hey, I ordered a portico on wed. and got it fri. I live in Tx, so it was $1679 after tax. I just woke up....i stayed up until about 4am tracking vocals through it.
I'm not fletcher and i don't have his experience with pro gear. The only pre's that i own and have at my disposal are a presonus eureka, a digimax lt, a speck 5.0, and some cheap tube mp garbage. I have spent many hours in local "pro" studios over the years, so I do have some sort of a perspective. Also, I've been recording on my own for a few years(with crappy gear).
My recording partner, however has tracked in real pro studios and has worked at a local studio for a few years. He has recorded several local artists, but nobody huge.
i just wanted to point out that were not COMPLETELY clueless.
i tried it through my sm7b and a KSM44 on vox and acoustic. i have been relying on my speck 5.0 for these tasks, as it is my best pre...until now.
Dude, ...ahaahhahah
The portico turned my vocals in to BUTTER...mmmmm Bu...tter.
They sound freakin huge and SMOOVE like Barry white, but there is still a very nice high end. this pre sounds really good. I might sale my speck to fund another one.
(i know, that's crazy talk!) The portico sounds very smooth and vERY musical.
It sounds like a recording. It sounds like i went to a $300/hr studio and tracked vox and brought 'em back and dumped 'em in my computer.
And the SILK BUTTON!!!! man, the vocals sounded good before, but the silk button....It made my vocals alot smoother. I decided last night after the first playback of tracking with the "silk" feature that it will be on pretty much all of my vox, because it makes me sound like a pro recording.
when our third bandmate got here and i played our test tracks with the portico he was so impressed that he kept repeating this vocal trak that was 2 lines.
i said "check...check" and then sung the lines.
That was all he/needed to hear. this pre sounds freakin HUGE and so focused. It sounds like i'm standing between the speakers...like it's 3D or something. This is THE bEST thing i have bought for recording so far.
and if anybody read my posts before, you know i was kinda concerned with a sibilance issue before....well, it's a non-issue with this pre. I mean, i'm singing the same way andthe mics are picking up the "S's", but it just soundsmuch more musical.
For acoustic: we just tried a KSM44 in figure 8 with various settings on the portico.
This preamp is really round and thick soundwise. it sounded best W/ the HPF engaged and without the silk feature it sounded more modern. with it, it somehow sounded like i used a older or more rounded pre. It sounded really good w/without "silk".
We all ended up agreeing that we just couldn't make this thing sound bad...it made everything we recorded sound like a reallygood album....I was even recording them just talking in the room.
in conclusion...cough cough...erm....
this is my best preamp...and i'm freakin glad i got it!!!! whoooohohohohohoho!!!!!!!!!!! I want another one so we can record more things with this sound. We will only have to ride levels...i bet...ahahahahah.
seriously.
ahaahhahah.
P.S. i probably won't sale my speck, because everything sounds so upfront with it, but i'm very, very tempted to see how much i can get for it.
I bought it in Dec. from mercenary and it is in VERY good condition...i haven't even racked it. lol. PM me.