Best Channel Strips For Vocals (2024 Updated)

LOVE the PreSonus Studio Channel! Full featured compressor and variable-Q is the secret. Great for VO. I’ve been a working voiceover announcer since the late 90’s, and was a recording engineer back in the 80’s (those analog days).

My voiceovers are heard on broadcast promos and movie trailers, most recently on Fox and NBC. I’m no Don LaFontaine of course but I do pretty well. Over the years I’ve used and owned a wide range of tools that were popular in the Hollywood studios.

Mics such as Neumann U87, AKG 414, vintage Sony tubes etc. And a range of preamps: DBX, Focusrite, Neve and so on. And I have to admit I felt pretty cool looking at a $4K Manley preamp in my rack. But for years I still struggled to find a sweet spot in my VO sessions.

TODAY (and for years now) my favorite and highest return-on-investment setup is the Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic, Presonus Studio Channel, SoundDevices MixPre3 recorder and of course Sony MDR-7506 headphones (still the standard since the friggin 90’s).

Nearly 20 years ago PreSonus came out with the Eureka Channel Strip preamp. It was exactly the same as the current Studio Channel but it was a deeper and heavier rack unit because it had an internal power supply.

When I saw a single rack unit, with a full featured compressor (attack, release and soft knee) and an EQ with adjustable Q on the Mid-band and switchable bell curve on the other 2 bands I had to try it.

needless to say, never looking back. Currently I have two of these PreSonus Studio Channel units, one in my LA studio and one at my mom’s house in Virginia (so I can get home for those family holidays and still drop a read for my clients).

Features like attack-release and variable-Q require that you EXPERIMENT and find your sweet spot. But believe me they will become your most indispensable tools. I would also like to say BH has been my favorite vender since the 80s! I’ve been a BH customer for many big projects whether setting up studios for clients or my own purchases over these decades.

Thanks as always BH.

Sound: It’s difficult to say how the preamp sounds as it passes through the tube, comp, eq, master, any patches, interface, headphones/speakers. BUT. with a little tube warmth and grit, some light compression (easy on the makeup gain, 4 more stages to go), some lows, mids, highs to taste, and finally a master output, this will add some flare and character to whatever goes through it! My one knit pick is with all the gain stages in one unit that can only provide so much overall it doesn’t take much to bring up the noise floor noticably on this unit.

It’s really not that bad but it’s there. I can’t remember exacltly but I think Ableton showed between -60 and -50. Disappears in a live sound situation. Features: So much gain in this thing, overall.

Very easy to overdo it. Tube with a knob to blend it with the clean signal and on down to the full featured compresser with soft knee option, pre/post EQ, and bypass. An illuminated VU meter that can show the output level or gain reduction.

Full featured EQ section with freq, level, and Q dials as well as bypass and finally a gain knob. I probably forgot something too lol. Oh yeah, THE WALL WART. Ease of Use: For newbies, and that’s probably most of us buying this, it’s not point and shoot but it’s not trigonometry either.

The manual provides graphs and explanations of each section and safe settings for general applications and the rest is on you. If you know how to use similiar plugins to good effect then this won’t be an issue.

Quality: Metal chassie, very shallow. Platic knobs and VU window. It feels just solid enough but you can tell where they cut costs and I’ll take it for the feature set. But I can’t figure out why they wouldn’t put the power supply inside, it has a cheap inline inverter (or whatever) with a power switch on it for some odd reason taking extra space in an already crowded rack.

Only real complaint with this thing. Value: This unit is the sweet spot of features and build/sound quality. There are other just above or below and to me that means it would be difficult to go wrong here.

It’s served me well and I can say I’m glad I didn’t spend less, or more for that matter. It travels with me and has been faithful. That’s worth every penny. Manufacturer Support: I haven’t needed it yet and I hope I never do.

I’m very impressed with PreSonus and interested in many of their other products! The Wow Factor: There’s a lot of wow factor in your first analog channel strip for most of us. This is a great unit from a great company and turned me on to other offerings from PreSonus who I hadn’t really considered before.

This thing is usually paired with an MXL4000 (Mogami Edition) and the vocals have stepped way up in the recordings and mixes. Case and point. Overall: I bought this to fill out a mobile recording rig to use for vocals and I can’t complain.

It sounds decent, has LOTS of gain, most if not all the knobs you could expect for a single space unit, and looks good doing it!.

We own a studio writing/recording for major film, games, and TV. We researched the reviews on this product before purchasing and since purchasing it, we are happy with our choice. We recently started producing a new show where we have multiple simultaneous interacting voices.

We had to add in one more mic and it’s associated gear for the show. We needed to match the “hard-to-reproduce” tube tonal quality and compression signature of a vintage Presonus mic preamp from the 90’s so the voices sounded consistent.

This vintage unit has warmth and clarity hard to find today except in tube vocal processors over $4k. This unit actually exceeds our expectations. Warm consistent sound with good control. After installation we went to immediate recording time and matched the sound of the vintage unit in seconds.

Wish it had a desser but that can be applied in pre via DAW. Sound is clean and consistent. Worth three times what we paid for it versus the benefit we have from it in the studio.

I purchased this in feb 2021. After one week of use, i noticed the gain lowering by itself. it would lower to the point of silence. I would have sent it back to B&H but I didnt actually open the box for a few weeks after purchase.

So I contact Harman and was instructed to take it to an authorized repair service in my local area. since it was under warranty I did not have to pay. THe repair center noticed that there were several places on the board that were not soldiered properly.

so they touched it up and tested for a few days. All was fine and i used it for the rest of the year. shortly thereafter, the exact problem with the gain returned. So I took it back to the repair center (still under warranty) and they have informed me that the problem is unfixable.

They also say that Harman is out of stock on this item. The repair center has several of these units in line waiting to be fixed/replaced. According to the shop, one person in front of me has been waiting 7 months.

Not sure if its the same issue. All in all this unit was great when it worked. It just didn’t work for long. Did the people in my area just get the bad ones? I see they are in stock on B&H but I am skeptical on a repurchase.

And I cant give this a high rating.

I am not a professional audio engineer, but I really like this device. I hesitated to buy it because I read in other reviews that there was a small hum emitted by the device. I experimented noise when I plugged the dbx to my audio interface (the livetrack L-8) but then I watched a tutorial in YouTube that explained that for best results the line out cable should be an stereo balanced trs cable, I was using a mono one, so my mistake.

Also I read on the internet that the -26dB switch on the audio interface should be turned on. I changed the trs cable and turned on that switch and the noise completely disappeared. Hope this review helps.

This 1U rack space unit packs a buncha tone and features inside. It sounds fantastic just running a mic through it w/ all processing off; in this mode it’s like an “Ever-So-Much-More” sound: just like the mic’s natural, basic tone only bigger, better, badder, and boffo-er.

er, ok. Maybe not the last one, but. Ennyhoo, start monkeyin’ around with the other sections of this l’il wonder and WOW! While I haven’t tried out all of our mics thru the 286 yet, I have demo’ed some of our best mics (Carvin CTM100, MicParts S-25 that I built from a kit, Shure Beta 87A, Rode NT-1A, ’60s EV644), and our most humble ( SM58, EV767ND, ’60s RS “Highball 2” hi-z Omni), and every one benefited from this box’s sonic magic, most mightily.

It’s worth the price of admission just for what it does to and for the hand-held mics alone! I can see this transforming a dynamic vocalist’s possibly lackluster PA in a live setting into an interesting and much more pleasing listening experience, one capable of encouraging more audience engagement.

And in today’s shart-fone obsessed ‘society’, that’s sayin’ something! In a recording studio setting, it has a definite place as a vocal and/or solo instrument overdub instrument, especially when more ‘in your face’ quality is what’s desired.

It also has been the budget-minded podcaster’s choice for quite awhile now, and for the same reasons. You can spend many more digital zero$&one$ elsewhere for only small incremental improvements in performance here and there.

This magic dingus box delivers, in spades. I just love mine. Recording vocals is exciting again! Just imagine how it feels for the vocalists.

So here’s the thing, I’ve owned this 3 years now. I’ve used much more expensive and boutique units. I gotta say, this thing absolutely holds its own against some really impressive and famous preamps.

ART may not be a sexy name in audio, but holy man is this thing nice. You may or may not be familiar with the famous Tape-Op preamp blind test where the ART MPA was consistently picked in a blind listening test over much more expensive preamps.

(If not, you should check it out). Anyway, this channel strip has a single MPA preamp, a very clean sounding compressor, very musical EQ, a noise gate/expander (I use the expander every time. It’s way nicer than the gate), an effective de-esser and my absolute favorite, yet often overlooked feature.

The impedance knob. When I first got this thing, the impedance knob was a mystery to me and it confused me so I ignored it for a long time. Now it’s my favorite feature by far. This thing really has the ability to get the most out of your mic.

Turn it down and it adds a very vintage quality to any mic, turn it up and the mic sounds really modern with a nice high-end, pop-like sheen to it. And that’s all BEFORE the rest of the circuit. I’ve tried it on an SM57, SM7B, Rode K3, Audio Technica 4050 and an AEA R88.

That feature rocks my socks off because you get to dial in the mic’s sweet-spot before ever going through the rest of the circuit. In fact, you can simply dial in the preamp, dial in the impedence, and then bypass everything else if you want to, and do the rest in the box.

(I rarely do this as I’m a fan of the De-Esser). As far as characterizing the sound of the preamp itself, it’s very clean but with a little bit of it’s own (very nice) character. It’s not super-neutral-hyper-clean like SSL.

But it’s also not so distinct that you can immediately hear exactly what preamp it is, like a 1073. Kindof ISA vibey. Really nice.

Extremely easy to setup and dial-in to your ear. Controls are smooth and well marked. I’ve had it about a month and use it in my voice over chain ahead of an Audient iD4 and Mac Mini M1. With it I can warm up my voice, add just a tad of bass and at the same time virtually eliminate the hum of my home’s furnace.

With the de-esser and a bit of tweaking on the EQ “high frequency” my sibilants are smoothed out and the results exceed what I’ve been able to do with Adobe Audition and iZotope RX-9 (and I don’t need to mess with it post recording).

I am always on the fence on trying out new gear especially from brands I am not familiar with, but I will say this unit has not disappointed! I’ve used it on Vocals and Guitars so far and my recording production has went from great to AMAZING.

The built in gate in this thing has been a life saver and the compressor has a nice warmsound. Overall, I can get a really good full signal out of this unit. Again, AMS makes buying gear easy and the only place where I shop from for my gear!.

The hype this thing has gotten is off the charts. But why? I don’t get it. In comparison to other preamps at this price (high end by any standard), this would be my last choice. Compared to Empirical Labs and SPL, the preamp is weak and thin sounding, the compressor seems to do nothing (I’ve switched it in and out and noticed nothing happening), and the limiter doesn’t kick in until it’s too late, letting peaks get through.

The only part that works well is the EQ – which sounds very good. This thing needs more gain and a better compressor to compete with other brands in this range. It should also have a D-Esser function, because of it’s inherently bright sound.

I’ll stick with my SPL.

This mic pre is one of the best I have ever used and I have used all of the “holy grail” mic pres and this one if not added to that list should be immediately. I have worked in the music industry for years with greats such as Michael Jackson, teddy reily, Brian Michael cox, usher and the list goes on and on.

The compression,eq on this thing is absolutely killer it works amazing on everything!!! Got a bass? Plug it in and thump away, got a guitar? Plug it in and get some of the crispiest tone’s that you can imagine, vocals? This thing can handle anything you throw at it get some of the smoothest vocals you’ve heard from a mic pre hear sounds you didn’t even know you could.

I will absolutely never part with this pre it has become the staple of my vocal chain!!! Trust me do yourself a favor and buy this thing if you gotta pick up extra shifts at work do it. Cut grass and trim trees? Do it.

You will not be dissapointed!!!.

The tube path is fat but not flabby, the compressor 3:1 Elop can be transparent to heavy character, the BAX EQ has nice filters on the low end, great for bass with a 48V DI rather than the front panel DI which isn’t quite as good.

I don’t normally limit when tracking, but just in case you get a momentary spike you won’t lose the performance. I got two of these over a single Vox Box. I use them to touch up mix busses and on the 2 buss if a tube path is needed with or without signal chain bypass.

I have used this for documentary work for 2 years. It has been with me to in the studio and brought along to interviews in a shoulder bag approximately 50 times. What I dislike is the weight. It’s heavy when I go one-person-band recording.

I worry (and expect) every time that I will have a tube issue or some problem associated with having moved the unit out of my rack kit for setup elsewhere. Cross my fingers that it’s never given me trouble or had malfunctions.

The manual was easy to read and follow. This is one of the best differentiators in terms of quality in my kit and has attracted talent because the sound is leaps and bounds above client expectations.

I like that I have everything in one spot for a subject of any range (quiet and shy, loud and booming) with total confidence that I can get an archive-quality recording. I have recorded into various pro recorders and ENG or compact cine cameras with it.

In the future, the size and tube-only operation has led me to explore other options such as Twinfinity and Grace preamps. I will second another reviewer that Universal Audio’s changes seem to depart from the tradition of this old company.

I have the whole thunderbolt-powered Universal Audio Apollo 8p racks at the home studio. They are not reliable like this unit, for me. It seems like the software-based mic pres always have some annoying issue or update.

I have not taken this in for a warranty, given that it’s worked without trouble.

The first one I received from Musician’s Friend had an issue and wouldn’t produce any sound. MF handled the return and sent out a second unit, which worked flawlessly. Speaking of flawless. If you’re doing any kind of recording and you’re simply relying on the interface’s inputs to handle your audio – you’re missing out.

I recently did some recordings for a local church in my home studio and no matter which mic I tossed at this thing they all sounded good. I have almost 25 mics in my locker. We tried the LA-610 with my Neumann U-87, TLM-102, Royer R-121 and Mojave Audio MA-300 and I was amazed at how good they sounded on vocals through the LA-610.

The 610 adds some nice tube warmth to the audio. I have also used it on my Mesa Lonestar with a Shure SM-57 and the results were equally amazing. The compressor is incredibly silky smooth and transparent on the LA-610.

The included EQ is also great for rolling off the bottom end, or shaping the tone before it goes into your interface and DAW. I also like the flexible metering. I can select what I want to see on the meter.

I’m not going to say you can’t make professional sounding recordings without this, but it definitely puts another very capable tool in your arsenal. Would you build a house with just a hammer? And you shouldn’t just record with only the mic preamps on your interface.

If you are serious about recording and can afford one – get it. You won’t regret it.

If you are in to the pro audio world you know this unit. They are among the best front end for a great DAW and no amount of plugins at any price can equal the sound of the five (yes 5) tubes in this unit.

The 610 is the sound of classic rock and can be sweet or growl as you need it and the comp/limit side beats anything (except the actual LA-2A) in the digital universe. No better combination than this pre, this comp/limiter and your DAW.

A highly-recommended and very capable and versatile mixer for live recording. Four mike inputs are good for most basic sets and the other four are paired as stereo inputs at line level. Very nice equalization on each channel and a parametric mid-range control on two mike inputs for nice tailoring.

Audibly quiet and clean operation through microphone inputs. The capability to record from an internal A/D converter to a class-compliant USB port is a great advantage over other small mixers in this price range.

The signal to noise ratio from the A/D is not as good a 16 bit depth would allow (96 dB) but is more than adequate for microphone recording. A sample rate of 48 kHz is available for video production and my version supported 24-bit depth, which is highly preferred for mastering.

The on-board sound processing (“FX”) provides a dozen nice effects that can be added separately to inputs before mixing to the main bus. This section runs in 24-bits, so it sounds quite smooth and quiet.

The steps on the selection knob is pretty hard to read–a flashlight is needed to make sure the proper effects mode is selected. The LED level indicator is peak reading but has only 5 levels. However, the 0 dB level is 18 dB below overload, so there is adequate headroom while watching the indications on live audio.

I bought the Alesis MultiMix 8 USB FX as an audio interface for both recording and hands free conference calls. It did exactly what I wanted with good features and minor annoyances. The independent monitor, main, and headphone volume controls are key for my setup.

Main goes to USB, Monitor goes to my studio Monitors. Headphones for monitors if I shut my speakers off. The unit is very sensitive to the USB cable quality and length. If the quality is low or the cable is too long, you can get a 1KHz whine in the system that isn’t affected by the volume controls.

A good quality USB cable 3 ft minimized the whine. The USB cable that came with the unit resulted in a huge whine that changed as I flexed the cable at the connector. The Styrofoam packaging that the mixer comes in has side pockets that are too deep.

The Styrofoam slides over the unit until it hits the channel 1 volume knob on one side and the Master volume knob on the other instead of bottoming out on the sides of the mixer. There was a good dent in the Styrofoam near the channel 1 knob and the volume control was intermittent, so I had to send the unit back for replacement.

:(. I’m looking forward to getting a working unit back in my system.

I just needed a four mic input desk for remote rehearsal. This thing is totally fine for that. I wouldn’t expect it to have that warm musical feel of a more high-end board. It is what I bargained for and therefore am completely happy with my purchase.

There are times when a mic pre-amp is useful and in some cases, necessary. Being a tube pre-amp makes it even more attractive. But a great compressor and EQ built into this unit makes it an amazing addition to the studio.

I have used it with dynamic and condenser mics as well as guitar direct. The sound quality is incredible.

I’ve had 2 of these. The first one I bought brand new. I was planning on using it on bass but the compressor was so limp is the best way to put it. It is so sqooshy and all over the place. I does not accurately compress.

Because of this overwhealming issue and consumer complaints they started ffering a higher end commprssor mod if you wanna pay another $500 plus!!! So this just shows that the original compressor is faulty and does not effectively do it job! However I did buy a second unit with the compressor mod in it and it worked 50% better!!! The problem is.

every pro studio hs to have one! For some reson people do request them quite often. I will let the client think they are playing thru the unit (have it lit upand meters moving from sending a CD Player to it or something.

Lol. But actually I will have them going thru a Neve or API into a distressor. Also, the mic pres way to colorful. I like high end transparent mic pres that actually capture the sound of the instrument, not add sound.

The EQ’s are decent but who records with EQ anyway? No one. ammatures! EQ is for live applictions so maybe this might be a good hunk of metal for the stage but int the studio forget it!.

This preamp sounds great for multiple recording applications- I own two 737s, they’re versatile and quite powerful when you understand all the functions.

Ive been used to record guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, vocals in my studio and the sound its always great, warm and fat in all situations. I really like to have a Tube Preamp with EQ and Compressor, I can setup the whole tone using this avalon.

This product is increasingly hard to find, but offers exceptional audio processing power for both broadcast and music applications and at a good price. We’ve bought these units primarily for broadcast voice applications and so cannot comment on their use in music recording or via the line input.

However the unit provides what is essentially a complete channel strip consisting (L to R) of the following: A Mic Pre with gain control, a basic 4-LED level indicator, phantom power and 80Hz HPF, plus a button to use the mic pre on its own; A VERY powerful but very easy to use compressor with input level and release controls; A de-esser (which I’ve never used); An LF/HF enhancer which boosts bass and/or treble without muddying the sound; An expander/gate that lets you remove room background noise below a certain threshold and by a chosen amount; and An output gain control that enables you to maintain a good gain structure for the signal path into your mixer.

There are tutorials on the web for how to set this unit up as a starting point for broadcast applications – BSW has a video and cheat sheet that springs to mind – but in fact once you get the hang of what the controls actually do, it’s very easy to set up.

“Gotchas” include: Don’t apply too much Drive to the compressor or it will remove all the dynamics in a voice and can be noticeable. Follow the maxim that if you can hear what it’s doing you’ve turned it up too much; Be careful with the Expander/Gate ratio.

Too much noice reduction here can sound a little “papery” on speech as the gate flutters in and out on breaths and other sounds when you are using a lot of compression. Try to set the Threshold so that it gates out room noise but only just, so the minute you speak or breath it opens up.

My one complaint with this unit: they should have included a main power switch, even if it was round the back attached to the power socket. While a larger studio may well have a big power switch that brings everything up at start of day, and while there are arguments for leaving gear on all the time, if you are NOT using it all the time it would be nice to be able to switch it off.

I bought an IEC in-line switch to do the job, but a built-in switch associated with the power socket would have added almost nothing to the cost – and you could still leave it on if you wish.

Perfect for zoom and streaming with a Shure SM7B. I was able to find a professional sound and completely tune the gain, compressor, and gate to perfectly reject the sound of my keyboard and mouse from my audio feed.

Perfect for work meetings. Because my soundcard was noisy I paired this with a Scarlett 2i2 to bring the audio into my PC.

Having owned the dbx 286s and a Focusrite ISA One preamp for about 2 years, I have come to a conclusion, I will just have to sell the Focusrite. I was shocked to tell you the truth, after comparing the two today.

I bought the 286s just for the compression and deesser feature alone, never have I tried its preamp for the microphone. The ISA One have been doing its duty as the preamp for my microphone these past 2 years.

Today I had the thought of comparing the two side by side, and let me tell you, I was shocked, the preamp in the dbx 286s is warmer, just as clear, and just as powerful as the ISA One. I am sad that my favorite preamp will be set aside however, but I will love my dbx more from now on.

As a note, I am using the preamp strictly for vocal works, my mic is AE5400, into the dbx 286, to dbx 215s equalizer, and finally to the yamaha MG10XU.

This is a great performing unit, and at a good price. No problem with noise at all, do yourself a favor and don’t hack resistors off the circuit board, the rumors behind this did not come from audio engineers who have access to the systems circuit design.

And don’t waste money changing the tubes, there will be no perceptional difference in a blind test beside a different gain curve. This is just an Internet thing some people can’t resist. Circuit board, looks great, well made and solid, follows latest production standards of high quality equipment.

Just learn how to use it properly, enjoy your new high quality equipment. Let you ears be the judge.

My long-term knowledge of preamps is somewhat limited but bear with me. The only channel strip type I have used enough to become very familiar with was my Focusrite, which cost twice as much and always delivered fine sounding tracks.

This ART got good reviews, so I gave it a try. It compares very favorably to the Focusrite, I cannot detect any less quality in the sound department AND it has more flexibility in the settings for additional variety of character.

There are only 2 quibbles I have with the item & they aren’t major, but can be annoying. First of all, the manufacturers advertise that it can be set up to place the EQ before the dynamics processor, yet the manual makes no mention of how this is done.

On the Focusrite it was merely a matter of pushing a switch. I questioned the dealer in a follow-up to see if he knew. He wasn’t able to tell me any more than I was able to speculate on my own, which was a combination of using the back panel patch connections and possibly the bypass switch(es) on the front.

You see, there is no “patch point” at the exit of the EQ. He suggested using preamp output (I think he was referring to the output stage) which is after the EQ, and patching it back into the compressor.

I haven’t narrowed down the exact setup yet, but his advice wasn’t thathelpful to me. Secondly, the main LED meter (beneath the large Vu meter) is positioned such that you need to mount the unit quite high, about eye-level.

My rack is low, designed to be used sitting down. Even so, I had to lower & tilt the mic stand so that I could lay on the floor while singing in order to see the darn thing to set the level. The questions above are fairly silly.

Yes, the sound quality is good. Easy to use? That all depends. For an experienced engineer, it is fairly easy but does have a lot of interdependent setting that affect each other and can be tricky to get the desired sound.

But this is made up for by the great variety of sounds. For a beginner? Could very well be baffling! But hey, engineering is fun. so is learning! Lightweight? Heck no, but that’s not necessarily a negative.

It’s far more substantial-feeling than my last unit and the fit and finish leave nothing to complain about. It has the look & feel of serious piece of equipment.

It’s really too bad because, aside from the hums and buzzes that come and go, it’s a lovely unit for a crazy good price. Built like a tank, full-featured, sweet sounding — and all but useless to me.

I spent some hours troubleshooting, tried it in three different buildings, finally ran it powered by a sine wave inverter with no other power on in the building. Each configuration yielded a different combination of hums and buzzes, depending on which buttons were pressed, ground lifts, and the position of the output volume knob.

Oddly, the unbalanced output was generally quieter than the balanced — perhaps this is why it sometimes gets favorable reviews. Or perhaps it’s a quality control problem. In any case, I’ve discovered multiple reviews describing the same problem.

When the hum was absent, the tube saturation was luscious. But it went back to the store.

Overall: The problem with writing a review like this is that you can’t describe musical experiences in words. But I thought it might interest some people like me to hear my 6176 story. People like me, that would be singer-songwriters who record themselves at home.

Does a $3000 expense really make sense for someone like that? Of course not. I have read and dreamed about this device for over a decade. I’ve watched all the YouTube reviews, googled the term “affordable alternative” a hundred times without success.

I’ve also spent a few hundred bucks on plug-ins that promised to recreate the magic. Can they? Who knows! I guess the most honest answer is that a first rate engineer could coax the 6176’s sort of complexity out of a few pieces of software after a long, tedious process of tweaking virtual buttons.

In other words: For a simpleton like me with limited time it amounts to a crapshoot. A few times I thought I had “it”, then it was gone again. Enter an unexpected little windfall, three glasses of Malbec, and you got yourself a late night impulse buy.

(What really made me go for it is zZound’s interest free installment plan, to be perfectly honest. ) And now I have “it” at my fingertips, packed in a shiny, heavy, solid box with those impossibly cool huge dials.

What is “it”? I can’t describe it in technical terms. Let me give it a shot in musical terms, then. The 6176 sort of holds you. It catches you. It props you up, makes you feel like you can do no wrong.

Especially as a singer. It controls the dynamics of your voice in such a way that you find yourself whispering or belting, feeling in control in both instances. And everything in between. That overused word “warmth” seems to be the only apt one to really describe what this tube preamp achieves.

It’s similar to what happens to your voice toward the end of a gig, when you’re nice and loose, and it all becomes effortless. There’s a bit of grit, or a lot of it, if you so chose. The very simple EQ does all you need to do, given you’ve found the perfect mic for your purposes.

In my case, that’s a U47 clone, or sometimes a simple 57. The compressor is a legend for good reason. I keep the ratio low, the attack fast and the release pretty quick as well. That’s all I need. In closing, the answer to the question whether you’ll be happy or not about dishing out the big money on something your interface can, in theory, already do … depends.

It depends on how much of your idea of hearing music is really about FEELING music. Depends on how sensitive (or crazy? Or both?) you are. Depends on whether or not the rest of your rig, especially the mic, is already perfect for what you need.

Depends on your years of experience. Guitarists know that there are magical guitars out there, instruments that make you play better. Well, this is like that.

I’ve owned this channel strip for over 10 years. This is what great audio sounds like. A lot of people put a lot of money into mics, but I would suggest spending money on a great preamp/channel strip first.

I’ve used the following mics with it: AKG414, Neuman U87 & TLM103, SM7B, and several dynamic mics usually used for live applications (SM57 & 58, e935 etc) This unit realizes the potential of all mics.

I’ve even recorded vocals with less expensive dynamic mics and the quality has always been warm, present, and professional. If you haven’t put a good preamp between your mic and interface before, you will have a “I was deaf, but now I hear” moment.

Every studio should have at least one of these, even a small studio. Knowing what the “best” sounds like sets the bar or standard for everything that follows. I can’t believe the “vintage” tones and shapes these UA Pre-amps and compressors can produce.

Like the Records of the past and today on the radio. A great feeling to have that POWER in my hands. Should have bought them years ago!!!.

I discovered these strips by accident! This brand and size is literally like stitching a wound up! Not all of course. I’ve got white ones and thrilled to find the size and skin color I wanted. Arrived perfectly!.

I have several cuts on my face. As you might imagine, having wounds on your face is something that could be embarrassing. With this 3M skin closures however, I could deceive people around me. They couldn’t see it from far.

Only when they come really close to me, they could see that I was injured. Ins’t it great?.

I had been looking for this product all over town after my son’s surgery and knew that I needed these for the next 8 weeks. I was very happy to find exactly what we needed on your website!

I read that lone 1-star review from Irish Luck and laughed – Funniest review Ive read in a long time. The reality is that almost all new preamp tubes today come from China or Russia. The great tubes from USA and Western Europe stopped being produced back in the 70s and 80s.

Any socketed tube can come loose due to vibration. Did Irish Crank even try reseating the tube? In any case. The Presonus TubePre v2 consistently gets high marks in unsolicited consumers. Its a good Value based on design, features, and performance for its Price Point! Some of the very best tube preamps cost over $1000.

At $130 the TubePre v2 is a bargain. The phantom power and 80 High Pass filter are handy for some Mic to phone applications, and a true analog VU meter instead of LEDs for signal Level indication is a welcome old-school design touch.

For modders: you can easily change out the tube for a Vintage NOS 12AX7A, 7025, or ECC83 for around $20 to $60.

I bought this unit on a whim while I was purchasing a couple overhead mics for an upcoming recording project. It would only make sense to get a dual preamp for a dual mic recording, especially if balance is a priority.

I read a few quick online reviews while I was waiting and was a little dismayed by the barrage of negative feedback. However, this feedback is almost always from people who don’t consider the application for the preamp and/or they judge everything against a Neve 1073 or something else in that price range.

I was on my own. I took the chance. First thing when I got it home, I hooked up the new mics and started recording a simple but all-inclusive drum beat. I tried 5 or 6 different settings and was blown away.

I tried 6 different 12ax7s and couldn’t really find a distinguishable difference, which I guess is good because replacing the tube in this unit is relatively difficult and unpleasant. Since I have an abundance of EHs that I don’t normally like, I decided to go with one of those.

Now, when it comes to micing drums, everyone has their own tastes, but I prefer clarity and balance. From crash, to ride, to china it was beautiful. Who would have thought that a little harmonic distortion on drum overheads would affect depth and balance of a drum kit so well.

I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. I WILL be buying more of these.

I was anxious to try out the TubePre V2 to boost my acoustic guitar signal, as well as add some tube warmth to vocals, and record some drum, bass and guitar tracks. Wow, what a giant dissapointment! All I got as I turned up the gain was hissing and humming.

Just horrible! I had to turn the gain down to 3 to make the signal OK not great, but the hissing and humming was lower. Not gone though, just not as annoying But not being able to go past 3 on the gain is unacceptable.

It makes barely any difference at all at that level. It doesn’t even register on the VU meter it’s so weak of a gain increase. I’ll tell you what did register on the VU meter. turning up the knob for the so-called tube gain.

The pot is such junk, that the noise created by just turning the knob sent the VU meter into the clipping level!!! I’ve had 30 year old amps with scratchy pots, and know how to easily get them to be noise free.

It’s really very easy. This pot won’t cooperate, it’s noisy no matter what I do. And the worst part of it is that I cannot tell one bit of a difference in sound with it all the way up or all the way down.

The manual claims it can change your signal to smokin’ hot and it can change your tone from subtle to extreme. Ok, I suppose that it does the subtle part well, very well. It’s so subtle I can’t even notice anything, at all.

And as far as the extreme, well. maybe the insane sounds from the junky pot is what they meant by extreme. Because it sure is. I’m not new to audio gear, and I’ve spent all day with countless cobinations of cords, five different amps and two acoustic guitars, two electric guitars, two electric basses and an acoustic bass, with no positive results.

It’s just beating a dead horse at this point. There is nothing I can do to make the sound any better. Oh ya, there was one thing I did that improved the sound dramatically. I put the TubePre back in the box, ready to ship back for a refund.

All of the sudden the tone of my guitar was great again, and the unwanted noises are magically gone. I’ve read countless reviews where people say you have to change the tubes because the Chinese tubes they use are noisy.

No thanks! I refuse to throw good money after bad on a product that even though it’s brand new, I have to replace things just to make it sound how it should right out of the box. That’s Presonus’ job to put working, good sounding tube in it when it’s being made.

Not after the consumer buys it. After 27 years of buying and using audio gear, I’ve yet to encounter that problem. If the tube is one of the major selling points of this tube preamp, and it needs to be replaced because the quality is so poor, what other parts in this unit are just as cheaply made? I’ll bet quite a few.

I’ve never bought something new, and told that I need to immediately replace a major part just to get it to do what it is already supposed to do, Hey Presonus, use quality parts and the poor consumers that buy this junk won’t have to spend more money replacing parts that you should have used in the first place.

Pathetic quality control. I’ll never touch a Presonus product again. It is just a headache. I should have known better. if someone says it sounds noisy unless you replace the tube should have been a serious red flag, Lesson learned.

You get what you pay for, sometimes (in this case) much, much less. I wouldn’t pay $20 for this. I wouldn’t even use it if it was given to me free. It’s that bad. Maybe I got a dud? But I am just not impressed at all with this.

I’ll just run the signal through my mixer with built in preamps and I’ll be better off. It keeps my signal crystal clear without all the headaches of trying to get a good sound out of it. Plug and play.

Just like I thought the TubePre would be. Plug and troubleshoot for two solid days with no positive results was my experience with this overpriced paperweight. Hey Presonus. use quality parts to begin with and the poor consumers that buy this won’t have to replace them with actual quality parts.

That is your job. But I guess it isn’t? Pass it along to us to take care of. Stay away if you value your money. I would give it zero stars, but it’s not an option.

This is the only product of its kind. You can be a choir of Gregorian monks, ABBA, choir of kids, you can get as simple or as complicated as you feel like, you can turn from man to a woman and back without any surgeries, you can be a robot, a telephone-you name it-this device has got you covered.

It is very robust, compatible with many systems and programs, quite user friendly and portable. My only complaint is that the slider isn’t always responsive, it is hard to scroll through functions-sometimes it gets stuck, sometimes scrolls too fast.

There is no bluetooth and there will be several wires dangling around, but if it had a blue tooth the price would probably be even higher. I have owned this device for about 7 years and it is still about the same price I bought it for, which is quite pricey.

But as I said-there is nothing quite like it on the market. Thank you TC Helicon.

This is a great vocal pedal, and I’ve tried several. The effects are solid, but when the harmonies are set right they’re incredible. Two weaknesses that kept me from giving it a 5 star review. 1) The Harmony pedal (the only one you actually use mid-song) is also the bypass pedal.

If you tap it the harmonies turn on. If you hold it down for 1second (!?!) it bypasses all the effects and harmonies. While I understand wanting to bypass the effects inbetween songs, 1 second is WAY too short of a time to switch.

I often hit it slightly too long and find my vocals dry, without harmonies, and way quieter than I should be. That’s a design flaw. 2) You can only set the key of a patch to major keys. It has trouble with minor keys.

And while you can usually use a corresponding major key to fit most minor key songs, there are sometimes it won’t work, nor does the internal mic accurately pick up the key of whatever your’e playing.

I have found ways to work around these limitations and hope to upgrade to a newer, nicer version in the near future.

This thing is great. It’s easy to use, and has enough useful patches right out of the box to cover most situations and styles, although they are spread out among all the patches. I’ve tried harmonizer software and boxes over the years but they always fell short, and were difficult to achieve useful results with; the harmonies either sounded like munchkins or weird note choices made me sound like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir of Death.

Not so here. Can one guy sound like the Eagles doing Seven Bridges Road? Try patch 47. I tried this out at practice last week and with other humans singing their parts too, everything just sounds so natural.

It’s great to dial in a high 3rd and then step up to the mic to augment what the other guys are singing in places just to fatten things up and, I hate to say it, make us seem more polished. The unit really needs a good harmonic reference (it listens to your guitar) to compute good harmonies.

Plugging my guitar in to the Vocalive, and then sending the guitar through to my pedalboard works great. The vocals go from the XLR out to the board. At home I just use the monitor out to an amp if I’m feeling lazy.

Room sense (as opposed to plugging your guitar in) doesn’t always work as well. Even without the harmonies, it makes my vocals sound punchy and clear. I tried it with an ND967 and a Beta 58 and both mics sounded great.

Can’t wait for the free MP-75 to show up and try that out. One of the nice surprises was just how useful the guitar effects section is. I already have some of the effects (a TC reverb, delay & chorus) on my regular pedal board, so I felt right at home.

The overdrives are surprisingly useful. I’m a tube guy, not because you can’t get any good sounds with a digital pedal, but because they generally don’t respond to changes in guitar volume like tubes do.

These mostly clean up pretty smoothly when you back off the guitar volume. The hit button is great. You can turn on or off multiple effects in both the vocal and guitar sections at once just by tapping it.

I think with a little experimentation and programming, you could go play a job with just this, a volume pedal for the guitar, and an expression pedal for things like wah (yes it has that too). I’m not saying you could dial in all the exact sounds you get from your pedal board today, but you can create great sounds that will work for almost any situation.

I’d give it a five except for one thing (hope you’re listening TC). While you can: a) Dial in a great guitar sound in a global patch and use it with every vocal patch, or b) Dial in the global patch and use it in some vocal patches, and individually program the guitar sounds that don’t use the global guitar patch, or c) individually program every patch (the way it comes from the factory, and manages to show off the versatility), but I’d like to see.

d) The ability to set up several global guitar patches and select from them for each vocal patch. Or, the ability to independently select guitar and vocal patches if I want. Maybe even have the hit button swap between two guitar patches.

Come to think of it, I have to tap several buttons and twist a few knobs on my pedalboard to do that, so maybe it deserves a 5. Great box. Glad I bought it.

Before I bought this channel strip I checked out a bunch of forums and got opinions about using outboard pre’s and channel strips. Seems like most live sound engineers find it too costly and unecessary.

Most recommended trying different mics for desired response instead of spending 2K for a channel strip/ pre. I am going to have to disagree. Before I even thought about buying a channel strip, I had bought three different and extremely popular vocal mics.

Beta 58, Beta 87, and Neumann KMS105. I went with these mics because they tend to be very popular with other vocalist in the genre of music I represent(Mexican/Ranchera), but still, I did not get that nice, big, round, sound I was looking for.

I would turn up the gain a bit, or move the vocal foward in the mix to try to achieve it, but that annoying distortion in the mid highs was annoying everytime I belted one. I would also turn it up a bit around 200hz to capture warmth, and cut out some mid-high, but it sounded artificial and muffled(I own a Onyx1640.

Great board, just that the pre’s are not for me). So, I would mention this in the forums and got several of reccomendations, but most of the recommendations that they gave me I had already tried. So, I said “well, if the UA6176 does not solve my problem, I can always return it.

Now that I have been using it, those problems are over. I got that nice round/full sound I was looking for out of the 6176. It puts you right up front in the mix. The compressor and EQ are wonderful.

UA took “transparent” to another level with there eq & comp. Also, when I would solo the channel on the board, and crank the level up on the pre past +10, or more, it would distort in a very musical way.

All my mics on this thing sounded wonderful passing through it. This is by far one of the best investments I made. Awesome!!! I will conclude with this. This may, or may not, be the product for you. It will not fix bad singing, playing, etc, etc.

What it will do is make things sound bigger and warmer. The compression and EQ are tranparent (non-linear). Very vintage sound. If that’s what you want, then purchase it. You won’t be disipointed.