dbx Pro Vocal

I was given mine as a gift, hated it when I got it. two years later, I love it, it does a lot of things -- or nothing as a straight mic preamp.
Yes, ya gotta read a manual and the layout is strange, but it has saved me alot, so I dont care.

90% of the time when I am recording with a LD condenser mic, i use the unit in BYPASS mode as its a fantastic mic preamp. I also have a tc-helicon unit that has a built in mic preamp ect. This has far more detail, so i run the provocal into the tc-helicon. I just get more clarity.
Also, when recording with SM57s for vocals, you can really EQ the vocals
to sound brighter ect. It is excellent for that.

Also, I use it for guitars/bass recording direct with the preamp modeling and EQ, quite suprised, its makes a very good amp simulator. So even if you don't use it for vocals, it is still good with instruments.

It will blow away any MP or similar tube preamps, especially if you want and open and airy sound (in bypass mode). I like my tube MP and
use it as yet another preamp into the PROVOCAL instrument input.

built like a tank.

Have dealt with them on other things, they were great.

I do mostly rock and country music. I have been playing (cough)...too long. Got it as a gift and glad i did.

I can't really imagine a more un-intuitive design to a vocal processor. Because there are no meters to monitor anything, you really have to use your ears to see if the compressor is set properly, or stuff like that. If there is too much signal, you can't tell which thing is boosting the level too high, the eq, the compressor, or whatever.

The EQ uses numbers that correspond to frequencies that you have to look up in the manual, which is time consuming.

Basically in this day and age, you don't need the headaches this unit will create. If you are in a studio and people are relying on you to get things set up, this gear will let you down. I can't imagine anyone using this thing live, particularly if you had to re-eq things for the club, or mic, or adjust anything for that matter.

It's not easy to get good results with this.
The price puts in in the category for beginners. If you are a pro, you can and will afford better. If you are an experienced vocalist, you will not need so much processing (and would never use the built in reverb). If you are a beginner, then this unit will drive you nuts. The lack of meters makes it hard to tell what is going on, so you have to use your ears. I know there are some gruff old pros who think using your ears is the best way, and I often agree, but in this case, save your time and brain. Get something else.

The compression is the classic DBX compression, and does sound good for the price. I would say that is one of the plusses of this unit, however you can get this from other easier to use DBX units if you want it.

The reverb is too simple and barely editable, so having it as an extra is not much of an extra since you probably have a better reverb already. It is the most base reverb you could get. It does not sound bad, it just isn't flexible, so you can't tailor it to fit a mix.

It is a quiet unit, no problem there.

The mic modelling is not good, and the tube sound stuff is just way over the top, you really wouldn't want to use it. There are cheaper things out there to add tube warmth to a vocal, and this is digi, so if you want tube warmth, why not get something with a tube in it?

If you use the most basic set up, no mic modelling, no tube crap, no EQ, with a little reverb, you can get a good basic vocal sound. But if you are like me, and need to use EQ, and need to fine tune the compressor then forget it.

I figured that this thing was hard to set but might sound good once set properly, so I set up a good vocal sound on a much more expensive unit, and then tried to copy it's compressor and EQ settings into the Provocal, to see how that sounded, and it did not cut it at all.

I think it's reliable, because I never had a problem with it.
I think DBX stuff is reliable.

Never needed it.

It's a box designed to be a little bit of everything, and in that department it is not worth the money, no matter the price.

If you just used the compressor, it 'can' get good results, but because the interface is so badly designed, you would still be better off getting some other DBX compressor.

The digital out is surprizingly top notch for a cheaper unit. Once again though, this does not redeem it, if you only want a digital out, there are other options.

There are so many options out there now for vocal processors that this is really the bottom of the barrel in terms of value for money. I also think that when it comes to vocals, you shouldn't skimp on quality, and this is not a thing that is relative to what kind of vocals you do, even if you are going for screaming distorted vocals, you still need to tweak, and this thing does not inspire tweaking.

This is not easy to use, In fact I'm still not sure how to find my way around this thing. I bought mine used with no manual but downloaded it and still can't figure it out. at one point it'll say d1-d9 are for the dynamic mic presets c1-c9 are for condensor's, but then it says the factory presets are #'s 40-80 and user pre's are 1-39 kind of backwards. And I've yet to see the c1's or d1's. if anyone has this please email me.

I love the sound quality I was using a tubemp previously for a preamp and this thing kills it!! I think the quality is amazing! My vocals never sounded better, in fact I used to double track my vocals all the time, now I don't.

Its built right, no noise

Overall I love this thing, just wish I knew more on how to use it and where to find certain aspects of it. Most of the presets aren't that great though if you tweak them a little they are very usable. I like 62 whatever that is??
As I said email me with some help

This unit is like cutting your grass with a sewing sissors. Far too difficult for most who want quick easy solutions. The manual is ok but this units presets stink and you need to spend alot of time farting around.

I still think the simple and cheap ART VLA blows this unit away. Also the VlA is much more user freindly. Sound is ok but I prefer ART preamps to the more sterile DBX. The mic simulation is a joke!!

I cant depend on a unit which is too difficult to use

Who Knows

I sold this after a couple months of trying to struggle with it. I would look elsewhere for a vocal strip

I can see how some would concider it difficult to program if your not used to confusing processors in the first place. Not very intuitive without manual.

Well it made my crappy mic sound less crappy so thats pretty good. However I get weired noise when I use the digital out. Its the only piece of equipment that I own that makes the sound. So I dont use the digital out. For the price the sound isnt to bad.

With the exception of the digital out sounding like crap. (this could just be my unit thats doing this) I havent had any problems with it.

Im to lazy to find out so I don't know.

So far the provocal has done its job in my studio. Ive owned it for over a year now. If it where stolen Id probably shop around a little before I got me another one. I did wish they did a better job with the digital out. I like to record in higher frequencies.

This is quite a versatile unit, but you can quickly get in trouble with it. I started work for one station that owns one and my first engineering task was to "fix the mike processor". I got the best results by disabling all the effects except for de-essing, adjusted that till it was correct, then adjusted eq and compression for desired results.

The listing of the presets seemed to be where the user defined settings were, but I may have misunderstood the manual.

We are using the ProVocal for our production studio voice mike. Once we got it set up correctly, it was quite good. The preamp is quiet enough for our application, a high output condenser mike, have not tested it with a dynamic mike.

The station has owned it for a year, no problems.

Never had to use customer support.

I've been in the broadcast industry for 25 years. I'm still getting used to digital effects gear and amazed at what it can do (and how quickly you can get in trouble with some of it).

I wish DBX had put the mike jack on the rear of the unit. Having the mike cable snake back through the rack looks very unprofessional.
The "telephone" and other special effects will come in handy for some spots that we plan to produce.

I would understand why most people would not know how to use it. Mine was collecting dust since i did not know what to do with it since i bought it. If you're not going to try things out a bit, don't buy it. If the kind of person that likes to fool around with the sounds, go ahead, it's the only way to understand it. Also read the manual completely once or twice before using it. Have an open mind about how the numbers work. It's numbers don't really tell you what you are doing, so you kind of have to imagine what the numbers really mean. For example... EQ's are from 1 - 99. 1 being 20Hz, and 99 being 20kHz. All the numbers in between stand for some frequency. Not too clear if you don't have a very open imagination. Also much of the things arent really specified in the manual. There are 10 diferent types of tube emulators, but they only tell that they are called T-0 to t-9. THey don't tell you what type of tube each one is. Things like this make the machine troublesome and for some impossible. I only started to understand it after six months of leaving it in a closet.

The sounds are great for the money. It has a digital output, so if you're using a mixer with digital in's you already have a winner. After you understand how to manipulate the sounds the way you want them you realize that it;s a very good tool. Oh yeah! the presets are terrible, but if you fool around with the sounds you'll find it's great secrets. There is a never ending delay, cool reverbs, some cool distortion effects and megaphone effects if you know how to get them. I'm just finding out, but in a couple of days of working at it, i've gotten some great results. As I said before, the sound quality if great. I haven't noticed any noise from it, and if you are like me, who used to use a mic pre send the signal to a patch bay and later to a compressor, and finally to the mixer, you will find this gear to be many times better.

Overall it's a good piece. The sound quality is very good. It has a digital output which is a very nice thing. Don't be fooled by the presets, which really "suck", the true power and beauty of the sounds is only achieved if you learn how to manipulate the menus. It's biggest flaw is the way it is set up. The numbers they used don't really specify what they mean exactly, so if you don't have a good imagination you won't really know what you are doing. If you buy it...give a break... don't let it's dificult set up keep you from using the great sounds that you can achieve from it.

Totally worthless ,it is impossible to use without the manual since
it refers everytime to lookup tables ,so don't loose that manual dudes

Try to set it up the same as via a regular Spirit powerstation and it took me about 2 hrs to come close,it's an impossible thing to work with,and its sound is far from good ,anyway don't expect a wonder from it just by a simple spirit or mackie mixer and you get far.far better results

I will never use it again ,exept as for going from analog to digital
but thats about it,but it looks stirdy ,as so does a brick!

never dealt with them

If you aren't in tweaking with fX don't buy it ,it is in my opinion a total useless thing ,mostly because of it's ,totally impossible way to see what you are actually doing...
Maybe it has potention but not for me and 99% of the world