SPL Gainstation 1 AD 4-stars Reviews

Essential for the home studio

I bought this for my home studio where I regularly record vocals and acoustic guitar using a selection of high-quality condenser microphones. I'm aware that many people, myself included, often use the A/D converters built into a computer audio interface. However it can make a lot more sense to spend your money on a really good recording channel, especially if you tend to record just one instrument at a time. In recent years I've used an RME Fireface USB interface and a UAD Apollo Twin USB - both of which are highly regarded for their converters. The SPL Gainstation gives audibly better results than these and has extra features such as tube vs. clean gain and built-in limiter. Its digital output simply connects to the digital input for the computer interface - this is easy to set up and effectively bypasses any other A/D conversion. A nice surprise was when I also tried the Gainstation to DI a bass guitar - this yielded a tasteful range of sounds by controlled by balancing the clean against the tube gain stage. All in all I'd highly recommend this for a home or project studio. It's a robust unit and likely to continue to be useful much longer than computer-based audio gadgets.