest to upgrade my conversion and preamps, i have decided to buy an Metric Halo ULN-2 2D expanded.

Can u guys please share your experience with the Character options ? Someone on another forum said he sold all his hi-end pres after getting the ULN-2 and Character. (Sounds too good to be true!)

Have u ever emulated a certain preamp with the Character option ?

I have not heard the ULN-2 pres myself and i know they are not colored, which sometimes equals to "COLD and STERILE"! (typical audio forum lingo!)
So can character plugs get me "warm", "Gooey" , "Full", "Vintage" colors or do the emulations sound very digital ?

I need the pres for Vocals, Violin, Tabla and Guitars(Acoustic and Electric).
Thanks.
F

Don't forget metric halo also offer an option to put transformers in the signal path. This will give you a more coloured sound.

[navitus]

Yup, but then i'll be bound to that color.
The thing attracting me to character is the versatility it offers.

Please share ur thoughts.
Thanks
F

[swafford]

With the exception of SoftSat, the characters are very subtle and have none of the flexibility implied in "Have u ever emulated a certain preamp with the Character option?" question. They have no GUI, they just exist as a pop up option.

They are, I'm guessing, MH's emulation of certain classic input paths at unity. Did I say they were subtle?

The ULN pres have a bit more gain as any of the SCA pres I have, and exceed in all applications. A rack of these pres would satisfy me. They certainly are not sterile.

The whole MH experience is a broad one.

[Chucho]

I can't hear the character plugs working apart from a couple which are a bit louder.
I'm assuming my ears and monitoring are a bit rubbish.

I still use them though. Which is kind of stupid. No, it's very stupid. I just like to see the words tube and transformer at the top of the channel. Yes I know it's stupid.

[James Lehmann]

Originally Posted by navitus

I have not heard the ULN-2 pres myself and i know they are not colored, which sometimes equals to "COLD and STERILE"

No. ULN-2 pre's always equal "CLEAN and TRANSPARENT".

[Mazo Audio]

Navitus,Relax I think you're going to be VERY happy. I bought my ULN-2 a couple of years ago. (No DSP or 2D card). I have always been a an outboard pre/converter type of guy, so much in fact that I didn't even consider trying the pres on the MH and lugged around a seperate 2ch pre for the first few months. I finally had trouble syncing the digital input one night and was forced to try the MH pres. Wow. They hold their own very easily against outboard pres! I think that all of the Charater/color your talking about trying to get with the plug ins is already there! They are clean and transparent yet REMARKABLY warm and (dare I say it) analog sounding. Just damn MUSICAL sounding. I do not have the transformer option. I have since recorded about 100-200 professional classical recital and other recordings with the MH. BUY YOURSELF THIS BOX! I think it is one of the best deals in pro audio and a total secret weapon. I will be buying a ULN-2 DSP with the 2D card as soon as I can put the cake together. I look forward to trying the plugs many people say they are great.

Peace from Wisconsin,

Lance

[AdamJay]

Originally Posted by navitus

So in my quest to upgrade my conversion and preamps, i have decided to buy an Metric Halo ULN-2 2D expanded.

Can u guys please share your experience with the Character options ? Someone on another forum said he sold all his hi-end pres after getting the ULN-2 and Character. (Sounds too good to be true!)

Have u ever emulated a certain preamp with the Character option ?

I have not heard the ULN-2 pres myself and i know they are not colored, which sometimes equals to "COLD and STERILE"! (typical audio forum lingo!)
So can character plugs get me "warm", "Gooey" , "Full", "Vintage" colors or do the emulations sound very digital ?

I need the pres for Vocals, Violin, Tabla and Guitars(Acoustic and Electric).
Thanks.
F

They are more subtle than that. But with good monitoring you will be able to hear their distinctions. The tube stuff, the british pre stuff, and the soft sat stuff are much more noticable than the transformer characters.

I especially like the FET character to bring out low end. It does so in a very natural, non-digital sounding way.
For +DSP users, the character plugs can really change the make up of the 2d Amp Sims further down the signal path. Adding the FET to a "Small Tweed Crunch" sim really gives it balls, and its not really something i was able to reproduce using simple EQ before hitting the amp sim.

Also, i will say that the more you use the different characters, the more you hear them. Some are certainly more adaptive than others while some are only appropriate for very specific sounds. But there's a huge arc of possible tones there.
For real noticable saturation and coloration, i use other tools such as Hydratone and PSP MixPack2. These don't necessarily overlap the MH Character, but rather supplement it.

[navitus]

Awesome!!!!!! Thanks so much for the replies, cleared my head!!

[AdamJay]

Navitus.. make sure you check this out too: Audio Samples

[navitus]

Thanks Adam Jay!!!