4:56 - just the mic sound. 11:37 for the comparison with the channel strip with everything engaged. Reason I did this is because its easier to hear the difference by hearing the 2 back to back. Nice video!
Here's me sitting here with a pen and paper written: 4:57 vs 11:37 ha! Wish I'd read the comments first. Absolutely agree. Hearing the two back to back is really how you determine those differences in sound characteristics.
Learned two things: "If you can hear the bass you added, you probably added too much" & a high compressor really isn't always the way to go; it even really rips the quality at times.
Just a little word of caution: "If you can hear the bass it is probably a little bit too much", highly depends on your speakers. In this case he is listening to ATH M50X, if you have those, then that advice is top notch, because of how this headphone in particular hypes the bass. (it tends to mask the very very low frequencies). Same applies for headphones that are lacking in bass, or just don't go low enough, you won't hear what really is going on. Most cans are like that (either lacking, or hyped bass response), so for the lot of you it should be solid advice! However if you already invested in neutral sounding phones, or use something like Sonarworks, I'd say: that the moment you hear a touch of nice warm bass, it's done - at least in my experience.
When I was younger I actually thought about doing this just for fun. Glad you actually did it and I bet it did sound good. Avalon is great, no color though, just great, loud and up front
The analogy that made sense to me and so I can easily recall it, is that the microphone is to your sound, what a lens is to your photography. Everything has to go through that lens first. How much does one want to spend in other hardware and software expense and processing or tweaking time to get the sound to where they want to be, if it's even possible with a microphone (lens) that is the weakest link?
The thing about chinese condenser mics isn't (always) the components or the design, it's often the quality control for the capsule. There are gems, but without a way to really test them, it's playing the lottery. Some companies are most likely branding existing chinese designs as their own after a quality assurance test. Avantone comes to mind here, MXL, Behringer, Sterling Audio, Nady, Samson, etc.
This is great, and I love the experimentation, but it's a shame we didn't get any volume adjusted A B comparisons. I would've loved to have heard the tube saturation / compression with the output attenuated. Thanks for the upload though!
Hey, you know i have been getting a good a mount of "it wouldve been nice if" suggestions. I plan on doing a couple different videos with different mics with the avalon so i can really hit those points. Thanks for the suggestion!
Prior to listening to this you tube of yours, I had just put in an order for Aphex 230 Channel, and find it is discontinued. It is now called the Aphex Channel, and I have still to get the revised price. It would be GREAT if you could give a demo using your equipment, as the difference you made in this cheap mic was great. You have a new subscriber - thanks.
Thanks for your prompt response; it is appreciated. Just been informed it will take 2 weeks to get this new hardware. Still do not have a price yet, but your example with the Avalon 737 PROVES to me that this is the way to go, even though I do have a DBX 286 compressor. The Exciter and Big Bottom it is hoped will improve on my voice overs for our training material.
Would love to see you messing around with the Avalon with the MkH 416 and TM103... Would be really interesting to see the difference an Avalon makes with high quality mics like the 416 and TM103. Thanks
Don't know how you got your head around that tongue twister without screwing it up, as I certainly would have. ;-) Good demo. Have you ever seen a scenario where these pre-amps are used in a live concert vox scenario?
I don't think you made fully use of the function of the 737 since you had not change the threshold of the compressor, as well as the attack and release time. Also you had not change the individual EQ Hz, specially the treble EQ range. You left it at 32kHz, which made the smallest change of your sound. Try put the treble Hz at 15kHz and the high mid Hz at 2000Hz, then give some more dbs to both of them you will get a pretty sound.
Churan Feng hey man. Thanks!! For sure I will try that out. I mainly use the Avalon for the preamp since I use it for VOs and everyone wants a completely dry file. But I will for sure mess with it and hear my money's worth in action. Thanks!
Churan Feng running through a channel strip like Avalon doesn't always need to compress them. I usually ran through my sound through my IGS Tubecore just for its coloration without using the compression
Thanks for the demo. Currently looking for a premium vocal preamp to mate with my AKG c414XL2. Your demo sounded great-now if I could locate one of these puppies for affordable coin!
Lo, nice job! I have a silver one and you made me want the black/blue anniversary edition. Looks slick! I use it at times with a mkh-416 and a neumann u87. I do wonder if you recorded a voiceover with the el-cheapo mic, and then another take with the 416...and then mixed them with music, could people tell a huge difference or not.
yeah, i asked myself that question, so i took the same cheepo mic and redid a VO for a commercial i previously did. Obviously it took more on the side of EQing. It didnt have Avalon involved and just the mic. In the end, it came off as if i was EQing the vocals to that desired effect. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5V_E4UhClCU.html
Thanks a lot for the very great review. Speaking of mic ... i have never seen measurements on mic and i wonder if it is not possible to measure things like self noise, distortion, freq response, etc.. That would be very interesting as well. The preamp is cleary high end unit. Above any suspect. Great piece of electronics. Thanks again, gino
It sounds good! I just purchased a Avalon after years of sweetwater reps bashing it but despite what they said I felt the need to go get it. The Mics I own are a Lauten Atlantis Fet and a Mojave ma-1000 so I am very excited to hear the ultimate transformation hopefully....my current pre/eq is a daking but anyways I thought if u might could give me some pointers on which mic to pair up w the Avalon. Thanks
Most engineers steer away from over doing it with tubes. Think Tube mic goes into clean solidstate preamp vs FET & transformerless mic goes into tube or colored preamp. It's like mixing too many colors of paint makes brown. Alternatively, a FET/transformerless mic into a clean preamp can sound too sterile and lifeless.
It's great video , thank you very much. We just bought an avalon 737 and are waiting for the parcel. In the meantime, we are trying to choose a mic to it (within the range of $ 1000-1500). What would you recommend to this preamp for RAP vocals? We thought of buying Neumann U87, and would like to see the video how it work with avalon. (or with another good microphone). Thank you so much!
PSRec Studio I have several other microphones that I would like to make a comparison video. I recently did a video on the TLM 103 and loved that mic but never plugged it in the Avalon. I want a U87 as well but all I hear is that it has the same exact capsule as the TLM 103. I do have a video on the TLM 49 and that is recommended for singing vocals.
The comparison I would like to see from someone: is a $2000 preamp used with a $100 audio interface vs a $2000 preamp used with a $1000 audio interface worth it? LOL....I had to explain to my buddy that his recent purchase made no sense since his is bypassing the $1000 amps in the audio interface, which is all he talked about. So many people over spend foolishly so your video was well driven in theory trying to show, is the bang for the buck worth it, with so many options in various price ranges.
Han man, unfortunately i dont have any thousand dollar interfaces, but on my channel, i have a series of VLOGS called The VO Vlogs. I use the Avalon with an MBOX3 which is pretty much a couple hundred dollar interface, but has been long out classed by newer and cheaper stuff. So if that helps as a reference go check that out, but thanks for the idea. I will see if i can create something similar with the gear i already have.
If its a thousand dollar interface hes raving about I 100% guarantee you it was an interface with DSP. Probably Apollo. Theres also the fact that a lot of people doing that are using a digital output on the preamp to add channels. IE the Apollo twins only have 2 preamped inputs, but an ADAT input. You could get a thousand dollar twin quad, and then get a 4-710d running into it giving you a total of 10 channels. All of which making use of UAD DSP, universal audios top notch a/d converters, and the apollos blazing speed. So yeah. Dont go around spewing shit you clearly dont know about.
Thing is, why on earth would anyone who can afford a super-primo preamp/EQ/comp ever settle for a P.O.J. mic. Like the Neewer? I guess it was just about see what a good channel strip can do. I do wish Lo had cranked up the Output knob to bring back what the compressor had sucked out of the levels. That’s what Output is for!
I have a none treated room i am going to use headphones and a subpac is it still worth buying good audio interface with nice preamp or does it not matter?
This pretty much proves the idea that the biggest improvement to the sound goes back to the earliest thing in the equip chain, of course being the mic itself...which is why gear heads will tell people to invest in a more expensive mic first, then upgrade the pre when you can. Yeah, the Avalon "helped," but at the end of the day, it can only do so much with a really cheap piece of gear plugged in to it.
Marketweis, Its hard to tell what a mic pre can do when you`re only hearing it on one track. My suggestion is to record a song twice... Record it with a cheap mic pre and then record it through the 737. I did this years ago.... I recorded a song with my AT4050 mic going straight into an Aphex 107. Afterwards, I re-recorded the song with the Avalon 737. The difference was obvious. The song was warmer, more open in the high end, tighter in the low end, and the mids just sat better in the mix without harshness. This is the only way one can truly hear how much a mic or pre can change a sound... record lots of tracks with that mic or pre and re-record the same material with another mic or pre. Yeah, its more work but its really the only way.
Sonny Bonez audio interfaces do have converters ad/da . But there’s things like ‘behringer ultra match pro and dangerous music convert-2” that are made specifically for it conversion technology. Very high end
If you're using a nicer microphone, you basically aren't getting the full sound of the microphone until you run it through a $2000 preamp. Adding it to a cheap microphone (basically any microphone below $300), is just "adding color" as you said.
So when i got mine, i got it from Musicians Friend. It took me a good amount of time to get it and I had to pay shipping. Amazon is fine, you get prime shipping, but make sure if you do buy it is says "by Avalon", meaning you are getting the Avalon directly from Avalon but its just being fulfilled by Amazon and not a 3rd party. If its by Avalon then you are covered by their warranty and not a 3rd party source. Good LUck! amzn.to/2gfVY5t
Here is my question, why the heck do you have the low shelf set to 30hz? You're not going to add anything useful in the lows for a vocal in that area... Should have it set at 150hz.
Set there but its not engaged, i mainly use the Avalon for its preamp and slight compression for voice overs, i have yet to seriously fiddle with the right side of the devised, but thanks, i will look into it.
Lo Knows, Sort Of it is engaged. You have the EQ button pressed on the right right side above the power button and you also have the boost/cut knob turned to +5db meaning you’re adding +5db at 30Hz. I have the same preamp just mine is not the black edition. I just realized eventually you turn that bass knob down and cut some of that frequency out. Sorry I commented at 11:07 into the video lol
Lo Knows, Sort Of nah the shelves are engaged as soon as you press the eq button. If you leave the boost/cut knob at 0 then you aren’t technically using them. The buttons under the low-mid and high-mid are the Q and 10x, Q being the width of the band you are boosting/cutting and 10x meaning whatever frequency you have the bottom knob set to, it’s going to multiply that by 10x. So 300hz will be 3000hz and so on. Sorry if you already knew this!
well the $2500 Avalon really improve the mic output but to my knowledge Avalon price should have drop now that lots of low price pre-amp can achieve close enough if not the same. the price is high when the technology is still new, but now software can achieve same result. I will like you use the same mic on DBX286S mic pre amp and compare to the Avalon. maybe that will be a nice VS.
I think you are very misinformed in the software vs hardware department. To my knowledge, you can’t compress or eq before your converters in software, nor can you change the tubes in your software. Also, $2,500 for a fully featured channel strip is very reasonable. This isn’t just a preamp. Remember that software goes down in value, good hardware goes up in value. That’s like saying a U67 should be $200 now because the technology is so old.
Takefumi Music Channel Warm Audio TB12 Tone Beast!!!! Based on one of the Api series preamps. I own one, and ITS SWEET!!!!! They call it the Avalon killer!!!
Aaron A. Dubz Person I own a Warm Audio WA12 500. I paired with my 251 clone and it killed. It rocks and sounds percussive on vocal. But certainly I just think Avalon is thin only.
I might sound cheap but u can achieve this with software and fantom power. tutorial: EQ, compressor, Deesser and a preamp vst called Little Radiator. def not worth 2500
ITB can NEVER equal up to hardware. It just has a completely different sound. I used to think like you, until after I bought my first few pieces of hardware. Now I see the difference. And what a huge difference it is
Sounds great !!! :) I always dream of having nice equipment like that everyday but can never afford it I'm using a basic USB mic that sucks no matter what I do to it lol lucky you
Andre Ryabchenkov hey man thanks for the kind words and criticism. It’s something I’m aware off and really trying to get better at. I appreciate the support man
Ah man When you are passionate about things you can talk all day, thanks for the video, It was helpful. I have a 737 in a studio that was built in the public library that employs me, I have been too scared to engage the compressor or the EQ on the way in since I have only done it in the box. Ima fux with it tho, thanks to seeing what kind of changes it can do. Quality hardware probably beats plugin presets any day. Subbed and looking forward to more vids
Thank you for the video. I do keep hearing this noise that's very distracting. I worked out quickly what was causing the problem. I fixed it easily too. Just mute the audio! Shame about the dialogue.
Clayton Brown no specific reason. Just to help with voice slapping off the wall and coming back to the mic. Because the wall was so far from the mic I didn’t cover all of it. There was no real design or intention I was going for with it.
I'm a voiceover artist and I have foam on a good part of the walls here in the room I'm using for my voiceover recording. I can give you a real world example you may have experienced (to give you the good reason why many of us put foam on the walls). Have you ever moved out of an apartment or a house and notice that once you take all of the furniture out of a room (whether it be the bed with a soft mattress/blanket etc., upholstered chairs, etc.) it sounds a LOT more echoey!? Now take out the carpet and it will sound like an echo chamber. Conversely, with all the furniture there (including paintings on the walls, etc.) the room sounds a lot less echoey. Well, when recording, foam takes away even more of any echo that might be extant in that room and make for better recordings.
hi there i own this baby...one little secret... 4 tubes...1 for input 1 for comp 1 for eq 1 for output...if you disengage the comp and eq section you also dont use these 2 tubes...so test this... and you will see the light ;-) always leave on the comp and eq sections even if they dont affect the signal(no compression no eq)... it will sound lot better ;-)
dimoscondos hold on a sec. I want to fully understand. I recently made 2 other videos on my channel about the preamp tubes dying. So what is it I should try? Leave all the tubes plugged in but just turn off of the comp and eq?
no man... the path of the avalon goes as i described above...if you bypass the comp and eq u actually use only 2 of the 4 tubes...but if engaged even if there is no eq moves done or no compression made...you still pass the signal through those 2 tubes adding harmonics etc...all the goodies of the tube sound... ;-)
You know you cannot engage the preamp on the Avalon right? It is "always" engaged. Turning the gain is just gain staging. Also do you know how I suspect you are not a pro engineer? Every pro engineer will have the meter on gain reduction and not output. Not trying to be rude just want to know who I am actually watching.
@YOU WERE BORN TO SING you don't even understand what I said. Its basic audio engineering. And I don't have a RU-vid channel. I like watching these as I am a pro working engineer in NYC.
OMG. Hate to break it to you but the iPhone X sounds better than this mic/preamp combo. The Avalon is a decent preamp a bit overrated but a high quality mic will be preferred here.
You are So cute with your riddles, and your eyes are those of a lady killer (to die for). Dare I say, you have some nice "equipment". Thank you for this video, & review. I really appreciate having the advertisement at the end of your presentation. ☮, 💛, & ☯️.
