SOUND ON SOUND

[Kwackman]

I'm looking for something myself that slightly rounds off the transients and gives a little bit of a vibe.

If I had an audio interface that "rounds off the transients", it would be sent back pretty quickly and something else bought!

I think w oxo cube is talking about the pre-amp rather than the interface at this point.

maybe.

I'm still to sure I'd want a preamp to do that either to be honest. A compressor maybe...

[w oxo cube]

Yes I did digress onto pre amp there. Yeah an audio interface doing that would be less than ideal.

I guess different pre-amp have different qualities. I'm looking for that kind of very subtle coloration that just helps a sound sit in the mix. It's difficult to articulate in words but I do feel the sound I'm looking for slightly blurs the transients a touch.

[rggillespie]

Cant really comment on other pre amps I'm not that experienced with any others, but the cranbourne has a 'mojo' filter with two settings 'cream or 'thump' and you can dial in as much or as little as you wish. When turned off the pre's are clean,clear and present, which is how i use it for acoustics and vocals. The 'mojo' is a useful feature to have, and I prefer that option to having for example, eq controls on the mic pre. I'd prefer to do any eq after the parts are recorded not before. The mojo filter is well explained in the SOS reviews, in some way its 'pushing' the mic pre's. I think they make a interface and 500 series rack unit, perhaps that might be worth looking into if you can't carry on with your RME.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Very big fan of the Cranborne preamps here.

In 'clean mode' they comfortably out-perform a lot of seriously high-end gear, and they certainly punch a very long way above their price. And then the Mojo control allows useful sound shaping to be dialled in for a variety of vintage styles which is very effective and convincing.

And in the case of the EC2/EC1 you get excellent headphone amps too... (and the capability to use an Ethernet cable to connect a breakout/stage box, if required).

Definitely well worth checking out. I was so impressed I bought the review EC2 and I use it more often than any of my preamps now (my list includes a GML 8304, ISA 428, Audient 880, Sonic Farm Silk Road, and SSL VHD)

[Arpangel]

Very big fan of the Cranborne preamps here.

In 'clean mode' they comfortably out-perform a lot of seriously high-end gear, and they certainly punch a very long way above their price. And then the Mojo control allows useful sound shaping to be dialled in for a variety of vintage styles which is very effective and convincing.

And in the case of the EC2/EC1 you get excellent headphone amps too... (and the capability to use an Ethernet cable to connect a breakout/stage box, if required).

Definitely well worth checking out. I was so impressed I bought the review EC2 and I use it more often than any of my preamps now (my list includes a GML 8304, ISA 428, Audient 880, Sonic Farm Silk Road, and SSL VHD)

Not a bad price either, very interesting, and could be a good replacement for mine if they give up the ghost.

[Martin Walker]

If I was starting my gear collection from scratch again I would certainly invest in one of the Cranborne range.


Martin