Shaun tells me he has 6 units left at that price, and my immediate thought was "people will want to know this," so I got his permission to spread the word. It's built like a tank, weighs about as much, and the photo does not do justice to the brushed aluminum red knobs. Look at that picture: this thing is a work of art, in all respects. In any case, the unit is now 100% realized and the sound was absolutely worth the wait. I've been working with Shaun Leveque while he got the bugs ironed out of my unit he's an extremely responsive gentleman and all-around good person. Since it's a preproduction piece, I got mine for $2300 shipped, which is just plain stupid for a 16 channel box of this calibre. There's a richness, depth, and hi-fi velvet laying over everything. There are more than a few albums in my collection which have this type of sound: Ben Harper's _Burn To Shine_, Pink Floyd's DSOTM come to mind. But the Phoenix is plush, old school 70's red bedroom with lavalamp plush. This is no small thing for me to say, as I worship the API sound.
Electra phoenix guitar serial number series#
I've not had the pleasure of working on an 80 series Neve I have, however, worked on API's and Focusrites and the Nicerizer, in my humble opinion, out-tones them. Each input has a pan control and a +8 switch for extra input sensitivity. And it has a headphone monitor, where you can select any pair of inputs, or the stereo mix. I should also mention: it generates some sweet harmonics when pushed a bit, and it has a "stereo width" control which I have yet to touch because I'm too busy building mixes that are making me giggle like a schoolgirl. Any remaining sense of "digital" is swept away, and a gorgeous 3-D analog landscape opens up. this is most apparent when using crunchy drum loops, as I'm wont to do in my own music. Midrange is creamy smooth, and highs are completely silkened. Spiky digital transients are softened in all the right ways, on the order of microseconds to my ears. Bass goes deeper, wider and inky black, without a trace of muddiness. "Nicerizer" is such a ridiculously appropriate name.
For me, this means a short list of the stuff that moves me: Soundelux U99, Great River NV, Langevin el-op, Lavry converters, API 2500 mix comp, Studer A810 mix deck.Īt last, I have a summing box that not only preserves the sounds that I capture and blends them effortlessly, it actually improves on them in a way that is not at all subtle and is nothing short of stunning. And in that light, the Nicerizer 16 gives about a yard in a game generally measured in inches.īecause there's a Logic-based DAW at the heart of my studio, and my only eq's are the TC/Sony Oxford and UAD Cambridge, I have to make triple-sure that everything else in my chain is 110% tone. I am definitely one of those guys who smiles from ear to ear when I hear all the right kinds of coloration and distortion that are, for me, the hallmarks of great analog. these get knocked around on a daily basis by pros and hacks alike, and it's generally because they either have the ears and the kit to capture and enhance those qualities, or they're lost in a digital void and seeking them like the holy grail. Words like warm, round, fat, thick, deep, wide, punchy, airy.
"Better," of course, is a highly subjective thing, and there are times and places when transparency and accuracy are desirable.īut for most of us, there are qualities of sound that we just can't get enough of, and no shortage of adjectives to describe them. There are a precious handful of folks on this planet who have the ability to design a circuit that takes whatever you give it and spits it out the other end sounding better.