Add tube colour on the way into your computer.
A dry home recording can leave a vocal or guitar sounding bare. The MIC500USB passes your mic or guitar through a vacuum tube preamplifier before it reaches your computer.
Choose the character
The PREAMP MODE switch offers 16 presets, from WARM over LIMITER to NEUTRAL. GAIN runs from +26 to +60 dB. A 20 dB PAD lowers input sensitivity. LOW CUT removes subsonic noise such as floor rumble. PHASE REVERSE helps when phase cancellations appear in a multi-mic setup.
Mic, guitar or line
A balanced XLR input takes your microphone, with +48 V phantom power for condensers. A guitar goes into the Hi-Z input instead. It is wired parallel to the XLR, so use one at a time. The 2/R LINE IN goes straight to the converter, untouched by the tube section.
Record, listen, send
Over USB, the tube channel and the line input reach your computer as two channels, at 16-bit/48 kHz. The device is class-compliant, so no drivers are required. DIRECT MONITOR mixes both inputs with computer playback in your headphones. The balanced ¼" DIRECT OUTPUT sends the tube signal to a mixer, recording system or power amp.
