Warm Audio Tone Beast preamp

I know some here like analog hardware talk and I've had the above preamp in for review for the last couple of weeks.  I often recommend the Warm WA12 as a (realitively) affordable preamp.  The Tone Beast is the same - only more.  there are switchable op-amps via knob, or you can open 'er up and use your choice of standard 6-pin op-amps.  There is a button to switch in/out a couple of "vintage" sounding caps that are in the WA12.  There is a switch for steel or 1/2 nickel transfomers - or no transfomer at all.  And both input and output knobs.  We can get some nice saturation or plain out distortion from those.
 
I also know there was some discussion of SOS's preamp shoot-out, and I can say matching the signal to the settings in the Tone Beast shows the flaws in their testing.  You can get a vintage tone out of it, all the way to the more modern sound, with more space between the grains of your sound.  Pretty cool.
 
If you are looking for a new preamp that covers a lot of sonic territory, this one is pretty cool.  $600 ain't chicken feed, but only $150 more than the WA12 for all the new features.  If you are into tweaking the sound, it is a good choice.  I haven't had so much fun w/ anlaog knobs since the RND Portico II's Silk button and knobs, esp. on a rich source like electric guitar.
 
Anyway, just a head's up for anyone in the market.
 
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No, Reece, they are fixing to ship.  The one I have here is the one Mr. Warm was  tinkering with.  Feel free to come by to give it a work out. 

And happy birthday.  I doubt if I will make it to the shindig, but you never know.  I do love me barbeque.

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Yea, I hear you about time.  But it ain't going anywhere - I'm going to keep it.  So if you are ever in the neighborhood ... Too bad the DFW group already did a preamp shootout.

The "street" price is the $600 list, as far as I know.  Have the WA12s come down at all?

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JP at the Kitchen studio had a great time w/ it while playing guitar - or I did anyway while he played.  You can certainly get different sounds out of it on complex sources like electric guitar.

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Beagle, if I'm not using it you can borrow it for a weekend or something when you have time to put 'er through the paces.

Mike, glad to see you hanging around.  Yea, those that say that preamps make no difference ain't using the right sources.  I haven't had more fun than since we did the same thing w/ the RND Portico w/ the variable silk knob.  Tons 'o fun.

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Sven,

from my limited exposure to the GA preamp (Beagle had one at our shoot out), it follows the neve model w/ an input and output knob, so you can saturate a signal.  I wasn't impressed w/ the saturation so much.  The Tone Beast sounded better, all the way up thro distortion.  The guitarist I was testing w/ (who owns a pro studio here in Dallas) thought it might be an answer to a "crappy guitarist w/ crappy tone on a crappy amp."  He could add it w/ the Tone Beast, and the DI'ed acoustic we shredded did sound pretty electric.

Other than that, most of the setting changes were pretty subtle, tho note that I didn't have a different op-amp in this proto model I was testing.  It had the same op amp as in the WA12 , or an api 2520, which goes in the api 512.  Production models have a cleaner op amp as a choice, and Bryce (the Warm Audio guy) said it sounded a lot differnet.

So, first off it is a good preamp w/ mic and DI on front, as well as a mic and line input on the back.  Handy, esp. for the home studio.  But, on the right signals, you can get all kinds of different textures out of the signal.  Again subtle, but I could hear it at home as well as in a tuned studio. 

It is worth the extra $150 (compared to the WA12) if you like to spend time on that last few percent of sound.  When we first used it we did voice on a 421 from the drum room.  There was no dicernable difference on any setting.  After we turned up the in/out knobs and switched to gutiars, the settings became audible.  It takes a temperment, ear and monitoring system as well as time to take advantage of all the settings.  I can't see using a Tone Beast on every drum mic, unless I was getting paid by the hour.  But lead guitar, rough up some synths and tweak a loud vocals (on a proper mic), yea, it should be worth the time.  I've only had it a couple of weeks, but enough to know it is useful.

I work almost the opposite way, Jeff.  I've never found digital substitions to float my boat and prefer analog thickening.  Even amp sims, which are very good, I find aren't as smooth as mic'ed amps - perhaps because I'm not a guitarist - but aren't as controlled as real amps with volume changes.  Different strokes for different folks, as you say.

The point of the Tone Beast is to have thickening or thining.  It is basically an API 312 sytle preamp but you can drop out the output transformer so it more closely follows Focusrite designs still used in the ISA range and others.  You can remove the tantalum capacitors used in Mr. Neve's older designs.  You can switch the op-amp to a cleaner one or keep the api one.  And by keeping the in/outs balanced you don't have to drive the entire system.

Maybe they should have called it a Flexi Beast, but Tone Beast seems better marketing.
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