Solo 610 is a must have!

[Wil1870]

The Solo 610 is amazing. I have had it for a week and all I can say is wow! I purchased it along with a new Blue Baby bottle mic. The combination is crazy! I used to record scratch vocals at home and then go to bigger studio that has Avalon mic pre. I happy to report not anymore. In my opinion the solo 610 sounds better than the Avalon, if you are looking for full rich warm vocals.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better I put the LA-2A on a few vocals and the Fairchild on some others and then the track went to a whole other level. For the price you can’t beat the sound. If I had more cash I would still by this unit again. I like the simplicity of it. Some mic preamps have all this extra crap on it, and if you aren’t skilled in dialing in certain sounds all you are going to get is Crap!

Christmas is April? Life is good.

 

[A Gruesome Discovery]

Right on; the 610's certainly an amazing little pre. I just got the recently discontinued M-610 (a few retailers were \"blowing them out\" last month) and I'm in love with it. It's pretty touchy gain-wise, which definitely excludes it from being an all-purpose device, but for vocals, with the right mic and the right gain/impedance settings, it's fantastic.
And I'm not surprised you prefer the Solo/610 to the Avalon; I find their preamps to sound lifeless and sort of cheap. I've only used the 737, admittedly, which has a great EQ section and a passable comp, but I can't understand for the life of me why the pre has such a good reputation. The whole thing kind of remind me of Waves' plugs (except you only pay for an Avalon once). But back to the 610, congratulations, you bought an awesome pre!

 

[Wil1870]

I do think the Avalon is overated, especially now I have something to compare it to.

 

[s_sibs]

The thing about the 737 is - its a very clean and transparent tube preamp. It was designed that way. Some people (I'm not saying you guys) use the 737 expecting it bring some sort of tube mojo to their music. It won't.

I use the 737 and the UA2108 everyday and on some things, the 2108 gives more dirt than the 737. It doesn't mean that the 737 is bad or cheap it's just different.

One mans' ceiling is another mans' floor...

Peace

 

[A Gruesome Discovery]

The thing about the 737 is - its a very clean and transparent tube preamp. It was designed that way. Some people (I'm not saying you guys) use the 737 expecting it bring some sort of tube mojo to their music. It won't.

I use the 737 and the UA2108 everyday and on some things, the 2108 gives more dirt than the 737. It doesn't mean that the 737 is bad or cheap it's just different.

One mans' ceiling is another mans' floor...

Peace

True, true, although I think the 737 may be a bit hyped in the highs, rather than transparent- I consider something like a GML or a Millenia to be more in the "transparent" category. However, this is probably why it's such a hot item with pop and hip hop producers; it is somewhat clinical, but accentuates the frequencies prominent in modern recordings. So it's one of those love/hate items; I think I just happen tuck in the freqs that it tends to enhance, so I'm in the latter category.

 

[s_sibs]

To clarify: I think the 737 is clean for a tube preamp in comparison to the 610's much warmer tone.

I'm seriously looking at the 610. Although I'd also like the eq in the 2-610. I've hear great things about the 2-610 as drum overheads

BTW I just read about the new Babyface mod with the 737. The mod makes the attack on the compressor faster...I never really liked the compressor on vox because of the slow-ish attack (even set to fast). Worked great on electric gtr. though.

Peace

 

[thejinks]

I've just bought a solo 610 and use it with akg 414 and would love to know what gain and level settings people are using for both female, male and live bass sessions

Any pointers welcom
thanks again!