ART Voice Channel Tube Microphone Preamp System with Digital In/Out
Fatten your vocal tracks with this tube mic preamp's selectable plate voltage and variable impedance -- then record to your computer via USB, ADAT or S/PDIF.
$619.99
- 12 x$51.67
- 8 x$77.50
- No Credit Check6 x$103.33
- No Credit Check4 x$155.00
Overall User Ratings (based on 21 ratings)
Submitted April 12, 2011 by a customer from yahoo.com
ART Voice Channel Customer Review
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Sound
The Voice Channel has improved my Vocal recordings tremendously. I use a Bluebird mic running through the voice channel and was blown away by the improvement of the quality of recording the ability to add warmth via the tube setting. Since my homestudio enviorment has not been treated for recording and the gate function on the Voice Channel has worked phenomenal in keeping backgoud sounds out. I'm pretty new home recording but love this Voice Channel.
The only thing is I wasn't able to record a acoustic guitar very well through it but that's most likely to my lack of knowledge of recording instruments for vocals it's awesome.
Features
So much you can do with this thing. Love it.
Ease of Use
I took it out of the box and started recording. Knobs are well labeled and pretty easy to figure out. Still learning though.
Quality
Well for the price you can't beat it. I've been researching a mic pre-amp w/ gate and compressor etc. This all-in-one machine is a whole lot of
Value
Well for the price you can't beat it. I've been researching a mic pre-amp w/ gate and compressor etc. This all-in-one machine is a whole lot of function for the price. I'm vey pleased at what I got forthe price.
Manufacturer Support
haven't had any problems yet.
Musical Background:
Hobbyist
Musical Style:
Hip Hop / R&B
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Submitted May 1, 2015 by Anthony J in Winnipeg, MB
"So impressed"
Where do I begin...i've owned this now for a month and it's brought my recording quality up a lot. First of all the preamp is excellent. Swapping out the tube MIGHT be something i consider one day, but anyone who says you have to in order to get excellent sound is likely not using this properly. It goes from very clean to quite driven. And I love that I can run the EQ before or after the compressor depending on my needs. I tend to run it before the compressor and there are a lot of online tutorials that explain why.
Compression is easy and effective and let me tell you... i have NEVER used such a good De-esser before. Not in hardward or in software. The De-Esser took me maybe 3 minutes to find my frequency range and it does such a good job.
But here is the reason my (and any other vocalists ive tried) have had such a good performance... i can set up the right tones/ compression/ gain during the warm up take... then by the time it's done, the vocalist can relax. It takes care of sibilance and volume peaks and they can just give their best performance. This unit is FANTASTIC.
Do i still do further editing in pro tools? Of course. I think that's a big part of where the shine comes from. Find me a pro mixer who doesnt. What this does however is get the raw take in a form that allows the vocalist to give them best performance possible and saves me TONS AND TONS of time. It's paid for itself in man hours by my second project.
Musical Background:
Playing 15 years. Guitar, Bass, Drums, Piano, Recording, Vocals.
Musical Style:
Rock, Jazz, ballads, punk.
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Submitted July 9, 2017 by Eugene Rotger in Ocala, FL
"Excellent Product"
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I have been a singer/songwriter for 46 years and have had various studios and home studies throughout my musical career. The Art brand is a brand I've been familiar with for many years. This channel comp has the absolute most bang for the buck. You've got to have a good ear though to get the settings right. I love it. It is a permanent fixture in my vocal rack.
Musical Background:
46 years in the music in the music industry.
Musical Style:
Christian rock.
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Submitted April 6, 2009 by a customer from hotmail.com
"The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice."
Well i think anyone who takes the studio aspect of music as being more creative than utilitarian has to go out and search for more sounds and more ways to capture sounds I'm not getting rid of this thing even when i can afford a Focusrite 220
Sound
Art mic pre's as a guideline are known to have a "dark" sound. But with features like semi parametric EQ, adjustable impedance and selectable plate voltage you can achieve more airy sounds with judicious use of an aural exciter it can be quite an airy sound. I use it with several good mics -A sony c38b, SE z5600a mkii, Rode NT1A, Samson VR88 and a cheap Apex 420 large diaphragm condenser. Curiously enough it is not the kind of pre that will make an 800 dollar mic (z5600amkii) sound like a million dollars. But it wont make my $2000 Sony sound like crap either. Its a good mic preamp with its own very usable sounds. But if you're thinking you can match it up against a really great mic pre and come out even then it will fall a little shy, still for just over 400 dollars? Grab it. Its one of the best in the price range only the Joe Meek OneQ is in its league Then again I havent used the Eureka or the GT Brick.
Features
The most useful feature is semi parametric EQ, followed by the selectable plate voltage and adjustable impedance selection. Not super crazy about the compressor. Metering is amazingly good on a unit at this price so are the output options. I dont think anyone has a system that this won't integrate into perfectly. I mean it, that's one of its strongest features.
Ease of Use
Like anything the deeper the feature list -the trickier it gets. Still its all right there labeled in creme avec noir. no menus and sub menus though (I'm sure one day even tube pre's will be plagued by this.)
Quality
Its a tube pre i'm not gonna through it up against a brick wall to find out. Tubes are sensitive. thats the way life goes. looks pretty though espescially when that VU meter is lit up and the compresser is working away. Use it on the road? no I would not. worst aspect of quality is probably that they dont use a premier tube then again one premier tube can set you back fifty dollars.
Value
I own a few mic pres and a few bundled mic pres
its better than the pres on my behringer eurorack because it has higher headroom.
Better than the pres on my Emu 1616m for the same reason.
I prefer it over my focusrite twintrak about 60 percent of the time.
equal to "my" (okay its a loaner...) joe meek oneq
Manufacturer Support
not applicable. Thank God.
The Wow Factor
Its beautiful actually.
Musical Background:
singer songwriter producer engineer
Musical Style:
goth to gospel and all points between (no Jazz !!!!!!!)
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Submitted September 16, 2014 by Jim F in Lilburn, GA
"Art Voice Channel"
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Excellent sound for the money. I swapped out the stock tube with a Telefunken. I use this primarily for voice overs with a Rode NTK. The impedance adjustment, EQ, compressor and gate give me everything I need to tune in what I need perfectly as I sometimes need to turn projects around very quickly with little time for fine tune editing. De-esser is also a plus. While this will never match a tube pre amp costing thousands of dollars, the 300w tube voltage gives some actual warmth as opposed to the "starved plate" pre I was using prior to the Voice Channel. A keeper!
Musical Background:
25 years, home studio
Musical Style:
voice over, jazz , blues
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Submitted June 2, 2015 by Matt Byron in Carrboro, NC
"It's awesome, just plain awesome."
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I have a small (compared to some) home studio, so I was unsure how to best use my small amount of space when it came to upgrading my sound quality. After playing with the voice channel for a couple sessions, I was blown away by the killer character it added! From then on at my studio, it has simply been referred to as "THE MAGIC BOX" because everything that goes in to it, comes out sounding better, every time.
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Submitted February 27, 2014 by paul g
"GREAT.... SMOOOOTH"
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preface.. I also have 2 PRO VLA's and a PreSonus Studio Channel. When I 1st received the "VOICE" I actually thought it was working proprly because the difference when making adjustment did seem like much of a change. 1st thing I did wrong was not letting it break in.2nd thing was that I expected it to sound like my others.Now its a while since I received it and I guess it broke in but also I wasn't noticing what a smooth signal thta is patched to my DP-32. I actually noticed it when I played back a recording I did. LIGHNIN' HOPKINS VERSION "BABY PLEASE DON'T GO" It was buttery smooth but still had some punch to it... All my other compressors were straight analog. These are my 1st tubed. I really like the "voice" when practing I went "D I" right from the VOICE. always used an amp before. The sound really inspires me to keep playing because of the nuances and the great "pads" I play blues and slide.. finger picking. Its always been a challenge to keep the dynamics in line.. with the pad I don't have to mute the bass thumping any longer .. yet it doesn't sound attenuated... this alone is huge.. in fact, I ran the Voice thru my PA and with a few adjustments got some over drive from the tube and the PA sounded like tube amp , maybe not exactly but close enough so I will gig (solo" using just the Voice Channel and P A. with no amp. There are many more positive things I could say but I don't want to gush and its been reviewed nicely by others. The VOICE CHANNEL isn't like a sludge hammer its more like a brush and pallet with many colors.
Musical Background:
playing for a long time
Musical Style:
Blues.. Pink Floyd type "wavy" music and abstract.
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Submitted March 26, 2014 by paul gavoni in plymouth, MA
"Really worth the money"
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I purchased this to hear how the drums (from Korg MicroArranger) sounded.I connected left to the Voice Channel and right to my Pro VLA just to have stereo. The Voice channel sounded really bad. I started turning knobs and pushing buts and realized immediately that one little increment made a huge difference. Time went by and it slowly started to sound amazing.. with the VLA PRO II on one side and the Voice Channel on the other.. something happened I hadn't expected... ..imaging... Using the VLAP RO for the drums was great but the VOICE Channel took It to another level I didn't exspect. I was thinking about purchasing another Voice Channel (I'm not wealthy at all) but the pairing is so great I think I'll go with this set up.. I should add that the PRO VLA' is really good and as is said many time "especially for the money" In my opinion it brings whatever out front and is pretty transparent. I highly recommend the Voice Channel (I can only speak for drums) as is said many times, if the drums sound right everything else falls into place. THe WOW factor should be 5 stars+
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