opinion on a new piece of gear!

[gineoh]

no input from anyyyyyone?

[K. Osborne]

Hey Gineoh -

What genre? What's your budget? How many channels? What mics are you using? It all depends.

It also really depends how elaborate you want your rig to be. It all comes down to how much you want to spend. We'd all love to have the best we can afford. I've never been a fan of the SSL Alpha stuff, so I guess I'm a bit biased in that regard.

If you're primarily doing vocals and guitars, I'd go with a really solid channel strip that you make yourself. For example, you could get an A Designs 500 series rack with two different modules, my suggestion for vocals and guitars might be an API 512 pre and a Great River 32EQ. Great pieces that get a lot of love, very few people seem to dislike them. They will also last you a long time and be good on a LOT of things. This obviously can have so many variables. You could get a Vintech 573 and an API 550. Whatever.

If you're looking for a single self contained channel strip that has EQ, comp, pre, etc., I'd probably choose the API "The Channel Strip," or some similar equivalent. If it's too much $$$, then maybe the Alpha is right for you. It's always sort of a gamble. If you can't demo one, I'd buy from somewhere that has a no questions asked return policy - you could get the Alpha, see if you like it, and if you don't, return it.