Your Indispensable, Do-it-all Preamp/DI/EQ
If owning one device that can take any signal — mic, line, or instrument — and optimize it to realize its full sonic potential sounds good to you, Sweetwater would like to direct your attention to the Hazelrigg Industries VLC. The VLC is a mic/line/DI tube preamp/equalizer with a front-panel combo input that duplicates the rear-panel microphone XLR and incorporates a 1/4-inch phone jack for direct injection of electric bass or guitar, electronic keyboards, and acoustic instruments with pickups. The onboard 2-band equalizer is an LC (inductor/capacitor) circuit that offers passive EQ in the tradition of the classic passive equalizer. The VLC’s all-tube signal path and transformer-balanced I/O pump up iron-poor signals with glorious vintage-flavored euphonics to deliver splendid results on any source, while the onboard EQ lets you quickly contour it to perfection. Gear-savvy musicians and studio owners are raving about the Hazelrigg Industries VLC. Give it a serious audition, and you will be too.
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The case for a high-end preamp
Your preamps are the lifeblood of your studio and — along with the denizens of your mic locker — the essence of its sound. A favorable-sounding live room is a plus, but we don’t all have the luxury of choice in that matter, especially if we’re recording while on the road. As the first component in your signal chain, the preamp is a make-or-break proposition. Skimp on quality here, and no amount of processing downstream can resuscitate the compromised signal. Conversely, record with the best preamps you can afford, and you’ll be delighted to find that — populated with vibrant, full-bodied instruments and vocals — your mixes will come together effortlessly, coalescing into radio-ready product that blasts right out of the speakers. World-class studios have long known the true value of great-sounding preamps, but studios of all sizes can leverage that same advantage with the Hazelrigg Industries VLC.
Amazing results from any source
With its crystalline transparency and prodigious headroom, the Hazelrigg Industries VLC delivers amazing results on any microphone. When even your inexpensive dynamics take on new sonic authority and dimension through the VLC, you’ll start to see the contents of your mic locker in a whole new light. The fact that it can handle and finesse all of your sources — be they dynamic, condenser, or ribbon mics; instruments; or line-level signals — makes the VLC invaluable for today’s hybrid studio workflows. Add in its intuitive, highly effective EQ, and you have a formidable channel strip — an indispensable do-it-all Swiss Army knife you don’t want to be without!
Incredibly useful for a broad range of applications
The VLC is incredibly useful for a wide variety of studio and remote applications and its elegantly simple and purposeful control layout gives you immediate access to everything you need. On the left side of its stout front-panel metalwork, you’ll find a combo XLR/phone jack input and a beefy gain knob. A chunky rotary switch selects between mic, instrument (DI), and the rear-panel balanced line-level input that resides alongside a redundant XLR microphone input. The all-tube DI signal path works its magic on electric bass, guitars, keyboards, synth modules, and acoustic instruments with pickups, while the line-level input lets you wire the VLC as an insert in your DAW or mixer to “re-preamp” tracks during tracking or mixdown. It’s a powerful secret weapon many engineers use to revitalize and pump new life into lackluster tracks. Punch up a stereo mix through a pair of VLCs, and you’ll never look back.
Quick, intuitive tune-by-ear EQ section
At first glance, the VLC EQ section’s Low and High bands, each featuring a Boost and Cut knob, bear more than a passing resemblance to the classic passive equalizer. But while very similar in concept, the VLC’s 2-band EQ section offers more flexibility in the low band than the old-school units in that it gives you a 2-way frequency selector switch for each knob that selects between lower and higher bands for its corresponding knob. The Low Cut control introduces a gentle roll-off shelf that’s ideal for contouring your bass frequencies while removing rumble and low-end mud. Similarly, the High Cut offers a gentle contour that’s adept at taming strident program material and minimizing converter aliasing issues. Together with the broad, flattering curves of the Low Boost and High Boost controls, the VLC’s LC equalizer provides highly musical sound shaping that lets you quickly and intuitively tune program material by ear. A handy toggle switch makes for easy EQ in/out comparisons. Veteran recording engineers know that the forgiving, broad-brushstroke curves of venerable EQ circuits such as the vaunted passive equalizer units are a valuable complement to the surgical sculptability on tap in many modern EQs. Both deserve a place in any well-equipped studio rack.
Hazelrigg Industries: sonic authority, handcrafted in the USA
Back in the Golden Age of Analog, pro audio equipment was meticulously assembled by hand using military-grade components — factors to which the timelessly superior sound and performance of coveted vintage gear are often attributed. Handcrafted in Bucks County, Penn., with premium parts, an all-tube signal path, transformer-coupled I/O, and a custom-wound inductor in the EQ circuit, the Hazelrigg Industries VLC is built this way. Its amplifier and power supply are designed by renowned electronics guru D.W. Fearn, whose VT-1 set the bar for modern tube preamp performance upon its launch in 1993. With its crystalline transparency and prodigious headroom, the VLC delivers sumptuous results on any microphone. Factor in its ability to impart its sonic charms to line-level signals and DI sources — and let you tune it all by ear — and the Hazelrigg Industries VLC becomes a must-have piece of kit that deserves a place of honor in your studio or remote rack.
Hazelrigg Industries VLC MkII Features:
- Tube microphone preamp
- Tube DI (Direct Injection) interface
- Passive 2-band, 4-way LC equalizer
- Line-level processor for tone contouring
- Amplifier and power supply designed by D.W. Fearn
- All-tube signal path
- Transformer-coupled input and output
- Custom-wound inductor
- Dedicated balanced line input on rear panel (selectable from front panel)
- Rear-panel microphone input
- Front-panel mic/instrument input (redundant microphone input on rear panel)
- Locking 48V phantom power safety switch
- 20dB pad
- Polarity Reverse
- EQ in-out switch
- 7-year warranty (90 days for vacuum tubes)
- Handcrafted in the USA
