VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Edo]

Anyone who's had experience with this model of mic pre, please fill me in, especially if you've used or seen/heard it in use on live radio broadcast. I already checked out the reviews on Gearslutz and Harmony Central, but I need comments on this one from a radio angle if at all possible. It's not for me but for one of the radiostations here on Curaçao. And since there are no pro audio dealers on the island, everything has to be flown in. Unfortunately that means I can't advise them by setting up a listening session to thoroughly test the DBX 286a. There's a bit of a hurry too, for one of their studios suffered a power outage due to lightning, and they lost quite a bit of gear when some crucial stuff died in the electrical aftermath over there. They need affordable stuff, for S&H from the USA to Curaçao is outrageous... it adds up to the retail price of the unit in most cases, just to get the stuff here

I handed them one of my Symetrix 528's for the main dj mic, but their guest mics are now all unprocessed and it sounds very poorly on the air.

Any replies will be greatly appreciated!

[imaginator]

you may be hearing from bill campbell, who knows more the engineer's angle on this.

but from a non-tech perspective, i can tell you bill brought his dbx 286a over here to see if it would get rid of my mic booth's slight/but/annoying layer of background noise. i had already sunk 300.00 or more into one of those SE reflexion filters (...anybody want to buy it from me?) which was slightly helpful, but not what i needed.

with bill's tweaking, the dbx screened out the noise floor that was bugging me, and also gave some extra body to my voicetracks without making them sound all pumped up like they had too much compression. it did this without adding any extra "coloring" to the sound of my mic.

i bought one the same day and sold my old symetrix, which worked okay, but for some reason took a lot of the warmth out of my mic's sound.

i wish i'd called bill sooner. couldn't recommend the dbx more highly.

(btw, bill wasn't selling these. he just brought his own unit over for me to try.)
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rowell gormon
www.voices2go.com
"Mr. Warm & Friendly Voice...with Character!"
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[Yoda117]

I've never used them for live broadcasting, however the main casting agency in the Philadelphia market uses one for any spots recorded on-site.

There are better units out there, but for the price, you'll be hard pressed to find a better bang at that price point.
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Voiceovers by Gregory Houser
Philadelphia based Voice Actor

Blog - A man, a martini, and a lot of microphones

[Lance Blair]

I greatly prefer dbx to Symetrix.

The Symetrix is a total workhorse and a industry standard for its protection from interference amongst other things...but a workhorse isn't going to get you the best sound, there's always compromise made in the design with such a device.
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and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

[Bill Campbell]

GREAT box for $200. (Glad to help, Rowell)

It's got a quality pre-amp, compression, EQ, and a really effective
gate/expander. You can use the features as much or as little as you like.
It never seems to overly color your sound, but can add a little more
sonic sweetness and warmth. The expander will remove a few dbs of noise and you won't even hear it working.

Ty Ford, a real engineering guru and consultant, said the Burr Brown chip
in the pre-amp makes it comparable to his $1000 pres.
Remember, DBX makes a lot of pro and consumer gear, so they deal in volume,
and don't need to charge ridiculous prices.

Used the Symetrix in radio for years, it's ok. Tends to squeeze the life out of your mics.
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www.asapaudio.com

[chuckweis]

The 286A should serve them well for their use. Absolutely right about the value of the unit for the relatively low price. What I really like about it is how much you can shape the sound to your liking without needing an engineering degree to dial in the settings. I was skeptical at first with it, figuring less knobs meant not as much control over the sound, but I actually now appreciate NOT having so many knobs to adjust. Nice, simple box and does good audio for voice, whether in the studio or on air....IMHO.

[Edo]

Thanks everyone for the detailed replies. I had them order two units today and they have been scheduled to ship today as well. I expect to get confirmation from Curaçao customs on Monday and then Antillean 'mañana mañana' kicks in so hopefully I'll have them here by next weekend.

[richvoice]

Does anyone know how much difference there is between the 286A and the 166XL? I have the latter, and while I like having the compression option, it seems to me that it's nearly impossible to compress at a ratio greater than 2:1 without killing most of the low-end. And since most of my voice is low-end, I don't want to kill it!

Thanks,
Rich

[Edo]

Rich, the 166XL is 'just' a compressor/limiter/gate (a very good one I might add) and as such not a particular voice processor for it doesn't have the EQ section to make that distinctive sound before hitting the compression. But combined with an EQ you could well use it as such. If you feel the unit colours your sound quite a bit in the low end, try -if you use a mixer with insert points at all- inserting the unit after the internal EQ of your mixer if possible. And remember that low-end doesn't neccesarily means clarity in your voice. If you feel the character of your voice should contain enough low-end, then try compensating for that by using some kind of EQ. But beware not to overdo it, for especially peaks at 80Hz will make you sound dull and boomy, instead of cut-trhough bombastic. Better yet, cutting @ 80Hz often means the sound opens up more thus creating more authority in your voice. It's definately worth the try...

[richvoice]

Thanks, Edo. I'll play around with it some the next time I'm recording. Unfortunately, I can only add EQ on the back-end, post-compression. And I've played around with the EQ enough to know that too much sounds really unnatural.

One engineer that I worked with used a lot of compression for an "announcery" spot, and used what he called his "Golden Gate Bridge" approach to parametric EQ: a tiny bump at 80-100Hz and a tiny bump in a higher range, I'm not sure where. Anyway, I always thought it sounded great, but I've never been able to do anything remotely similar with the 166XL, when I get above 2:1 or 3:1 the low end gets really washed out.

Of course, he was using a U87, and I'm using a R0DE NT-1A, and his hardware chain probably had a dozen other links in it that I don't have.

Rich