Product: Focusrite Green 5
Price Paid: 1500 (Canadian) used
Submitted
06/25/2004
at
09:47pm
by
Sacha Fassaert
Email: sfassaert at shaw<dot>ca
Ease of Use
:
5
Fairly easy to use if you know a channel strip...but if not...mic pre, semi para eq, simple compressor/ expander/ gate with keying, sidechain and link functions...gobs of options, somewhat simplified to be in a one rack unit. The manual is very helpful and well written. Mine is the second version, with less switches in the preamp section. I'll only give it a 5 because it's so versatile (ironic, yes), but also because the graphics are so very hard to read in anything but bright light.
Sound Quality
:
10
I'm using it with a roland 1680 and a cubase sx setup. I'ts not super transparent but is a lot better than the roland's pres...
I use it to do simple input gain control on all knids of sources...very impressed using it with a female singer through a neumann tlm 103, also good on bass guitar and acoustic guitar...very musical eq, much less colored than the platinum series to my ear.
Reliability
:
3
Funky build quality leads me to really be critical here. acees to the fuse, which occasionally blows for no apparent reason is neither easy nor safe...the guts of the unit are pretty fragile-ly laid out(is that a word?)and the build quality seems typically british...far more to the side of funky than functional. My platinum octopre seems much more sturdy. (It's made in china)...also occasional sonic dropouts that go away if I keep it warm...& leave it powered in my rack 24/7. Sorry guys only a 3. Needed to get it fixed professionally just after I got it, too, but can't remember the problem..This might be the greatest acoustic guitar pre or whatever for live, but I would NEVER trust it.Studio only.
Customer Support
:
8
Never called about the green 5, it was used.
Wanted advance info on the octopre on email before I bought it and got lots of timely and accurate info. Very helpful!!!
Overall Rating
:
6
I'm 44, playing since I was 12, into fusion, but play legit trad jazz, rock rnb country...are you payin? I also play drums, do production & composition...make my living outside of music but spent a year on a cruise ship playing fretless bass, went to music school. Love experimenting in my studio with many soft and hard synths, real drums (hence octopre) some 12 odd guitars, kawai 6' grand.If the green 5 were stolen, I'd buy an isa 220 or a red 7 or... An avalon 727. All at least double the price. Maybe the green 3 voicebox?...VERY similar & it WOULD be cheaper- I do NOT like the platium voicebox or the other platinum instrument channel, both too colored for my taste. I think the Fred Flintstone graphics make the green 5, actually the whole line, totally desirable despite what I said about legibility, although that is a highly debated issue, even now..they have not made these in some ten years. I wish it had a more versatile compressor.
