Purple Audio

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
joel hamilton
zen recordist
Posts: 8876
Joined: Mon May 19, 2003 12:10 pm
Location: NYC/Brooklyn
Contact:

Purple Audio

Post by joel hamilton » Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:08 am

Man, Andrew Roberts is pretty damn amazing. Right now as I type this he is at our studio making the console dicrete, with his new line of discrete opamps. That guy goes beyond the call of duty, and his products show that. Totally made to last and made to be as good as they can be.

Anybody used any of the purple stuff? Andrew totally rocks, and Ed Anderson. That company is giving my console a new lease on life. I am amazed at how good the thing iis sounding. Small (in relative terms) companies like Purple deserve crazy support... Great stuff, and amazing, I mean AMAZING support.

Just props to a cool company.

http://www.purpleaudio.com

to see what they are up to these days....

Family Hoof
buyin' a studio
Posts: 877
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2004 5:30 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by Family Hoof » Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:24 am

Joel,

I was unaware that purple made discrete opamps so thanks for the word! Supporting small companies/individuals who make discrete opamps and custom transformers is a practice I'm very fond of lately. If you build your own gear (especially clones of old stuff) it's the best way I've found to get ultra high quality for less $ and effort. And even if you don't, such upgrades are some of the best options available. People should check out the opamps from these guys as well:

JLM Audio
Fred Forssell
Seventh Circle
John Hardy
Old School Audio

User avatar
McPhaul
gimme a little kick & snare
Posts: 80
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2003 11:44 am
Location: Atlanta

Re: Purple Audio

Post by McPhaul » Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:02 am

I like the idea of helping the little guy/local guy when you can. But just for giggles why does the MC77 cost more than a new 1176? Also what is the 500 series pre going for?

User avatar
Slider
george martin
Posts: 1486
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2003 2:00 pm

Re: Purple Audio

Post by Slider » Sun Jan 16, 2005 10:52 am

When are the Purple 500 series mic pre's coming out.
I really would love to hear something about these.
Now back to football.

-Matt

User avatar
@?,*???&?
on a wing and a prayer
Posts: 5804
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 4:36 pm
Location: Just left on the FM dial
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by @?,*???&? » Sun Jan 16, 2005 10:56 am

In past posts I've raved about the Purple Audio 1176. Every bit as good as a typical Blackface 1176. Ross Hogarth left me his for a period of time at Master Control and I loved it.

Don't ask Garges though, I think he's got a different opinion...

joel hamilton
zen recordist
Posts: 8876
Joined: Mon May 19, 2003 12:10 pm
Location: NYC/Brooklyn
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by joel hamilton » Sun Jan 16, 2005 10:58 am

Check out the website. The 500 series stuff is starting to pop up there...
Andrew says he is making a couple of compressors that fit the 500 series racks as well. Those should be amazing.

Andrew stayed at the studio until 5 this morning because I start a mix session at 2pm today for the week. Console sounds completely amazing, and we got some functionality back with certain busses and random shit.

Having a custom console that is a labor of love isnt always easy, but when someone like Andrew, or some other very very skilled tech comes in it is a wake up call. Just like the 50 dollar an hour engineer Vs. the 20 dollar an hour engineer.

Great work gets done.

snatchman
george martin
Posts: 1276
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 2:23 pm

Re: Purple Audio

Post by snatchman » Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:25 pm

Yeah, I have not heard the Purple Audio products, but that "Bizz" 500 mic pre module on their site looks amazing! Just waiting to get the OSA rack system and pres. I think I'd like to try one of the "Bizz" in the rack! 8)

User avatar
soundguy
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3182
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 12:50 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by soundguy » Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:19 pm

my experiences with anndrew and john over the years have been nothing short of prince like. Joel, you have to go check out his place, its inasne.

Id say that in the last three or four years of my studio really the ONLY or one of the things on a very very very short list that have been consistently used on EVERY single recording done here is my MC76. Ive gotten so used to what that box does for me I prefer it over the old black 1176 I have which sounds old. People need to get over vintage gear when there is an alternative.

dave
http://www.glideonfade.com
one hundred percent discrete transistor recording with style and care.

cgarges
zen recordist
Posts: 10890
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2003 1:26 am
Location: Charlotte, NC
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by cgarges » Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:26 pm

Jeff Robinson wrote:Every bit as good as a typical Blackface 1176...Don't ask Garges though, I think he's got a different opinion...
I do about this, asthetically, but I've got no complaints about the Purple stuff at all. It's worked fine for me and it seems to be built very well. I can't say anything about the guys there becuase I've never dealt with them, but the gear seems cool enough.

There's a certain character common to all the older blackface 1176LNs I've used that I just don't hear from the Purple units. Good or bad? I don't know. That's up to whoever's using it. Given a choice, I have a preference for the way the older units sound, each one of them being a little different, of course. But I've not had a Purple unit go unused in a control room just because it's a Purple unit. I've used one as a substitute for an 1176 on a number of occasions and been just fine with it. Like I've said before, they function like an 1176, they just don't have the same character I hear common to the SOUND of the older units. I happen to like the grittier sound that I hear from the older ones, but I also like Bass Ale and Converse Chuck Taylors and Rickenbacker guitars and Brendan O'Brien albums and peanut butter sandwiches without jelly.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

User avatar
soundguy
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3182
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 12:50 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by soundguy » Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:43 pm

chris, its the caps. There are also lots of bypass caps on electrolytics in the mc76. Its a different sounding 1176. Its a great alternative to an 1176 which is cool when you need something that dark but can suck when it sounds too cloudy. Comparing an old Rev D 1176 to a MC76, even though people do it all the time, isnt the best use of time when you look at whats soldered to the boards. Panasonic caps will treat high end very differently from just about any cap that was stuck into an 1176 in the 70's, no shock that the boxes sound different.

I just looked at the new preamp on the purple site (awesome awesome awesome ideas on that PCB), I hope that andrew absolutely devastates OSA and the poorly assembled crap they have been selling for the last few years, its about time someone has something worth talking about (let alone spending money on) for a 500 series frame. Go purple.

dave
http://www.glideonfade.com
one hundred percent discrete transistor recording with style and care.

cgarges
zen recordist
Posts: 10890
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2003 1:26 am
Location: Charlotte, NC
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by cgarges » Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:55 pm

soundguy wrote:chris, its the caps.
Different transformers, too, no?

Chris

User avatar
soundguy
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3182
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 12:50 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by soundguy » Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:23 pm

well, wound to the same spec. the transformers on my mc76 are more "correct" than the new UA 1176s. The new UA box has a redesigned front end which uses an input transformer that was never in any version of an 1176. The purple is built to the rev d in that respect.

dave
http://www.glideonfade.com
one hundred percent discrete transistor recording with style and care.

cgarges
zen recordist
Posts: 10890
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2003 1:26 am
Location: Charlotte, NC
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by cgarges » Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:25 pm

Ah!

CG

frais_cafe
audio school
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 10:57 am

Re: Purple Audio

Post by frais_cafe » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:07 am

Hey Dave (Soundguy),

What's wrong with OSA? Just curious what your experience was regarding them and their build quality.

Have you used Brent Averill? How's that in your opinion?

I was under teh impression that they were all quality ... the only thing that I've got a gripe with is this whole thing of API supposedly changing the length of their boards so as not to fit in the other 3rd Party frames/racks. Just kills options for me, and I think kills business for API. (Though probably not enough for them to notice)

Cheers,

Jean-Pierre

cgarges
zen recordist
Posts: 10890
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2003 1:26 am
Location: Charlotte, NC
Contact:

Re: Purple Audio

Post by cgarges » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:22 am

frais_cafe wrote:the only thing that I've got a gripe with is this whole thing of API supposedly changing the length of their boards so as not to fit in the other 3rd Party frames/racks. Just kills options for me, and I think kills business for API. (Though probably not enough for them to notice)
That was actually OSA, not API.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 27 guests