Quote:
Originally Posted by
toneguru
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I have never used the Gordon or Pueblo, but I have used the Martech with xlnt results.
Does anyone have experience with the Martech relative to the Gordon or Pueblo?
Thank you.
I find the "Preamps in Paradise" DVDs quite revealing, more so than most audio samples I've heard so far, except some of Ivo's samples, which usually show a lot about the different textures of the equipment.
The "Preamps in Paradise" DVDs have Martech, Gordon, Forssell Fetcode, Grace, Millennia, Flamingo, Lipinski, Pendulum, True, etc. The good thing is that you can create your own mixes with all the instruments (voc, ac guit, el guit, piano, bass, drums), and they're recorded really well.
What was very interesting was that an instrument could sound great with one preamp solo'ed, but when you added another instrument it could get lost, suddenly sound muddy, or whatever. I've often experienced that the sound of the bass changes when you compress the drums etc, but still it was an interesting experience to hear to what an extent the same happens with preamp choice.
Another thing that made me think was that when I took the pre that sounded best solo'ed for each instrument, the resulting mix didn't sound as good as the mix that consisted only of takes recorded through the Gordon.
Another insight was that I need to use my Pendulums more often. I liked the Pendulum mix almost as much as the Gordon mix.
In those samples the Martech sounded a little bright in a very pleasing and musical way. Very detailed. I liked it a lot on steel string guitar.
I still prefered the sound of the Gordon, though.
Another good comparison is what Syra put on gearslutz a while ago. I was very impressed by the NPNG take. The NPNG seems to be "fatter" than both the Gordon and the Martech.
All those impressions come from samples - so far I haven't had the pleasure of testing those pres (what I currently have is Pendulum, Forssell, Daking, API, M72s, Siemens V78, Soundfield MKV, NTP, ZAG, MIO 2882. I used to work with TAB V76, Studer 289, Millennia, Avalon M5, Vipre, Slam!, Voxbox, and probably some other I don't recall now).
I would love to hear good samples (or better yet, comparisons to other pres) of the John Hardy preamps.