MusicRadar

All the controls are nicely spaced.

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• Review

Ever since someone ripped out a mixing desk channel and put it in a rack box, manufacturers have been lining up to offer their take on the audio jack-of-all-trades that is the channel strip. The Voice Channel as ART's all-in-one-box recording solution.

Overview

The preamp section comprises mic, line and instrument inputs via front- and rear-mounted combo XLR/ jack sockets. After the usual pad, low-cut, phase invert and +48v buttons there's a mic impedance knob to allow for the use of low-impedance ribbon mics as well as frequency response tailoring for most other mics.

Next in line is the dynamics section with threshold, ratio, attack and release controls for the compressor. There's no on/off button but the 1:1 ratio is labelled 'off' as it has no dynamic effect, which saves on front panel space but makes A/B checking less instant.

The Voice Channel features a de-esser, but instead of making this a separate section it has been added into the compressor (with threshold and frequency controls) and allows for more compression at the selected frequency.

The final part of the dynamics section is the expander/gate (a button above switches modes) and this features a single threshold control. A light next to the gain reduction LEDs indicates when the expander/gate is working its magic.

Above the expander controls, stranded all on its own, is the tube voltage button that switches the valve supply voltage between 'normal' and 'high'. The lower voltage allows the valve to distort at a lower gain level and thus impart more of a 'valve sound', while the high voltage increases headroom and bandwidth.

The EQ section comprises a high- and low-shelf with two switchable frequencies: 50Hz/150Hz and 5kHz/15kHz respectively. Between these are two fixed Q-mid band controls (100Hz to 3kHz and 500Hz to 15kHz) which, like the shelving EQs, offer 12dB of cut and boost.

At the end are the VU and peak LED output meters and the output gain knob. Above the output gain is the digital output control which is a stepped knob allowing for a variety of sample rate/ dither and external sync options.

Digital connections and analogue routing

Like many channel strips, the Voice Channel has a mic preamp output and insert input at the rear. These are both 1/4-inch TS jack sockets and offer a few possibilities.

The mic preamp output and insert inputs can be used on their own to record a pre-EQ/dynamics signal and bypass the valve amp stage for an external signal respectively. In conjunction, they work as a standard send and return external processing loop.

There's a pair of A/D insert points that can be used several ways. Plugging an external source into the right A/D insert (using a TS jack) adds this signal to the right digital output. The A/D can be used on its own by plugging in an external line level source (TS jack) to both A/D inserts. Using TRS jacks (ring as send and tip as return) the mono Voice Channel signal can be processed with a stereo effect (eg, reverb) and then sent to the A/D.

The Voice Channel has a number of digital output options. Two channel S/PDIF and AES/ EBU (via phono coaxial and XLR respectively) are available up to 24-bit/192kHz. External sync can be achieved via the Word clock input or the ADAT In.

The ADAT input acts as an external sync source as well as allowing channels three to eight to be passed to the ADAT output. The optical output is switchable between ADAT and TOS (2-channel S/PDIF up to 24-bit/192kHz).