My first piece of hardware rack gear!

My reason for wanting a channel strip was for cleaner vocals within the Beatstruggles Tutorials.

With my first few tries with the ART Voice Channel, I was quite impressed!

Before recording, I will record myself into Edison, listen back, and see what I think needs fine-tuning EQ, compression, and De-Ess wise. From there, I will adjust accordingly, and get on with the tutorial!

I’m not one to have gear lust and purchase lots of gear/sounds/products – I try to only buy what I need, and make the most of what I have!

That’s my reason for buying a used version of the ART Voice Channel – no point paying an extra $200 when the used one works just as good!

In this video, I tried to give a break down on what everything does on the ART Voice Channel. Hopefully you learn some stuff from the video!:

And here’s some more information on those wanting to buy the ART Voice Channel, with some images etc.

The Front

At first glance, I definitely had a smile on my face! – My first piece of hardware, and I was ready to plug it in and try it!

ART Voice Channel - Compressor Gain Reduction Meter 3

All the dials have that nice fluid motion to them, which give you a bit of resistance on your turn. So you know they are built well.

The ART Voice Channel contains the following:

  1. EQ
  2. Compressor
  3. De-Esser
  4. Tube Voltage
  5. Expander/Gate
  6. Sample Rate Conversion
  7. Directly record into your comp with a USB cable from the hardware itself!
  8. An option to put the EQ before and after the compressor. (Also being able to bypass the EQ totally).

Also included are the basics you get on any kind of pre-amp: Pad, Invert, Phantom Power, Low Cut.

The Voice Channel also comes with an impedance knob, which I think is for the front input! (If your signal is too loud/hot, you can dial more resistance/less resistance).

ART Voice Channel - VU Meter

When first turning the Voice Channel on, I wasn’t wow’d. The VU analog meter surprised me almost in a disappointing way with it’s orangey color. But cosmetics aren’t everything right 😉

The Voice Channel does a great job at what I wanted it for; recording cleaner vocals for tutorials, while having total control over knobs in real time (not having to go through VSTs etc).

I’ve already recorded a few tutorials/videos with it, and I am impressed with the results I am achieving!

A cool thing about the Voice Channel is that it’s a bit of analog/digital in one – It has both a VU and Digital meter. (Also, the VU Meter has a calibration knob to correctly adjust the needle to your volume).

The Back

ART Voice Channel - Back (1)

The back of the ART Voice Channel definitely gives the user a lot of connections and flexibility; also with that USB connection, allowing for easy recording directly into your computer!

Here’s some more pictures:

ART Voice Channel - Back (2)

ART Voice Channel - Back (3)

What’s Coming Next?

Well.. currently I just have the ART Voice Channel on one of my Yamaha HS80m speaker boxes.. So a rack mount is definitely in my future purchases. Also.. a nice little affordable patch bay would be very nice.

A patch bay would just simply allow me to route/connect everything from the front of the studio rack, instead of sliding out the hardware in/out, having to go to the back each time to make connections. We’ll see what happens. One day at a time right!

Let me know if you start noticing a difference in my vocals with the newer Beatstruggles tutorials!

Thanks Long and McQuade for opportunity to purchase the used ART Voice Channel!