TC Electronic Gold Channel Mic Pre

Pretty straight forward. The manual will leave you disappointed but the unit won't. Everything is easy to get to and easy to tweek. EQ's, compressors are user freindly and flexible. I hate to look at small LCD's but it's easy enough to read and laid out well and my eye site is challenged. I love the results I get with a little tweeking this baby produces.

I use the Gold Channel for male vocals mostly but not solely. I have a Soundcraft Ghost console so needless to say, outboard gear is a must. I use a Pearlman TM1 Tube Mic modified with a K67 capsule and this mic loves the gold channel! I actualy prefer it to my Amek CIB. I was very iffy about purchasing this unit as I'm not the biggest fan of anything digital but this unit has really changed the way I feel about that. The mic pre alone and there are 2 of em is worth the asking price alone not to mention the compressor is wonderful and does exactly what I need it to do and more. The EQ is musical and sounds rich. I'm happy with the gold channel and it is one piece of gear I won't sell..and I sell everything. I'm a gear junkie. One last thing I want to mention, on male vocals I love the top end sheen I get without the top end hard stab. You know that sound I hear too often accompanying that hard to achieve (air)? That shit annoys the hell out of me. To me, the Gold Channel is silky. Agree or disagree with me but I know what I like.

No problems yet and I bought it used.

Haven't needed them yet so... hear's hoping.

I do a lot of pop & folk-rock vocals some R&B and electronica. Doing this for 30+ years in and out of the studio. If I lost this unit (god forbid), I would replace it. I only wish it had a DI. Other than that, it does what it does beautifully.

Very easy to use, if nothing else, just head to the last preset(bypass mode) and use it as your converter to the digital world.
The manual is a touch short, I would have liked some more info on what the 'presets' were supposed to do exactly.

For the price, you are definitly getting a fine 2 channel mic pre/multi unit. I use it mostly for it's a-d conversion as it's far better than the digi002r conveters, so I go from a U87 or Royer into my TAC desk or AWA pre, into goldchannel then into Protools via spdif. The presets....I cannot seem to simply plug and play with them, you would need to tweak them quite a lot, but then that's the point as all rooms sounds different, and mic combo's are endless..

Been no problems at all..

Haven't needed them...

A good front end to the digital world, if you had no 'analouge' front end(Mic pre's) it will do the job nicely. Definitly good for the project studio. I have done many recording in my home studio through it, taken the tracks to professional studios and had people think that I recorded it somewhere very expensive..

The GC has a very intuitive user interface; there is not just one possibility of reaching a certain menu-point, but several you can chose from, so it adapts to your way of thinking rather than making you reach for the manual every time. However, since this is not just a plain preamp with a a/d converter but also a dynamics processor, an eq and even more, this unit is a bit more tricky than a plain Mic Pre. Therefore, there are two flavors of every tool: one easy to setup with just a few parameters and one more sophisticated with a whole bunch of parameters. These are a bit tedious to scroll thru, but hey, you wanted them, now you have to tweak them. Connectionwise this is a swiss army knife, you can throw all kinds of levels on it and get the processed line-signal as well as S/PDIF, AES/EBU and optical outputs; one can even use the second channel as an insert (forgot I to say that this is a two channel device, handy for stereo recording?). The manual is nice, but in some ways a bit short, but its easy to explore the unit by yourself. As for the presets: Strangely, I could never use the presets, even in situations where I used the mics and instruments they where intended for, some are strangely EQ'ed others are overcompressed; however, some make a good starting point for setting up the sound you have in mind. It is an extreme advantage to be able to store your settings and recall them when needed; it serves me a bit like a notepad, when I ask myself: How did I get that snare sound so snappy?

This is a $1000 per channel unit and it sounds exactly so; not the best I've heard but damn good. The GC is not entirely transparent sounding, especially when the compressor is engaged; it has a certain character. To me it seems like it it is slightly boosting the 8KHz range, just to make things sound a bit more "airy" and smooth. Mostly this is a nice touch, but sometimes I whish it a bit more on the neutral side. The EQ is pretty forgiving and smooth and seems to maintain phase integrity of the signal, so it won't sound phasey or thin, like some cheap console EQ's. In the beginning I was very pleased with the sound of the GC but after about a year of daily use I find it not to be good on everything: It can be outstanding on male vocals, some winds and bass guitar, it can be ok on drums and acoustic guitars, it tends to be not so nice on electric guitars and violins (the former sounding sometimes a bit lifeless and the later to much coloured). However, this is a serious piece of gear, that can do a lot in your studio, perhaps more than any other preamp-compressor-eq combo around. It can sound very "expensive" and I use it a lot. What more could I say?

I used the GC for about a year now and never had any troubles. However, the unit gets prety hot for a plain semiconductor-device (it is essentially computer), which is why I let an open space in my rack above it. Also the heat obscures the display over the time, but you can readjust the contrast easily.

Never dealt with them, but heard only good things about them. They have quite a reputation of having a generous support team.

All in all this is a very useful piece of gear. There is no direct competitor to this one on the market but I have heard and used quite a bit of outboards: Ofcourse the GC leaves every Mackie mixer (and the like) in the dust, it also sounds nicer than most of the home-recording channelstrips (like the focusrite platinum stuff or the mindprint channel which I like nonetheless). It fares also well, when compared to other "colouring" outboards, like for instance the spl "Channel One" which sounds to much "tube" for me. However, there are input channels that sound more transparent and can give a hint more reality and detail, but you can expect to pay about twice the price/channel. My suggestion for a cheaper companion is the Mindprint AN/DI pro which is just a stereo preamp with a converter (but with an symmetric insert for compression and the like) that sounds very transparent and true to my ears and costs just $700. Together with the gold channel this makes a pretty versatile combo.

anyone who can dial in a yamaha spx 90 can figure this out
without a manual.A 10 is only for things that are brainless
like a boss pedal or a wah wah.

anyone who is use to the old school tried and true(use a neve,api,trident)aproach to track a vocal or instrument will be skeptical at first as I was.One will be plesantly rewarded with
amazing results if you have a will to experiment or tweek the pre sets.

The build quality is very good.
will survive a hot studio rack.I dont know how long the internal battery will last.

good guy ed simieon sold me my 2290 in 87 .They seem to
care.never had any problems

In the 24 bit pto tools world,It's my front end wih a lightpipe out into the 001 le. Its my a to d converter and mic pre souund shaper upper and im not regretting this tool one bit.