A foray into the 500 series world.

[Bob Womack]

Looks great! If I were working between control rooms I'd have a 500 rack with some Neve and API input channels. As it stands I've been given a room as my home where we've gone the rack route.


Bob

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Hey glad you got it working OK.... I have never heard it but UBK has a great rep.

The Clariphonic MS works on frequencies from around 800hz and up. It is essentially using a variety of bell curves to shape the sound of the upper-mids and highs. What makes it somewhat unique is it has a mid/side mode. I just finished mastering a cd of 15 alternative/punk songs and used the UAD/Softube Curve Bender eq plugin on every track. I found the mid/side capability of that plugin very useful for enhancing the stereo image.

The very cool thing about this hardware unit is that it allows me to use any piece of gear I own in mid/side. On the back are two pre-eq inserts, one for mid, one for sides.

I'd love to own a real Curve Bender but the hardware unit is $6k and doesn't have the mid/side capability of the plugin, so that's not likely to happen.

Originally Posted by KevWind

The Audioscape is their take on an LA2A?

Yes. I'm a fan of Audioscape products. The owner, Chris Yetter, really does a great job with the clones. The first piece I bought from him was an Opto. When it arrived, I invited a couple of friends over who also have studios because I wanted some honest opinions about how good or bad the unit is. One of the friends has about my level of experience and the other has much more experience and better ears than either of us.

We spent some time running some tracks through the Opto and comparing the results with the UAD LA2A plugin which all three of us use and like. We all agreed that the Audioscape Opto gave us results that were more open than the plugin. We're able to push the Opto harder before tracks start to sound like someone threw a towel over the speakers. I liked it so much I picked up a second Opto and also a 76A (1176 clone) which also works really well.

More recently I decided I wanted a hardware two-buss compressor to mix into and picked up the Audioscape Buss Compressor (SSL G series clone) and it's another really nice piece of gear.

Tonight I ordered his new V-Comp. It's his version of a STA-level compressor. An acquaintance of mine got one of the first five Chris sold and he's blown away by how good it sounds on vocals.

I think I'm done buying compressors now.

Originally Posted by KevWind

Yep looks like his Elysia is stereo and double space

Yes, the elysia is a two space unit.

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Looks great! If I were working between control rooms I'd have a 500 rack with some Neve and API input channels. As it stands I've been given a room as my home where we've gone the rack route.

Most of my gear are rack units. That includes four mic pres, five compressors, the new Kush eq, three patchbays, and two power conditioners. I'm determined to use the 500 rack for stuff other than more pres and comps. Right now my gear takes up 29 spaces. I think I'm reaching the limit for a comfortable working space where everything is within reach, so the nice thing about the 500 rack is I have room to add another 7 units without taking up any more space.

[jim1960]

The Audio-Scape V-Comp (3rd from bottom) arrived last week and I finally got a chance to rack it today. I also have an Aphex EX-BB Aural Exciter 500 unit coming that I grabbed off Reverb. I feel like I'm pretty well set for the studio I'm going to put together on the other side of my move.

This was a cool week because I completed my first full length cd mastering job. I've mastered some individual pieces here and there as favors but I'd never really tackled a big project. A friend had just finished recording and mixing a punk album for a talented newcomer. He suggested to her that she give me a shot. I did a master for one song just to show her what I could for her, she liked it, and I got the job.

I can't say it wasn't a challenge. Most of the mixes were already very compressed when they came to me. The friend who did the mix said that was par for the course in that genre. I'm not a punk guy so I have no idea if that's true. It was 15 songs and only about a third came back for a redo. Every redo passed muster except one, and I think that was more because I was misinterpreting her comments. So that song got a third reworking and it was good to go. I feel pretty accomplished about getting that done and I think that's the last serious work I'm doing until I'm in a new place.

[jim1960]

So let me tell you about my brain fart...

When I finally got around to testing out the elysia xfilter, it wasn't working. The light was on but it was not affecting the sound at all. The 500 units on either side of it were working fine but I was getting nothing from the xfilter. I checked all the wiring in the back of the rack and everything looked to be right. I checked the plugs going into the patch bay to make sure they were seated. Everything was good. It should have been working.

Next I thought there must be an on/off button. The print is small so I used a flashlight to make sure I could see clearly. Nothing was marked on/off.

Not I'm thinking maybe the problem is with the 500 rack. So I pull some panels and the Neve 542s out because I knew they were working in the slots they were in. I put the xfilter in there and it's still not working. I'm starting to think I have a dead unit on my hands.

I go on line and grab a large picture of the front panel. I'm looking at it and I notice there's a button on the bottom labeled, "Hit It!" I pressed it and because I had the gain knobs turned up to max on all the channels, it hit me right in the ears. So there was an on/off button after all. And it took me close to an hour to find it.

And there's my gripe... Why call an on/off button anything other than "on/off" or "bypass"? I was pretty **** annoyed at the amount of time and frustration that caused me. I can laugh about it now because some time has passed and the xfilter is a very nice sounding eq, but I wasn't laughing when it was happening.

On a different note, the Kush Clariphonic is nothing less than a box of magic. It just makes everything I put it on sound sweeter.

[gwlee7]

I am still on the fence re: 500 series. I know that really nice monitors are still the next big ticket item in “studio” department. After that, I will be looking at mic preamps.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by gwlee7

I am still on the fence re: 500 series. I know that really nice monitors are still the next big ticket item in “studio” department. After that, I will be looking at mic preamps.

I was on the fence for years. I'm glad I jumped though. One of the "pros" to the 500 route is that you don't have to do much rearranging when you add something. When I add rack gear, there's usually a place where I want it to go and that place is usually occupied by other rack gear that I now have to shift around. Shifting a bunch of pieces one or two spaces up or down in a rack is a bit of a chore. Reordering units in a 500 rack is a much smaller chore.

[gwlee7]

I am thinking that I will end up with at least one lunchbox full of preamps. I have a bunch of UAD plugins but know that some good outboard pres would be the place to start. And maybe a 2 bus compressor, and a few eqs and..............

[gwlee7]

Oh and I like How you are just buying what you want and not worrying about it “having” to be 500 series. Some folks are anal about it all being rack or 500.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by gwlee7

Oh and I like How you are just buying what you want and not worrying about it “having” to be 500 series. Some folks are anal about it all being rack or 500.

To be honest, I'd love for the Clariphonic to have been in the 500 rack but I didn't want to give up the mid-side capabilities of the rack unit or the ability to use the Clariphonic to make any other piece of gear m/s capable. I've only recently gotten into using m/s. It's not right for everything but for some things it can really take a song up a notch to my ears.

The more I play with that Clariphonic MS, the more I love what it does. I think I might grab a pair of the Kush Electra 500s. There's no difference between a 500 pair and the rack unit, so I'll go 500 on those.

And now that I'm completely over being pissed at my xfilter, I'm liking it quite a bit. One of my favorite UAD plugins is the Chandler Curve Bender. The xfilter lets me work in essentially the same way. On the Chandler there's no Q-control. There's a set curve for each frequency/gain combination. The xfilter is just about the same although there is a button for selecting a more narrow Q for the two middle ranges.

The new v-comp is also a winner. I'm not sure I'll ever have much use for the "Triple" mode but the single mode on vocals is unlike any other compressor I own.

I'm a really happy camper these days.