( 3 reviews )
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Posted: Sep 18 2008
First off, this product will provide you with a somewhat clean way of getting audio into your computer (although there is a bit of tube noise in there), only it will be at a very low level. The downside is that it doesn't work well with all microphones. Dynamic mics are not a good match with this unit. I have to push in the +20db switch and turn both the gain and output nobs almost fully to the right in order to get enough gain. Doing this overdrives the tube, and causes my voice to crack/crunch. Without doing that, the levels are too low. Because of the noise from the tubes, if I record at the lower level it wants to, when I boost the levels in software, I also boost the hiss/distortion to a point that it's way too much. There is no USB audio level adjustment. It gets greyed-out in Windows on every computer I've tried, so with a dynamic mic, I'm stuck with turning both knobs to 95 to 100%. If you go from, say, 96% on the tube gain to anything above that, the tube suddenly explodes with lots of horrid noise that pegs your levels. There isn't much room to tweak for just the right adjustments. I tried to follow some other guy's post about unhooking the ART from USB and rehooking to "reset" the audio level, but it's always the same no matter what I do. It happens on all of my computers. Same issue. I wrote ART about this, and got a response 3 days later (it was a weekend). The response was, "If you can get into the red, then you have enough gain." Yeah, right... is it too much to ask to have clean audio when I do? This product is OK with condenser mics, and doesn't exhibit the same gain issues it does with Dynamic mics, but I am still not overly impressed with the overall amount of gain on this unit. My cheap Behringer board has far more gain than the ART. It's not even a contest. This does "warm up" your voice somewhat because it has a tube. Sometimes, I think the bass almost sounds slightly more muddy, but after a while, I have come to like it, provided I have it set correctly. That's it. It's not a miracle product that's going to make you sound like a $1,000 amp. If you're looking for tube distortion, this product is not what you want, because you don't have the adjustments necessary to get the type of sound you're looking for. I purchased this expecting some tube improvement and warmth. I got some more warmth, but I'm disappointed with the lack of ability to use it with a dynamic mic easily. Is it better than my Behringer audio board? Hmm... it depends on the task I'm using it for. Someone said that you need to spend a chunk of change in excess of $500 for some, and $1,000 for most preamps to get a "real" tube sound. I now believe it.
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( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Sep 18 2008
First off, this product will provide you with a somewhat clean way of getting audio into your computer (although there is a bit of tube noise in there, which is preferred by some for its sound), only it will be at a very low level. The downside is that it doesn't work well with all microphones. Dynamic mics are not a good match with this unit. I have to push in the +20db switch and turn both the gain and output nobs almost fully to the right in order to get enough gain. With that, it works fine, though. There isn't much room to tweak for just the right adjustments. This product is OK with condenser mics, and doesn't exhibit the same gain issues it does with Dynamic mics, but I am still not overly impressed with the overall amount of gain on this unit. My cheap Behringer board has far more gain than the ART. It's not even a contest. This does "warm up" your voice somewhat because it has a tube. Sometimes, I think the bass almost sounds slightly more muddy, but after a while, I have come to like it, provided I have it set correctly. That's it. It's not a miracle product that's going to make you sound like a $1,000 amp. If you're looking for tube distortion, this product is not what you want, because you don't have the adjustments necessary to get the type of sound you're looking for. I purchased this expecting some tube improvement and warmth. I got some more warmth, but I'm disappointed with the lack of ability to use it with a dynamic mic easily. Is it better than my Behringer audio board? Hmm... it depends on the task I'm using it for. Someone said that you need to spend a chunk of change in excess of $500 for some, and $1,000 for most preamps to get a "real" tube sound. I now believe it.
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Posted: Jul 23 2008
When you don't need to lug around rack-mounted gear, you need to think smaller. If you're using ONE microphone, you don't need two to eight ports! ART seems to have come up with an affordable solution. I've used this preamp for voiceovers as well as live performance onstage and was amazed at the clean gain for the price. Paid for itself the first time I used it. The other thing that sold me on this model was the USB port. No drivers needed, just plug-n-play usability that fits in a briefcase.
