Drawmer 1961 Stereo Vacuum Tube Equalizer
The Drawmer 1961 review
The 1961 has become my real favorite on guitar sounds. The frequency bands are chosen perfectly and the width and boost provide really nice shaping features. I say boost because I don’t tend do anything else with this EQ especially on guitars. Just like the Manley it is by far not just a mastering machine. My Kick and Snare go through it and even Vocals. You can add such roundness to the bass and a really nice air in the top-end on all instruments as the 1961 is going up to 25k and 50k for the Low-Pass.
“Distortion would make a hi-fi enthusiast cringe, but the subjective result is a very slight thickening of the bass end and a subtle lifting of high-frequency detail. This may be used to good effect both on whole mixes and on individual parts such as vocal tracks, where a conventional mic can be endowed with some of the tonal attributes of a tube model. Initially, I thought I might find the switched filter frequencies rather restricting, but in practice, the correct choice of bandwidth or Octave seemed to be more important”, reviews Paul White in this SOS Magazine article.
Universal Audio 2-610 Stereo Tube Microphone Preamp EQ
The Universal Audio 2-610 review
To me and my sound it makes less sense to record a session through a set of equal preamps, instead I prefer colouration in most of the recordings I do and choose the preamps accordingly. It is basically mixing while recording. That is why I got this one because it’s colour is, I’d say a dark orange. The Drawmer 1960 would be a solid blue. Does this make sense to anyone? What I’m trying to say is that they are very different from another in many ways.
The EQ section on the UA 2-610 is very powerful, although it doesn’t seem like that at first. Whether recording or mixing, it helps lifting and shifting the perception into higher or lower areas. This is the preamp I turn to for colour. To compare the recording or mixing process to that of a painter using oil and canvas comes to mind quickly and is often cited. What the reviews say about this preamp is simply true.
