Neve style pres for under $1k?? The interface Hunt is Over!

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by OffYourFace » Fri Nov 24, 2017 11:27 pm

Suggestions for 19" rack A/D converters under $1500??

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Re: A good pair of Neve style pres for under $1k??

Post by TroyDarc » Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:47 pm

Kent wrote:
Mon Sep 25, 2017 10:22 pm
Golden Age Project.
I second the Golden Age Project pres. Talk to Revive Audio. They mod these beautifully and often have them in stock.

Alctron makes a very affordable 1073 per/eq, the MP73EQ. Think it is $500. I have no experience with it...

7nth Circle I have heard great things about but no actual hard experience.

BAE and KLAR Audio make some great 1073's. This is the route I would take, but is still pricey.

As for conversion.

May I suggest a UAD interface. It will include Neve 1073 plugs...PLUS much more. I am not a fan of the Apollo given my workflow, but people are loving them.

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by TroyDarc » Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:51 pm

OffYourFace wrote:
Fri Nov 24, 2017 11:27 pm
Suggestions for 19" rack A/D converters under $1500??
Ebay. There is SO many Apogee convertors that are killer at great prices.

But again...UAD Apollo...you will eliminate SO much effort plus get to try out some great replicated plugs.

Its everything you need.

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by fortytwo » Fri Jan 19, 2018 12:30 am

But you can't really beat that 32 I/O in 1 unit, even though they are kinda not really good looking, wouldn't say that they are ugly, just not really well designed.

I third the Apollos, depending on your workflow.

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by OffYourFace » Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:56 am

I got enough bday money to upgrade my setup. A lot of people are doing the UAD Apollo.

I should probably do that and save space. It just seems so boring to me than buying some real pres and a nice converter. I admit that I'm completely ignorant about the apollo system. Am I going to be locked into some system like the days of the mBox?

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by fortytwo » Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:21 am

Yes, a little bit.
But it doesn't care what DAW you are using, it's converters sounds pretty darn good, and for those sessions, where you need more that two I/O on the Apollo twin, there's an optical in, so you can upgrade with an extra 8 I/O to a total of 10 I/O.
You can also upgrade your choice of unison preamps to Universal Audio 610, SSL 4000, API channel strip and Manley Voxbox, heck they even made the Kord SDD-3000 as a unison plug.

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by TroyDarc » Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:34 pm

OffYourFace wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:56 am
I got enough bday money to upgrade my setup. A lot of people are doing the UAD Apollo.

I should probably do that and save space. It just seems so boring to me than buying some real pres and a nice converter. I admit that I'm completely ignorant about the apollo system. Am I going to be locked into some system like the days of the mBox?
I CANNOT BELEIVE I SLEEPED ON THIS

These guys just killed the industry in so many ways. 8 channel mic pres with direct DAC outs. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT OFFYOURFACE! Welcome to the future.

Antelope Audio interfaces are the sexiest 'IST'! monsters to hit the market in our life time. AFFORDABLE!!!!! Man SOOO Affordable!!! Everyone GOOGLE! SO COOL!

My wife says Yes, this is worth the money. (funny story to follow up about the Apollo and my wife)
And she is a hard person to convince given she gives zero fudges about audio.

Products that do EVERYTHING that the apollo does, without the credit card bills of UAD plugin purchases and at a quality level that seems to be tank like. But MUCH MUCH MORE. Next next level convertors, zero latency proprietary FPGA FX processors (just learned what these are VERY COOL!!!). There own UAD'ish plug ins....that are bundled for our flavouring needs getting monotonously positive reviews from people in the know.
Multiple isolated Headphone DAC! Playback and routing possibilities for days.
AND MIC PRES>>>>>>DUDEs and Lady Audio people....I have goosebumps!
Down side, they have SO MANY OPTIONS!

Check these cats out man. I may be pulling the plug on the Goliath myself for Dolby Atmos music mixes!


back to the Apollo....seems weak now lol. But it is still a serious tool. Just...I mean...okay moving forward.

I found it pretty intuitive. The virtual console is the simplest I have seen given its feature set. Simply drag and drop for pretty much everything. Routing can be tricky if you have no experience but it has main monitor outs and volume control on the face of the unit as well as headphone out. But my past exeperience as a revolving gear hound I was prepared for almost everything. Lack of monitor control on output channels (I think I said that right, it makes sense to me anyway) made it, frustrating for my needs.

Sorry to drool on...fun times!

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by OffYourFace » Fri Jan 19, 2018 6:32 pm

TroyDarc wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:34 pm
OffYourFace wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:56 am
I got enough bday money to upgrade my setup. A lot of people are doing the UAD Apollo.

I should probably do that and save space. It just seems so boring to me than buying some real pres and a nice converter. I admit that I'm completely ignorant about the apollo system. Am I going to be locked into some system like the days of the mBox?
I CANNOT BELEIVE I SLEEPED ON THIS

These guys just killed the industry in so many ways. 8 channel mic pres with direct DAC outs. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT OFFYOURFACE! Welcome to the future.

Antelope Audio interfaces are the sexiest 'IST'! monsters to hit the market in our life time. AFFORDABLE!!!!! Man SOOO Affordable!!! Everyone GOOGLE! SO COOL!


Check these cats out man. I may be pulling the plug on the Goliath myself for Dolby Atmos music mixes!

hahaha ok.... a friend whose opinion I trust suggested this one by Antelope: https://vintageking.com/antelope-audio-discrete-4
I'm trying to find some reviews. I guess it's pretty new.
I don't want to spend more than $1500 on A/D Conv

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by NBarnes21 » Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:34 pm

Warm Audio has a whole suite of 1073 preamps with or without EQ coming out shortly. I've got 2 of their WA-12 API style preamps and have been super happy with them. IMO they're the best bang for your buck bar none, they use quality transformers and their price point is hard to beat.

https://www.warmaudio.com/
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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by NBarnes21 » Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:39 pm

Also I'm an avid Apollo user and I will say their 1073 emulation is amazing, I use it on every channel when tracking drums (and just about everything for that matter, but it is DSP hungry). The EQ is amazing and they even modeled the harmonic distortion generated by turning up the console fader. Probably best bang for your buck since you can use multiple instances and print the sound on the way in when recording. That being said I do want to get some of these Warm Audio 1073's with EQ for my line inputs on my Apollo.
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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by TroyDarc » Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:49 pm

NBarnes21 wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:39 pm
Also I'm an avid Apollo user and I will say their 1073 emulation is amazing, I use it on every channel when tracking drums (and just about everything for that matter, but it is DSP hungry). The EQ is amazing and they even modeled the harmonic distortion generated by turning up the console fader. Probably best bang for your buck since you can use multiple instances and print the sound on the way in when recording. That being said I do want to get some of these Warm Audio 1073's with EQ for my line inputs on my Apollo.
I believe Revive Audio is doing some great mods on the Warm Audio stuff that sets it off into a whole new ballpark. At least that is the chatter around the feeding troves is.

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by TroyDarc » Fri Jan 19, 2018 8:06 pm

OffYourFace wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 6:32 pm
TroyDarc wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:34 pm
OffYourFace wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:56 am
I got enough bday money to upgrade my setup. A lot of people are doing the UAD Apollo.

I should probably do that and save space. It just seems so boring to me than buying some real pres and a nice converter. I admit that I'm completely ignorant about the apollo system. Am I going to be locked into some system like the days of the mBox?
I CANNOT BELEIVE I SLEEPED ON THIS

These guys just killed the industry in so many ways. 8 channel mic pres with direct DAC outs. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT OFFYOURFACE! Welcome to the future.

Antelope Audio interfaces are the sexiest 'IST'! monsters to hit the market in our life time. AFFORDABLE!!!!! Man SOOO Affordable!!! Everyone GOOGLE! SO COOL!


Check these cats out man. I may be pulling the plug on the Goliath myself for Dolby Atmos music mixes!

hahaha ok.... a friend whose opinion I trust suggested this one by Antelope: https://vintageking.com/antelope-audio-discrete-4
I'm trying to find some reviews. I guess it's pretty new.
I don't want to spend more than $1500 on A/D Conv
The "Deseret" 4 is not just A/D Conversion. It is 4 DISCRETE mic pres, virtual mix routing, plugs that emulate so many great amps and outboard. Controlable by iOS & Android remotely of course, and D/A Conversion in the monitor outs, which can be used in other ways given there is D/A conversion in the headphone outs.


Again just researching Antelope now so it is fresh...I am not usually this on the ball.

And its $899. I am agawk! Literally...agwawk!

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by OffYourFace » Mon Jan 22, 2018 1:22 am

So here's where I'm at... open to your opinions. Also, I need to upgrade my PT system from ver.10 to 12 so that's about $300 towards that.

1. Antelope Audio Discrete 4 or 8 and only use that for a while for both pres and A/D - D/A -about $900 (D4) - $1300 (D8)

2. MOTU 828x because friends of mine prefer its sound over the Apogee Element series and say it's more flexible,
and then get a SCA rack with two N72s and one DI module (about $1700 total, 100% of my budget)

3. Pull my hair out

4. open to something else. I know many people like the UAD Apollo but I've been recommended not to go that route by a few people I respect. But in reality I can't afford the rack version and I don't want the desktop thing.

I think I would go "Option 2" out of the available.

I must dissent from the others here about the UA Apollo in one minor way-- the onboard preamps and plugin emulations are perhaps interesting, but they are not real replacements for bona fide good hardware preamps, IMO.

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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by Dok » Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:57 pm

If I was buying a new interface right now I'd seriously consider the Cranborne 500R8. It's brand new but damn if it isn't an amazing idea that I can't believe hasn't been done before - if you already have any 500 series gear, Bob's your uncle. You can use the A/D converters without any gear in the rack, too.

http://www.cranborne-audio.com/500r8

In the thread on Gearslutz the owner is saying this will list at $1399. I guess that's a bit outside of your budget.

For what it's worth, I upgraded from an old MOTU 828 to a Focusrite Clarett 8Pre and it's really solid.
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Re: Neve style pres for under $1k?? Got it. What about A/D Converters?

Post by OffYourFace » Mon Jan 29, 2018 12:00 am

Dok wrote:
Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:57 pm
If I was buying a new interface right now I'd seriously consider the Cranborne 500R8. It's brand new but damn if it isn't an amazing idea that I can't believe hasn't been done before - if you already have any 500 series gear, Bob's your uncle. You can use the A/D converters without any gear in the rack, too.

http://www.cranborne-audio.com/500r8

In the thread on Gearslutz the owner is saying this will list at $1399. I guess that's a bit outside of your budget.
Oh shit! That's sweet! My budget has changed a bit... I'm currently looking for a used Lynx Aurora 8 with thunderbolt. Then I was going to build an SCA rack with two of their N72s and one of their DIs. Then I'd have to work something out for monitoring... I wish this Cranborne unit had thunderbolt. hmmmm... thanks for chiming in!

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