Waves CLA 1176 vs Real 1176 Clones (Shoot-ouuuutt!!!)

[digitaldeath]

When ordering from Hairball, you can pick the rev pcb you want, they pass that part of the order to Nmats and he ships the pcb seperately from the rest of the kit. Comes to about €300 plus €70 for the components, so roughly €400 for a 1176 - that's not a bad price at all!
I'm also looking into an LA-2A clone from Drip Electronics. That will be a later build but defo on the wish list.
Did any form of instructions come with Nmats' pcb or do you really need to know this stuff like the back of your hand? Once constructed, how difficult was it to adjust/configure to compress incoming audio properly?
I figure if I can make it through the 1176 build with help, I should do alright with the LA-2A build and might even move onto doing a few other things; preamps, EQs, tubescreamers, reamp box, MIDI controllers etc.

 

[Jaymz]

Honestly I don't agree with that at all!

Well considering CLA banged on about how they made these from all his TOP 1176's/LA's and turned them into top dollar plugins....they should blow away most competition but ive heard the term "lifeless" used too many times with these. They cost £500+ for the bundle and you can get a 1176 clone for that price if you look around.

So the price to quality ratio is actually really quite average.

 

[Ermz]

Unfortunately the guy that made this unit didn't put the 'all buttons mode' on it. It can be retrofitted easily enough, and I may get him to do it in the future, but for the moment I'm happy with it as is.

@digitaldeath: The guy had a fairly hard time making these. Apparently your grounding has to be spot on otherwise you'll get noise and hum everywhere. Instructions are bare bones. The PCB is marked, but aside from that, that's all you really get. For a while he only had them working as line amps. They wouldn't compress at all. There was a fair bit of debugging to be done.

@The_Shred: I think the plug-ins do a fair job, considering what they are. I'm not sure where you're getting that price from, but I certainly didn't pay anywhere near that, and I didn't even get them when Waves had that December special. They're a few hundred dollars at most, and have shown here that they can hold their own against the real units admirably. Honestly I'm super happy with the CLA pack, even in light of getting the real units. I will use both together happily.

 

[Jaymz]

I'm not sure where you're getting that price from, but I certainly didnt pay anywhere near that

http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product.asp?id=12319

http://www.dv247.com/computer-music...s-lord-alge-classic-compressors-native--66580

http://www.mveducation.com/invt/66580/

Looks like we get raped more than I thought, a few hundred dollars would be acceptable but as you can see here...its a fair bit more than that in the UK.

 

[Ermz]

www.plugindiscounts.com

Send Tony my greetings, and enjoy the price.

 

[digitaldeath]

Ermz: Cheers for the info. The bare-bones instructions worries me a bit but I'm sure my helping hand will be able to figure it out. Do check out the LA-2A clone on www.DripElectronics.com - seems expensive but the pcb and instructions are supposed to be top-notch!
Looking into Pultech EQs? API preamps seem so cheap these days, I dunno what kinda savings you'd get going DIY but I wouldn't say no to some Neve preamps!

The_Shred: You're forgetting that these aren't stereo clones, so the plugins will always have a place unless you're willing to splash out on a stereo clone!
Used in conjunction as Ermz said, I think it'd be perfect.

 

[Jaymz]

The_Shred: You're forgetting that these aren't stereo clones, so the plugins will always have a place unless you're willing to splash out on a stereo clone!
Used in conjunction as Ermz said, I think it'd be perfect.

Yeah they will have their place but im just not feeling the amount of hype they were originally given esp with the pricetag from the retailers.