Radial's Workhorse Cube: Both Workhorse-like and Cube-shaped.

Over the weekend, I took home a Radial Workhorse Cube to get familiar with three of their new 500-series modules: the Powerpre, the Q3 Induction Coil EQ, and the Komit compressor. The Radial products I'm most familiar with are transparent tools like DI boxes and Reampers, which they do a great job at, but I was curious what they would bring to a channel-strip-style setup like this.

I had a session over the weekend with a female singer songwriter, and had opportunities to try the Workhorse on a few things. Before you even plug it in, Radial's excellent build quality shows with their solid steel construction and baked enamel finishes, and every knob and switch feels substantial, which makes the units fun to work with. Of course, I eventually calmed down and plugged the thing in. Even this was easy thanks to the Powerpre's front XLR input, and a 'feed' switch between each channel, which sends a unit's output into the next unit, eliminating the need for patch cables. Other fun on the Workhorse's rear includes a Link switch for stereo linkage, and an Omniport input, a 1/4" jack for each unit that provides extra functionality.

My first test was kick drum. The Powerpre is wonderfully quiet for the +55dB of gain it boasts, but on kick the Q3 was what really stood out. A few mild adjustments on the 12-position Grayhill switches brought out what I was looking for on both lows and highs, while the Mid Cut knob took away some of the pesky "basketball-sounding" frequencies. The Q3's Omniport is assigned as an effects loop. My only gripe about the Q3 is a minor one, and that is that the Shift switch for each band is hard to get at, but that's a "set-and-forget" type thing anyway, so maybe I'll just stop complaining already.

Next up, I wanted to see how my guest channel strip would squash a room mic for me, so I put a Peluso 2247LE (psst, also available at Rock N Roll Rentals!) through the Workhorse. The Peluso is a great mic all by itself, and didn't need the Q3 to help it out, but the Komit squeezed my room mic nicely, gluing disparate sounds like bells and accordion together without sucking the life out of them. As with the other two modules, there are fewer than five controls (including the "On" feature), so the Komit works a lot of magic on it's own, thanks in part to it's full-size discrete electronics and Hammond broadcast transformers. With the Komit, the Omniport is a key input for side-chaining or de-essing.

Radial Engineering's Workhorse Cube and 500-series modules offered me a lot of great sounds, thanks to great craftsmanship and well-thought-out features, and it's portable enough to take anywhere. I highly recommend taking one home for yourself, especially at Rock N Roll Rentals' awesome Reservation Rate of $47 for Tues/Wed/Thurs- Monday or only $108 for a month!


Also available pre-filled! That is to say, filled with preamps. 

reviewed by:
-John Pearson

The New U (...67 copy, that is)

On review today is the Peluso P67, modeled after the famous vintage (discontinued, and thus wildly expensive) Neumann U-67. It's not uncommon for well-maintained 67's to sell for upwards of $10,000. Until John Peluso spent over 2 years on the p67 to get it just right, attaining its signature sound (think the Beatles' Revolver, Bob Dylan, Chris Cornell's Soundgarden tenure, Kurt Cobain on "Nevermind", among many, many, many others) - meant shelling out big bucks in an expensive studio or, if you were lucky enough to live in L.A., New York, or Nashville, renting one for nearly the price of a month's mortgage payment.

Fortunately for us, Peluso Microphone Labs put in the time with several great u-67 specimens and tweaked the p67design til it closely matched the original, creating a mic that holds its own in shootouts with the best of engineer-ears.

The original u67 finds its use primarily on vocals, acoustic guitar, and less often (though no less spectacularly) on electric guitar cabs. I can't really describe with words what it does to the sound, but as this is a blog, I'll try...and you can listen to clips below.

It seemed to be that vocally (clips 1 and 2), it captured about what I'd expected - a nice low end, detailed midrange, and a crispy but not overhyped high end. In terms of high end, I'd put it somewhere between a u47 and a c12 (or for existing Peluso fans, a 2247 and p12). The midrange is where I really sensed something unique. Interesting handling of the critical 400-600 range, and a very unique sounding upper midrange. While the response is spec'd as mostly "flat", we all know the human voice is anything but, and putting several vocalists in front yielded a consistently unique, interesting EQ curve.

The mic was dense in the midrange, with a particular emphasis in the 500 region (a region typically reserved for things that occupy the "front" of a mix), and around the forward sounding 2k region, which would ordinarily yield a very "forward" sounding vocal track, if not for the interesting phasing/compression characteristics. More on this later. There was a high frequency air present as well which began its rolloff somewhere around 8k. In many ways, this is a "midrangey" mic, not boasting the warm, resonating low end and bright, airy high end of the p12. The clips of the acoustic are a great indicator of the low and high end differences (clips 3 and 4).

Most fascinating was the mic's tendency to sound somewhat compressed already, even filtered in a way. Some reading and novice examination of the u67 schematic shows several negative feedback loops, which without getting overly technical, loops the signal back in to earlier parts of the circuit, resulting in phase cancellation at certain frequencies and gives things a very unique color and a somewhat "squished" sound. (The forward, fast, "spanky" sound of a Vox AC-30 is primarily due to its LACK of negative feedback loops. The bloom and compression heard in many Two-Rock amps, particularly the John Mayer signature head, are the result of carefully tuned negative feedback.) The tube only accentuates this tendency toward compression, resulting in a sound similar to fast attack, medium release settings on a compressor...a sound known to push things "back" in a mix. This all comes together to bring us a mic that sounds detailed and forward EQ-wise without being difficult to place into the mix. Given the desire for compressed vocal sounds, it's no wonder 67 microphones are all over modern rock records.

I was most pleasantly surprised when I decided, given its interesting midrange, to try it on electric guitar cabs. No matter what sound came out of the amp, the resulting signal (again through the neutral FMR RNP) had an unmistakable vintage, retro vibe to it, a certain throatiness (due to its handling of the 500hz range) that perfectly accentuated the sounds of a Gretsch ( see clips 5 and 6) or Telecaster.

Needless to say, next time I need to record an edgy or aggressive vocal track or am in need of a vintage "vibe" to my guitar tracks, I will be reaching for Peluso's p67. You can do so as well at Rock n Roll Rentals, for $45 (weekend rate, Tuesday to Monday) or $100 bucks for the month.  

Latest tracks by Rock n Roll Rentals

by Colin Laflin

API/ATI 8MX2: Classic Taste, Modern Face

Automated Processes, Inc. (lovingly known as API), has been creating modular '500 series' studio gear since 1968. Their inevitable growth in popularity brought them much success, as well as the opportunity to develop more lines of gear and better circuitry. After their recent aquisition by ATI, API released the 8MX2 8 x 2 x 8 Mixer/ Mic Pre.

 
I was able to use this solidly-assembled tank of pre's in a recent session with Miranda Dawn & The Lucky Break Horns at Werd Recording Suite. The application was for a 3-piece horn ensemble (tenor sax, baritone sax, and trombone) using 3 Royer R-121's, as well as a Peluso 2247LE as a room mic. Ribbon mics are notorious for being able to round of the harshness of a blasting horn - and round, they did. Coupled with the 8MX2, I was able to not only boost my gain enough for the ribbons while adding minimal floor noise, but I was also able to soft limit the horns' raging signals.
The final product? Brilliant.   No, they're not 500 series ATI Pre's, but good-gosh - they will be an awesome addition to your rack (at a meager $170/month at Rock n Roll Rentals.)
 by Ali Ramzanali

Peluso 2247se vs Rode Procaster

The past weekend I rented both the Peluso 2247 SE and the Rode Procaster microphones for tracking vocals and bass cabinets respectively. After a couple of takes I realized that neither my home recording setup nor my room were right for a mic as sensitive and bright as the 2247 SE.
I ended up using the Procaster and getting a much better result for HipHop vocals. The Peluso is a 2000$ mic while the Procaster is a 200$ mic. This is an example of how, in audio recording, the best thing to do is trust your ears. Spending more is not always going to lead to better results. The two best things you can do is work with what you have and experiment.

by Dylan