Boris met FOH engineer Ken Freeman in Vancouver. He suggested him to try our Creamliner 3 at one of his shows. Ken was open, and as a result he took the unit to the Toto European tour. Here is what he found out:
I was lucky enough to use a Creamliner III for my last European TOTO tour.
I’ve been using a master bus inserts for years. I’m an old studio head that loves a little saturation and a tube compressor at FOH, just to fatten things up and give life to a digital mix. I’ve tried both software plugins and analog processing over the years, but finally settled on an analog chain.
I met Boris in Canada, who was kind enough to let me try a Creamliner III at a soundcheck. I was really impressed, so I used it for the show. It brought an amazing amount of glue and clarity to the mix. It sounded huge!! SOLD!
I took one out in June and installed it in my rig across the master bus, along with a Manley VariMu.
It behaved flawlessly, even it the harsh outdoor touring conditions throughout Italy and Spain.
After experimenting, I settled on these settings…
– Fat 1 and Air 2. Filters set at about 9 o’clock (BTW, I loved the air filter and used it to help compensate for the humidity and temperature changes from sound check to showtime. The Fat shelf adds serious balls!)
– Input – Triode tube mode.
-Output – transformer mode.
*I also ended up backing the input gain one notch from twelve o’clock to compensate for the boost added by the filters.
– The Manley was set fairly quickly and only about a half to 1 db gain reduction. No additional saturation by driving the input.
I plan on trying it in the studio next, can’t wait to add it to my album mixes!
I’ve been spreading the news to every engineer I can get to listen. First letting them listen with it bypassed and then inserting it. It’s a blast watching their faces light up. Everyone has been blown away by the warmth, clarity and punch it adds!
If you ever get the chance, you have to try this unit!
Thank you, Ken!