"helluva ride"
classical guitars recorded w/ Beyer M160 >>> RetroChannel
bass recorded direct >>> RetroChannel
bass recorded direct >>> RetroChannel
"john will dance together"
national acoustic guitars recorded direct >>> RetroChannel
ebow'ed narional acoustic guitar recorded direct >>> RetroChannel
ebow'ed narional acoustic guitar recorded direct >>> RetroChannel
"john alighieri"
6-string guitars recorded w/ Beyer M160 >>> RetroChannel
gryphon (hi-tuned 12 string) guitar recorded direct >>> RetroChannel
pedal steel recorded direct >>> RetroChannel
gryphon (hi-tuned 12 string) guitar recorded direct >>> RetroChannel
pedal steel recorded direct >>> RetroChannel
Audio clips courtesy David Torn
Loving the retro-channel btw. A couple things you nailed, the pre-amp flexibility is just great, the compressor works exceptionally well for vocals and acoustic guitars (though I'd like a switch that changed the circuit to a an ultra fast VCA type for Bass and drums), and the EQ doesn't wipe out the phase in the midrange like most eq's always seem to do to me. A lot of times, switching them in and out I'll hear artifacts that bother me, not yours! We had a pultec at the studio, and I use yours in the same way for boosting lows on the bass, and still have $29,000 in change back!
Anonymous
"Wow, what a unit. I was able to spend some good time with the Retro Channel yesterday and am very impressed. Super quiet, very well made and the Abby Road version looks great in person. My first use was tracking some vocals direct into Pro Tools, very user friendly Comp and great EQ as you would expect. My real surprise was using it as a direct box for my acoustic for a live situation I have coming up. I ran the acoustic into the Retro Channel in mono and then into a TC 2290 outputting stereo into the board. Holy mackeral I almost wet myself. The best comparo was turning the EQ on and off the Retro Channel and hearing the benefit of the EQ, just awesome stuff."
Andy Johns
"After 42 years and 130 million in domestic sales, I know what I like. The Retro Channel has wide fidelity and air. I'm going to be using it all the time. I just wish I had more of them."
David Torn
ditto, my high-strung 12-string veillette gryphon, and ditto electric basses: just killing! i've been "throwing" quite a few instruments & mics "at it", as well: harmoniums, handclaps, any number of acoustic guitars & ouds via large-format condensers and a multitude of ribbon mics.....
..... and i'm more than thrilled with the Retro Channel's fat, old-schoolesque range of tones & timbres. (oddly, i guess, i'm also very happy that the unit generates so little ambient heat!, fwiw.)
kudos to y'all, really! it's a keeper."
Tony Levin
"The Retro Channel gives me just what I need for lots of options recording instruments, and I'm using it for all my vocals. Wish I'd had it long ago."
Loving the retro-channel btw. A couple things you nailed, the pre-amp flexibility is just great, the compressor works exceptionally well for vocals and acoustic guitars (though I'd like a switch that changed the circuit to a an ultra fast VCA type for Bass and drums), and the EQ doesn't wipe out the phase in the midrange like most eq's always seem to do to me. A lot of times, switching them in and out I'll hear artifacts that bother me, not yours! We had a pultec at the studio, and I use yours in the same way for boosting lows on the bass, and still have $29,000 in change back!
Anonymous
"Wow, what a unit. I was able to spend some good time with the Retro Channel yesterday and am very impressed. Super quiet, very well made and the Abby Road version looks great in person. My first use was tracking some vocals direct into Pro Tools, very user friendly Comp and great EQ as you would expect. My real surprise was using it as a direct box for my acoustic for a live situation I have coming up. I ran the acoustic into the Retro Channel in mono and then into a TC 2290 outputting stereo into the board. Holy mackeral I almost wet myself. The best comparo was turning the EQ on and off the Retro Channel and hearing the benefit of the EQ, just awesome stuff."
Andy Johns
"After 42 years and 130 million in domestic sales, I know what I like. The Retro Channel has wide fidelity and air. I'm going to be using it all the time. I just wish I had more of them."
David Torn
ditto, my high-strung 12-string veillette gryphon, and ditto electric basses: just killing! i've been "throwing" quite a few instruments & mics "at it", as well: harmoniums, handclaps, any number of acoustic guitars & ouds via large-format condensers and a multitude of ribbon mics.....
..... and i'm more than thrilled with the Retro Channel's fat, old-schoolesque range of tones & timbres. (oddly, i guess, i'm also very happy that the unit generates so little ambient heat!, fwiw.)
kudos to y'all, really! it's a keeper."
Tony Levin
"The Retro Channel gives me just what I need for lots of options recording instruments, and I'm using it for all my vocals. Wish I'd had it long ago."
Artist Roster
Andy Johns
David Torn
Tony Levin
Press
Guitar Player Magazine Article
"We live in a world of a lot of hype and very few real values, I've been working in the music and recording industry for 25+ years, and had the good fortune of working with some of the best musicians in the world as a musician, engineer and a producer.. I can't think of the last time I bought something and felt like I got more than what I bargained for until I got the Rectro-channel the other day... I was skeptical of the hype (Pultec's go for $30k alone - LA-2A's, Telefunken all names with huge price tags for good reasons) and the lack of mass distribution and my inability to try it before buying it had me a little worried, though the examples on the site were excellent. I do realize that the cost of most products is the result of expensive advertising campaigns and I just stumbled onto this piece it wan't greeting me in every big-box flyer in the mail. A guitar might cost $150 to the manufacturer, but by the time it's on the retailer's rack it can be
$1500, so price can be misleading. So I had hope, and mailed in my money... It showed up within super fast, another surprise... First thing I appreciated was it's light and the nice front mounted grab rails when installing it in the rack, I try to take care of my equipment, but rack gear usually gets a little beat up from in and out needs; right off the bat, I knew somebody who designed this gets the drill. I was sort of expecting over the top compression, lots of gain distortion in the extreme settings, and a sub-par EQ and was pleasantly suprized to find it really does what is claimed, but even perhaps better that is expressed is it's way more neutral than colored, which is what I wanted it for. I read a very flattering review in Guitar Player complaining about the lack of a front mounted on/off switch and the lack of metering, but the overload indicator works perfectly, and there is no substitute for ears. Both turned out to be non-issues to me and I always use line conditioning/protection to turn on and off equipment anyway. How's it sound? It's a very clean pre-amp without artifacts, near silent S/N, crisp and smooth, all words I'd used to discribe the unit. The compressor functioned perfectly on vocal mics and acoustic guitars, and the limiting engaged worked well for bass guitar even for fast thumbing which I was concerned without having an adjustable attack rate (never mind how brutally great boosting 60hz was with the unit dialed in) A-B'd against it's self with the eq in and out was eye popping. Congradulations to the Retro-channel design team on hitting a home run right out of the box! I'll be sure to recommend this to my associates, as a relatively low-cost, super time saving solution to an age old recording problem - it is a near perfect signal chain that doesn't require constant gain futzing between units. If a person has a computer interface or tape recorder, they simply need this piece - you can't subsitute in the box plug-ins for this critical and vital role, and get the same results (the elephant in the engineering room that the software marketing guys don't want the public to understand). If a guitarist wants a great pre-amp for guitar for spanky-ass clean and semi-clean tones this is it, it also doubles as an a amazing direct box and the inputs handled everything well from ribbon mics to active pickups on guitars and basses. Can't wait to see what your team comes up with next!!!"
Sincerely,
Brian Moritz
Andy Johns
David Torn
Tony Levin
Press
Guitar Player Magazine Article
"We live in a world of a lot of hype and very few real values, I've been working in the music and recording industry for 25+ years, and had the good fortune of working with some of the best musicians in the world as a musician, engineer and a producer.. I can't think of the last time I bought something and felt like I got more than what I bargained for until I got the Rectro-channel the other day... I was skeptical of the hype (Pultec's go for $30k alone - LA-2A's, Telefunken all names with huge price tags for good reasons) and the lack of mass distribution and my inability to try it before buying it had me a little worried, though the examples on the site were excellent. I do realize that the cost of most products is the result of expensive advertising campaigns and I just stumbled onto this piece it wan't greeting me in every big-box flyer in the mail. A guitar might cost $150 to the manufacturer, but by the time it's on the retailer's rack it can be
$1500, so price can be misleading. So I had hope, and mailed in my money... It showed up within super fast, another surprise... First thing I appreciated was it's light and the nice front mounted grab rails when installing it in the rack, I try to take care of my equipment, but rack gear usually gets a little beat up from in and out needs; right off the bat, I knew somebody who designed this gets the drill. I was sort of expecting over the top compression, lots of gain distortion in the extreme settings, and a sub-par EQ and was pleasantly suprized to find it really does what is claimed, but even perhaps better that is expressed is it's way more neutral than colored, which is what I wanted it for. I read a very flattering review in Guitar Player complaining about the lack of a front mounted on/off switch and the lack of metering, but the overload indicator works perfectly, and there is no substitute for ears. Both turned out to be non-issues to me and I always use line conditioning/protection to turn on and off equipment anyway. How's it sound? It's a very clean pre-amp without artifacts, near silent S/N, crisp and smooth, all words I'd used to discribe the unit. The compressor functioned perfectly on vocal mics and acoustic guitars, and the limiting engaged worked well for bass guitar even for fast thumbing which I was concerned without having an adjustable attack rate (never mind how brutally great boosting 60hz was with the unit dialed in) A-B'd against it's self with the eq in and out was eye popping. Congradulations to the Retro-channel design team on hitting a home run right out of the box! I'll be sure to recommend this to my associates, as a relatively low-cost, super time saving solution to an age old recording problem - it is a near perfect signal chain that doesn't require constant gain futzing between units. If a person has a computer interface or tape recorder, they simply need this piece - you can't subsitute in the box plug-ins for this critical and vital role, and get the same results (the elephant in the engineering room that the software marketing guys don't want the public to understand). If a guitarist wants a great pre-amp for guitar for spanky-ass clean and semi-clean tones this is it, it also doubles as an a amazing direct box and the inputs handled everything well from ribbon mics to active pickups on guitars and basses. Can't wait to see what your team comes up with next!!!"
Sincerely,
Brian Moritz