Originally Posted by WheelieR ➡️

That's what I understood at first but this "double processing" stuff made me wonder.
Have you tried this trick ?

Originally Posted by SWAN808 ➡️

no in fairness I didnt, but honestly its a pretty cheap box Im not sure the tube is voiced properly to be driven...

Originally Posted by WheelieR ➡️

Curious to hear how that "double processing" with the VLA sound.
Because if it works. It makes the unit even more usable : compression and saturation.
It's maybe too much to ask but if you have examples... .
Also does it fattens up the signal that way like when running audio through a very good piece of gear (Mainley Varimu for instance). Like something saturated but elegant enough to be used on a mixbus ?

Originally Posted by 808KickDrum ➡️

Things I have done:

RND 5042, used for $800. Not really a distortion box but tons of heft and color.

Analog heat. Completely obvious choice.

Reamping through my old Yamaha 4-track tape recorder. That can get some truly raunchy results with some saturation.

Cranking preamps and backing off with passive attenuators. My favorite is an Aurora GTQ2, not cheap but good for lots more than distortion. But a cheap pre that distorts surprisingly well is the A Designs P1. A passive summing mixer and a preamp collection can be great fun. RND silk is rad and can be had on their cheaper preamps.

Kemper profiler. Every amp in existence, and nearly indistinguishable from analog distortion.

Guitar pedals. So many great dirt boxes out there, but think about the cheap Chinese clones like mooer. The Rat clone is sick. They cost nothing so you can easily get stereo setups.

Put a clip on a loud phone like an iPhone X, then play it while holding the speaker up to some single coil guitar pickups going into cranked amp, record the result. It’ll be demolished in a way that’ll have listeners scratching their heads. Maybe I should’ve kept that one to myself

Originally Posted by Funny Cat ➡️

I think the FMR-pbc6a might be right up your alley. It has a wonderful thickening quality and is extremely colored! I can get mine to do saturation and subtle distortion with barely any compression going either. It can do ‘not so subtle’ distortion too!

I also have a TLA-50 with some NOS RCA tubes by the way (since you mentioned it). It has a smoothing effect vaguely similar to the pbc but much cleaner and clear in the high freqs. Good for vocals whereas I would not put a pbc on vocals unless I want an obvious “effect”.

Originally Posted by WheelieR ➡️

It was one of the first option I was interested. Still waiting for it on 2nd hand because at that price I can also find a very nice 500unit.

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn ➡️

If you buy the "best" ones in terms of frequency range and headroom, like the more expensive Jensens, you may be disappointed with the result. I was, mostly.

I say "mostly" because my expensive Jensens do add a tad of sparkle to my rompler grand piano, and make it sound a little more like a real grand miked through preamps that are barking a bit. But if you're looking for "warmth" and "color" and low end saturation characteristics, they don't do that.

Originally Posted by cheu78 ➡️

I wonder which nice stereo 500 series unit are you thinking for 799$..
Or if you have xformers laying around the transdrive costs a mere 450$..
I don't know which 500 series unit could honestly compare with this.

Anyway another option, even if it's not a saturation box, the valley people dynamite might go in that direction, since you were thinking 500 series..

In any case I'd suggest to test before you buy, experience first hand and use your ears instead of ours, that don't know anything about your tastes and goals.





Cheu

Originally Posted by bobtheninja ➡️

Ooh, just remembered, 51x audio has these beautiful transformer boxes at a very reasonable price. I doubt you'll get that deep saturation from them, but I'm thinking that they might be useful as just a little extra polish on your mix bus.

Volker Mayer on Instagram: “Lately we have had many requests for 1:1 "mixbus transformers", and I thought it would be cool to have them in a nice little passive…”

Originally Posted by Bart Nettle ➡️

Expensive box nice

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn ➡️

Not expensive at all -- you can easily pay that much for one raw vintage transformer.

Don't know those particular transformers, and the boxes are of limited usefulness without a pad or trim on the back end, but the execution is really nice.

Originally Posted by WheelieR ➡️

Pad and trim can easily be done ITB .

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn ➡️

Assuming you're hitting the transformers hard, so they'll do what they do when you do that, you then need to bring the output level down before you hit the converter. :-)

Originally Posted by SWAN808 ➡️

I honestly think the best suggestion in the low price category is the Kark Teknik 1176 because you can switch off the compressor and drive the trannies...

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn ➡️

Maybe -- I don't know about in a KT, but in a real 1176 the Output control isn't actually at the output. It's situated at the input of a line amp which then hits the transformer. And that line amp has discrete components including, I think, 5 or 6 transistors. Does the KT have that, or (at that price point) is it an IC? Point being, the "driving" behavior in a KT versus the real thing may not be the same. On the other hand it may be exactly the same, in which case I've been typing pointlessly. :-)

Originally Posted by WheelieR ➡️

I've always been suspicious about Klark Teknik. And also the sound "Midas transformer".

Originally Posted by WheelieR ➡️

But that Klark Teknik. I dunno looks fishy...

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn ➡️

I've never used one, so I won't pre-judge.

The thing I wonder about most, actually, is the ratio-switch assembly. I've never seen one fail in an original, and the earliest of them have been around for 50 years. It's a complicated part and with Uli Behringer behind the curtain it's hard to imagine that they didn't economize on it. My main peeve with Behringer stuff has never been its sound so much as its tendency to break.

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn ➡️

I've posted a lot about the simple transformer/trimmer boxes I've made. It's simple to do, just a 1:1 transformer followed by a balanced trim pot. You use a gain stage in front of the transformer to drive it into saturation, and then use the pot to bring the signal back down to a tolerable level.

The Avedis Audio TransDrive is a beautifully made, feature-rich and correctly-engineered version of what I do.

Originally Posted by SWAN808 ➡️

cool, if you find a pedal that sounds decent let us know! I did try the TC MojoMojo pedal and it was decent but in the end less usable than the Colour module from Bart HRK - Discrete Drive...

Originally Posted by WheelieR ➡️

Hello everyone !

I am looking for suggestion for "saturation" boxes or "color" boxes for my home setup.

I work in studio with big analog desk and plenty of outboard gear and I rarely play with mid-level or inexpensive gear.
But for my home setup. I don't want (for now) to spend xxxx on a Culture Vulture Phoenix or Mastering 15 edition (my favorite color/sat boxes). Or even 1xxx on TLA100A (which I really love, looking at the TLA50A atm btw).

So I was wondering if you know any low-mid priced piece of gear to recommend (price under 1000).

The only example I encountered was a Joemeek Channelstrip (VC2) that seemed to suit my expectation (with a proper drive control !).

I know which piece of cheap utilitarian outboard I am going to get (a lunchbox of 6 which I already know how I will fill the first slots). And I even already have a FMR RNLA to start with (partical for portable setup).
But I was wondering if you guys had any idead for those color boxes that won't cost me an arm or my car .
I know cheap is cheap and you get what you pay for but we also know there are expections to this "rule" (I know a few of them for compression for instance or even EQ).

P.S. : Effect pedals was something I was thinking about.
Someone suggested me some passive transformer boxes which looks cool indeed.

Thanks in advance !!

Originally Posted by chinesewhiteman ➡️

How do you wire these up? I actually just want some variable trim pots...