mdc wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:01 pm I'm pretty sure the iron age stuff is all through hole as well (aside from the DOAs) - and if one of those fail it's probably a lot easier to swap out a $20 replacement than it would be to troubleshoot a jungle of vertical mount resistors.

Good point!

The Iron Age Stuff looks really well done too

Kniferide wrote: Sun Jun 30, 2024 8:19 pm

cakes wrote: Fri Jun 21, 2024 9:37 am

Kniferide wrote: Sun Apr 02, 2023 5:28 pm

I feel like I'm the only person in the world that can't seem to get a single usable sound out of a Pultec or Pultec style eq. It just always sounds like too much to me.

I have them always in every mix, and I put them on the main bus. I barely ever change the settings, if at all. I got a good piece of advice on how to use them, which is to get the EQ you want before mixing and gain staging. Then, mix into them. Sometimes I put them on a kick drum or a bass. There's that awesome kick drum trick that is always nice to have in your back pocket.

I always feel like they make everything overhyped, and the cool cut boost functionality of them is the exact sound of overhyped low end that I think has ruined modern mix sounds. The high end is to me problematic for the same reason. Makes everything sound like KPop or Ultra Modern Punch-Record Shred Robot Metal to me. I also feel like I can get everything they do form any modern EQ plug like a Fab Filter or even a Reaper EQ, plus I get a usable mid control. I think maybe they thing people really loved about the vintage units was the artifacts from the makeup gain stage. They were just drawn to the saturation. Push any eq into cool saturation and it can be just as good. But I'm a weirdo and in the minority when it comes to Pultec/clones. I also feel like a LA2A is a pretty meh experience, and I get shade for it all the time. Not a popular opinion.

I think if you have FabFilter or Ozone EQ or equivalent, you basically have a Pultec setting already.

TylerDeadPine wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:15 pm

mdc wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:01 pm I'm pretty sure the iron age stuff is all through hole as well (aside from the DOAs) - and if one of those fail it's probably a lot easier to swap out a $20 replacement than it would be to troubleshoot a jungle of vertical mount resistors.

Good point!

The Iron Age Stuff looks really well done too

I built up 6ch of helios-style console mic pres based on a project that Matt put together for GDIY over the pando, and they sound wonderful. He even did a quick redesign of the PCB for me for no charge to suit my needs a little better. Big fan of the dude and that company's equipment looks incredible. That 4ch api-ish thing probably sounds amazing and it's cool that they offer so many options for different flavours of DOAs.

mdc wrote: Tue Jul 02, 2024 7:13 am

TylerDeadPine wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:15 pm

mdc wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:01 pm I'm pretty sure the iron age stuff is all through hole as well (aside from the DOAs) - and if one of those fail it's probably a lot easier to swap out a $20 replacement than it would be to troubleshoot a jungle of vertical mount resistors.

Good point!

The Iron Age Stuff looks really well done too

I built up 6ch of helios-style console mic pres based on a project that Matt put together for GDIY over the pando, and they sound wonderful. He even did a quick redesign of the PCB for me for no charge to suit my needs a little better. Big fan of the dude and that company's equipment looks incredible. That 4ch api-ish thing probably sounds amazing and it's cool that they offer so many options for different flavours of DOAs.

Oh man, I'm going to dive into your thread there. I'm a big fan of KiCad, hope you're enjoying transitioning there.

I kinda gave up on redesigning the wheel in KiCAD when I couldn't find a template/object for a blank 500-series board - it just seemed way too daunting trying to draw that out and having to hope that it would be to spec. Since Matt already had the board laid out for the pre-eq version it only took him a few minutes to delete the EQ section and swap the stepped gain for a pot. He said that their 500-series mic pre is basically the same thing (though maybe it has a xformer on the output?)

I'm absolutely happy to share the gerbers and everything if you're interested in DIY-ing!

I haven’t done anything real in depth, but I compare the UAD Pultec plug-in to the Audioscape box all the time - setting to setting mostly, but I am basically never trying to make them sound the same, just seeing how they are different.

The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that are times that the plug is weirdly crunchy. Other than people’s obsession with saturation, I don’t know why that would be.

Honestly, comparing them side by side I feel like best thing the UAD plugin has going for it is scrolling around presets based on instruments. I’ve kind of set limits for myself in that if I can’t get an EQ sound in 5 minutes, I’m not using the right box, and the plug in is super good at presenting a few decent options quickly whereas otherwise I can get sort of lost in options and small moves.

I can’t think of anytime where I didn’t just print the Audioscape boxes, and they are always being used for something, so can’t say the plug-in wins.

For musical eqing I like the UAD Helios plug-in way more… wish there were affordable hardware options for those.

Have y'all Audioscape owners found they are low inventory, pre-order, wait for months to get a unit kind of deal? That's how they're discussed on other forums and made me wonder about turn around time.

losthighway wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:42 am Have y'all Audioscape owners found they are low inventory, pre-order, wait for months to get a unit kind of deal? That's how they're discussed on other forums and made me wonder about turn around time.

I think that’s STAM. Big difference.

Audioscape does do something kind of like that, but its honestly not a big deal. You join the mailing list and they tell you when they list stuff, then you buy it and it arrives in a couple weeks. It doesn’t sell out THAT quickly - takes a few days sometimes - I think it just helps keep their outstanding orders from getting out of control.

It’s sort of on the Instagram drop model, but its not such a big deal really unless someone is a few beers deep mad on the internet wanting to spend some money right now.

I have some of their compressors (I love their 1176s) and eqs and its never really been a hassle.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 1:38 pm

losthighway wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:42 am Have y'all Audioscape owners found they are low inventory, pre-order, wait for months to get a unit kind of deal? That's how they're discussed on other forums and made me wonder about turn around time.

I think that’s STAM. Big difference.

Audioscape does do something kind of like that, but its honestly not a big deal. You join the mailing list and they tell you when they list stuff, then you buy it and it arrives in a couple weeks. It doesn’t sell out THAT quickly - takes a few days sometimes - I think it just helps keep their outstanding orders from getting out of control.

It’s sort of on the Instagram drop model, but its not such a big deal really unless someone is a few beers deep mad on the internet wanting to spend some money right now.

I have some of their compressors (I love their 1176s) and eqs and its never really been a hassle.

Cool. Thanks. Their LA2A knockoff has been tempting me.