The main thing I’m trying to decide on is if I’m more of an API guy or a Neve guy (Looking at clones, derivatives etc.). A lot of the sound clips I hear of the Neve style is fat and warmer but maybe too much so. I like aggressive rock and find a lot of new music has too much warmth and fatness and loses the smack in the face that bands in the 70’s and early 80’s would give you. I pretty much will be recording guitars (Gibson, Marshall), bass and vocals. Any keys and drums will be software (which may or may not benefit from passing through the pres after the fact). I guess the answer is get both styles and use them as their particular voice suits but that starts getting into money bag’s territory for what is a hobby.
lol…looking at pedals now
I find that good preamps mostly sound like they do nothing until you take them out of the chain. I would be happy with any of those you mentioned. We have a UA solo 610 here for vocals and acoustics mostly but it's pushing 20 years old and needs serviced but it sure is quiet and rich sounding when it's working right. They are just about double the cost what we paid in '06. Crazy money.
Shit, nice price tag on that. I’ll file that particular unit in the “I’ll have a ‘69 Marshall again some day” budget folder…lol
Not rich.. I drive a 21 yr old car.. I can fix things..
Yeah, I live by no interest promo’s. I haven’t bought anything new that wasn’t on a Promo in over 10 years.
I kinda want to try the ToneBeast. I’ve been using my Tonelux mic pres the last two years and love them. Had a BAE but didn’t love it.
I have limited rack space on my desk so figured if I like the WA12 I can get another and it’s still 1U. The TB looked interesting but I decided I wouldn’t need the extra features. I have some old 90’s ART mic pre’s, a two channel 1U and a tubepac (half rack with compressor as well) the ones that don’t even run the tubes at proper voltage…lol Crap, I’ve had them since new and realized they have moved across 3 States and 7 homes.lol) I use them just to have extra mic inputs with phantom etc. .I’ll definitely have a chuckle if I don’t notice a difference between them and the Warm Audio.
That pedal did not have a real purpose for me. The tones are OK but I'd prefer a specialized pedal that is amazing at one thing than OK at a number of things. Horses for courses but it was a big PASS for me on the new line 6. 1 effect at a time is a selling point to them but for this kind of pedal, seems like a negative to me.
I find the HX-Effects sounds great, allowed me to get rid of many pedals; I have specialized pedals for simple rigs (e.g., compressor, dirt + noise gate, noise gate, EQ).
