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Millennia User Comments

I used Millennia preamps on my first album (which won two Grammys) and again on my new album. I love them! Well, they’re pretty much the de facto standard of the people I work with. – Christopher Tin Was rather funny the timing of the events tonight. Just before your email, Joel, I had a conversation with the bass player in Dizzys. He asked if I had Millennia mic pres. I said “yes .. I also have brand g .. 96 channels of each.” His eyes widened. He asked, which do you like more? I leaned in without hesitation and replied,“Millennia.” His eyes relaxed and he smiled and said, “me too.” Rashan Carter was his name. – Rob Macomber, Chief Engineer, Music Studios, Jazz atLincoln Center

 

Was rather funny the timing of events tonight. Just before your email Joel, I had a conversation with the bass player in Dizzys ( just upon popping into the artist lounge for a set list) he asked if I had Millennia Mic Pre's. I said " Yes I do. also brand g...96 channels of each." ( flexing my muscle) His eyes widened. He asked, "Which do you like more?" I leaned in without hesitation and replied, "Millennia." His eyes relaxed and he smiled and said, "Me too." ( Rashaan Carter was his name ) 
thought you would enjoy
Rob Macomber • chief engineer, Music studios @ Jazz at Lincoln Center

 


 

..I would like to single out one person who has really made a difference to my work most recently and over the last dozen years or so: John La Grou. 
I first got my hands on Millennia mic preamps not long after I began recording the National Symphony Orchestra.  They were the best things of their kind I had ever heard and made an enormous and immediate difference to the quality of work I was able to do.  Without me saying a word to anyone about the recording chain change I had made, the kudos about my "technique" started pouring in -- the only difference from my previous work being the addition of these preamps. 
Years of heavy use have occasionally required these units to be repaired and the Millennia folks (thanks to John's attitude and company ethic) have done superlative work in returning them to me in better-than-new condition.  I can't say enough good things about the quality and constant improvement of John's company's products or the unflaggingly positive and helpful attitude of all Millennia Media employees with whom I have had contact.  John, himself, has occasionally followed up with me to make sure that all was well with his products -- and I am far from his highest-profile client. 
Whenever people around me start to rag on American companies and how they are all going down the tubes, I tell them about Millennia Media.  If all American companies ran this way, the country would be just fine. 
Charles Lawson
Professional Audio for CD, DVD, Broadcast & Internet


 

John,

WOW! We used the Origin this last week to see what we could do to enhance the sound of our SR environment as well as for live recording and tracking. We are currently using a Yamaha M2540 for our SR console, and for an SR console the preamps sound pretty good (I hate budgets though). For the vocalists, we are using the Neumann 105's. Even with the board preamps, they are a phenomenal sounding (or should I say unsounding) mic. Through the STT-1 SS stage, they sounded............perfect! But with the VT selected, they "warmed" even so slightly,which of course with praise music seemed to bring the whole family in from the cold, so to speak. With only one channel we used in on our first service soloist.Second service we tried the SS on the pulpit mic (a standard 18" Countryman). Third service, the VT was used. Even with an inexpensive mic, the clarity difference was amazing. There didn't seem to be much difference between the SS/VT, but I was ready to put my HV-3B in the SR booth for the pastors mic,when we tried the de-esser, compressor and Eq. How are we ever going to afford 40 channels of Origin? Ok, Ok, OK! maybe ..........................Anyway, the unit is awesome. We're going to try it with some different mics and performers next week while recording, but I know already the VT, EQ, Comp is going to spoil everybody. Bravo to you guys!I'll give you an update soon and let you know when the unit will be returned. Thanks for the pricing offer, that really helps the budget. I am starting to think that we should put the STT-1 in the studio and get (4) M2-B's for the SR (Vocals). Decision,decisions, decisions. Thanks for all your help! Calvary Chapel Westgrove Rob Kirby 12832 Knott Street Garden Grove, CA. 92841 714/ 897-8972

 


 

I can't get over how great the origins are. I have to admit... I may even like

them better than the EQ and compressor separately... I think it's the added

gain stage. just yesterday, I had some tapes from fantasy and a bad

engineer's choice of mic on a vocal. I ran in and out of the origin and

YIKES!!!! even the artist noticed how much better it sounded. pure gold!

if only I had more $$$$$$ I'd buy LOTS of those things.

take care,

cookie

 


 

G'day guys,

Just a quick one to say how much I love your NSEQ-2 Eq. As you know I

bought this unit after advice from both Bob Ludwig and Bob Katz. It's

one thing hearing it from others and another when you experience it

yourself. Let me say that this EQ is extraordinary. I never thought you

could get a tube to sound so transparent and yet deliciously subtle.

It's my first port of call when I need to do sonic surgery. I have yet

to meet a client who hasn't felt that the NSEQ-2 has improved their music.

Tony "Jack the Bear" Mantz, Mastering and Cutting engineer, Melbourne Australia.

 


 

John:

We have had the use of your Origin piece for several weeks now, and I have to commend you on it. Each of the sections sounds good, and as both an all-in-one and a "demonstrator" unit for the circuits it is exemplary. I especially like the way you've provided for the amplifier-free compression circuit. I once used some Fairchild modules that were configured similarly

-- an amplifier driving a lamp on a photo resistor (to ground) to vary a "passive" T-pad attenuator -- and I liked the idea. The Fairchilds sounded awful though, and I toyed with the idea of knocking together something similar with Vactec cells, but I never did.

I repeat my praise for the sound quality of the box -- you did a great job. I'll see you at the Tape Op thing.

best,

steve albini, Electrical Audio 

 


 

Hello John,

I wish you a happy new year.

I'm using since two months now NSEQ-2 and I must to agree that this is the most transparent analog EQ I ever used.

Now after many records using NSEQ-2 I have a better idea about it's sound and I must to say that I found some difficulties the first period to make it work for me. This is because in contrast with my Weiss and Avalon the settings in NSEQ-2 are more critical. I mean that with Weiss and Avalon (in a different way) you can "play" with the colors in the palette until to find the right balance. With Millennia you must think "exactly" what you want. It's closer to Weiss but Weiss can forgive you in a setting that it's not perfect but not Millennia !

Also I realize why Avalon was successful to me , since many projects in Greece (and not only) are coming in DAT masters that sounds thin and without depth and authority. So the character of Avalon that thickens sound was the right solution.

However with good recordings the Millennia shines. And there are occasions that Avalon seems muddy and destroy ambience. The good thing is that the combination of both, is another super EQ ! Usually I don't like Eqs in series. But Millennia and Avalon gives to each other what maybe miss.

I'm using 50% tube and 50% solid state but I feel better with solid state. In tube mode there is a nice opening however , I feel the sound becomes thin and while middles are smoother there are some notches not always useful and the bass is fuller but slow and without punch.

I prefer more body , fatness and sweetness keeping this "aura" if possible. What will be the best Vacuum ?

*We evaluate also the compressor for a few days. As you said is more transparent than our Crane Song and works better with soft compression but not as useful if you want fast or heavy compression. Some of my clients (engineers) love it.

Best,

Chris

================================

Chris Hatzistamou, ATHENS MASTERING, Hi-End mastering and restoration services

================================

 


 

Dear John and crew -

I have been a long time Millennia Media consumer, and I am writing to

introduce myself and my audio production company to you.

Since 1994, I have been the Director of Audio for Virgin Interactive

Entertainment and Westwood Studios Pacific / Electronic Arts. In addition

to my background in Interactive audio production, I have scored six feature

motion pictures, as well as over 90 commercially released albums, television

commercials and music videos. Last spring, I launched a dedicated digital

audio development company, PCB Productions. I maintain a state-of-the-art

digital recording facility designed to accommodate every aspect of

Interactive audio development - including non-linear post-production,

digital automated mixing, film scoring, sound design, music editing, and

dialog engineering.

Some of our recent titles include: Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (Activision),

Ridge Racer 64 (Nintendo), Disney's Emperor's New Groove (Disney), Disney's

Lion King (Disney), Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots (Mattel), Blues Brothers 2000

and Hercules (Titus), Wu-Tang Clan (Activision), Draconus (Crave), and Metal

Fatigue (Psygnosis). Additionally, our first Animae motion picture

"Spriggan" is being released in theatres this spring with ADV Films. For all

of these top-selling titles, we utilized Millennia products to achieve the

high quality audio we are known for.

Keith Aram


About to start recording of new FlowerKings CD , I'll be using the Millennia pre amps for drums in backing tracks , grand premiere .!!!!!! ( plus most of overdubs of course )

The Twin Topology Equalizer runs on every session and I love it !!! I did mix of the Transatlantic Live CD thru it also ....well it's a live recording made on DA 88's so it's not perfect , but still the NSEQ gave a bit of a hi end sparkle to it. Hoping to get even the Millennia Twin Topology compressor in my racks later when economy permits , I had a chance to run a test thanks to the ever kind Robert Zima ...... never heard a compressor that silent and

transparent !!!

I'll go back to pre production ...... still a lot to do .

Kind Regards

Roine Stolt.


John,

It was great to speak with you the other day and congratulations on the company's growth. Last night was the AES chapter meeting featuring Bob Ludwig talking about high resolution sound and surround release formats. He strongly supports SACD and mentioned his new control room will operate in analog for 6 channel mastering to the format. He then mentioned using 3 Millennia Media compressors with your mods for tracking the signals together. It was a great presentation with a realistic view of the costs, economic and technical, of high res multi-channel sound and a real love of superior sound reproduction. Thought you would enjoy hearing your equipment mentioned along with dcs, Weiss, and Z-Sys.

Best regards,

David Prentice


My millennia pre-amps have been the number 1 choice in my studio since we bought them. They are the most beautifully open mic pres that I've ever heard. I am a writer/producer/engineer living in Nova Scotia Canada and I spread the good word around here about your technology. I first saw them used while I was playing guitar on a session in Nashville that was being produced by George Massenburg and I was intrigued that the only Mic pres in use for the session other

than GML were yours. I consider him to be "The Great One" as an engineer as I'm sure you do.

I am currently looking for a small console for my studio. (24bit Pro Tools) I like the sound of pro-tools but I want to combine the tracks in a high definition analog path. Your mixing suite looks brilliant, but in a perfect world I would want to have access to millennia's Eqs, comps, mic pres etc.in one package complete with the foldback sends and bussing system. Are there any plans for millennia and such a concept or one near to it?

Gordie Sampson


Millennia people, I just spent the last six months selling off every processor, pre-amp and anything else I could find to buy two premium channels of something. After looking extensively at everything I finally decided on two Origin STT-1. They just arrived day before yesterday and I hooked them up. There are no words to describe going from the cheap stuff to the real thing!! MINE EYES HAVE BEEN OPENED!!! I will have to learn how to listen to things

in a whole new way. Thank you for making such a wonderful product. I have to go because I'm becoming...(sniff) ..emotional......

Thanks, Your newest fan

Jason Shaw


John,

We set up the mic preamp as the front end of our Audio Developments mixer, displacing the other outboard preamps we usually use. Well, my partner (Roy Cherryhomes) who recorded the Thursday night concert was absolutely amazed at the sound with the Millennia's! He said it is a world better than anything we've ever heard--he described it as absolutely "effortless" sound! This is from a main pair of TLM193s, B&K 4006s, and SM69 for solo piano. He was very impressed at how much better the B&Ks sounded with the Millennia.

I'll record the Sunday concert and will get to hear for myself. But, I think we have to have one of these preamps! It's just a matter of selling the other ones to raise some extra cash...

I will write again next week after we've had more time to analyze the recordings.

Best regards,

George Gilliam, Dallas Symphony


John,

I've just started working with the LPE-2's yesterday - including a bunch of vertical cut discs. Initial impression is absolutely positive. I hate to used subjective terms on describing the sound but here goes: keep in mind that I'm talking about records made in the 20's: there seems to be a solidity to the sound which just wasn't there before, voice stands out and words seem much clearer to me. The imaging is rock solid. It's incredible to crank up the volume and not hear any hum.

Anyway, analyzing the signal with the CEDAR NR3 with spectrum analyzer and the Azimuth corrector and I can see that the signals are so much more in phase (except, of course, for the spurious noises) and that the noise from the 78's is flatter. Just pulled out a few electric 78's. Most notable is an early (1950's) Tony Bennett 78 with big band back up. WOW!!!! The bottom end is tight and all there, the voice sits beautifully and the "throatiness" is present. Good God can he sing!! The sound seems to float above the speakers. With a slight pass of the CEDAR it sounds as good if not better than tape! Again wow. My colleague and I compared the digital Eqs setting I had with the LPE-2's and what can I say... I was blind and now I see.

Amazing how flat the digital eel's sound. (It doesn't help that the curves didn't quite match, but the digital EQ does sound flat.) Man, is this going to be fun! (sorry for all the exclamation marks. Hard to contain my excitement!)

That's it for now. As I work with the LPE-2 some more, I can fill you in more detail. I'm looking forward to setting up the LP cartridge and listening to some high end, well recorded vinyl with a $4,000 (Cdn) cartridge.

Gilles St. Laurent, Director, Audio Archiving Laboratories, National Library of Canada


John,

In spite of sporting audiophile, class-A balanced tube topology and other 'audiophile' features, the GT Vipre pre-amp came up rather short side in comparison with the Origin. Even though the Vipre offered multiple impedance taps on its input transformer, it never attained the finesse, beauty, and impact of the sound of the Origin. The UM900 sounds gorgeous through the Origin with the input transformer engaged. I recently strongly recommended the Origin to Andrew Lipinski, a tonemeister, who subsequently purchased one, I think through a European dealer. I've been having a great time with my Origins, it has been a process of rediscovering my mic collection.

Best,

Alan Silverman, Arf! Digital, NYC


John.

We've been using our [six channels of] TCL-2 compressors for a number of stereo and six channel surround projects with great results. The ability of each unit to sound either as transparent as the Class A solid state electronics or as warm as the tube electronics is a big advantage. The TCL-2 Twincom has become our reference analog dynamics mastering processor.

Bob Ludwig,

Gateway Mastering


Hi John,

Just to let you know, the recording we did in Eugene for the Oregon Bach Festival of the Penderecki Credo, won this year's Grammy for "Best Choral Recording". We used 16 channels of Millennia pre-amps on stage. THANKS FOR THE GREAT SOUND!!

regards,

Don Harder, Chief Audio Engineer, Canadian Broadcasting Company


John: Thanks for continuing to make the finest, most accurate electronics in the industry.

Best regards,

Jack Renner, Telarc International


Hi John

Just a quick note to let you know how much I'm enjoying using the STT1. I've already had the opportunity of using it on a variety of sources, from vocals to electric guitar, and it has handled everything with dramatically outstanding results. There is a very noticeable improvement in the clarity and overall polish in my recorded vocal takes using the STT1 that I would never have expected to be so significant, even if the path is practically untreated. In addition, the ease with which a recorded signal can be enhanced using the STT's impeccably transparent EQ and compression offers a superbly powerful and flexible recording tool, without in any way detracting from the quality of the source.

My preference for vocals is currently the Solid State pre-amp, although I can see the benefits of the Telefunken tubes under certain circumstances. I'm using the valve stages elsewhere in the chain and find they add some very subtle but satisfyingly mellow tints to everything I record. The transformer is simply wonderful for less 'mission critical' tracks. I've used it extensively on guitar and love the 'umph' it seems to introduce into the picture.

The STT is also being put to work on mixdown, often to give vocals more dramatic processing when needed, and it handles this with almost unidentifiable transparency and consummate ease. I've even used the EQ on snares during mixing and can get sheen and bite that none of my other Esq.'s will permit without sounding artificial.

Suffice it to say I am over the moon and already trying to allocate funds for my next Millennia purchase!! Thanks for all your help in making dealing with your company such a joy.

Kind regards

Jules Bromley, Trailermen, England, http://www.trailermen.com.


The results are great from your gear. Jack Renner was over a couple of weeks back and was very happy to see them in our kit...the sound is great -- sweet, refined, full of dynamics - fabulous on grand piano.

Tony Faulkner,

Greenroom Productions, UK, Owner of HV-3D and M-2B preamplifiers, Perhaps the preeminent classical music recording engineer, worldwide


Hey John,

Just a quick note. A friend asked me to bring the STT-1 to a pre-production meeting for a

new artist on a major label here. She has a huge dynamic range and they were having problems with the ADL compressor not covering it and having to ride the gain with the singer. They'd been trying a Daking pre amp and some refurbished Telefunkens. They loved the STT-1 on the woman's voice. She said "It's not squashing me." When in fact it was cutting 9db on her loud

notes. We had to look over at the needle to verify that it was compressing her. Very transparent. It retained the integrity of her voice over the full dynamic range of the compressor. The engineer's comment was "I've got to get one of these things." The change was dramatic when we first switched on the STT-1 from the Daking, very big and open. We were trying the STT-1 with a U67 and a Shure SM7. It's kind of a folk rock album. The engineer

liked the Daking for the 'in your face' presence but it lacked 'front to back' depth, whereas the Telefunkens had front to back depth but he was missing the presence of the Daking. The STT-1 has both depth and presence. Anyway, just thought I'd pass on the continuing good news. I'll be playing it for other friends down here.

Jim Meyer

Jimmy Buffet Band


Dear John,

Gee I hate to gush but I've got to tell you, this STT-1 is really helping me out. I'm currently working on a children's story and I'm doing all the narration, voices, singing etc. Recently I've been going over some narration which I did a year ago with a AT4033 (not my favorite mic) and a Rane mic pre in a hotel room. I was tempted just to re-do everything but

the vibe was great. I had the voice channel going through multiple computer plug ins of compression, de-essing, multiband compression, EQ, etc. Trying to get it to sound like a nice normal voice speaking. Suddenly I thought "Duh, I'll run it through the STT-1. This was at the point at which I had spent an hour editing 1 minute of narration to try to get all the words, (whispers and yells) to come out clearly. I went back to the original

unprocessed narration and sent it through the STT-1. Within 15 minutes I had the whole chapter of narration printed in the computer, it sounded big and natural and everything was clearly audible. The compressor was way cleaner than so called 'transparent' digital compressors. With a tad of EQ to fix the 3k bump in the mic, it fit right in. This may seem like a small

thing but with 25 chapters of narration, it literally saved me hours of editing.

Thanks again,

Things are well here.

Jim Meyer, Bass & Vocals, Jimmy Buffet Band


John La Grou,

Thanks for the demo of the TCL-2 compressor. The unit is beautifully constructed and is as sonically neutral as anything I have heard.

Joe Palmaccio

Senior Recording Engineer, Sony Music, NYC


Greetings John -

So good to speak with you the other day - thanks for giving me a call, and taking the time to chat.... I've been in the process of upgrading hardware/software for 5.1, and saw where the POWr is in my Pro Tools upgrade - I'm looking forward to checking that out, as I am aware of your involvement....

John, that NSEQ2 is truly a great piece! The more I use it, the more I love it. It does something seemingly magical on the high end. I have always had a problem with what happens to the high end on most everything when processed (recorded/mixed) exclusively in the digital domain. I can get back, for the most part, what I feel I'm missing with the NSEQ2 - without sounding like the material is being equalized. I have not been able to do that prior to this Eq. I am happy - can you tell?

So, thanks so much for making it happen....

Take care,

Tad Bush


I love my STT-1's John! Major league sound - clean, crisp and the tubes are marvelous, just really love 'em! What a sound! Best compressors and EQ I've ever heard!

Blows anything I've heard so far, no wonder Ludwig, Katz, Jung and the rest of the bunch likes 'em. I'm truly very happy with them, wouldn't trade them for anything!

I'm using a touch of EQ - a little bass roll off, omnis can be too much on the bass response sometimes - and barely 1 dB of compression and the sound is simply wonderful! The compression is the finest I've ever heard and the Eqs just blends and enhances the whole sound simply amazing! I'm using VT out on both stages - transformer out - and the loud sections just float gracefully, making the whole thing sound even better!

I also feel the fact that everything is in one box makes it better than having to patch from one box to the other. The only drawback is having to tweak a pair of knobs all the time but I'd rather that than having to patch.

Great box, the TEC should definitely go to you! For Classical Music, there couldn't be anything finer and better! Bravo John!

- Dr. Alexander Lim, DMA / Musica Records, NYC


Hi,

my name is Massimo and I just decide to buy one Origin system (I got the STT-1 from my reseller to evaluate it for a week but it takes only a few minutes to decide to keep it!). I'm using it practically on everything: Acoustic Gtrs, Bass (Direct and Miked), Huge distorted Gtrs, Vocals, Clean gtrs and so on. It sounds wonderful on everything! I like very much all the options in

one unit; at first the EQ seemed almost useless to me but today it was great on a not so good acoustic guitar, it saved the recording!

I've seen on your site that you do mostly classical and jazz recording, but I found that the STT-1 is wonderful also for Rock, Metal, Grunge etc. etc.; it seems perfect to me for recording Metal Gtrs! The HM guys here liked a lot the "BIG" sound coming from the transformer and it let me record huge dist gtrs

Anyway, you've got another unit here in Rome! If I had lot of $$$$ I'd get a complete set to record drums!

Massimo Sinceri

Soundcheck Studio, Via Giuseppe Pianese 15, 00151 Rome Italy


By the way, Nick, an editor of Bass Player Magazine called this week

and said that the Origin has become their "reference front end" for

bass product reviews! Said it displaced a well-known direct box

with a reputation for bass signals.

I'm not at all surprised, because it's an excellent DI. As you know, I use it for synths a lot (even though they don't need a DI to match up electrically). But I've been using the mic preamp as a reference for reviews too. It's hard politically to come out and say that the Millennia ate something's lunch, but off the record it sounds quite a bit better than a well-known mic preamp that I wouldn't be so crude as to name (Avalon).

As an aside, I was surprised at how the variable impedance feature never improved anything, it could only make things worse if it wasn't adjusted properly. That sounded like a great thing, being able to match up well with any mic, but it didn't seem to work that way with the mics I used.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing you at NAMM.

Best,

Nick Batzdorf, Editor, Recording Magazine


The sound of the NSEQ-2 is tremendous - absolutely no artifacts. I'm almost inclined to say it is cleaner sounding than my HV3b which I know is impossible. btw, I'm still interested in upgrading my HV3b to a 4 or 8 channel model.

___

Rick Knepper, MicroComputer Support Services, Knepper Audio, Ft. Worth, TX


Dear John,

Great to hear from you. I've missed you at the last couple of trade shows. I trust you are well. The NSEQ has been great. I've used it on many sessions including Elton John, Kronos String Quartet, Tracy Bonham, Hanson, Cafe Tacuba, Julieta Venegas, Carole King and many others. It use it lots for lead vocals or for the overall stereo buss. Of course I'd love to use anything you make. The quality of tone is always excellent so I'd be glad to hear this new box. Yes, I probably will be at NAMM unless I'm out of town working on a project.

Happy Holidays,

Joe Chiccarelli


New York Times critic James R. Oestreich's choice #4 of "Top Ten Classical Recordings of 2001"

Tchaikovsky's "Liturgy Of St. John Chrysostom" performed by The Russian

Chamber Chorus of NY Recorded and mastered by Arf! Digital.

Equipment used:

Schoeps-Bruck KFM-360 mic system, Millennia-Media HDV3 preamps, Mytek 8x96

ADC, Weiss EQ1, POW-R dither.


Dear Millennia Folks,

I recently purchased one of your NSEQ-2's for use in my mastering work. I want to tell you how impressed I am with the unit. I bought the unit on trial because I usually use gear with a strong sonic signature and I thought the NSEQ might be too clean for my tastes. I was wrong. Yes the EQ is clean, but not in a clinical way. I think it is one of the most musical sounding Eqs I've come across. I do wish it had a selectable slope for the bottom shelf, it's not quite as "tight" as might be ideal for me, but still brilliant sounding as is. I also like the subtleness to the tube side and I find it does win out on some program material. I also do a lot of recording and mixing and now I am rethinking my use of a lot of vintage gear and I think an Origin might be my next purchase. Thanks for a wonderful piece of equipment.

All the best,

Dave McNair


hello,

firstly i would like to congratulate you on building the best mic pre i have ever used. i still remember the first time i used one - it was magical.

i am finally able to purchase a preamplifier of yours but am extremely interested in your planned unit with pow-r converters.

yours sincerely,

justin tresidder, sydney, australia


John,

Just wanted to drop you a brief note to say "thanks". I got my Stt-1 back. I phoned to pay for the shipping but was told it had already gone out. If this was some kind of mix-up, my work number is 989 752 8162. If not, uh.. wow! Thanks for all your help. I was expecting an ordeal. I have never been treated to such awesome customer service before...

Jason Shaw


John,

The testing is going very well... indeed you might say it's over!.... finally got everything sat up for a test of the HB-3V-B&K4003 straight wire to the Masterlink.... recorded a couple of things and went over to the couch to sit down and listen and actually heard the instrument that I've been playing these past almost 2 years for the first time (as if i was at the piano, not the couch)... Superlative and speechless... My very first impression of the sound was eerie, because it was like going back in time.... This am I recorded the Satie works that I am currently working on.. as I was recording I kept noticing that the signals seemed to be saturating at -1 dB and so kept turning the gain down, so as to avoid transient overs that plagued me with the Mackie... as i listened to today's efforts, I was absolutely stunned that none of the pieces that I had recorded, where I thought for sure there would be nasty digital crunching, contained even a trace of digital yuk... Is this what is meant by headroom?? (I am not an electronic junkie... just sound!).... So I can now forget about a limiter to filter the transients.. I couldn't find any... and the preamp and microphones have saved me the trouble of going out and finding a replacement piano (Yamaha S6... hand built, highest state of the Yamaha piano art), which I can now hear.. Based on my earlier recordings I was beginning to fear that the sound I really didn't like was possibly the piano. The sound is wonderful and i should be ecstatic, except that I still can't believe it...

Norman L. Eberhardt, Ph.D., Professor

Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic


Hey John

I have had a couple of interviews where I mention your pre amps and have had most of what I said edited out, for whatever reason. I just turned in credits for the Dixie Chicks new acoustic record and the Nickel Creek project, and Millennia got thanks from me, as usual. We are also just starting the Alison live record and using your pres. I will make sure that

any press that goes out gets that info.

The only pre-amps that I use are yours and Doug's. When I get back to town it will slow down enough that I will be able to get the Origin back to you for the mods. I have been mixing for over a month and have had not a minute to spare.

Gary Paczosa


John:

I tried my pair of DPA 3529's at unity gain into the Line-ins on the Origins (for gain) in tube mode w/ the Xformer engaged for the piano recording earlier today, and the sound was phenomenal! Cant' say I've heard anything better. The clarity and smoothness was unique

and it's definitely top-quality "Pro Level" sound and unquestionably in a league of its own.

I think they're your best Mic-Pres and a notch above the M2-B's. After hearing the DPA's through the Origins I don't think I could ever go any other route, they're just that good!

Alexander Lim, Musica Records, NY


John,

I just have to comment on the HV-3B. I recorded a concert of chamber orchestra with chorus this weekend, and some solo guitar and voice. Recordings were done with the Royer SF-12 mic. I'm using the entire 73 dB gain on the solo guitar recording, so the custom gain was the right thing to do. John, this is the sound I've been looking for years. I can't tell you how beautiful it is. I have a very special Martin D-28 and have never found another guitar that I

liked better of any make or model for the music that I play. The last thing I want to do is have the recording change the color of that sound. I feel like I've stumbled onto a great secret in finding this preamp/mic combination. Believe me, I've spent time and money in a few studios trying to get this sound. I'll send you a copy of the CD when it's finished. I feel I owe you guys something for having made this thing.

Sincerely,

Bob Sowyrda


John,

Congratulations on the LPE-2 TEC Nomination. I have to admit to being rather thrilled at having played a part, albeit small, in its inception. But the real thrill comes from using it day to day. I'm just transferring some early (1946) Oscar Peterson 78's for BMG U.S. and the double bass sounds so impressively rich. Compared to what was available before, you ought to be canonized for the LPE-2! St John, it has a nice ring...

Gilles St. Laurent,

National Library of Canada

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