ART USB Dual Tube Pre Reviews

3.8/5.0 based on 3 customer reviews

Sweetwater Advice

Scott Augustyniak

The ART UBS Dual Tube Pre is a great interface for voiceover work or podcasting. Nothing beats a nice tube front end for some vocals.

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Customer Reviews

from Houston, Tx.
December 13, 2011Music Background:
Engr.(Live & Recording)

Great Value

This product works great with my bass guitar

Prize Beatz
from Atlanta, GA
May 6, 2011Music Background:
Beat maker, audio enthusiast

Acceptable for those on a budget

This is a decent piece of equipment for what it's worth. When I first plugged it in there was this terrible hum. It seems like after the tubes warmed up the feedback died down quite a lot. I'm glad it did because it was terrible.
I am using this to run my outputs from my DAC just to warm up my station. I find all digital systems is fatiguing. Over the years it can really put a number on your ears. Don't get me wrong, digital is highly accurate but perhaps its a little too much so for my taste, at least in the long run. Running my outputs through this takes away a little bit of the edge and provides a nice warmness especially for the likes of hip hop or other music with a good general low end. The Art USB Dual Tube Pre really thickens up kick drums and bass sounds. What I really like is that you can listen at a low volume and feel the weight and presence of the low end. In that respect, this is a winner.
If you plan to use this as a primary interface then you will more than likely be disappointed unless you are used to a lot hiss especially using the 1/4 inch input. The XLR input does a little bit of a better job but the hiss is still noticeable. I have not tried using this as a preamp with any microphones.
I find the Audacity software that it comes with as quite useless. There is no support for midi or VST instruments so midi controllers do not function with it. You could possibly work around this by using a different software. I find the compressor decent and the phase reverse useable.
Overall, this product serves its intended purpose for my application.

LWPost
from Maine
March 14, 2012

Good... a little wonky?

It has a power button in the back, but even when the power is off, some of the lights on the front light up, and some audio 'bleeds' through. It's not actual bleed because it's digital, so I'm not sure exactly what's happening there.

The compression seems decent. Certainly not as good as a standalone compression unit, but for our purposes it works.

The unit itself is great. Its metal casing is rugged and conveniently shaped to sit under our iMac.