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Post by tonycamphd on Jul 5, 2014 0:38:53 GMT -6
the UA610 tube pre, Neve pre, Api pre, not sure exact models on the later 2, i think the lola sounds huge and punchy, the differential circuit design with the 990 opamps really seems to give it power and a comfy/pillowy clarity, it's specs a ton of gain, and very low noise as it's balanced front to back. With so much clear gain, I think i'm going with a pair of these with my ribbon mics in mind, i picture them on room mics, drum overheads and any source needing big punch, with soft hi end clarity.
They come pre assembled, and diy i think. I do have to say, the brown sounding thing from the api in this comparison is just amazing on acoustic, it's my fav of these guitar samples.
I'd love to here thoughts from fella's that have these in use?
comparisons start at 3:34 in, make sure you watch/listen in HD
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Post by gouge on Jul 5, 2014 3:40:19 GMT -6
Jezz i love the lola. I'd be happy for a mixer full. Lola is like a less hyped daking. I don't find it has a go to use As it satisfies me on everything. What it does that my othe pres don't is it captures a level of depth and detail an makes my mics sound better. No other pre i use i could say that about. I like my othe pres a lot but i think for me the lola is pretty special.
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Post by tonycamphd on Jul 5, 2014 8:58:08 GMT -6
Jezz i love the lola. I'd be happy for a mixer full. Lola is like a less hyped daking. I don't find it has a go to use As it satisfies me on everything. What it does that my othe pres don't is it captures a level of depth and detail an makes my mics sound better. No other pre i use i could say that about. I like my othe pres a lot but i think for me the lola is pretty special. cool, I though i heard a lot of front to back depth in the sample as well, it seems like it uses all of it's available headroom(certainly not lacking with that design). What other pre's do you have available in your set up? |
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Post by deehope on Jul 5, 2014 9:55:32 GMT -6
I want to know how it compares to other clean pres I Ike hardys, forssell etc.
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Post by gouge on Jul 5, 2014 21:01:29 GMT -6
Ma5, daking 500, vp28, eisen 312, sytek. i would like to compare to forsell and hardy as well. Jezz i love the lola. I'd be happy for a mixer full. Lola is like a less hyped daking. I don't find it has a go to use As it satisfies me on everything. What it does that my othe pres don't is it captures a level of depth and detail an makes my mics sound better. No other pre i use i could say that about. I like my othe pres a lot but i think for me the lola is pretty special. cool, I though i heard a lot of front to back depth in the sample as well, it seems like it uses all of it's available headroom(certainly not lacking with that design). What other pre's do you have available in your set up? |
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Post by winetree on Jul 5, 2014 22:31:00 GMT -6
I've been waiting to get a pair of LOLAs for the 500 racks.
I'd like to compare the them to my Deane Jensen Boulder twin servo 990 mic pres.
they seem to be simular topology.
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Post by littlesicily on Jul 6, 2014 10:11:46 GMT -6
I had only an afternoon w a pair of Lola pres. Quick comparisons to vp28s and aml 1073.... I didn't think the Lola's lived up to the verbal descriptions I was given.
Maybe I just prefer colored preamps. Lola was smaller sounding by comparison.
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Post by deehope on Jul 6, 2014 14:59:12 GMT -6
We're they really clean though?
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Post by tonycamphd on Jul 6, 2014 15:06:21 GMT -6
I had only an afternoon w a pair of Lola pres. Quick comparisons to vp28s and aml 1073.... I didn't think the Lola's lived up to the verbal descriptions I was given. Maybe I just prefer colored preamps. Lola was smaller sounding by comparison. I don't doubt you at all Sal, but when i think 990 opamps, and differential circuits, small doesn't come to mind.. unless something was out of phase?..hhmmm Can you tell us in what context you were using them? In the samples at the top of this page, they sound as big and more focused than the 610, and bigger than everything else in the comparison on my monitors. |
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Post by littlesicily on Jul 6, 2014 15:09:35 GMT -6
I had only an afternoon w a pair of Lola pres. Quick comparisons to vp28s and aml 1073.... I didn't think the Lola's lived up to the verbal descriptions I was given. Maybe I just prefer colored preamps. Lola was smaller sounding by comparison. I don't doubt you at all Sal, but when i think 990 opamps, and differential circuits, small doesn't come to mind.. unless something was out of phase?..hhmmm Can you tell us in what context you were using them? In the samples at the top of this page, they sound as big and more focused than the 610, and bigger than everything else in the comparison on my monitors. Tony, I tried them (quickly at that) on acgtr, e.gtr and male vocal. I love the API (CAPI) and Neve (AML) sound for these sources and maybe it was as simple as I didn't prefer the Lola on any of those sources on that day. |
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Post by gouge on Jul 7, 2014 16:43:44 GMT -6
It could be over doing the output attenuation making the sound smaller.
i find the output attenuation to be very heavy handed so only use it sparingly. Never more tha a quarter on the dial and a lot of time none at all.
my first use of the pre made the wave files look hyper compressed.
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Post by Guitar on Jul 7, 2014 22:48:25 GMT -6
sounds good in the video
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Post by nicholasdover on Jul 8, 2014 6:53:04 GMT -6
What do you reckon is causing that slow phase shift in the recordings? Or is that just me?!
The guitarist's not moving around, but I can hear a big phase sweep as he plays in the first section and on Lola playback especially.
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Post by btreim on Jul 8, 2014 7:43:23 GMT -6
What do you reckon is causing that slow phase shift in the recordings? Or is that just me?! The guitarist's not moving around, but I can hear a big phase sweep as he plays in the first section and on Lola playback especially. It sounds like they were just capturing camera audio, so whoever was filming was moving around the speaker a bit and getting some phasing. |
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Post by svart on Jul 8, 2014 8:25:57 GMT -6
I'm hopefully not the only one who feels that these types of videos are useless.. Right? I mean, I appreciate the time it took and the attempt, but between the poor camera audio and the youtube compression, it's useless as a comparison. I'd much rather have the pure audio tracks so I can do A/B on my recording system and hear what it sounds like where I would be using them..
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Post by btreim on Jul 8, 2014 8:46:25 GMT -6
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Post by tonycamphd on Jul 8, 2014 9:01:17 GMT -6
Come on fella's, really? On the video  |
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Post by btreim on Jul 8, 2014 11:13:45 GMT -6
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Post by nicholasdover on Jul 8, 2014 11:57:34 GMT -6
HA! Me too...
I know I love the sound of the Lola from clips elsewhere so luckily it wasn't affecting any decision making, I was just unfairly judging the video!
Thanks tonycamphd
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Post by littlesicily on Jul 8, 2014 12:21:47 GMT -6
It could be over doing the output attenuation making the sound smaller. i find the output attenuation to be very heavy handed so only use it sparingly. Never more tha a quarter on the dial and a lot of time none at all. my first use of the pre made the wave files look hyper compressed. How does an output attenuator affect the sound? At 10 (full volume) is just passing the audio, not driving it hard. Anything less is reducing the output. |
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Post by svart on Jul 8, 2014 13:59:16 GMT -6
It could be over doing the output attenuation making the sound smaller. i find the output attenuation to be very heavy handed so only use it sparingly. Never more tha a quarter on the dial and a lot of time none at all. my first use of the pre made the wave files look hyper compressed. How does an output attenuator affect the sound? At 10 (full volume) is just passing the audio, not driving it hard. Anything less is reducing the output. It reduces the output but it also changes the output current as you turn up the attenuation, in turn changing the interaction between the Lola and the load impedance. it also loads down the opamps and output transformer too, changing their attributes to some degree, usually by adding more harmonic content. |
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Post by littlesicily on Jul 8, 2014 14:15:13 GMT -6
How does an output attenuator affect the sound? At 10 (full volume) is just passing the audio, not driving it hard. Anything less is reducing the output. It reduces the output but it also changes the output current as you turn up the attenuation, in turn changing the interaction between the Lola and the load impedance. it also loads down the opamps and output transformer too, changing their attributes to some degree, usually by adding more harmonic content. Is this unique to the Lola? I've always been told the cleanest way to run a pre such as a racked 1073, BAE 1073, etc is to leave the output att wide open (unity) and keep the input gain down. Conversely, turning up input gain drive it harder and then attenuating output to keep from clipping what it's feeding makes it more saturated with harmonic content. Is this correct? |
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Post by svart on Jul 8, 2014 15:33:01 GMT -6
It reduces the output but it also changes the output current as you turn up the attenuation, in turn changing the interaction between the Lola and the load impedance. it also loads down the opamps and output transformer too, changing their attributes to some degree, usually by adding more harmonic content. Is this unique to the Lola? I've always been told the cleanest way to run a pre such as a racked 1073, BAE 1073, etc is to leave the output att wide open (unity) and keep the input gain down. Conversely, turning up input gain drive it harder and then attenuating output to keep from clipping what it's feeding makes it more saturated with harmonic content. Is this correct? No, a lot of the CAPI stuff and others have output attenuators too. The cleanest way to do anything is to have all your gain up in front of the signal chain. That would mean that after you have set your source's levels to something you find appropriate (I.E., guitar amp levels to get the tone you want) then if you need gain, do it with the preamp rather than doing a bunch of boost at the output later. On preamps that have input attenuation, you want that to be as low as possible and then adjust your gain accordingly. Attenuation before gain is always more noisy than gain before attenuation. On preamps that have gain adjustment and output attenuation, always set your gain accordingly and only use the output attenuation if you need to do a little level trimming or if you want more harmonics by turning the output attenuation up. Make sense? |
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Post by littlesicily on Jul 8, 2014 15:44:18 GMT -6
Is this unique to the Lola? I've always been told the cleanest way to run a pre such as a racked 1073, BAE 1073, etc is to leave the output att wide open (unity) and keep the input gain down. Conversely, turning up input gain drive it harder and then attenuating output to keep from clipping what it's feeding makes it more saturated with harmonic content. Is this correct? On preamps that have gain adjustment and output attenuation, always set your gain accordingly and only use the output attenuation if you need to do a little level trimming or if you want more harmonics by turning the output attenuation up. Make sense? Not sure I fully understand yet, but thank you for explaining. Maybe I'm hung up on the word "attenuate" which means "to turn down or lessen" and/or I don't understand electronics components enough. My brain reads your above statement as… "... or if you want more harmonics by turning the "turn down thing" up." haha… not trying to argue semantics at all… I guess I don't understand how something that's "open" or "all on" at 10 (or fully clock wise) is adding harmonic info. Is that inherent in the component (attenuator)? I probably need a course in electronics. Thank you for your patience svart |
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Post by tonycamphd on Jul 8, 2014 16:14:38 GMT -6
Svart nails, but really simply put, Using the input stage to (over) drive the components(transfomers opamps etc), creates desirable harmonic distorion, but also elevates the output to unusable levels, the output attenuator turns those desirable volume induced artifacts down to a useable level. Which also adds a compartmentalized, compressed and less open sound IME
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