Anybody have Avalon VT-737 sound clips?

[grobe]

Very curious to hear how these sound. Also wondering how much better it is over the U5.

Opinions?

 

[silky smoove]

It's not necessarily better, just different.

Not as transparent as the U5, and has more EQ possibilities. The EQ in general is great except that the top end was clearly designed with sparkly vocals in mind, not bass guitar. It's set to give a lot of presence on top, and I find it largely "misses" the top end of a bass guitar,

The compressor is the weak link in the chain. It's has a very slow attack. People have been known to mod these to increase the attack time.

If I were in the market for a 2U mic pre for studio use, I'd look at the UA LA610. Definitely not the same vibe as the Avalon, but a lot more useful in a variety of settings to my ears. Works great on just about anything as long as the input isn't slammed too hard as it will clip a bitter easily than some other mic pres.

 

[grobe]

So the LA610 is much warmer sounding with bass guitar compared to the 737? Can it still go fairly clean with the input gain turned down? I would using it for DI only. Looking for simultaneous warm and clean w/ no compression and maybe subtle EQ.


I saw this video a while ago, but he doesn't put the gain selector below "0" so it's hard to tell how clean it can go. Sounds very tubey with the gain just at "0" and level at "5". I would like to hear it with the gain down at the "-5" setting.

 

[Spencer!]

On bass, I prefer the REDDI and the U5 over the VT 737.

 

[spigmu]

For bass it's not a great choice, especially for the price. I used to work at a place that had one, and spent a lot of time wrestling with it. I like the eq, though, as silky smoove says, what's good about it is as an eq for things other than bass. Acoustic instruments and vocals are nice through it. Can't do anything surgical or problem solving with it, but that's like complaining about a banana because it's not crunchy. The pre I like, but not as much as many other pres in its range. It's not an especially beefy pre. The compressor is useless. It may be better with the mod to make it faster (never heard one) but even on slower attack and release signals I've always been confused by how not good it is.

I gave up trying to use it for bass.

 

[grobe]

Wow, so most people prefer the U5, huh? This is interesting.

 

[MrCincinnati]

U5 to 160A

the 737 is very nice - but like others said - it's not specifically designed for bass guitar so the compressor section is not optimal, the EQ sounds great but is only mildly practical and for the price you could even go U5 to distressor and come out ahead if you have a decent onboard preamp for EQ

 

[Charling]

Firstly, avoid the word warmer, it means nothing!!!

I don't know the 737 too well, but I liked it when I did use it once on vocals but I can imagine its not a great bass front end if thats its main purpose. I've used a U5 a LOT for bass and they rock, I've used a u5 to a distressor a lot as well and thats a great combo. A distressor is an INCREDIBLY versatile compressor thats great for so much more than basic duties. Or a 160 in place of the Distressor, a lot cheaper and still a real classic.

An LA610 is a great piece of kit, you'll probably want to track with compression when you hear how good it sounds! I wouldn't worry about it being too 'tubey' nothing I heard in that video sounded as though the tube was stating its prescence too much (without being asked too), sounded more like his bass was just a little dull!

Remember the gain '-5, 0, +5' etc is just a pad for the main 'tube mic pre' level knob. Ie, there will be a TINY difference between the two but not anything make or break. To most intents and purposes turning the pad down to -5 and boosting the gain by 5db more will be pretty much the same. So the left hand side is the input level, the gain knob in the compressor section the output. To get a less couloured tone you could take down the input side and put up the output. How clean this is will depend on how clean the output amp is but being UA I'd imagine its pretty slick.