Joemeek ThreeQ

So i have send my THREEQ back and the ART PRO CHANNEL has arrived.
i am glad i did return the THREEQ.

THREEQ is easier to use but the PRO CHANNEL has much more useful features but when you get used to it you will love it.

The THREEQ sounded harsh and brittle but very low noise.
The PRO CHANNEL has the Sound i was looking for.
smooth tubey warm and a lot of gain.

The THREEQ EQ was not very useful for me.The Highs are too "artificial" ?!.did not touch the eq because of frustration.
On the PRO CHANNEL you can add alot more highs and they stay sweet and silky.
The midbands can be switched to narrow ..very useful to color your sound.

and now the main reason for the change to the PRO CHANNEL.
the Compressor is much more musical and less obvious than the JOEMEEK Comp.

This Comp and the JOEMEEK "Sound" made me spend 200 EURO more just to get rid of the THREEQ.

As said before.
Dont buy the THREEQ unless you want a very special, very coloured sound without flexibility.

Forget the THREEQ for vocals, and all acoustic instruments.
if you are somebody who impressed when he hears words like slewrate, brown burrs, the "JOEMEEK SOUND" and more technical mystical terms
and if you believe that the seller on your local musicstore has testet all available preamps, and he says that the Joemeek is the better Preamp than buy it.

i did believe. than i heard. than i got rid of it.

yes easy ... compressor sucks .

So many talk about the "Joe Meek" sound !! i was disappointed.
i??m no recording pro but a professional bassplayer for 25 years now
making some demo stuff on cubase. i??m no recording freak.

i wanted a cheap preamp have tried the SM AUDIO Tb 202 and liked the sound but wanted more flexibility.so i bought the THREE Q five days ago. The first impression was disappointment.
That silky and warm Sound i could achieve with the SM AUDIO was not there.I don??t care about all the Pros who told me the joemeek is the better preamp and is clean and flexibel.The sound doesn??t impress me
it??s sometimes very harsh.
The Compressor section sucks in my ears.you can??t get it to be smooth.maybe im just to stupid.
Yeah this unit is clean and low noise but in my ears boring.
for guitar i think its great espcially for the clicky clean comp sound but that i can achieve with a good plugin so why record it.
i bought a cheap Studio Projects B1 mike and this sounded great through the SM AUDIO (has an smooth compressor but not flexible and at extreme settings with slight distortions).
I now believe i rather prefer a real tube sound because you have the more nice sounding high frequencies.

The Joemeek EQ is versatile but you can??t use it very much.
If an Instrument sounds bad with annoying frequencies i don??t record it. i don??t need the MEEKQ. Don??t like it very much.
So if you have good sounding instruments look for an preamp wich
levels peaks an adds some charakter like a midclass Tubepre.

why buy the Threeq??? if you??re a pro engineer get the oneq ore better. if you??re a Musician(especialy Bassists :-) who wan??t to
make good Demos get an Tupepre.
If made my Decision i sure don??t keep the threeq.
I going to buy a ART PRO CHANNEL.
All the "Pros" at the shop told this pre is not better than the Joemeek but i don??t care .. i??m no winetaster and if i drink wine and it tastes boring or annoying(like the threeq comp) than i don??t like it.
If i want to have that extrem comp ill rather try to make that with a plugin. i don??t wan??t a pre where you can??t make the compressor inaudible.

it looks cool and seems to be well made.
didn??t had an inside look.

i like the looks don??t like the sound very much.
it is surely no crap you can achieve good recordings and for some guys its sure the right thing but for me is very very clear i have to get rid of it soon.
yeah it gets in my way making music because i think all the time since i have it that i want another pre.

so there are joemeek lovers and haters.i??m not a hater but i??m looking for a smooth thang.
don??t do it like i did. you have to listen before you buy it otherwise you could be very disappointed.

the better joemeeks are sure a good addon for pro recording studios
but if you want just one smooth pre at home....
DON`T BUY THE THREE Q !!!!!!!!!!!!

Easy to use, if you know your way around compressors. I can see newbies getting tied up in knots trying to figure this thing out. No patches to edit, but there are some blank sheets (on the Joe Meek's web page) for saving your favourite patches manually. The manual is actually quite good, but I never needed to read it.

I actually use this unit on bass guitars (D I), or as a pre-amp (with a 57) for tracking small guitar amps..like Vox DA5, Roland Cube 15, Fender Champs, etc. For this purpose, the unit works great. Set it and leave it. It is fairly quiet, especially considering the price.

It is still new, so I really can't say

Never dealt with the company, and may never have to, if it holds up.

It is used in a recording studio, mainly to get a different 'tone'. Have played live and worked in studios for a few years. I own tons of gear.
I love the small size, but hate the wall-wart. The 3-band eq. is good for changing the tone and gain setting. It compares well with my other units...in the same price range, but it's not my 'go-to' unit for tracking vocals.

i'm giving it a 6 because it takes a while of playing around with it if you're a compressor noob.

switch off the comp and eq, slect the input impedance on the back, work with the input gain starting at unity.

i'm the proud owner of an original joemeek vc1 and it's my favourite bit of kit. i record lots of vocals and guitar through it and it has a wonderful sepia 'smeared colour' to it that suits my stuff. it can be lovely and subtle or smash things to bits. last album was largely tracked through it etc.

the threeq is not that at all. the preamp is a big, clean but coloured sound. through a tube amp it sounds gorgeous.
it's big and full - preamp sounds totally different to the vc1. this will bring a whole different pallette to the table for guitarists, it definitely has for me. i've sat it @ -10db at 30db input gain. this might not be the cleverest setting out there but it sounds great and i'm still learning

optical compressors sound amazing on guitars. the trick is to wind it in slowly from a decent starting point to get the sweet spot. i tend to like my favourite 'always on' setting, but this little box can also do some very, very sick compression effects at it's extremes, even sicker than the vc1 in some ways but both useful.

the eq section is mainly switched out for me because i like how it sounds without.

when i think how much i could have paid for a boutique pedal with one 'compress' knob, and how this is now on my pedalboard sounding amazing with a ton of options on it for less ???, i am happy.

this does seem a lot better made than my original meek. the casing is beefier and the knobs have got a solid, smooth noiseless action with nice centre indents. the back jacks NOT dropping off the board like the previous reviewer said - a product this good shouldn't be getting consistent 2's on a board like this. it sounds a million miles away from 'thin' and 'brittle'. i smell trolls.

i love it.

The preamp section is, eh, a preamp section. Nothing complicated there, though it's stupid that the phantom power switch is located at the back - no fun if you want to rack mount the unit.

Many people find any compressor difficult to use. The compressor section of this little box has a fixed compression ratio which may frustrate compressor-savvy users but may or may not be helpful to newbies, by reducing the options. I'd certainly have preferred control over the ratio too, nevertheless, it took me just a minute or two to dial in what I was after.

The EQ is pretty straightforward too, though it would have been nice with sweep and q for all bands. Also, it's characteristics are a bit uncommon, so do check out the manual. Found it easy to work with though.

I use it with an Oktava MK319 large diaphragm mic, for male vocals. It's a budget unit, but pretty low noise unless you crank up the gain a lot (which I don't have too) - it's certainly a LOT less noisy than the sub-standard preamps in my Yamaha AW16G digital portastudio.

But - and let's make this very clear - this is not a box for those looking for uncolored transparency! Nor does it pretend too. The mic pre is the most transparent part of it, but still, I'd recommend a Studio Projects VTB-1 if transparency's your game and your on a budget. The compressor is all about character. The EQ is ok, but don't overdo it. Used sparingly, ut can add both warmth and clarity and easily outperforms most VST/Direct X EQs. I love what it does to my vocals, but I'm not sure if I'd like it on female vocals. It may be a bit too thick. I haven't tried it with any instruments, but I imagine it would work fine with bass and guitar too.

Seems pretty sturdy and the pots are smother than on many similarly priced units. But I'm a bit worried about the PSU socket, it moves a bit.

N/A.

This is a 'character box' and character it gives. It's warm, thick and if you use the compressor, it can be really punchy. For it's price, I think it's GREAT. But you really should try before you buy! This is no Swiss army knife, quite the opposite. But if you like it's particular 'vintage' warmth it's a great tool for very little money.

I bought this unit because I had heard so much about the JoeMeek compressor, unfortunately it sounds awful and lacks adequate control to make it remotely usable.

This unit utterly failed in the all-important area of good, recording-quality sound. The compression is totally unnatural & unusable for any kind of natural sound enhancement. If you want to do extremely nonlinear recordings, this unit may be of some help, but for anything close to real, natural sound you should look elsewhere!

Easy to use and self-explanatory. Set-up like any standard pre., compressor, and eq. Except for the fixed ratio which even makes it easier (but of course, less flexible) the manual is clear and accurate. To be clear, I'm referring to the "new" ThreeQ. Not any of the previous units.--written--"ThreeQ"

The sound is where this unit really disappointed me. In my opinion it's the compressor that falls inexcusably short. I worked with it for months, experimenting, re-reading the manual, and communicating with PMI. No way to make it musical. I never touched the EQ so I can't comment. The preamp seemed OK at first, but as time went on, because of a certain undesirable brittle, "graininess", I opted to simply pack it up and sell it. I recovered nearly all my money, but it's my lost time that prompted this review. I record some electric rock and blues, but mostly acoustic music. The only piece of gear I've been truly disappointed with!!

This unit seems to be built well and I don't think reliability would be an issue.

I've owned a few PMI products, and I made to contact them they were readily accessible (the owner even answered the phone once) and helpful.

Since the sound is the most important factor for me, I have to be somewhat brutal in this department. I would recommend PMI's VTB-1 to my best friend, but I feel I owe it to my fellow musicians to "beware of this particular product." As a preamp you can definitely do much better for the money regardless of the burr-brown component. (The VTB-1 for example at 3/4 the price) As a compressor you'd do your music the most justice to simply turn it off! P.U.!!

Easy to work with. If you know how to fuss with gain-staging and work a
compressor and a parametric EQ, you'll be right at home.

The sound is only OK. I really wanted it to sound good, but it just didn't have that "magic". It's not noisy, it just has a kind of a processed, "electronic" sound which is a minus. The EQ is nice sounding, as far as I can can tell, but there was no reason to fool with it if the basic mic-pre is unsatisfactory (you know, garbage in - garbage out). I can also hear the compresser kicking in, which really bothers me. Vocals (background ensemble stuff) sounded fuzzy and sat in the mix oddly. Not sweet and warm, like vocals should be.

I would guess that the unit is very reliable. It seems well-made, but I only kept it for a week.

I have to give Joe Meek an excellent rating here. They really back up their products.

I play lots of styles, but I'd say that I mostly play R&B, Classic Rock and Light Jazz. I play Alto & Tenor Sax and am a vocalist as well.
I have an old Peavey VMP 2, which I love, but it's too hefty to bring along when I say in hotels. Joe Meek offered me a nice price for the ThreeQ in trade for my old Joe Meek VC3 (which I dropped and broke), but I'm sorry, but that old VC3 has that "magic" which I mentioned earlier. I'll get it fixed and send the ThreeQ back.
Back to the matter of dropping my VC3. For some reason, Joe Meek mic pre's (including the ThreeQ) don't come with little rubber feet(What's with THAT??). So, it easily slid off of the table when accidently I bumped it. If you buy a Joe Meek, also go to a hardware store and buy some self-sticking rubber feet, or, like me, you'll wish you had later!

It's pretty easy to operate this unit. There aren't a lot of superfluous controls: just input gain, makeup gain, a simple three-band eq and an optical compressor. The manual is easy to read and pretty straight forward.

I don't know what a few of the previous reviewers were smoking but this thing sounds much better than my older MQ3 and VC6Q. Maybe they were reviewing the older line of Meek boxes... or maybe they just wanted to slag the Meeks - I dunno. In any case, you should demo one and use your own ears ;)

The new line has been completely redesigned with better components, a faster / more versatile compressor and a nice sounding EQ. I used the threeQ with a variety of sources like bass, guitar amp and vocals with good results. The mics used were: Studio Projects C1 and B3, Shure SM57 and an AKG 414. The bass was run directly into the threeQ.

First off, the threeQ features the exact same Burr-Brown INA217 mic preamps as their high end units such as the twinQ. I found the sound to be clear and present with plenty of usable gain - not noisy or grainy like some of the older Meeks I've used. Much better than anything else I've tried in it's price range (Behringer, Presonus, ART, DBX, etc).

Next in the chain is the optical compressor. There's an in/out switch and LEDs to measure the gain reduction. There are knobs for compress (ratio), attack and release. The threshold is a simple fixed design and can be adjusted by making changes to the input gain. The threeQ's compressor is faster and more versatile than it's predecessors. It'll still do that phat vintage style optical compression that Meeks are famous for, but the new design allows it to be useful at settings where you don't want so much "color". I'm impressed by how much more usable the new design is.

The EQ is a simple three-band Meequalizer with low frequency @ 80Hz, sweepable mids @ 300Hz-5kHz and high frequency @ 12kHz. The EQ was simple to operate and musical sounding. Again, the new version sounds improved over the older versions.

Plugging a bass directly into the unit gave me a very good sound without much effort. The compressor really helped to even out the dynamics and gave a nice "colored" tone. Using the EQ to scoop out the mud was very easy too.

Recording vocals with the C1 and 414, I was able to get very good results. I particularly like the fact that the unit features a mix input and an extra output - It's a very nice touch I wish a lot more companies would offer in their channel strips. Also, there's an insert point for patching in other fx to the unit. All in all, a very versatile design.

I love this box for recording guitars! Micing a Matchless amp with an SM57, I was able to dial in some -sweet- bluesy rock tones - don't be affraid to really crank the compressor here. On acoustic guitars, the high EQ added a nice sense of air and the compressor really beefed things up.

The only thing I don't like about the unit is that the phantom power switch is located on the back panel. It's not that big of a deal, but I have it mounted in a rack and it's just a pain having to get back there to switch it on and off.

This thing is very solidly built. I like the new anodized metal faceplates. It seems much more solid than the older line.

I've had other JoeMeek gear and PMI Audio has always been really nice whenever I've had a question or needed help with something. Very good customer support.

I've been playing rock and blues music for about 15 years and the JoeMeek threeQ is a really good match for the type of material I record. I really dig it on everything - especially guitars and vocals. I also own lots of other recording gear and the threeQ holds it's own and imparts that classic "vintage" color the Meeks are known for. If it were lost or stollen, I'd definitely pick up another one to replace it.

My only two quibbles are that the unit has no power switch and the phantom power is located on the back panel. These aren't deal breakers though...

Simply put, this thing is dead easy to operate and sounds great with very little effort. Overall, I give it a 9 because I think it's a tremendous value for money.

BTW, I just bought mine in February so it qualified for their free mic promotion. So, for $199 I got my new threeQ -and- a free JM37 mic. SWEET!!!

it's easy to use and the led/meters all work, but getting a decent sound out of it is next to impossible.

i mostly record blues and rock. the preamp is really thin and i don't like the compressor which isn't very smooth. the eq is noisy when kicked in. has a cheap feel to it, but it's too be expected since its made in china with slave labor. it's also noisy when recording to digital.

looks and sounds cheap, don't know.

don't know.

i think behringer makes better stuff, which isn't saying much for the joe meek TQ. I'm not impressed with the sound quality and it looks cheap too. dissapointed since its no improvement over my art tube mp, which also sounds awful. I should've bought a budget focusrite platinum voicemaster used on ebay for $275.