"Since moving to computer based recording only 3 /4 years back i've become lazy and used to software instead of hands on twiddling knobs, so I came back to the studio and connect the Liquid channel via the Usb connection and installed the on screen display for it, well what can I say.... a world of difference, I can flick through different pre-amps and compressors as singers and musicians are warming up, and I can here a world of difference! to be able to save different settings to disk as been a god send, especially for me. playing many instruments as I do writing for clients, sat at the desk with the headphones on, I just click the mouse and load in different presents for acoustic guitars, different settings for percussion etc...without having to move from the mic position to physically twiddle with the dials. Sorry for the long winded email, once again thank you for the advice, I just can't wait to get the Liquid Mix setup." Mike Frankland - Castlegate Studios "i am having the greatest time with me liquid channels, really getting some great sounds and studio bookings are on the up." Steve Honest - UK "I purchased two units and have found that the quality and use is wonderful. I use the AES outputs to bypass my 2408/3 digitally and have an audible quality improvement. Simple to set up, stunning models and really good support." Brian Mikiten - USA "I want at least two of them. It's an incredible value considering what's inside the box. "Overall, it's very powerful technology that will eventually take over how front end processing takes place. While there is a little room for improvement in regards of total functionality / usable value (separate analogue and digital I/O for each stage), this is a phenomenal first step. Lastly and most importantly, it sounds great!" Alan Moon - Sweetwater "I own several of the units depicted in the LC. I found its models to be nearly 100% accurate to my perceptions of what they sound/behave like??The basic character of the other boxes seemed dead on to me. Overall I would give it an A+" David Stewart - Sweetwater "I found the liquid channel to be very much a buy two and you're done type box (unless you need more than 2 channels simultaneously at which point, just add as needed) I am wanting two of them for myself. Also, 1.5 or .8 or whatever it takes to switch between replications is much nicer than the couple of minutes it can take in the physical world otherwise to compare various preamps." Alexander Jenkins - Sweetwater "The D/A and A/D conversion in the box is seamless. There is no sensation that you are listening to anything other than an analog box and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. The sound is brilliant and the control pinpoint on each and every replication. The controls on the front of the box are so logically laid out that is is impossible to not know how to operate this gear. Once again I mean that as a high compliment. The build quality is typical Focusrite: A listen confirms what your eyes and fingers have already told you-- that yes indeed your money has been well-spent." Greg Baum - Sweetwater "Sounded Great! Please put it on the points program as soon as possible!" Dan Van Amerongen - Sweetwater "Just wanted to share with you guys that I got a GREAT solo violin sound yesterday using the Blue Mouse mic and 'AP3124' mic pre with a 'TTEC LCA2B' comp set to 20:1 ....Yum!!" Lee Shephard - Massive Attack - May 2004 "I was in the room with Tetness for the shootout today. Here's my take: If you've got the $$$ for piles of the the "real thing" then great. If you don't, then go for a Liquid Channel and never look back. There wasn't a repro in the bunch where we said "Oh this sucks, it's obviously a digital repro, blah blah blah". As a practical matter though, for the price of a vintage Neve you get that plus 39 other choices (with more to come via download) that just might sound as good or better on your source in your room on that day. On things like vox, ac gtr, and standard percussion (shaker, tambo, clave, etc...) it was a matter of VERY minor degrees of preference. Like Tetness said, in a mix there might be no practical difference. Who gives a rip about a track in solo. The LC version could possibly sit in a track better. I see this as an INCREDIBLY practical tool for the project studio operator, and indie-freelance-producer-engineer guy who could use a huge variety of tones in a single package at a relatively reasonable price. In my setup if I had, say, 12 channels of different pre's, 10-11 would be going unused on a typical day. I totally do the "basics elsewhere, overdubs here" thing and at the end of the day could see the usefulness of this box. 40 different total crap pre's could cost you $4000 plus. Then, where the hell would you put them, and try and setup a patching arrangement for a shootout like we did today , much less deal with it on an actual tracking day. So anyway, totally worth the $$$ if you're inclined to take massive versatility and ease of use over exact replication of the original (and who's to say that our representative samples today were any more representative than any other vintage piece)? Talk about practical and easy to use, while Tedi was singing I was patching through pre's on the fly. We auditioned 40 pres on him in about 10 minutes!!!! And, like he mentioned, some of the models (Helios, Manley SLAM, Millenia) totally knocked our socks off. We didn't have originals to compare to but didn't care considering the sound. It's much like the plug-in vs. outboard (and honestly, the sonics are probably in a similar vein). Yeah, the big boys will always stick to the real thing, but as a practical matter I can hardly afford 1 or 2, much less the 20 or 30 that a plug allows me to use on my session. Same thing in this case. If you're one of us who doesn't lose any sleep over using a Fairchild plug rather than the original, then you'll love the liquid channel. My $.02, or $3700 in this case." Gsharp, Gearslutz user, June 2004 "This thing is amazing, I've just got the best vocal sound I've ever had!" Steve Robson - Northern Sky (Busted) - June 2004 "Mic pres A/B'd... 1073, Vintech x73 "1073 clone", 6176 (2610 and 1176 combo), 3124... Pre amp replicas "right on, amazing!!!!! The EQ was great. "Nice!" No break-up or artifacting when maxed-out gain stages were applied." Charlie Clouser ? June 2004 "I loaned it to a trusted engineer friend of mine and he used it on scratch vocals with an RE-20 with a screamer vocalist. I called him last night and he was very impressed. It was 1073 front end and 33609 compressor. That's one convert. Lynn Fuston - June 2004 "Yesterday I did an A-B test with the Liquid Channel and a bunch of new and classic gear (Red 1, VTT1, 737, 1176, 33609, 165). We found that the preamp in the Liquid Channel is excellent by itself, the preamp replicas are very accurate in general (sometimes we needed to dial in some harmonics to make the match perfect but that's about all we could find). The compressor replicas are fantastic. We could not hear any difference at all when A-Bing after we'd matched the controls and levels. Brilliant stuff." Ivo Witteveen - Reviewer for Interface Magazine - July 2004 "Well I generally don't do this. I rarely hear anything anymore that I am impressed enough with to take the time to write anything or don't consider myself enough of an authority to garner any credibility to what I say, but... Lynn was gracious enough to let me try the Liquid Channel the other day on a tracking session I was doing. Since I only had one channel I was limited to what I could use it for. I wasn't sure what I was going to find so I just stuck it on the booth scratch vocal with an RE-20. Buddy Mullins from past work with Gaither Vocal Band, Sunday Drive and Mullins Family Band was the producer for his family's reunion album. The first one I have done for them since 1996. Have done over 25 projects for them in the past 30 years. At first the unit is awe inspiring and I wasn't sure if I was going to have to take a crash course or dig into the manual which I did not have time to do. But, after watching the great light show and a boot up procedure, it all came pretty easy. I dialed through the pres and selected a replica of the Neve 1073Hz Version. Then I selected a Neve 33609 Comp. I made some basic adjustments to what I thought I might want just on the fly. When he started singing I turned and looked to see how far he was from the mic. He was about a 10". An RE-20 Is not supposed to sound like that at 10" to a foot. I looked at the LC. It was compressing pretty heavy, but I could not really hear any pumping. It was like you were riding gain on the vocal. I had NEVER heard that mic sound like that. I later tweaked a bit of EQ in just for fun, but it did not need it... Later in the week we decided to do a REAL vocal on a song with Buddy's Dad and Mom. I put his dad Roger on an 87 through the LC. Geez, I never heard THAT mic or any 87 sound like that. Pretty much same settings. I was wishing I had two, one for mom. I was beginning to wonder just 'what the heck' was going on inside this thing. I called my friend Chuck Surack at Sweetwater and asked if they had tried one. He was like "YES, isn't it awesome"? He said they were planning on putting in one in their new control upgrade to Digi ICON. I told him he was gonna want more than JUST one. He said everyone was raving about it. So there it is. Just a first impression. I haven't had a chance to use it anymore and quite frankly am afraid to. I just don't have the extra cash to fork out for 2 of them right now. Could not be happy with just one. But, this is one pretty amazing box. I did not have time to go through the other XX number of pres and comps that it replicates. But it is a bunch. Maybe soon if Lynn will let me have it back... Try one. See if I am just nuts or you agree.." George Cumbee - Pres Audio Creations Inc. - July 2004 "The 1073 was interesting. I had the same reaction as George....I haven't heard that mic on my acoustic sound like that before. Sometimes the top on a 4040 can get a lil "eeky" but this really smoothed it out. Very usable. Then I tried running a lead vocal through the cl1b emulation. I must say this was very nice. I didn't torture it...it was only hitting about 3-5 db of reduction, but boy it lassoed the sound nicely. I'll "pop vocal" pummel it later for fun." Kevin Perry - Chameleon Music, Nashville - July 2004 "Whelp, Here I am sitting with the Focusrite liquid channel. It was sent to me for review. I wanted to hate it. I cant. It is really good. You will be able to read a full review in TapeOp soon, but for now lets just say: This thing is amazing. I really wanted to hate it for a bunch of different reasons. The interface, the idea that it is modelling a bunch of stuff I have that is some of the most sought after pieces of gear on the planet. I am not allowed to make direct comparisons to classic pieces of gear by name, but this thing certainly does a great job. I had it up against some British made compressors of great fame, and the modelled versions are astoundingly good, and the fact that this thing sells for mid 3000 mark, and manages to do what a single channel of some 3000 to 16 thousand (!) dollar compressors do.... Amazing. I have to say, if you can get over the idea of soft keys and knobs and digital in general, you would have one of the most powerful tools available today. You name it: put one classic pre into another classic compressor. The analog front end coupled with models of classics is a great idea. It works well. I ran program through it today, and it actually does a bunch of different "tricks" really well. Even when (obviously) compared to the thing it is "pretending to be" is right there in the room. This is a frightening, exciting, easy, scary,angering, embarrassing, great piece of gear. This one is going to make some waves in the industry, because it will make people whine and bitch, or sing its praises, or refuse to use it, or whatever, but waves nonetheless." Joel Hamilton - TapeOp Forum - July 2004 "Just a quick mail to say thanks very much for the liquid channel, which is now firmly installed in studio 2. Today it had the rare experience of being listened to by me, Richard, Simon, Andy, and two new techs Alex and Tom, all at once, and we all think it's great. It really does sound very good indeed and the modelling really works. Probably the first time I've seen all of the technical department simultaneously very impressed without the presence of cricket or drugs. Actually there was cricket now I think of it. Anyhow - nice one, cracking product which we'll be sure to introduce to many clients." Rob Kelly - Strongroom - August 2004 "Well Cambridge is over again for another Year. Great festival this year everything went smoothly apart from some shit lorry knocking over one of my delay towers but hey ho all was well in the end!!! Focusrite Liquids are GREAT!!!! We had one engineer turn up and asked if we could put his Avalon 737 into the system I told him no need we can emulate the 737 with the Liquids. He said OK. It work out great he loved it, he got the sound he was looking for and possibly a bit more. I would love to put one out on a tour but we do not have anything at the moment. Ange Jones (Paul Weller) was my FOH man at CFF and he loved them as well and would possibly like to try them on the next tour in the Autumn." Pete Hughes - Canegreen Ltd. - August 2004 * IMPORTANT INFORMATION: FOCUSRITE, the FF logo, LIQUID TECHNOLOGY, LIQUID CONTROL and the LIQUID logo are trademarks of Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. DYNAMIC CONVOLUTION is a trademark of Sintefex Ltd. All other product names, trademarks, or trade names are the names of their respective owners, which are in no way associated, connected nor affiliated with Focusrite or its LIQUID CHANNEL product and which have not endorsed Focusrite's LIQUID CHANNEL product. These other product names, trademarks, and trade names are used solely to identify and describe the third party products the sonic behaviour of which was studied for the LIQUID CHANNEL product, and to accurately describe the functionality of the LIQUID CHANNEL product. The LIQUID CHANNEL product is an independently engineered technology which utilises the patented process of Dynamic Convolution to actually measure examples of the sonic impact of original analogue products upon an audio stream, so as to electronically emulate the performance of the original product studied. The result of this process is subjective and may not be perceived by a user as producing the same effects as the original products studied.