DO NOT BUY THIS! - Klark Teknik KT-76 

Agree.

I struggle to find any video where this guy clearly illustrates he knows what he's doing with any toy he opens.

@@johndewitt9093 I'm not gonna knock him, some of his vids are good. But the title "DO NOT BUY THIS" helps no one and hurts the people that are trying to make a living manufacturing and marketing the product.

I´ve got this unit, and the KT2A and the pultec clone. Very happy with them. Happy I bought them before getting misinformed. They are excellent value.

Anyone wishes to actually know about this product, can read a long thread on Gearslutz forum and get an idea of what is this KT76 actually capable of. This guy is overacting and video is an example of his sheer ignorance about KT76.

true so true man!

haha so true

haha amazing

Crazy man 🤣

:-D.

"its a great unit! your gonna love it :) please buy it from me"

😂

Agreed

Yup

I unsubscribed

Why does he not just correct himself....sad. Everyone can make a mistake, that´s ok, but he should´ve gotten aware by now that he compared apples to pears really.

yeah isnt the black face version of the 76 way less aggressive

@@mfkrwill It’s a little cleaner and less noisy.

yeah but the full silver face he starts with is either a G or an H revision, which is even cleaner than a D, and it's still way way way more aggressive than either of the clones, or the plugin.

Klark Teknik EPQ KT complete garbage ! Oh are they (super charged) as well ?

@@christopherdunn317 I don't think they are garbage at all. I think too many people compare it to the originals and diss many clones but not really take the time to really learn what you can use it for with the sound they have.

They add a lot. I already did this. And btw, all analog equipment will add harmonics at some point when driven.

@@emanuelapascaritei8754 in this case it sound so transparent that id be curious to see what is the harmonics addition at an average level. Obviously any analog equipement if overdrive will generate saturation and consequently harmonic. In this case i'm curious to see (as we can't hear) the flavour of the midas transformer inside the toy.

I actually did an extensive comparison like that with a lot of hard- and software 1176 (sine wave as well as different types of vocals, very scientifically controlled with exactly matched mV readings etc.) you can find it on my channel. And the kt76 actually came out quite well

Lasse Lammert where’s your channel

you can hear that it doesn't distort anywhere near as much as an 1176

first let me say that i am not a fan of klark or better said Behringer. Especially after their latest copy-clone projects i am fed up with this s..t. Just want to adress the concistency of high end gear. Yes its true but only in the more modern units. The older high end legendary hardware units are most of the time all over the place when it comes to measurements concistency. Hence the expression "No Compressor X sounds the same as another Compressor X" and same goes for synths like Moogs and everything else

American NAB specs only require 50-15 kHz ± 2 DB at 1% distortion at operating level. With a minimum of 45 DB signal-to-noise ratio. And about 15 DB of headroom above operating level. And so the meter only has to be within ± 2 DB of accuracy. And so why do you think all 76's sound different? That's why. I mean I suppose you could use nothing but precision ± 2 or 5% resistors, and it? Everyone has changed out there electrolytic capacitors at some point in time. With whatever capacitor brands they got their hands upon. It's a great low cost bargain version usable FET limiter. That's all that matters. Accuracy? What accuracy? Transparency? What transparency? They're all different. Every single last one of them. But if you know how to tweak them yourself. And all of the FET's are identical. You might get them real close. I have. I have gotten them very close. So close. That I've not needed, the battery-operated stereo adapter. And getting them that close. Requires that you get them well up to operating temperature first. And so I usually leave them on overnight.. Before I set out to tweak them during the day. And I don't take the top cover off. Until I am ready to tweak them. And I tweak them quickly. So as to prevent them from cooling down any. And if the FET's are closely matched. And you've got all new electrolytic capacitors installed. And the individual resistors are close in value. Even if they are only a 10% accuracy. You might be able to tweak them ultra close. Few people know how. I had to. I had to be the best at what I did, ya see. And I am. I've been doing this for over 50 years now. And I've learned a few things. That youngsters don't know. That youngsters, can't know. That you obviously don't know either. Not that I'm coming down on you mind you. You have to learn as you go. And I like to teach and mentor young engineers. Like I was. I like to pay it forward. I had a great couple of mentors when my career was just starting. And they were very special mentors. They weren't your average studio guys of that era. One had very high Department of Defense clearance. The other was the father of vertical hold for television when he was an engineer for Bell Laboratories after World War II. And they taught me more than I had even read in the library. Where you can get a college degree for free. Except nobody hands you a dead sheepskin with printing on it. Poor little sheep. And what's that supposed to mean? Dingdong the sheep is dead. And that's supposed to prove they learned something. RemyRAD

@@RemyRAD 👍

Are there instructions and specific parts you can list for some of us Newbs?

Yeah agree

Steven Hiers yes thats really better than plugins

Yup the kt2a is amazing. I want to buy this to catch peaks and the eq to finish my chain. I used to add 17 plugins (exaggerated) to get the sound I want which ended up being harsh and now I only have 3 and its where I want it.

Garbage

Arthur Melo Revision D, but exactly I agree

The warm adds harmonics right??

don't forget behringer - hardware imitating hardware

Pangeaner , and don’t forget warm audio, tube tech, Wes, aml, stam, bae, heritage audio, gap, and even Manley with their pultec...and the list goes on. That’s hardware imitating hardware. Does behringer have crap stuff?? A lot, but it also has some good stuff from time to time. I learned my lesson on keeping an open minded philosophy on everything.

Klark teknik is relayed to Behringer

we also have plugins emulating old pro tools plugins now

@@Breakbeat90s hey behringer got some good stuff though

Got mine yesterday and just thried this. Gorgeous! Thanks for the hint.

Awesome tip!

do you ever stack it with another compressor for vocals? I have an RNC compressor that's extremely neutral amd extremely fast... I wonder how it would sound to use the RNC to round out the peaks, then into the Klark for the color / fatness...

​ @Levi Jesse Gonzalez ​ I love the speed of the 76-KT. It levels vocals out really well on its own. But I have paired it up with a 2A-KT and it is really nice. I put the 2A-KT first to generally level out the vocals and then the 76-KT catches the details. I love setting the KT-76 release time as fast as it will go on vocals and it brings out details like magic.

Thanks buying it now do it give the 3D vocal sound

Yes, I thought it sounded great. I can understand that it may not be so useful for a mixing and mastering engineer. But I can definitley see this compressor being a great tool when recording drums and vocals. Since it's a low price unit one could connect one of these for each microphone in the drum rig without breaking the bank.

Same. I’ve had 3 for 4 years now and they sound great

woodstocktc it clearly was sandstorm acapella

Swap what tube? It's a FET compressor.

... Tube huh? Okay...

Maybe that's true, but all i can say is its all garbage anyway !

@@christopherdunn317 There's a baseline of effort in making the most horrible of equipment. Something adequate doesn't have to be fundamentally much more expensive than a piece of garbage. It breaks my heart how much effort goes into producing landfill products every day.

have you compared the kt2a to any other 2a compressors?

Epithet Music Not directly. Used several versions including the UA hardware and plugins in the past and it compares very favorably in my opinion. Good for tracking vocals and bass here.

That's what I thought too! 👍

Yeah, maybe that reason is that the people have never TOUCHED a real 1176 let alone used one?

Yeah, it's awesome! I love mine and use it daily on vocals.

He literally compared it to an 1176LN in the video and it sounded completely different, lol. I've worked with that 1176 at Sound Vision Studio in the past and it's an absolute beast! :D If they start making a cheap version of that unit I'll buy a whole stack of them in a heartbeat.

Klark is owned by Behringer. That says enough

The Behringer flaw was that they dropped the price. When KT cost around 500 (at start) the audiophile public praised him, and now cause it's so cheap they're gonna hate it :D I use mine as kinda limiter/level control for my synths. Works fine.

His review is 100% based on being misinformed. He has had this pointed out multiple times, but has yet to acknowledge it. Yet he is happy to have a large percentage of his followers who will take his misinformed opinion as gospel decide against the product based on that.

Best comment I have read this month

🎯

Sure, uad!

Wrong. You literally just wanted to prove him wrong, but introduced a useless point of view. A recorded sound is already "Transparent". Adding a compressor of high enough quality is intended to add a tonal character to the sound source. The unit presented doesn't achieve that, so simply resulting to a plugin would instead of purchasing a useless piece of hardware.

@@whathuh6965 Or you just want to compress your vocals.. Your comment makes no sense. I’m almost certain you don’t even know what a compressor does.

@@ctrlaltcreate3827 Like literally, what are you talking about? A Hardware compressor of High end quality is mainly used to add color and variable harmonics to the sound source. What Audio Engineering school did you graduate from? This is common knowledge among industry Mixing Engineers. Ask Dave Pensado, Manny Maroquin or Chris Lorde to name a few famed Mixing Engineers; they all literally reinforce this concept. It's not about knowing how a compressor works, it's about knowing which hardware compressor adds what distinct sonic quality and color to the sound source. A prime hardware component of this concept is found in the compressor titled the 'FairChild' 660 engineered by "Rein Narma". By default, it adds a varied dynamic color to the sound source, compared to a clean sound absent it's use. This compressor is Joseph Jack Puig's favorite compressor. You still have much to learn. You're way too arrogant.

@@whathuh6965 A compressor is used for compression. How are you arguing this?

Of course, you can use a plug-in on numerous channels… so one mono piece of hardware isn’t apples to apples when bringing in price. Fwiw

What about on vocals will it make vocals 3d

That's a shame, the kt-76 rules. Try it yourself before taking this guys advice. I just got one from GC used thinking I could return it. It's the best vocal compressor I now own. I have a Summit DCL-200 that will never be used on vocals again.

got too much headroom to really drive it? start voltage starving any amp stages and watch the magic as op amp and transistor saturation starts setting in

And may I add, that on all buttons in mode, the KT can produce some nice harshness, for parallel compression quite nice.

Save your pennies and get quality man. Don't cheap out and end up with garbage like this Klark BS.

@@lightafluident.9950 I bought neither one :).

Not quite, that's if you assume that he nailed the relative settings for each compressor (the blueface/Rev. A compressors are literally diff models and sound quite different and more colored, so not really possible anyway) but he failed that badly anyways because he was getting on average about 7 dB GR on the blueface plugin, meanwhile the hardware was getting around either 3 or 5 dB GR, sooooooooo the differences in his settings alone (orrrr the differences between the hardware Rev. A clone he as and the UA/Urei Rev. A modeled plugin he has) are just not nearly scientific enough to say whether or not they're 1% or even 20% different.

He was decapitated over it. Terrible review of a beloved plugin.

To be fair, it was no worse than this review which is essentially a call to boycott the product

Wait, he didn't like the Decapitator? Literally every mix engineer that I hold in high regard has talked about using it at one point or another. Crazy

I think you missed the point...

@@FeJotaTakinOva i think you did. 4:1 is nothing. No matter how much gain you put into it. I got myself one and I'm very happy with it

@@JuanJacinto damn, you missed it as well...

@@FeJotaTakinOva No. Again: You did. The unit can't produce any sort of harmonic distortion or colour if you are going to be using a very low compression ratio.

@@JuanJacinto The 1176 produces harmonic distortion in 2 ways: Saturation on the input and quick attack and release times (produces by any compressor that allows you to have really quick attack and release times). What has been tested in this video was the input saturation, and is nowhere to be found. That will remain the same regardless the ratio you set. Some 1176 emulations even allow you to deselect every ratio so you can just crank the input and lower the output (and thus using it just as a colouring unit and not a compressor+colouring unit). Of course you will be able to obtain some harmonic distortion from this unit, but the point of the video was "you won't get THIS specific type of harmonic distortion". And that's the point being missed. I know the video is clickbait-ish in some aspects and not as scientific or in depth as it should be (for that kind of content I prefer different channels, such as Dan Worrall), but still he makes a pretty solid point.

Kevin St Croix 😄 i feel so too, but sound is subjective too

Yes you have!

@@rogerheathcote3062 Oh yes!!!

On every single album ever made but ok 🙄😂

the plugin didn't belong in that comparison, it really was crap, but the KT was just a margin better. So who can say?

i agree. i have been using this compressor for about a year now, running mainly vocals and bass through it, and i can confirm that this compressor really delivers. it has very punchy clean lows and silky smooth highs, and the attack sounds very good on vocals. it makes everything i put through it sound cleaner.

There also something wrong with the plugin, it is compressing way less and with different A/R settings. There is no "tail" on drums, but i'm sure i can replicate time constant from an hardware comp to a plugin even if not it's clone! (i mean i can easily replicate time constants from a real 1176 to a Steinberg stock comp plugin by ears!). This video is useless, not the kt76....

It's such a shame he didn't do his research, how is he not aware of this????

He’s too busy putting on his makeup for the RU-vid video...

But then you better buy a RNC compressor. Same price, a lot smaller and just amazing sounding.

I'm able to clip the heck out of the two I have.. !!

No, it is not. He's comparing apples to oranges.

Tascam

Also be good if the levels were a little closer KT is down 5.7db to the Urei. Also KT is not a blue face be interesting to hear it against what its aimed at emulating.

Well said mate, i've got a pair of 76s myself. Happy trails.

Should've mentioned i love them too :)

And the EPQ :)

the kt-2a is what i’m interested in too. i’ve read a lot of good things about it, even saw one buyer saying they preferred it to the sa-2a on vocals.

@@EpithetMusicTV There are also people who say that about the KT-76. But I would also like to see his opinion on the other KT clones.

kt 2a is really great kt 76 is noisy as hell (I have both)

Florian Masereel i love the 2a as well, but my kt76 are both super quiet.

Yeah I was kinda cringing when I heard that kick too

SiREN-DRUMS Sounds like it was recorded through a mattress...with the mic in another room.

I hardly use my Neve 1073 since I got the warm 73. Not that it sounds better than the Neve but it sounds as good and has more features.

Hahaha.... Wow, so just before posting this (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-b9ai55yxTi0.html), I was going to say that this (Wytse's) video's thesis has just been completely debunked by the linked (bracketed) one, but then I read this comment from the one and only Dave Gamble (of DMG Audio fame - essentially SPICE modeling royalty, watch this if there's any doubt about credentials... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DpxE1QArz5M.html), and I realised that I need to get a KT76, and also that this video should rightly be re-labeled "DO NOT WATCH THIS". Or even better, @Wytse, I'm also a huge fan, subscriber, and have learned a lot from you, but for your own sake and that of all of us who believe in you, best take this one down. :)