MusicRadar

The unit features A/D conversion as standard.

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• Review

The 4-710d is UA's its first product in decades to offer more than two channels. The centrepiece is four preamp channels utilising the 710 Twin-Finity architecture that blends solid-state and valve (tube) amplificationstages.

Each preamp houses a simple compressor, the design of which is based on UA's famous 1176. An A/D section allows for ADAT and AES/EBU output of these four channels, as well as four additional fixed gain line inputs at all standard rates up to 192kHz.

Trial by fire

We received the review unit just before a recording session we were booked for outside my own studio, and being too lazy to pull any of our other preamps out of the rack, we decided to give the 4-710d a trial by fire hoping it would deliver on the day.

"The harmonic distortion possibilities make short work of adding bite and sustain."

The number of switches and the small font size made navigation a little tricky to start with in the slightly dingy room we were recording in, but after a few times wondering why lifting the gain of one channel seemed to have no effect (it was the output of the previous channel) we soon got comfy.

Simply put the 4-710d is a great front-end for recording and despite our initial navigational confusion it is also very easy to use.

The VU meters provide enough feedback about what's going on with the four preamp channels: input drive, output level and gain reduction. The status of all eight output channels at the point of A/D conversion is covered by eight two segment LEDs that let you know the difference between a healthy signal and a clipped one.

When you start tinkering with the exciting regions of harmonic distortion that this unit opens up the VU meters can get pegged pretty easily when monitoring input and output levels, at which point they are not only useless but also in danger of being damaged.

Luckily the gain reduction (GR) mode cannot act so violently so this mode can be used just to spare the coils as well as check how much action the compressor is involved in.

Preamps

The recording session we subjected the 4-710d to was focussed on creating oddball percussion/rhythm tracks. This involved many changes of mic and settings as layers were added.

Dynamic, condenser and ribbon mics were all used to capture loud and quiet sources both close up and from a distance, and no part of the frequency spectrum went unrepresented.

At every turn the 4-710d (oh for a more snappy name!) provided an excellent mix of clarity and transient accuracy without running out of gain or headroom.

Much of the time the difference between the solid-state (TRANS) and valve (TUBE) topologies was very subtle, but as we became more confident with the flexibility of the preamps began to explore the non-linear ranges (i.e. distortion) for a more coloured result, and it is here that the TRANS/TUBE blend knob comes up trumps.