Warm Audio WA76 Reviews

Great compressor

I use this on recording vocals , acoustic guitars and bass every day. It sounds great . 100% better than plugins

The ‘76

Early use only… urgent and present. I sold my UA76 years ago when I up and moved from Euroe to Los Angeles (major error) and rather than spent a fortune I took a chance on a cheaper version. Scoring one less than 5 across the board is because the Warm copies of all the classics can not be judged equal to the originals. I wasn’t disappointed with my UA stuff or Api racks over the years apart from how expensive they were. However the Warm gear is a welcome substitute without losing much at all sonically.

love it

solid knobs, fat and controlled sound. gives a certain warmth and saturation to my signal. a huge upgrade from using software plugins. highly recommended. i mainly using for kick and snare, as well as vocals and pair two of them to crush some room/overhead drum mics to get some extra character

WOW!

I bought this unit in combination with the WA73 preamp and no matter what source i put trough it it sounds great.

You can use it subtlety and level the peaks of say a vocal or utterly destroy a source and smash it, for example a drum crush mic, and everything in between.

I have tried a lot of plugin versions of this compressor but non of them sound as good as the real thing, the plugin versions always seem to take away some of the top hi frequencies, this unit does not.

I especially like it on vocals because it is really fast and nicely takes away the peaks on my wildly dynamic vocal .

Oh and it looks awesome :-)

It does the job

I've found vocals can start sounding a little thin through it but on most instrumental sources it does a decent job.

The WA76 sounds very "warm" and full when used on anything, really. The only downside is it comes with a little bit of noise.. otherwise, great unit for the price! Can't go wrong having one in your studio.

Decent 1176 for those on a budget.

Not the 'best' 1176 but does have a lot of the character and sonic capability of much more expensive gear. With careful tweaking the source comes alive. Great on electric bass, drum percussion, and vocal.

My unit has been totally reliable for several years; good purchase.

Great product

Love the WA76, paired it with WA73-EQ and it sounds amazing!

There is no downside to this comp,

Definitely would recommend..

Never again

Never buying stuff from warm audio again. Every time i buy something it has some pot wrong or smthing. Prefer Klark teknik any day of the week.

WA76 - A comp that doesn't ruin your marriage

This is more than just a good looking unit, that features the vintage styling of the original 1176 but also is a very affordable copy of that unit that is versatile, easy to use, and able to give great compression on bass, vocals, guitar and according to many reviews drums. According to a lot of reviews and comparisons, the WA76 does sound similar to the 1176. This I cant confirm however, never having owned the original.

I have read a lot of complaints about noise issues, which I think depends more on what is being fed into the WA76 however, my only issue with the unit is the GR dial and Output dial that in real life, look and feel not as high quality as the images may suggest. When adjusting these dials there is also a static noise, however it hasn't hindered anything, and according to forums, a lot of people had the same experience.

So in all, good unit for the price, I guess those who have the cash to splash would probably be better off getting higher quality gear, but I think to be honest as a beginner (Like me) or someone who wants a 1176 without wanting to jeopardize their marriage and mortgage, I think this is a good compromise.

Sounds amazing, better than most recent UAs

My experience wasn't the best at first because of 2 things:

1) There was a loud noise turning the input/output knobs. Not the usual "analog" whisper but very loud. Contacted the manufacturer directly (Chris) and he recon some units have had this issue, and if I was willing to receive and assemble a new board - no transformers tho :) - free of charge. I said yes.

2) At least 2 screws on the unit were stuck and had to be grinded off to access the interior, making the repair even worst.

OTHER THAN THAT! lol, unit sounds great. Love the sweet spot you can achieve on many things. Use it mainly on Kicks, Bass, Vocals. Love it and even after all the hassle still recommend it 100%.

Amazing piece of analog gear

After thinking for a while about getting an analog 1176 compressor, I finally decided to try this product and it did not disappoint me. The quality is great and the unit gives the source material a great edgy and 'warm' sound that I immediately miss if I bypass the unit. Great for tracking or mixing alike, I tend to use it on kicks, snares, bass and vocals - great for adding pleasant analog saturation and compressing the signal for more punch and clarity. Certainly worth the price. I recommend using the 'send' function within your DAW to control the precise amount of signal going into the unit, because by merely using the input knob it might be difficult to get the nitty gritty details right as the knob operates in stepped amounts - just a slight piece of advice ;)

1176 at a fraction of the cost

Had two units for almost a year now and i am very happy with it!

There are some cheap parts on it, like the meter needed to be calibrated a couple of times, some pots are a bit noisy, ... but all that doesn't really affect the sound.

I compered it against my waves CLA plugins and it is night and day! More alive, more 3d,... all i can say is try it and you won't be disappointed ;)

Too noisy

I'm really torn about this product.

I actually love the basic sound of the WA76. It sounds pretty close to a nice vintage 1176. It certainly has a lot more versatile sound than the extremely bright Purple MC77. And it could definitely have been in the same league as the UA "reissue", if not for one huge problem: NOISE! The WA76 is just too noisy for any serious use in my opinion. A shame really, as it could have been an amazing product.

Classic compression at a great price!

I'm a huge fan of the 1176, and have used them many times, however have never been able to afford one of my own. I was very excited when I bought my first WA76, and I loved it so much that I bought another one almost immediately!

Warm Audio's WA76 is an amazing recreation of the revision D model of the original 1176 - and in my experience it sounds just as good the original!

The build quality of the units is great. They are placed in a tough housing and all the knobs and buttons have a satisfying weight to them.

All the features of the original units are there too - the VU, all buttons in mode, and the back to front attack / release!

Warm Audio's WA76 is 100% worth checking out if you're in the market for some classic compression!

its ok

good price quality ratio.

love the distortion on synths when you push it hard.

but...its cheap and you feel it.

Do not go on the hype that they make high quality

compressor with cheaper prices.

that does not exist.

Had the same experience with their pultec eq.

forget about stereo purposes if they do not come linked/matched from factory.

I had a pair and they behave very different.

Customer service from warm audio is a big disappointment.

They are very silly with silly ideas to solve you problem like;

"sell the one that have the problem and get a new one"

Really? i could not get there without your help.

So for me no more warm audio. You get what you pay for.

Anyway, got an Api 2500 and a Gyraf vari mu.

Problem solved.

Stay away unless you only want an ok colouring box.

wa76 review

the unit sounds good but it doesnt seem to be built very well. calibration very sensitive to temperature changes.pots noisy,seems a cheapy but it does sound good.