Thursday, December 16, 2010

One Link to the Chain : UA 710 Twin-Finity


I was getting very frustrated this last couple of years with my Joemeek ThreeQ preamp and finally got to upgrade this crucial part of the audio chain.

Here comes the fantastic 710 Twin-Finity from Universal Audio.

When it comes to preamps, you can either get a solid-state or a tube unit.

Solid-state delivers a clean, crisp, accurate sound. Tube provides a warmer, fuzzier sound, with a "musical" distorsion (if you push it) 

The 710 is both a solid-state and a tube preamp : the two circuits are running simultaneously, so that the signal is continually variable between 100% tube and 100% solid-state.

It ain't no gimmick, I tells you.

On vocals, you might want to use pretty much the tube circuit alone, but on guitars, a 12 o'clock gives you solid-state clarity with a hint of tube warmth.

The flexibility is even more spectacular on synths. Plugging the Moog and toying around with the amount of gain and solide-state/tube mix produced a great variety of tones from a single source, all very musical.

All in all, I'd say the 710 is a great, versatile preamp.

It's great on vocals but also serves as an excellent guitar/bass DI. I'm playing acoustic gigs these days, and I'm not using any guitar amp. The electro-acoustic guitar is plugged directly to the 710, which is plugged to the soundboard. Nice, warm, open sound, actually better than with my old old Fender amp.

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