Product: Focusrite Green 2 EQ
Price Paid: US $550.00 used
Submitted
09/06/2005
at
05:16pm
by
a.ballard
Ease of Use
:
7
7/ a little hard to read controls, alot packed in to a tight space!
Sound Quality
:
10
awsome! clean,punchy,shimmering tone!preamp sounds very real.EQ is great,4 fully perametric bands and high low filters,best I have heard in this $ range!
Reliability
:
10
3 years,so far so good
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
10
I have some old tube stuff and some new tube stuff from elctroharmonics,art,ballari ect also focusrite voicemaster,this is in a little differnt league,more realistic,more assertive,better transient response! I did my first session as a player in 1979
a project studio owner for about 5 years,I have used neves,api,ect this is a little more modern sounding but in a simmilar league,not as beefy in the mids as api neve stuff but still very full and firm sounding!!!I GET BETTER RESULTS THAN DIGITAL E.Q!!!! Thats what makes this an important part of my studio.....
Product: Focusrite Green 2 EQ
Price Paid: 350 (UKP)
Submitted
03/30/2002
at
10:01am
by
Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
7
It is very easy to get a good, professional sound out of the unit. As it is completely analogue, WYSIWYG...Mic preamp section is very straightforward. Minor criticisms are that the knob pointers don't quite line up with the calibration marks and the knobs aren't labeled. You have to look to see which knob is labeled in dBs to find the cut/boost control, etc. Another gripe would be the metering - it only goes up to +3dB even though there is much more headroom above that. There is, however, an output stage clip LED.
Using it to record bass direct I have found it a bit too transparent, maybe a valve unit would give a better sound. However, that just means that this is a very clean, transparent unit.
On the BIG plus side (totally outweighing the above) is the sound quality...
Sound Quality
:
10
This is a professional piece of Focusrite equipment. It sounds amazing. You will not notice noise from this unit - it will reveal noise from your other equipment. The mic preamp really is as close to the 'cable with gain' ideal as most of us will ever get. The discontinued Green series lies above the current Platinum range but was cheaper than the Red series due to using surface mount components. The build quality is however superb, with a cast iron chassis and even a toroidal mains transformer (such as what hi-fi amps use) to minimise mains hum (and there isn't any).
I have used this as a recording channel with mics like Rode NT2, AKG C3000 and it is incredibly transparent. I connect the output, balanced at +4dBu, directly to my M-Audio Delta 1010 soundcard, or balanced into a mixer live. The quality of the EQ is so good that the rule of 'never boost' doesn't apply. I have used the unit live as a PA engineer to add >10dB of sparkle to dull acoustic guitars at 12kHz!! The top end is incredibly smooth and boosting at the 'air' frequency of 12kHz gives a great sound to lead vocals, well, anything actually! It is also good at cutting out nasty frequencies although the Q doesnt go too sharp.
The unit also has high and low pass filters that are good for preventing subsonic noise and general bandwidth limiting. the low-pass can be good for removing upper mid harshness from electric guitars.
Reliability
:
10
No problems. Rock solid build quality, internal power supply.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Well, no problems so no need to contact support.
Overall Rating
:
10
I engineer recordings of various styles of rock music. This is my main mic preamp. It is totally transparent and has the ability to add a real pro polish to vocals. I record at 24-bit, 44.1 kHz. This preamp reveals the limitations of my acoustics. It would be equally at home in other genres, I think I remember that the producer of the Honeys used one.
I would have to get another one if it was stolen. The EQ is the best I have heard, much better than any mixing desk or plugin. I love the ability to boost top end and make things sparkle, as well as being able to remove harshness easily.
The metering niggles me; it jumps around a lot and you have to learn to not be concerned that it is 'against the end-stops' most of the time. Proper calibration with digital meters (in software) helps as does putting an analogue compressor/limiter after it when recording.
It is difficult to compare this to other units as there aren't really many EQs out there. For the price you can pick it up (you can only get it secondhand now) it blows competition out of the water. It is comparable to the Red series which costs well over 1000 UKP, in fact, the original RRP of the Green 2 was 930 UKP. It is very clean and transparent; maybe a valve EQ/preamp would suit some situations better. There are times when such colouration is not required and here the Green 2 is a very capable workhorse.
As a recording preamp this blows all others under 1000 UKP out of the water in terms of transparency. The EQ is also the best available for the price and is simply stunning.
