![]() ![]() At lowish Drive settings, it is able to capture something of the essence of a tube microphone, although if you advance the Drive control too far then the distortion becomes obvious and, to my ears, quite unpleasant. In tests with typical project studio capacitor mics, the Blue Tube proved itself to be a very capable and sweet‑sounding mic preamp. The meters soon let you know if you stray into forbidden gain territory. ![]() Gain and Drive work in conjunction, so, to prevent overloading the unit, it is sometimes necessary to reduce the gain settings when using high drive levels, and vice versa. At lower settings, the expected tube 'warmth' is in evidence, while at higher settings, the added distortion is quite noticeable. ![]() So far, I've described a pretty conventional preamp, but the addition of a Drive control (up to 30dB gain) in each channel adds to the flexibility by providing the opportunity to drive the valve stage harder, when necessary, for adding controlled distortion to the sound. Even so, the subjective performance gave no reason for concern. Similarly, the output impedance is quoted, but not the frequency response. The spec sheet is rather sketchy, as it quotes a very respectable noise floor of ‑94dBu, but doesn't say whether that is weighted or not, or for that matter what the maximum output level is. The outputs are on both balanced XLRs and unbalanced jacks. A further two buttons per channel engage phase reverse and a 20dB pad, while a further, centrally mounted button delivers 48V phantom powering to both mic inputs. Gain is set conventionally using rotary controls with 40dB of gain‑range adjustment. The dual‑servo gain stage dispenses with capacitors to deliver a good signal‑to‑noise performance at all settings of the gain control, and a pair of eight‑section meters monitor the output level. On the front panel are two Neutrik combi jack/XLR connectors that are used to connect both balanced microphones and unbalanced, high‑impedance instruments such as guitars and basses - the Instrument input impedance is specified at 1MΩ. The 'Tube' part of the title relates to the 12AX7 valve used to 'flavour' the audio and, given that the unit runs from an 18V AC power adaptor, I suspect the tube runs at a reduced plate voltage compared with traditional tube circuitry. A full‑width rack adaptor, able to hold two units is available. The Blue Tube preamp accepts both mic and instrument inputs, and lets you add as much tube warmth as you like using real valve circuitry.Ĭonceptually, the PreSonus BlueTube is a very simple device, providing two channels of mic/instrument preamplification in a half‑width, 1U rack case. ![]()
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