I was too afraid to post in high end:facepalm:
Got the new "portable" tracking chain set up and did some comparisons.
Mojave 301FET > Heritage 73jr / GR 1mv-500 / RN517 / Neve 1073LB > Lindell comp > Lindell EQ > Babyface. Tried some vocal, acoustic, nylon, DI guitar via Radial JDI... and some EXTC guitar fx patching as a bonus to test the Babyface and TotalMix patching. I'm gonna share....
Radial Six Pack - the routing options are great, feed switch was a saviour for this, front panel direct lines to modules 1 or 4 also very useful. Great build. Lots of screws. External power supply I like. The caddy/tray doesn't really work. None of the non-Radial units I had would clear the tray so I had to take it out. Nice in theory.
(I am very glad I got the Radial. Strangely it does highlight the overall weaknesses in the 500 series concept: the lunchbox idea is not really plug and play, it is very hard to get units in and out, especially the last one!, units are not standard size, the Neve was the biggest I had - and one of the little casing screws had to come out to get it in as the Radial has a slightly narrower "opening" than e.g. the Purple rack... if all units were housed it would make some sense... and why no guide rails like PCI... anyway... the omniport, dual ins/outs, extra front panel ins, Dsubs etc etc all make me very happy with the Six Pack).
Mojave 301FET - very happy with the results on acoustic and nylon guitars with minimal effort.
The preamps - Heritage 1073jr vs Neve 1073lb - I spent most of my time comparing these two, expecting to buy the Heritage and return the others. On vocals, whether more or less driven, I couldn't tell them apart, on mic'd guitars i couldn't either. I wasn't blind so of course I had expectations about the Neve. The two units have different controls and different gain. The Neve was capable of less gain before padding, which I liked:facepalm:. I only noticed differences when I tried the line inputs and then some DI guitar through the mic pre. With my set up the Heritage was noisier at higher gain and I convinced myself that there was something extra in the lows of the Neve.
The GR was fine, seemed like a great unit but I just didn't like the look of it or that it is 2U:facepalm:. The 517 just didn't fit in this company. For a unit with a pre, enhancer, comp and DI it has too few controls for my liking. The lack of output control on the pre for instance when compared to the others.
The Babyface (and the TotalMix software) makes it very easy to direct monitor and add built in e.g. reverb to the cans. There are only stereo 1/2 and headphones 3/4 outs. This means that for reamping or other external processing, while still using the stereo 1/2 for main monitors, you have to use the headphone 3/4. There is a duplicate headphone 3/4 out on a breakout TRS for this purpose. Not ideal but it works.
As well as the Six Pack, I used a Radial JDI (awesome) for some DI guitar, and the Radial 500 series EXTC to try some external guitar FX. This was fine except some problems with some pedals. Others have had this and I think the EXTC doesn't play nicely with some unbuffered pedals. I will find out and report back on the cause.
I am happy. And I am going to be yet another 1073LB user. Until I track down a Germanium or a 583;) kfhkh
Got the new "portable" tracking chain set up and did some comparisons.
Mojave 301FET > Heritage 73jr / GR 1mv-500 / RN517 / Neve 1073LB > Lindell comp > Lindell EQ > Babyface. Tried some vocal, acoustic, nylon, DI guitar via Radial JDI... and some EXTC guitar fx patching as a bonus to test the Babyface and TotalMix patching. I'm gonna share....
Radial Six Pack - the routing options are great, feed switch was a saviour for this, front panel direct lines to modules 1 or 4 also very useful. Great build. Lots of screws. External power supply I like. The caddy/tray doesn't really work. None of the non-Radial units I had would clear the tray so I had to take it out. Nice in theory.
(I am very glad I got the Radial. Strangely it does highlight the overall weaknesses in the 500 series concept: the lunchbox idea is not really plug and play, it is very hard to get units in and out, especially the last one!, units are not standard size, the Neve was the biggest I had - and one of the little casing screws had to come out to get it in as the Radial has a slightly narrower "opening" than e.g. the Purple rack... if all units were housed it would make some sense... and why no guide rails like PCI... anyway... the omniport, dual ins/outs, extra front panel ins, Dsubs etc etc all make me very happy with the Six Pack).
Mojave 301FET - very happy with the results on acoustic and nylon guitars with minimal effort.
The preamps - Heritage 1073jr vs Neve 1073lb - I spent most of my time comparing these two, expecting to buy the Heritage and return the others. On vocals, whether more or less driven, I couldn't tell them apart, on mic'd guitars i couldn't either. I wasn't blind so of course I had expectations about the Neve. The two units have different controls and different gain. The Neve was capable of less gain before padding, which I liked:facepalm:. I only noticed differences when I tried the line inputs and then some DI guitar through the mic pre. With my set up the Heritage was noisier at higher gain and I convinced myself that there was something extra in the lows of the Neve.
The GR was fine, seemed like a great unit but I just didn't like the look of it or that it is 2U:facepalm:. The 517 just didn't fit in this company. For a unit with a pre, enhancer, comp and DI it has too few controls for my liking. The lack of output control on the pre for instance when compared to the others.
The Babyface (and the TotalMix software) makes it very easy to direct monitor and add built in e.g. reverb to the cans. There are only stereo 1/2 and headphones 3/4 outs. This means that for reamping or other external processing, while still using the stereo 1/2 for main monitors, you have to use the headphone 3/4. There is a duplicate headphone 3/4 out on a breakout TRS for this purpose. Not ideal but it works.
As well as the Six Pack, I used a Radial JDI (awesome) for some DI guitar, and the Radial 500 series EXTC to try some external guitar FX. This was fine except some problems with some pedals. Others have had this and I think the EXTC doesn't play nicely with some unbuffered pedals. I will find out and report back on the cause.
I am happy. And I am going to be yet another 1073LB user. Until I track down a Germanium or a 583;) kfhkh
So, I had a lunch box pre-amp shootout (Heritage, Neve, 517, GR, Workhorse content)
