I've seen the light, would like to share my experience.

CPhoenix

CharlesAllen/ BMR Studios
So, I know I've been gone for a very long time, but I just got some new toys... I'm really excited.. and just want to share my experience so far lol.

Last time I was a regular poster here, I had just gotten an RME UCX and finally saw a few major differences over my prior budget prosumer level interfaces (Echo Audiofire4 preceded by MAudio Firewire410). To recap that.. I noticed preamps in this range are super clear and feel like the voice is physically in the room, drivers are superb, DA seemed to be more honest however Audiofire4 over Firewire410 was truly the "big jump", not UCX vs Audiofire4. AD/DA is super clean on this interface... I get the loopback to cancel itself out when inverting the phase. That's everything in a nutshell without going into much detail.

Since then, I've bought and recently sold a UAD Quad. My experience with that has been... oh my god these plugins sound SUPERB and some of them have no legit competition ITB. The ones that did it for me are LA2A mkii, 1176 mkii, Massive Passive, EMT 140, and Pultec mkii. They are insanely good. The caveat is... I bought in by finding a used card for $600 and only buying plugins during the sale. I do not feel the system was worth full price at the time. The price new has finally come down some since I sold... (lucky me lol)... but I haven't considered this in my evaluation. It's very nice being able to use many LA2A's but I honestly only need it on vox. EMT 140 probably only requires 1 (maybe 2) instances per session, so you lose the inherent benefit of multiple instances w/ plugins. You can really only use Massive Passive once w/ a Quad if you want to use any other plugins... it takes up an entire core. That leaves me to 1176 and Pultec... which are nice to use throughout a mix... but is it really worth the cost?

I planned to keep the UAD... b/c I did not have experience with hardware yet. So... eventually I was ready to expand my setup by upgrading my mic's signal chain. I grabbed a Warm Audio Tonebeast and WA76 and Black Lion Audio Sparrow Red. Let me tell you... this signal chain is ridiculously good. A big step up from the clean RME preamps (although they serve their purpose in providing clean pristine audio). I learned very quickly that a good signal (whether from RME or the new chain) paired with UAD LA2A was all I needed to get the sound I wanted. I finally found it! I was sooooooooooooo happy with LA2A, you have no idea. But then.... I eventually noticed the WA76 had a free TRS input (I was using the XLR). It then dawned on me that because I have some free Outs on the UCX, I can route that and use the WA76 to mix also. Once I started mixing sounds w/ the WA76 I was simply just blown away. The biggest difference is actually not hardware vs. software from a unit standpoint IMO. The UAD 1176 sounds close to the WA76 when you level match. (The knobs are very much not 1:1 comparisons... I have no idea why, but they aren't.) But when you run the WA76 through the Sparrow at a hot input level, that's where the magic is IMO. You get that strong, "in your face" sound with pleasant subtle distortion... where ITB the sound would start to break. I know some people are able to achieve this ITB... but I am not one of them. You get this easily w/ some good hardware.

So that lead me to wanting to rapidly wanting to expand my outboard and not being patient enough to wait. I went ahead and grabbed a used dbx 160a, starting doing some test mixes with it and that brought certain bland sounding things to life. It's not like they weren't alive before... it was more like I thought they were alive but didn't realize they weren't living to their full potential yet. For example, I have some CineSamples products and use their CineOrch. Those patches go from great sounding to "HOLY CRAP" sounding. 160a is foolproof good compression and seems to work most of the time.

That lead to wanting more... b/c of course I can't just settle for 2 channels of outboard compression knowing I (for whatever reason) can't easily get those results I'm looking for. So that lead to needing outboard. I found a great deal on an older Apogee Rosetta 800 (with the theory that if it sounded great 10 years ago please explain to me why it doesn't still sound great.. lol)... and grabbed a 500 series lunch box and threw in 2 more dbx 560a's (500 series version of 160a, I haven't really compared yet) and a Moog Ladder. Also a dbx 510 subharmonic synth (this thing is really good and does exactly what you'd think it'd do... adds boom to your lower frequency sound w/ a nicely programmed synth). I played around with the Moog ladder last night and I was floored.

Lastly, what really gave me the desire to write this post was to comment on my thoughts working the Rosetta for just one night so far. I feel like I get it now. I get what everyone else w/ experience says. When feeding the outboard w/ the regular signal, honestly I as not floored or astounded by what I was hearing. It sounded like my UCX basically... which is good and clean, honest and true. It is what it is. However, there is a setting that sends the digital signal I guess to the analog out of the rosetta first, then sends that signal to the gear. And there's a soft clip feature that softens the signal when you push it. THIS is where the magic happens. You notice that your signal is running hotter than it's even been, but in your DAW, you're not clipping... in fact, you're not even close.. your levels are perfect. THIS IS IT! lol

Hadrware just added fun back to music for me... and the units feel like an easy way to get the sound that you want. It also forces you to commit to a sound... b/c there's no way I will remember all of my settings per song... so it's time to make decisions, print them, and live with them. Trust your instinct. That's what music's all about.

I just wanted to share my journey so far... mostly b/c I'm crazy excited after one night playing w/ the Moog thru the Rosetta. I'm considering a BLA mod on the Rosetta... but I'm not sure if Sparrow is "better" or "different". Haven't had enough time with it.

That is all. Random, I know. Again, I'm just excited and wanted to share that excitement.
 
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Thanks for sharing. Yes, having the right hardware used in the right way is in most genres hence key in order to achieve music that is cool, that has lots of light. In that light you have emotion passing much more efficiently from the musicians to the listeners and hence you achieve an impact that is desired. There are converters out there able to achieve resonances up to 19.5 volts RMS. With typical 3.08 volts RMS converters, if you would compare how much resonance can be present in each dimension, the difference impact relative to each dimension is less and less with the number of dimensions you add. But the dimensions can through dimensionality reduction be grouped to a few core ones, e.g., depth, warmth, emotion and you can now start to better understand how those additional volts of RMS available to each are adding to the perception of the whole. So it is highly complex to describe in fixed terms the impact of that potential difference, hence why so many cannot really understand why you need certain hardware to achieve a certain quality of tone/music and why so many so desperately try to achieve it with software.

The console + converter combo, just that combo alone... oh man what a difference that can make.

Here is the thing. You cannot achieve more light in the music than the light you hold. If you hold light that sums up into looking for the perfect console + converter combo you are automatically going to achieve a totally different amount of light in the final product compared to say someone holding a level of light that amounts to looking for some cheap digital solution. :rolleyes:

So to achieve really great hit mix potential is really a process of moving into the light, you have to build light inside to create potential and then focus that potential into your approach to gear, music etc.
 
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