Sonic Farm Pro Audio

The Fabulous PAR Creamer review finally out!

zoran — Sat, 19 May 2012 00:54:51 +0000

It was worth the wait! A leading industry magazine Pro Audio Review has published a 3 page Creamer Plus review in it’s May 2012 issue.
We can’t be any happier with the results of Russ Long’s test, and we are already seeing an increased interest in our products.
Thank you PAR and thank you Russ Long! We hope you’ll have a chance to review even more of our products in the future!
Please read the full review here. Turn to page 30.

Creamer pentode preamp: the new go-to for Jason and Jeff!

zoran — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:49:35 +0000

Jason Hou and Jeff Wang are talented young producers/engineers/studio owners that future holds so much for.
They have gone through a painstaking process of carefully selecting every component of their studio. And those of us who are or have run a studio at some point in our lives know it takes all you have and more, both energetically and financially.
But they could never get their vintage Neumann U87 to sound quite right. “It was always a battle to get it not to sound harsh”, Jason says, “no matter which preamp we tried. Even with high end units such as Rupert Neve Designs Portico and Focusrite ISA!”
I met Jason through my mastering work, and as soon as I learned they were running a studio, I suggested he called Boris and arranged for a Creamer test. Jason was curious about the mystery preamp, and a few days later, a Creamer Plus landed in their studio in Richmond. It didn’t take Jason and Jeff long to fall in love with Creamer’s sound.
“We immediately noticed the big, open, transparent, yet smooth character of the Creamer. It handled the U87′s top end effortlessly. Needless to say, we decided to keep it, even against our New Year’s resolution not to get any more equipment this year! Now it’s our go-to preamp for everything we record. Thank you, Sonic Farm!”
And thank you, Jason and Jeff of Liquid Tension Music…please remember us when you take your deserved place amongst the most sought after Canadian producers!

Please listen to “Trip” and “Love is more than a word” on our Audio Samples page.

Daniel Byrne squeezes even more out of Je-DI!

zoran — Tue, 01 May 2012 23:34:34 +0000

Daniel Byrne, one of the Fader Master Studio wizards, wanted something extra when he recorded the Pavi Electric Orchestra at the Blue Wave Studio.
Those drums just didn’t have enough balls…

Like Geoff Emerick back in the Beatles days, he was thinking out of the box. He grabbed a pair of headphones that were laying around and plugged them straight into Je-DI. Then he placed them inside the kick drum and listened back from the control room. Says Daniel: “Suddenly everything opened up! I got the kick drum larger than life, and it changed the whole feel.”

I guess limitation or its absence lies only in human mind ! Thanks, Daniel!

Which pentode tube preamp made Russ smile at Ocean Way?

zoran — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 06:54:08 +0000

Our Creamer pentode tube preamp already has a record of grand piano addiction: recently Ken Burke at Blue Wave, now Russ Long at Ocean Way. If Ocean Way is Nashville’s top studio, then Russ Long is a salty dog worthy of its waters. He knew they had a great sounding Yamaha C7 grand piano that only needed to be miked with the right combination of a microphone and a preamp.

The choice for microphones fell on his trusty Sony C800G pair; for the preamp, he chose the Creamer. He felt confident using it since it had never disappointed him during the last few months as he was putting it through various recording tests.

Says Russ: ”The C7 simply sounded amazing! I can’t remember ever having tracked a piano without needing an EQ! It just needed a bit of compression and then went straight to the converter!”
Russ added that the Pro Audio Review of the Creamer will probably be published at the end of April.
Great, we can hardly wait! Thank you, Russ!

Ken Burke, Fazioli Piano and Creamer Plus at the Blue Wave!

zoran — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:49:27 +0000

Platinum engineer Ken Burke chose a Creamer Plus to record the legendary Fazioli grand Piano at the Blue Wave Studio. Here’s what he told us:
“C+ and and Fazioli? What can I say? I have grown to love the Creamer and knew I had to use it to record a Fazioli piano on a Jazz session. After some quick tweaking to hear what sound I wanted from the Creamer the Fazioli sounded amazing. Likely the best signal chain I have heard. A good player, a good piano, two KM84s and the Creamer. How can you go wrong? The Creamer should cost twice as much as Sonic Farm is selling it for. In my opinion, it’s the best, most versatile preamp I have ever used. ”
The bass player was Doug Edwards and the piano player was Chris Gestrin. You can see Doug smile as he was auditioning some of the takes recorded directly through the Je-DI. If you look closely, you’ll see that Je-DI smiled back!
Thank you, Ken, we are honored!

Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo Takes Creamer and Je-DI on Tour!

zoran — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 06:30:14 +0000

Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo was delighted when he discovered what Je-DI did for his acoustic guitar live sound. Immediately, he took it with him on a Canada tour which culminated on February 14th in Toronto. The tour was a great success.

“It was a huge improvement over my go-to DI! It rivals my unplugged guitar sound! Both me and Richie [Steeb, FOH engineer] also loved the improvement of the overall PA sound with Creamer Plus inserted into the signal chain right after our Venue digital board. Thank you, Sonic Farm!”

“Thank you, Jim!”

After the tour, Jim took the “Plus” into his Toronto studio. Time for some serious sound damage!

Pictured below is Richie next to his FOH rig.

Howard Redekopp falls in love with the Creamer at The Warehouse

zoran — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:00:55 +0000

Young producer/engineer Howard Redekopp booked Vancouver’s top studio, The Warehouse, hoping to make full use of the arsenal of vintage microphone preamps they have in their racks. But somehow he met Boris before his project started. Upon hearing of Howard’s imminent studio session, Boris suggested he tried the Creamer Plus and Je-DI.

Taking a chance with an unknown preamp and a DI, Howard almost reluctantly took them to his first recording. When the Overheads sound at his drum tracking session was not happening, almost in resignation, Howard turned to Creamer Plus. Instantly, the clarity, transients and coloration he was after were all there.

“I couldn’t believe the sound I was getting! Needles to say, I went on using the Plus (and later Je-DI as well) on just about anything: mandolin, Martin acoustic guitar, bass!”

Continuing the project at his home studio, Howard took the Creamer with him to record vocals. He loved the sound. The tracks recorded with the Creamer made it to the final mix.

No doubt, vintage mic preamps sound great. But you never know what lurks inside a shiny woodpecker-colored box!

Pro Audio Review magazine testing Creamer in Nashville!

andrew — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 06:07:14 +0000

Nashville Studio producer and Grammy nominated engineer Russ Long was very interested to test the Creamer Plus at his Carport studio. Known for his dynamic work with rock, pop, gospel, rap, and film soundtrack projects (Dolly Parton, Neal McCoy and Sixpence None The Richer to name a few), we knew right away he’d make the Creamer sweat pretty hard on just about anything that makes a sound in a studio. It takes a few months to do an impartial test for a leading pro audio magazine like PAR.

We rushed him a C+ unit and let him do his magic undisturbed knowing he’s quite a busy guy. The first comment we heard back from Russ was from London:

“I’ve been having great results with the Creamer. I had a tracking session on Monday before leaving the country and I used it on overheads with a pair of AEA A440 mics and it sounded fantastic! Talk to you soon.”

We’ll keep you up to date and will definitely post the PAR review when it comes out. Yay!!

David Reitzas uses Creamer at Capitol studios

andrew — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 05:39:49 +0000

Famed L.A. engineer, producer and mixer David Reitzas (of Madonna, Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand fame) took a Creamer with him to Capitol studios in Hollywood recently to use it on a Japanese major artist recording session. David really loved how live strings sounded through the Creamer, yielding them a rich, silky sound . He sent us these photos after a busy session at Capitol.

Thanks for trusting Sonic Farm, David!

Creamer Tape Op Magazine test sneak peek

andrew — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:47:19 +0000

Kirt Shearer, a seasoned Sacramento based engineer/producer, and also a Tape Op magazine reviewer, stumbled upon our website following a Gearslutz blog.
He immediately contacted us and asked if we were interested in the Tape Op Mag test.
I, of course, agreed right away, and here are Kirt’s first impressions after using Creamer for a few weeks on different sources at his Paradise Studios:

“It’s really nice to see a company that is doing something different, rather than just producing another cookie cutter tube preamp. The “no-feedback” design gives this unit an openness on the top end that is really wonderful. It had much more detail than with other tube preamps I’ve used. Also, the switchable control you have over the circuit really gives you many sonic options.”

~Kirt Shearer
Kirt Shearer Productions
(916) 844-6641

Many thanks, Kirt! So, can we call the Creamer, “the AC30 of Mic Preamps”?
(for non guitar players: Vox AC30 owes its rawness to the lack of a feedback loop)

Here we can see Kirt in his control room with the Creamer resting on top of his vintage Trident 80B board: