I just purchased a Sonic Farm Creamer with the iron output transformer option and I am seriously blown away by this preamp. So far I've used it on vocals, acoustic guitar, and I've run a whole bunch of software-generated tracks through it and in each application it has beat out my other press that I normally use in these applications. I love the fact that between the pentode/triode switch, the solid state/iron transformer switch, and all of the EQ option I can get so many different sounds out of it. I actually just sold my BAE 1073MP, which was my go to pre for vocals, because with the Creamer in pentode/iron transformer mode I can achieve a sound that has most of the Neve-type characteristics that I love in the BAE, but I can also add elements that I found were lacking, specifically in the mid-frequencies which I found were sometimes not present enough in the BAE as well as the overall "brightness" and "openness".

I am still new to using this pre though, and given all of the options available, I'd like to hear from other users of this pre about what applications you have used it on, and what settings you typically use in each application. Anyone care to contribute?

I completely agree with your comments on the Sonic Farm. I think it is fantastic. Be careful....when I expressed similar enthusiasm, I was whacked for "sounding like an ad." I guess you can only show SO MUCH enthusiasm. But I totally agree with your opinions. It's a very versatile and great sounding preamp.

Kirt Shearer
www,paradisestudios.net

Don't ever feel bad about expressing an honest opinion! I love my Creamer Plus, and I too am blow away by the design, versatility, and most of all, the SOUND! I don't even turn anything else on anymore unless I have to track a whole bunch of stuff at once. I've mastered a couple of projects with it, recorded vocals, upright bass, and pedal steel with it, and never been left wanting...

It would be great if one of you guys could post some shootout comparisons on vocals. Their website compares it to two preamps very few people have ever heard.

What's the point of it that you can blend the solid state and tube tone?

Say what you want but all the best preamps are subject to all sorts of shootouts here and the top ones all shine through regardless of people trying to discredit the validity of recorded sound shootouts.

I'm not really sure what you mean by that REX. I agree that the top preamps would all shine through in a shoot out. I'm simply just saying that I consider the Creamer Plus to be one of those top preamps. I still have my APIs and my Ward Becks. Hell, I would have kept the BAE and Pendulum press I owned too if I had unlimited funds. But since I feel that the Creamer is at least as good or better as the others I mentioned, I decided to post about it. It's a fairly new preamp to the market from a small outfit that doesn't have the same long established name as the other "top" press so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about it on GS so that others may get the pleasure of trying it out if they haven't heard of it.

I am a studio owner and producer in Vancouver. Zoran and Boris from Sonic Farm generously lent me and my partner the Creamer Plus for a vocal session with Marc LaFrance to record one of our original songs. We used a U87 without HPF, about 12 inches away from the singer. On the Creamer, after trying different settings, we chose the triode mode without transformer and EQ, and compressed to tape with a Distressor. From the whispery verses to the scream on high E just before the guitar solo, Marc’s rich, dynamic and powerful vocal performance was faithfully captured. We were so impressed by its big and open sound, extremely large headroom and the versatility in tone adjustments.The lead vocal sits so well in the mix, that we didn’t need to EQ it, or use any harmonic enhancer to make it shine through. When mixing, we ran the strings group through the line input to add some harmonics and it worked great. You are welcome to listen to the track from the link below, which is mastered by Zoran from Sonic Farm.

"Trip"

We decided to keep the Creamer after the session, and it already became our go-to pre. We were also grateful for the support and instructions given by Zoran and Boris during the test. They truly love what they do and stand behind their belief. As excellent musicians and engineers themselves, they know what sounds great and how to deliver the result with their product.

I will come back and post more materials recorded or mixed with the Creamer Plus.

Junshuo Hou
Liquid Tension Music | Music Production Team and Independent Label | HOME

Creamer reviewed by Russ Long in PAR's May 2012 issue:
http://e-ditionsbyfry.com/Olive/ODE/...PAR/2012/05/01

Got a chance to use the Creamer+ on a record this past week. Loved what it did on my far drum room mics. Mics that I wouldn't normally look to for dynamic range. The amount of gain on input in pentode mode in conjunction with the Coles 4038 ribbon mics worked well, with the creamer acting as a brick wall limiter of sorts. The results were a driven, exciting sound that one would normally seek additional outboard gear to attain.

Next I tried it out in background vocals. A group of 3 girls singing around one vintage 251 microphone in omni. Got a nice smoky sound that put the BVs just where I wanted them to sit in the track.

Lastly, I tried it on a fiddle overdub, using the same 251. This was the only track I wasn't gaga over. I think the transients that I needed were a bit lackluster, even at the 'cleanest' gain settings.

The project sought a 'vintage/dated' sound of tubes and tape, and for the most part the creamer delivered. As I am going to be mixing this project entirely in the box, I'm going to try running the mix through the line inputs for a final touch. We'll see how it goes !

Creamer + is my favourite pre-amp.

Hmmmm..... It's all about experimentation, room, mic, placement, preamp etc. isn't it ..... Re the fiddle overdub, perhaps could have been an idea to try a mic with a less 'lush' output e.g. a U87 M149 if you wanted to keep to large diaphram, or in my mind better with small diaphram ... dpa, Gefell, Neuman etc. ... to better match/offset the subtle Creamer lushness, or, alternately, keep the 251 and match it with a 'sharper' pre e.g. Martech, Gordon, or V76(rolloff removed)...

I noticed some interesting example approaches to getting things right using Creamers at Sonic Farm Pro Audio | Creamer Pentode Preamp | 2di4 Pentode Direct Box | Audio SamplesSonic Farm Pro Audio

The magic of sound , trial and error... to the sublime!!

At the risk of showing too much enthusiasm I am putting on my flame suit and evangelizing this awesome preamp. It’s not often that I get excited about the hype of a new preamp and while I had heard people around me talking about the Creamer I was probably like most and just wanted to stick with what I knew and liked (1073). A trusted fellow engineer introduced me to Boris and he offered to bring one of his toys.

At the time we were working on a mix and put the Creamer Plus across the mix buss and well, magic started to happen. It didn’t sound like a 1073 clone, which I liked a lot. There are too many of those. The Creamer glued the mix, gave better separation in the bottom end and removed harshness in a really pleasing way. The artist’s response was “I love creamers!”

Since then we’ve recorded acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass, synth bass, and vocals using the Creamer Plus. In particular, the Creamer is very useful in getting a well-defined bass sound that will sit forward in a mix without muddiness. It’s really nice to have something with 4 distinct preamp sounds at the push of a button. The triode vs pentode really changes the character and helps with slotting a sound into the overall production right at the recording stage. I really love the transformer output and jokingly told Boris he could turn the transformer on and remove the button for us. I'm sure that we'll discover much more and I'm still learning about this pre. How much did we like it in the end? We bought one.

I have had a Creamer Plus for a few weeks now. My studio is in disarray at the moment, so I can't record until I get a few things replaced. I have not put the unit through its full paces yet, but I have thoroughly enjoyed using it to date.

For fiddlers, it seems to be a great tool. Playing with gain stages imparts impressive tonal variation. I'm mostly playing a Rickenbacker through it in stereo (Rick-o-sound) direct, with more boomy/foamy sound from the neck pickup and a little harder/cleaner on the bridge pickup. I'm really liking it so far. I'm pretty much all pentode and steel so far. I can get a very good sound with one of my other preamps (the GAMA is effortless), but I get a more dimensional and interesting sound with this. I'm looking forward to trying it out on vocals next.

I'm very keen to try the creamer plus out at some point!

Only other valve pre's I'm looking at are Dripp Redd47 or Electronaut M63 - different animals to the Creamer, but also good in their own way.

not enough preamps like this have line ins, not preamps I actually want at any rate...

I use Creamer+, the Silkworm 500 series, and the 2 DI 4.
All great sounding, and the wide array of possibilities made them all very usable tools.
I like to record drums using the Creamer on some ribbons as overheads. The gain is great, there is a roll-off in the highs on my Fat Head mics but driving the triode brought out some nice harmonics and make the cymbals sound detailed and beautiful. I also use the Creamer+ as a line level driver in parallel on my drum kit and I really drive it using the pentode mode, I follow that with 1176 compression and what a drum sound; huge, rich, and vibrant.
The silkworms are some of the most variable preamps that I have used. they're nice to have in my rack so I can get some different sounds.
I am a bass player and one the 2 DI 4 is the best sounding DI I have used. It has a lot of colour, but that tube driven in triode mode on my Fender precision is “it”. I’ve been experimenting with bass tones for a long time and thought my chain was almost perfect until this DI came into my life. The nature of distortion is that you often lose bottom end the more you drive it but the 2 DI 4 maintains the lows and keeps them tight.

I've been using the Sonic Farm Creamer+ for a few months now and I love it too. I record on a Neve 8032, and I find the Creamer has a similar weight and thickness to its sound, very similar to a Neve 80 series preamp, but the Creamer has a more open top end. I love all of the tonal options- triode/pentode tube modes, the High/Low boosts, solid state or transformer output. I've been using it on the mix bus as well, it really shines there. The line-ins are a major selling point for me. Great piece of gear! Just got my hands on the DI as well, I've been using it for bass on a session with an old-school rocker & a well known producer/mixer, everyone's loving the sound!

So how is the noise floor of this unit compared to, say, an OCL-2 (which I found to be somewhat noisy when pushing the gain?

As a tube unit I would expect some hum, but what is your experience?

I designed this unit but you can ask any owner as well. We paid a particular attention to noise and hum performance.
All voltages are regulated, even the heater voltage. Input transformers as well as the power transformer are Mu-metal shielded. The only unshielded ones are signal output ones but those are not hum-prone.
The grounding concept is a strict Star-system.
The result is that the unit is DEAD QUIET.

During the design phase, we had top tube units on the market to compare the Creamer to. None of them was quieter.

Please check for yourself, don't take my word for it.

That is great news. This unit is just what I am looking for at the end of my 2-bus. "I only need one more piece of gear" - this one looks and sounds like the right piece for me. Glad I stumbled onto this thread.

I've been using the C+ on my 2-bus for every mix (ITB or summed through mon section of a Neve 8032) I can attest to the low noise floor - I recently mixed a number of very dynamic/open/spacious songs, and noticed absolutely no added noise, even in the quietest sections. Got the mixes back from mastering and and they're clean and clear as well. I love this thing on the 2-Bus!

I've been tracking drums using the Creamer Plus on overheads. Excellent job capturing the wide dynamic range of the material we are recording. Smooth and detailed at all levels. It looks to be a very versatile preamp with plenty of gain even for ribbons.
Build quality is superb and with a fellow like Boris looking after things you have great customer service.

Brian Campbell

Anyone compared a Sonic Farm preamp to a DWFearn one? Or Chandler Redd?

I haven't, but have a Creamer+, and it's a great unit. DI's on it are killer also.

Do the line levels go through the transformers? Want a preamp I can sum the mix bus through too and a few people seem to be doing that with the C+.

I hear the ADL compliments the Fearn nicely, and has line inputs - but expect the C+ to be warmer maybe.

Yes, that's exactly what the "+" version is useful for. It's dual purpose in that respect.

Do you like mixing through it?

The ADL is not as open as the Fearn but the ADL has a huge, and i mean huge bottom end. I just got some tubes from Bowie and man the fearn sounds great. If you need a compliment the ADL is a good opposite to be honest. Im obsessed with signal clarity so i wanna retube that one as well.

To be honest, I haven't used it for that as I have a Burl B32 with transformer option for my 2 bus, but I am planning to start using it to run stems through. Right now I just use it for tracking.

Bowie is the only person I trust to buy tubes from. My VT1 has stock tubes, still the best preamp i've heard. Maybe I need a VT2!!!! Did have many people warn me a VT1 often leads to a VT2 . But I really want so staying with a pair of line inputs for summing from mix bus plus drum machines etc without swapping out a load of cables

Curious to see how the ADL responds to new tubes. Read somewhere that it made difference to one user. Only other preamp I'm considering is the Silver Bullet, because it perfect for the kids e amp side of stuff I want too.

Looking at Black Box HG2 also (but no preamp in that, just line amp). But I can get a 2nd VMS to cover that problem.

Creamer has only has praise, very curious about Fearn vs Sonic Farm.

I would like to compare it against the Louder than Liftoff Silver Bullet?
How would be the winner in term of enhancement and modjo ?

Sergio