The Focusrite Platinum series are nothing to write home about. Fine for tracking demos at home, but you won't find many in real studios.

FWIW... I get very skeptical whenever I see "pro" in the name of a piece of equipment. I usually means they are trying to compensate for something ;)

I use there Penta model and I find the sound very pleasing. I am actually a massive fan of Focusrite gear. Yes, I do have a smallish budget but I feel that for the cash there stuff is very nice.

I know a few local studios that have the Voicemaster pro... ok, it's not the most used piece of gear... but I think it deserves a listen (if that's were you budget leads you).

I am upgrading some of my gear right now and have one for sale. See the classifed section. I am going to get a NEVE preamp I have been saving for which will be quite a step up. That said....

I have compared the Voicemaster Pro to the Great River which everyone raves about. I had been renting the Great River for several sessions and ran a series of mics i.e. Nuemann TLM103, Rode NTK, Audio Technica 4033 through the Voicemaster Pro and 1NV from Great River.

Frankly there was only about a 5 % difference in the sound quality. This was straight preamp to straight preamp. The Great River had slightly better transient response but the overall color was similar.

For the difference in price i.e. $1100 vs the Voicemaster Pro at $650 I went with the Focusrite.

I also played with the regular Voicemaster which did not hold a candle to the two units above. A lot of people that ding the Platinum line have bought used and sold this lower end version and it does indeed give the line a bad name.

Along with the opto compressor, de-esser and monitoring section I think the VM Pro is an extremely good value which produces a top quality sound. Now you may conclude that I am saying all this because I am selling mine but if you can find a local gear rental place in your area, do your own comparison. It's a solid preamp.

MistaG wrote: Frankly there was only about a 5 % difference in the sound quality. This was straight preamp to straight preamp. The Great River had slightly better transient response but the overall color was similar.

OK... now record 24 tracks with the VMpro and mix..... and then record the same 24 track song with the Great River and mix.....

I can assure you that there'll be a lot more than 5% difference.

.... it's a bit like a guitarist I used to play with. Fantastic player, but had no idea about the sound. He persisted with cheap nasty amps and wondered why his tone would always get burried in the band.
Then he walked into rehearsal one day with a brand new cheap amp, sat it on the floor and strummed his guitar with nobody else playing and said "Listen to that cut through!" :shock:

24 tracks of any preamp is not advisable.

MistaG wrote: 24 tracks of any preamp is not advisable.

Think of all of those great recordings that have been made with a great console without any external preamps, but with the identical pre's built into the desk.

Let me restate that. 24 tracks of any external preamp is not adviseable.

I would make an exception for NEVE, Helios, or Ampex, others from the old days but not a Great River, no way.

Finally when I hear comments that the Platinum line sucks, it indicates to me that the person has not used the Voicemaster Pro. If you have, and you still think it sucks, then we have a difference of opinion.

MistaG wrote: 24 tracks of any preamp is not advisable.

groan......For the purpose of the exercise only.

However, I'll take 24 tracks of one quality preamp over 24 tracks of different low end preamps anyday!

MistaG wrote: Finally when I hear comments that the Platinum line sucks, it indicates to me that the person has not used the Voicemaster Pro.

Go back and read my original post and tell me where I said that they suck?

thanks 2 everybody.

only for vocal.....not 24 track....

and....maybe i should choose Grace 101? which better :roll:

The Grace is a great little preamp but very clean.

Jazz, orchestra, horns I would say yes. Something a little warmer would be desirable for a gold vocal channel. If you want it absolutely pristine then the Grace would be a good choice. Hard to say which is better though. The VM Pro starts out warmer than the Grace and gets even warmer depending on how you set it. The Grace has better transient response.

If you can solder then you might want to look at these: seventhcirclestudios.com

The Seventh circle preamps are closely designed preamps as follows:

A12 - This is an API clone
C84 - This is a Millennia clone
J99 - This is a John Hardy, Dual Jenson opamp clone
N72 - This is a Neve clone

You can get into the Neve clone with power supply for about the same amount of money as the Voicemaster Pro. However, its just the preamp. Gearheads are raving about these over at Gearslutz.com.

The other great thing is that after you purchase the power supply/rack box, each additional preamp is around $300. This allows you to build a very nice rack of world class preamps in small increments.

I have a VMP and it sits next to an Avalon vt737sp (finally).

I started with an ART TPS and a Behringer ultarspeshelsuperexcelantvocemasterultrapro (or something) and the difference between them and the Focusrite was massive.

When I first hooked up the Focusrite I think I sat their making funny noises into into the mic and giggling for the first 60 min cos it just sounded so good !! The difference between the Avalon and the PVMP is not so pronounced. It is there however !!

Whether it is worth a grand is another issue entirely !!

That was my point in the VM Pro vs Great River shootout. There is not that much difference in the sound. I can and have built up to 5 layers with both models and they are both fine in their results. Would I track the whole band? No. But on the main vocal and subsequent background vocals, there is enough variation in the VM Pro that it does a great job with both.

The Platinum line has some weak points, that I do agree with. The Voicemaster Pro is not one of them and its a great project studio box that holds it's own against higher cost units. I would also say its one of the best values under $1000 you can buy. It clearly beats out the sound of the RNP at $500.

thanks...cool replay

hey,dear MistaG. can you give me your E-mail?

and I find new gear. Name is DRAWMER MX60

DRAWMER MX60 = Voice Master Pro ?

Sorry, no experience with that one. I will ping you with my email. Oops, you have to pay $20 to join here and have posting privleges, that won't work.

Find one of my posts over at homerecording.com. My alias over there is Middleman. Post a message on one of the threads I am on and I will get an email notification. Then we can hook up.

Thanks.

But,I dont know how to pay. Because Im not in Euro and I hvn't visa.....

zxq81@hotmail.com

waitting for you :wink: