Ua 6176

[Charlie_M]

OK This is more of a channel strip than a pure preamp but thought I'd review it here. It consists of an LA-610 preamp and a UA1176 compressor. You can run them together as a channel strip (as I normally do) or separately.

So much of this stuff is subjective, but here are my impressions of what it gives me in various applications:

1. electric guitar (e609-->610 amp-->1176 set for only very light compression): Chunky, Creamy. Opposites in some sense but that's what I get. It's a bit like someone trying to describe wine and they say 'hints of chocolate..." and you want to go "hey numbnuts those are GRAPES!!" but then you try it and you go .. "Oh OK I see what the guy was saying.

2. Direct Bass: FAT. Clean. Full. Articulate. If I were trying to sell you one of these you could call that a marketing bullshit description. But I'm not offering mine for sale you have to go find one somewhere else.

3. Male vocals: (cad e300 --> 610--> 1176 set for very light compression, only suppressing the top of what happens due to my lack of good mic technique). Rich. Shiny on the bottom. Actually somewhat forgiving of my voice. I find I'm happy with my voice with little to no EQ through this amp. I also tried it with an SM58 - really didn't like it. But I've never liked a 58 on my voice for whatever reason. Want to try an SM7b one day but haven't picked one of those up yet.

For a solo operation (i.e., me, my geetar, a bass, cheapo m-audio midi controller and midi drums, synths, etc...) it works well as a centerpiece as it seems to shine in the areas I need it to (1.,2., and 3 above).

I still have not tried it on acoustic guitar, but certainly will when I get back to playing in that vein at some point.

I got mine used so got a good deal on it. They come up used from time to time in the range of $1500 and seem to be pretty reliable units so I felt comfortable buying a used one. They want $2400 for a new one so it seemed to me that used was the way to go here. I guess that's a fair enough price for a new unit, but for the new/used difference you can be well on your way to a top shelf condenser, or a neve clone for different vocal flavor, so I opted for used and am happy with that choice. Had it only a couple months now. Over the initial exuberance enough to write a somewhat objective report, still not enough time with it to fully explore all that 1176 has to offer I'm sure.

Charlie