There are a couple of new residents in the studio today.

[Bob Womack]

Joining the pair of early Avalon VT737 preamps/tube channels are a pair of newer VT737sp units acquired from another studio. The main differences on the SP version are a larger input transformer that yields a little more headroom, and chrome knobs. I sort of miss the purple accents of the early versions, though. Still and all, YAHOO!

Bob

[DupleMeter]

Those are nice. I've always liked the Avalon pres.

[jim1960]

I had an Avalon M5 pre many years ago. I never really got on with it but it was in my early days and that may have been more my fault than the pre. I put it up for sale and someone offered to trade a Blue Kiwi for it. I jumped at the offer and got a lot of use out of that microphone.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by jim1960

I had an Avalon M5 pre many years ago. I never really got on with it but it was in my early days and that may have been more my fault than the pre. I put it up for sale and someone offered to trade a Blue Kiwi for it. I jumped at the offer and got a lot of use out of that microphone.

Yeah, the M5 is their solid state preamp. The VT737 line uses four 6922 preamp tubes for its preamp and optical compressor. Some call them sterile, I call them "pristine."

Bob

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Yeah, the M5 is their solid state preamp. The VT737 line uses four 6922 preamp tubes for its preamp and optical compressor. Some call them sterile, I call them "pristine."

Sterile is how I felt about the M5. I've never used the 737 though, so I'm have no idea how they sound.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by jim1960

Sterile is how I felt about the M5. I've never used the 737 though, so I'm have no idea how they sound.

I've been using them since about 2002 when we got ours. We came over to an SSL 4048 from Neve consoles, the 8058s and 8024 with 31102 and 1073 Preamp/EQs, and felt the SSL's mix of E and G preamps was a tad sterile, so we purchased the Avalons as alternatives for our money channels. We also got a Neve Portico 5015 mic pre/compressor, by the way. I found the Avalons to have an airy upper end and a balanced middle and bass. They sound so good that it takes very little EQ to make practically anything sing. I typically record bass through them as well because you've got it all in one package: DI, tube-driven opto compressor, and EQ. The Neve has a little "blockier" lower mid sound.

Interestingly, I've never used the M5. David Gilmour uses one in his huge rack of effects. I don't remember what he uses it for, perhaps his acoustic guitars?

Bob

[KevWind]

A marginally relevant anecdote

My 2nd attempt to record at Pro studio was in the SF Bay area in 2004 (cannot remember the name of the studio ) I don't remember the microphone either. I do remember it was an Avalon mic pre (don't know if SS or tube )
But I do remember I was a bit underwhelmed , compared to my first experience in 2002 with a Neumann 87 Ai into a Lafont pre amp..

[BillyH]

I like Avalon. Had a U5 we used on bass for a while that we ran into a distressor. Would make the bass sing!

Billy

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by BillyH

I like Avalon. Had a U5 we used on bass for a while that we ran into a distressor. Would make the bass sing!

I had one of those as well but after Spectrasonics released Trillian, I stopped recording with a bass (the world is better off for that) and just used that plugin, so I sold the U5 off too. It was an excellent sounding box though.

[Glennwillow]

A very cool pair of preamps, Bob! They look very impressive!

- Glenn

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

A very cool pair of preamps, Bob! They look very impressive!

- Glenn

Thank you! We got them wired into the patchbay and tested them out yesterday. All is well.

Bob

[BillyH]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Thank you! We got them wired into the patchbay and tested them out yesterday. All is well.

Bob

Good deal. Do you use bantam's?

Billy

[Bob Womack]

Yep. I've got a field of them to the left of the console.

You can see the other pair of Avalons in the sidecar to the left, along with the Neve Portico and a thermometer and hydrometer.

Bob

[BillyH]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Yep. I've got a field of them to the left of the console.

You can see the other pair of Avalons in the sidecar to the left, along with the Neve Portico and a thermometer and hydrometer.

Bob

Nice setup. I almost thought that console was a sony DMX100 until I zoomed. Had one and loved it.

Billy

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by BillyH

Nice setup. I almost thought that console was a sony DMX100 until I zoomed. Had one and loved it.

Billy

Thank you! It is a Yamaha DM2000. It really is only used for routing, monitoring, control surface, and foldback, because I mix in the box. I don't use their EQs or dynamics sections unless I absolutely HAVE to.

Interestingly, we always had lost-time failures with the Neve, SSL, and Euphonix consoles we used over the years, often more than one per month per console. It was a function of working on state-of-the-art consoles - they were like race cars - always tweaking and fixing. This Yamaha has gone twenty years with only one (1) lost-time
incident - failure of the display. Obviously, it is pretty long in the tooth at this point and we are considering next moves.

There is a funny story behind this console. When we were preparing to transition from a hybrid production style with an SSL console and a Fairlight workstation and mixing on the console to totally non-linear and in-the-box production, I decided to be flexible with management on the choice of console to make their lives easier. We looked at several digital consoles available at the time. The Yamaha consoles, however, were the least operator-friendly consoles out there, placing many, many, many functions under sub-menus and sub-menus of sub-menus. My specification for the room was, "I am good with any console OTHER THAN THE YAMAHA."

In the following twenty years we've discovered that they are STILL the least operator-friendly consoles ever built. Wonderfully reliable, absolutely flexible, but ugly to work on. I miss my SSL. It lives in a studio in Canada now. I've got a bank of faders and a populated eight-space meter panel from it that I'm going to frame for my guitar room.



I toured SSL's plant in England and they sent me a branded wall clock as a souvenir. It is already up in the guitar room.



Sonically, I miss the Neves.

Bob