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Electronic Musician, June 2001
PreSonus VXP
By Myles Boisen
In the race to capture a share of your gear budget, many manufacturers have recently
rolled out flashy, high-powered, channel-strip-style processors oriented toward vocal
recording. The most stripped-down hybrid voice processors offer a single microphone
preamp, a compressor, and an equalizer; as you move up the scale, the units typically
provide better components and more features.
Among budget voice processors that cost less than $1,000, what you typically pay for
is a single, proven feature - for example, a good preamp or an acclaimed compressor
- with a mixed bag of mediocre extras thrown in. The single-channel PreSonus VXP
breaks the budget mold by offering a bountiful selection of high-quality, genuinely
useful processing stages, starting with a mic preamp that gives the top contenders a
run for their money.
STRING OF TOOLS
With its thick cool blue aluminum front panel and brushed aluminum knobs, the VXP
matches the look of the company's MP20 stereo mic preamp. The front panel is
divided into six segments according to function and has a big glowing "red eye" push-
button power switch on the far right.
From left, first up is the mic preamp section, which provides a continuously variable
gain knob with 0 to 60 dB of gain marked in 10 dB steps. Next is the proprietary
IDSS control, which ranges from 0 to 100 percent. According to PreSonus, the IDSS
control allows for manual adjustment of the drain current on the input FET amplifier,
thus increasing even harmonic distortion as IDSS processing is added. That unusual
circuit modification is not intended to produce overload distortion associated with
guitar amps and fuzz boxes but rather to emulate the thickening effect of even-order
harmonic boosting in vacuum tubes.
Just above the gain and IDSS controls is a green eight-segment LED that indicates
preamp gain levels at -28, -14, -9, -3, 0, +3, +9, and +18 dB, with a red LED
assigned to the +18 dB value. There is no polarity-reverse switch, but 48V phantom
PreSonus Audio Electronics | 7257 Florida Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70806
T 225.216.7887 F 225.926.8347 |
www.presonus.com
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Summary of Contents for PRESONUS VXP
- Page 1 - for example, a good preamp or an acclaimed compressor - with a mixed bag of mediocre extras thrown in. The single-channel PreSonus VXP breaks the budget mold by offering a bountiful selection of high-quality, genuinely useful processing stages, starting with a mic preamp that gives the top contenders a run for their money.
- Page 2 VXP's compressor provides only 16 presets: 5 Light, 5 Medium, and 6 Heavy. The presets are maximized for vocal applications, but according to PreSonus, they are useful in other applications as well. The manual doesn't disclose the individual presets' exact parameters, but it does give ratio ranges for the three groupings - Light 1.1:1 to 1.5:1, Medium 1.6:1 to 2:1, and Heavy 2.5:1...
- Page 3 Inputs (1) balanced XLR (mic); (2) balanced/unbalanced 1/4" TRS (send and receive) Outputs (1) balanced XLR; (1) balanced/unbalanced 1/4" TRS Power Supply internal Dimensions 1U 5 7" (D) Weight 8 lbs. PreSonus Audio Electronics | 7257 Florida Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70806 T 225.216.7887 F 225.926.8347 | www.presonus.com...
- Page 4 PC boards, and a Crystal Semiconductor 5396 converter chip are mounted on a 1_-by-4_-inch panel that attaches to the VXP chassis with two Phillips screws. The PreSonus Audio Electronics | 7257 Florida Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70806 T 225.216.7887 F 225.926.8347 |...
- Page 5 On the compressor, even with perfect visual alignment of the input and output knob settings at zero, engaging PreSonus Audio Electronics | 7257 Florida Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70806 T 225.216.7887 F 225.926.8347 |...
- Page 6 FULL STEAM AHEAD The VXP's 4-band equalizer - a first on any PreSonus product - is also quite effective and remarkably lavish, especially considering the unit's price. Although there was no special magic in the high-shelf range, the low-shelving control let me make beefy bass boosts without adding unwanted flab to a mix.
- Page 7 PreSonus explained that the latest revision of its A/D converter card was adjusted to conform to the standard reference level of 0 dB equals -18 dBFS. PreSonus sent me an upgraded VXPD2496, and it performed as promised. But with either VXPD2496 version, the unit's +24 dB of headroom is sufficient to drive analog or digital inputs to maximum levels, regardless of the converter or reference level used.
- Page 8 HEADS UP The PreSonus VXP is a powerful, high-quality voice processor with loads of features yet a surprisingly modest price tag. It provides a Class A mic preamp, an IDSS circuit said to emulate tube distortion, a smart compressor with 16 presets, an expander, a de-esser, a 4-band semiparametric equalizer, and a peak limiter.
- Page 9 This article was originally published in the June 2001 issue of Electronic Musician magazine, a product of Primedia Business Magazines and Media, and is reprinted with the permission of its publisher. All rights reserved. PreSonus Audio Electronics | 7257 Florida Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70806 T 225.216.7887 F 225.926.8347 | www.presonus.com...