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Post by phdamage on Sept 6, 2022 20:37:46 GMT -6
So my mic locker is pretty damn solid these days, as are my mic pres, drums, amps, cabs, etc. I even have a few fancy hardware comps to play with on the way in. I’m all ITB (though if/when my Stam 609 comes, that may change).
Don’t think I really want to get into hardware eq but I have been curious about the whole colour palette thing for use on the way in. I know DIYRE is a really low entry cost and it seems they make some cool stuff, but I don’t know how many modules I would even want to mess around with and they don’t seems terribly flexible (they don’t have a mix knob, do they?),so maybe mister focus would be cool? I know the silver bullet looks very cool but I don’t know if I’d really have need for the mic pres and all the bells and whistles (and my credit card sure doesn’t need the extra $$ piled on).
So I guess I’m just curious about DIYRE vs mr focus - anyone used both?
And the colour modules with transformers sound most appealing to me, though the tube one sounds cool also. I would want to not go super heavy handed, though I guess I have enough splitters kicking around that I could do it that way, but my goal is to just make mixing easier.
It’s funny - I recently remixed some things I tracked long ago on a well maintained tape machine. Aside from the track limitation, it just needed less work to get the mix happening. And I’m hoping to get a little more of that happening. Of course, the players and sounds make a world of difference, but we are all chasing that last 1-2%, aren’t we?
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Post by Blackdawg on Sept 6, 2022 22:22:19 GMT -6
Silver bullet all day. More useable in more situations and it fucking sounds awesome. I use it on...well everything.
Colour palette and MR focus are more for going "in" like design. like doing fun sounds during recording.
With the SB you can do that in and out and everything in between. Its awesome. A lot more expensive though..
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Post by drbill on Sept 6, 2022 22:49:14 GMT -6
FYI, it should be noted that the Silver Bullet mk2 comes with colour modules (Hitmaker 4000's standard) that can be swapped in and out for tube, compressor, additional transformer, etc. colours and you can "mix/blend" and "drive" from the front panel. I'm biased of course, but I agree with Blackdawg - there really is no comparison - SB all the way - and I do happen to have 12 Mr Focus's and more colour modules than I can count. 50+ easy....  If you are looking for something inexpensive, that will beef up your mic pre's on the way in - check out the Mr Focus "STAGE II". It's designed to be the additional circuitry (hence the name) that follows a mic pre when it's actually in a console, and is perfect to accompany stand alone mic pre's which almost always do not full attain what you get when you use a console vs. standalone pre. Good luck! |
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Post by phdamage on Sept 7, 2022 6:37:34 GMT -6
FYI, it should be noted that the Silver Bullet mk2 comes with colour modules (Hitmaker 4000's standard) that can be swapped in and out for tube, compressor, additional transformer, etc. colours and you can "mix/blend" and "drive" from the front panel. I'm biased of course, but I agree with Blackdawg - there really is no comparison - SB all the way - and I do happen to have 12 Mr Focus's and more colour modules than I can count. 50+ easy.... If you are looking for something inexpensive, that will beef up your mic pre's on the way in - check out the Mr Focus "STAGE II". It's designed to be the additional circuitry (hence the name) that follows a mic pre when it's actually in a console, and is perfect to accompany stand alone mic pre's which almost always do not full attain what you get when you use a console vs. standalone pre. Good luck! How easy is it to swap out those modules in either unit? |
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Post by bchurch on Sept 7, 2022 7:32:58 GMT -6
The Colour thing has its upsides and downsides. Being able to whittle up all manner of cool EQ's, comps, saturationators (usually for under $100) is really cool - and the majority of them really do sound great (provided you're building them properly).
The two big downsides are inherent to putting a daughter card on a fixed size module like 500 series. Changing the module means pulling the slot out. Okay, that's workable. But when you get into compressors and eq's in particular, needing to pull the slot out to adjust parameters is tough for anyone who wants to get the most mileage out of the circuits. If you just like having "set and forget" rack gear (I have several pieces of gear that I simply do not adjust) it's less a problem. I drilled out some blank 500 series panels and with potentiometers to control the HRK "British Console" module (attack, decay, threshold, and ratio). Wasn't pretty (and it wasted 500 space), but sure as shiznit was easier than the alternative.
There are some really cool modules about, some are "out of print" but worth keeping an eye out for. HRK's Sputnik, LTL's Pentode, DIYRE's 15ips and Distortastudio? Love those.
Also, there's been a lot of chatter about the link audio design 500 units lately (and for good reason). Their preamps (they've got SSL 4k and 9k in a few flavors, and API 312/512 on the way) all offer a Colour slot.
Can any of these hold a candle to an LtL Silver Bullet? Woof. That's a tough one. The Silver Bullet Mk2 is a pretty stankin' awesome box. Maybe not as versatile, though it does in fact do quite a bit. Maybe the Silver Bullet could offer stereo Colour functionality with a true bypass in the future.
OH - one more thing: DIYRE offers PCB blanks for Colour - so if there's a circuit you've been thinking of building yourself? That's a pretty great place to do it. I've pulled guts out of guitar pedals and rebuilt them on those little breadboards just to dork around.
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Post by bchurch on Sept 7, 2022 7:54:29 GMT -6
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Post by phdamage on Sept 7, 2022 8:15:41 GMT -6
Yeah, I really don't need more pres (I should thin the herd as is!). I think Mister Focus (stage II) would make more sense for me Maybe will just snag a DIYRE colour module to get my feet wet and see how I like it. Thanks for your input, folks |
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Post by drbill on Sept 7, 2022 10:00:57 GMT -6
Yeah, I really don't need more pres (I should thin the herd as is!) Just a FYI, although technically "mic amps" the Chroma's here get used as post line-level processing 95% of the time. As an API 1176, All buttons in 1176, Tube crunch, Neve weighterizer, etc.. |
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Post by chessparov on Sept 7, 2022 17:31:07 GMT -6
"don't need any more pre's". Famous last words. Chris |
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Post by phdamage on Sept 7, 2022 19:00:42 GMT -6
"don't need any more pre's". Famous last words. Chris Too damn true. I just bought a stam dual 1073 on here just a couple weeks back as well. Also, anyone wanna chime in about how easy it is or isn’t to swap Colour modules in any of these things? |
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Post by craigmorris74 on Sept 7, 2022 19:23:27 GMT -6
"don't need any more pre's". Famous last words. Chris Too damn true. I just bought a stam dual 1073 on here just a couple weeks back as well. Also, anyone wanna chime in about how easy it is or isn’t to swap Colour modules in any of these things? Pretty darn easy. |
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Post by nudwig on Sept 7, 2022 22:09:49 GMT -6
Like swaping an op-amp easy. I haven't tried the DIYRE hosts but love the Mr. Focus. I do agree on some of the things being a bit difficult to set. I built up the DIYRE extender to match what I wanted matched (Pentode 2 eq's for example) and they're now all set and forget. Other things like the Super Filter I thought I'd change a lot but I just don't.
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Post by Blackdawg on Sept 8, 2022 2:18:48 GMT -6
"don't need any more pre's". Famous last words. Chris Too damn true. I just bought a stam dual 1073 on here just a couple weeks back as well. Also, anyone wanna chime in about how easy it is or isn’t to swap Colour modules in any of these things? The 500 colour stuff is only "easy" if you have A) a PSU that is easily switched off with power switch on the front or power strip in your rack B) you have some kind of thumb screws for the 500 cards so you don't need a screw driver every time. By FAR the fastest/coolest/easiest way to swap colours is with DIYER's Colour Duo unit. Since it has a quick release drawn on it and power switch on it. Takes seconds to pull it out and swap stuff. Chroma and Silver Bullet you gotta pull the unit and pop the lid. |
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Post by yewtreemagic on Sept 8, 2022 10:31:59 GMT -6
If you are looking for something inexpensive, that will beef up your mic pre's on the way in - check out the Mr Focus "STAGE II". It's designed to be the additional circuitry (hence the name) that follows a mic pre when it's actually in a console, and is perfect to accompany stand alone mic pre's which almost always do not full attain what you get when you use a console vs. standalone pre. Good luck! Inspired by drbill's post I visited the Louderthan liftoff web site, had a listen to the Stage II audio clips, and was most impressed! store.louderthanliftoff.com/pages/mister-focus-sound-clips |
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Post by drbill on Sept 8, 2022 11:11:51 GMT -6
Thanks! I did those clips pretty quickly for LTL. Mostly to give an idea of the transient shaving and potential crunch it can add. Been awhile since I listened to those - thanks for the reminder. <thumbsup> |
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Post by phdamage on Sept 10, 2022 9:44:47 GMT -6
Thanks! I did those clips pretty quickly for LTL. Mostly to give an idea of the transient shaving and potential crunch it can add. Been awhile since I listened to those - thanks for the reminder. <thumbsup> Very curious to hear these but can’t get them to play! Tried multiple devices and browsers |
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Post by drbill on Sept 10, 2022 10:03:11 GMT -6
Weird. Playing just fine here....
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Post by yewtreemagic on Sept 10, 2022 17:18:27 GMT -6
For some strange reason the 1st dry demo initially took a long time before it started playing on my PC too (although I could see data was being downloaded), but I left it for some seconds and it finally started OK.
The same delay happened with the 1st wet demo, but once both the dry and wet versions of the 1st demo had played, all the other audio Mister Focus demos worked fine straightaway.
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