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Hey guys!
I just got mine in this evening. So far, I'm INCREDIBLY impressed! It's a damn sexy box both visually and aurally! After only about an hour I've gotten 2 different projects to sound fantastic with this box and just a little fiddling!

I'll try to post samples soon of before and afters.

I'm really looking forward to playing with this box more.

Cheers-
J.

Comments

Cucco Wed, 02/11/2009 - 07:03

Didn't get the M10 - couldn't swing the extra $2500...also, it's always within arm's reach anyway, so it's not that hard for me to menu dive.

As for the other reverbs I have -
SIR (By far my favorite reverb plugin)
UAD Reverbs (both of them on the UAD card - don't really care for either of them)
Sequoia built-in reverb - useful to a degree but not great
TC Fabrik R - a GREAT reverb overall, but annoying since it's a plug-in that can't be used as a plug-in (you actually have to put it on a channel as a plug then send the channel out and bring it back in - all in real time. Plus, it clips REALLY easily and ugly, so you always need a minimum of 6dB headroom even on peaks.)

Reverbs I've used or owned before:
Lexicon:
MPX550
MPX1
PCM81

TC 3000

I played with the Bricasti most of the night last night and it's simply glorious. My initial takes are:

Negative (I'll get this out of the way first):
- I would like to see a "bypass" button
- While the menu is very intuitive, it's a tad inconsistent as to when you must press enter for a change to register and when you don't need to. It took me forever to understand why my wet/dry gains weren't changing...
- I don't have 2 more of them...(I'd love to have them for surround projects!!)
- I wish you could come in via analog and out via digital and vice versa but it's either Analog I/O *or* digital I/O, not a combination of the two. That's not a BIG problem though...

Positives -
- It looks awesome!
- It's built like a tank
- The presets sound great and are pretty usable with only minor tweaking
- You can get the deepest, longest, most natural sounding reverb tails with little effort
- It's very intuitive (other than what I mentioned above)

One of the projects I ran through it last night was a recording I did just this past weekend in the National Cathedral in DC. With a 6.5 Second decay already on the print, I thought that this was only going to make it muddy as hell. To my surprise, using a shorter decay reverb with a medium high density and short early reflection really added the middle ground to the sound (versus the somewhat ping pong effect of the initial sound and the subsequent onset natural reverb.)

With this box and the right tweaking on the filters, you can truly make it so that nothing sounds bad or unnatural. Also, one comment that I've read that seems to make more sense now that I've used it is that every time you make a change, you can clearly and audibly hear the difference. A change of .5 dB is clearly audible on this unit but it's not like it's exaggerated, it's just clear.

I'll be using this on a live broadcast next week to add depth and space to the room. It will be a video/audio broadcast on http://www.banddirector.com. It should be interesting to say the least.

Sadly, I won't get the chance to play with this unit any more until the weekend... :-( Oh well...we'll see what joys await then.

Cheers-
J.

Cucco Sun, 03/22/2009 - 06:52

Yeah, I'm still digging it! It can take a while to dial in exactly the right sound, but overall, it rocks. I've found that some of the spaces work in situations where you wouldn't expect them to. Also, the basic sound of the unit rocks. I come into it in analog on some occassions. What it does to the analog signal, I have no idea, but it makes it sound smoother, less brittle and more open (even with the reverb bypassed.)

It's a definite keeper.

The one thing I wish to see is some way to export the parameters to a file. So, if you've spent forever dialing in the right sound, you can take that sound bank and export it into a file that you could store in the directory that the rest of the work is on within the computer. I wonder if they'll ever consider adding that functionality in the future.

Cheers-
J.

audiokid Tue, 01/10/2012 - 23:10

Cucco, a few years have passed. I feared buying one and then they come out with a plug-in. I'm seiously looking for a used one now.

How are you liking it after this long?
Have they upgraded it?
Can it be upgraded and how?
How do you mix with it? as an Aux in Sequoia, OTB with the Dangerous 2-bus? Just before your DSD?
Do you miss the M10?
Anything you can tell me would be appreciated!

Cucco Wed, 01/11/2012 - 13:13

I still do very much enjoy my Bricasti and use it on most every mix (classical and jazz of course).

It was upgraded for me about 18 months ago. Sweetwater (whom I purchased it from) sent me an upgrade ZIF chip to insert onto the circuit board. I honestly haven't upgraded it yet - the chip is sitting on my desk. The unit is in use so much that I haven't had much of a chance to turn the dang thing off and un-rack it.

I've never missed the M10 since the unit sits in the first space of my slanted desk rack directly in reach of my right hand and easily visible. If it were further away, I'd probably drop the cash on the M10. As for the plug-in - I was not aware that they released any such thing. I'd be curious to hear it, but probably won't be dumping mine any time soon.

As for the work flow - most of my work is done in PCM. When it is done in DSD, it's inserted in the chain before the final bounce down to the DSD recorder. For my PCM work, I treat it like an outboard aux in Sequoia. I patch all tracks and/or buses out to the summing mixer (D-Box) or to output 3/4 which is fed via analog to the Bricasti (or 9/10 which is fed via digital to the bricasti, but I actually rather enjoy the presence/depth imparted by this unit at its analog stages) and then bring it back in on its own stereo track. Of course, it has to work in "real time" that way, but I'm patient. Plus, it gives me a chance to listen to the whole recording and figure out what if anything needs to be done at the final mastering stage before pressing.

Cheers-
J.

audiokid Wed, 01/11/2012 - 18:57

Cucco,

I'm similar to you, but using a MixDream and Dangerous Master together with Sequoia. The MixDream has 16 inserts that I use for analog comps and EQ's. But, I would like to use the Bricasti like a DAW aux. Can I use the Bricasti like DAW aux reverb? I've never tried using Sequoia insert functions. Does it work like an analog console? Can I insert analog hardware like you can with a real console? Is there weird latency things that happen like this?

Cucco Thu, 01/12/2012 - 09:56

If you can do that in Sequoia (quite possible), I haven't done it, nor do I know how. I simply go out of the box via the channel or bus outputs and come back on a stereo track.

It shouldn't be tough on the MixDream to get the effect you're after. Insert it on your master bus output before running back into your DAW or your master recorder and monitor off of that.

The reverb should be the final thing in the chain anyway (unless you're using the limiter on your MixDream).

audiokid Fri, 01/13/2012 - 22:07

yes, you can apparently do this in Sequoia although I haven't tried yet but see some advantages pre MixDream like you suggest.

You have the possibility to send tracks to external effects. But this is done with send and return tracks.
Check out project options - external effects.
Sequoia can automatically measure the latency and compensate it.

Georg