How is heat from the Tube Drive in that rack? I’m interested in the mastering edition, but I am a bit put-off by the fact that there is no standby switch (unless it maybe powers-down the tubes during bypass?).
Yeah I was worried too, but doing some research on tube longevity it didn’t seem like too big of a deal. Although I kind of wish it did have an on/off switch I don’t think there are any 500 modules that do.
Anyway, after an hour or so it is about the same temperature as the karacter which is totally solid state. The 542s run a bit cooler and the germ 500 preamps are barely warm to the touch.
The mastering edition is totally worth it over the regular. I use the lowest gain setting a lot and the stepped pots are really nice. It also has trim pots on the PCB for matching the channels if necessary (this isn’t mentioned on the website, but you can see the blue pots in the website photo—these are not there with the standard edition).
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For the xpressor are also 2 versions available? Is there a huge difference to Ozone in your opinion?
Good to know. I have a Zähl EQ1 which is outstanding but runs pretty hot. Some solid-state gear really cooks!
I will probably end up with a Bereich03 Stereo Density before I get a Tubedrive (Mastering Edition), but both are super attractive for saturation duties. I have read that the Bereich03 is particularly magical with acoustic instruments.
@Sternenlicht In my opinion the Xpressor sounds considerably better than any software compressor (including the Ozone compressor). I personally bought the non-Neo version at a considerable discount. I am under the impression that there is no major difference (although a tiny part of me is still curious to compare them).
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Want to add Wes Audio Dione here. Nice vca bus compressor with thd if you want that. Mostly using it without thd and running that into a pair of neve 542 with blue silk. Mostly having the tape switched off as i think it interact with bass heavy music to much.
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Anyone here using a Cranborne R8/ADAT and using the inputs for mainly synths and drummachines? I would love to ask you a few questions. I’m having some issues integrating the 500 ADAT in my setups 
I have a new Bento 8 Chassis that I’m slowly going to build out for this exact task. Feeling like the best starting point is the Karacter. The demos I have heard of it, especially how it shapes kicks is crazy. Plus I can use it on a full mix with the mid/side options.
Also very interested in the new Pump module which is basically a 500 series distressor. It’s one of the few 500 compressors that really has grabbed my attention.
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Hey, I’m thinking of getting the Cranborne 500 ADAT
Hope you resolved your issues. I thought the whole point of it was relatively straightforward integration in a hybrid setup… would love to know what was going on and how & if you worked around it… It definitely seems like an investment…
Only thing about adat im not into is that you will be converting audio back and forth even when chaining modules. So personally saved a lot of money and went with a new bento unit and connected a patchbay to it. Have been loving this setup. Had it for around 6 months now.
Couldn’t you use a patchbay with it and set your adat send and returns in the daw appropriately? Say you wanted to use slots 1->3 just patch the out of 1 into the in of 3 and send to slot 1 in the daw and listen to slot 3?
For the 500ADAT, I don’t think that’s quite right.
From the manual we can see that the slot chain switch (to next) is before the AD conversion.
Right that’s the slot switch but I’m taking about patching modules that aren’t sitting next to each other.