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!
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:
- EQ
- Compressor
- De-Esser
- Tube Voltage
- Expander/Gate
- Sample Rate Conversion
- Directly record into your comp with a USB cable from the hardware itself!
- 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).
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
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:
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!
