dbx1 286s Microphone Preamp & Channel Strip Processor, Silver, 1U (DBX286SV)

I have a shure sm7db hooked into this, which then runs into a scarlet focusrite, and into my pc, and my gosh does it sound incredible.I get radio quality vocals without any post processing. My microphone is fairly decent, but this thing is doing a ton of heavy lifting.I followed the settings listed in another reviewers Amazon review, which I highly recommend, and haven't needed to tweak it since.The raw audio requires next to nothing done to it after the fact, I'm not an audiophile, but it sounds almost perfect to my ears.Using this on calls is phenomenal, it is super crispy, even over most websites trashy audio bitrate.Shure SM7s and their variations are good at blocking out background noise, but with this thing, it's unbelievable. My recording desk is in an unfinished room, with two large fish tanks directly behind it. I always have a dehumidifier running in the room, and usually a fan. My microphone doesnt pick up on a single sound, even in the background while I'm talking, its actually insane.I bought mine for $200, and even at that price I thought it was amazing. Ive seen it go as low as $150. If youre looking for a stellar processor that doesnt cost a grand, go with this thing.

I'm a big technology geek regardless of being able to fully use it or making use out of it. My setup is a Shure SM7B + Cloudlifter + Yamaha AG03 and I added this dbx286s between the Cloudlifter and Yamaha AG03.Prior to 286s, I would usually be on a call with my friends on discord and they would always have me on 200% because I guess just the original 3 setup wasn't receiving a loud enough signal from speaking voice... (FYI, my speaking voice is usually soft so it was either I eat my mic and talk, or I increase the input and gain to the point you would hear white noise and background chatter)My family watches TV pretty loud, laughs and what not so if I raised the input and gain, it would catch all those signals and boost all that as well, which wasn't really what I wanted. Which is why I chose the SM7B, boost my small signal with the Cloudlifter and use the SM7B comp/eq but that was baaarely enough signal for my friends to hear me. If I were to change the distance to my mic, they would not hear me, etc etc. So it was a good setup to shut out most of my family noises but there were it's downsides to this investment I made. Then I find this dbx 286s, which just seemed COOL.I did my research, put the dbx in part of my setup (FYI- MAKE SURE YOU DOUBLE CHECK WHAT CABLES YOU WILL NEED SPECIFIC TO YOUR SETUP) and I looked up a video on youtube on how to use the dials and setup for myself. After that, I didn't tell anybody I changed my setup but they noticed a clear difference in my voice, they said, "You get a new mic again??" (Hence "again" cause I went through a lot trying to shut out the family chatter)I definitely don't regret getting this investment and it makes me want to do a lot more with it like singing, streaming and more. If you're looking to:1. Boost signals2. Reduce the dynamics of your soft and loud signals real-time3. Add an extra noise gateJust get it. You'll still be satisfied with the extra other adjustments you can make as well.

Review as a user that only uses for voiceover recording. Does not apply to those that are using for instruments. My primary use is home office, videos, and web conference calls.I have no need to compress voiceover/narration/conference calls, etc.. I have no need for a de-esser. I have no need for a crappy 2 band EQ booster. None of that matters for recording speaking levels. However, I have found that using a bit of the LF boost helps to hide reverb caused by an acoustically untreated room. There is an output gain that I don't understand, it seems like it would be a make-up gain from another processor, but has no clear relation.All of those things aside, I like it because I couldn't find a prosumer noise gate to accompany my USB audio interface outside of this. Why the audio interface makers don't just add a noise gate is beyond me. It is not desired by people who plan to post produce their audio, but for live audio in a home office, it's a great feature.There are a lot of youtube videos on this thing. Most of them seem to be wrong or misguided advice.If you're recording speech for youtube or just web conferencing, turn the preamp gain to drive your mic to one green LED on the preamp in meter, then turn it down a few clicks. Turn your audio interface gain until you are averaging -15 to -12 db on a software meter (you can use a DAW, I just use OBS or Audacity). Turn everything but the noise gate off.For the noise gate, it could really shine if it had an attack and release adjustment. Every youtube guide I've found for setting it up is wrong in my opinion. It has two controls, labeled threshold and ratio. The hardcoded attack and release are not adjustable.Every video I've seen says to turn threshold at room noise level until it closes then turn 4 more clicks. Then set ratio to 2:1. This does not work for me. It leaves the door too far open and causes the attack and release (to slow and fast respectively in my opinion) to trip on each other. Threshold simply says what level of noise to open the gate. Ratio is how much the door is open when the gate is closed. Ratio knob all the way to the left equals door nearly completely open (i.e. gate is doing nothing when active). All the way to the right is door nearly completely closed when gate is active.First, with nothing but ambient noise (try to keep computer fans, etc. as far from your mic as possible), watch your DAW noise meter, start with the threshold and ratio completely to the left. With nothing but your normal ambient room noise, turn the threshold until the light goes red, don't turn any further. Now adjust your ratio until you see your DAW noise meter stay at zero, don't go any further. That's the best you'll get it with this.

Un channel strip a un precio inimaginable. Es verdad que por el presupuesto que tenia estuve buscando dias, semanas, meses un equipo de calidad que pudiera cumplir con mis requerimientos en el estudio de grabacion. No estuve mas feliz cuando llego y lo probé. Es una pasada como un simple equipo puede elevar tus grabaciones de audio, desde voces en off donde lo utilizo con microfonos dinamicos que necesitan mas potencia, hasta con microfonos condensadores que necesitan mayor personalidad en el sonido gracias al EQ y el compresor. Tiene una funcionde Gate increible que me sirve mucho cuando hago transmiciones en directo y grabo videos o podcast.