Useful Arts Hornet Preamp Arrived Wired Out of Phase and Why an Out of Phase Signal Sounds Wrong

[@jdsdrums82]

It’s really unfortunate that it showed up with issues, and I’m guessing there may be something else wrong with that unit, because the Hornet is a fantastic sounding pre. This is actually the first time I’ve ever heard anyone have anything negative to say about it. I own two and absolutely love them.

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

Yeah, it was a bummer. I had hoped it would be cool.

[@TheRecordist]

Oh yeah. You can hear that phase issue right away. Sounds terrible. I hope the Hornet is supposed to sound better than that when not wired out of phase, because damn. But holy shlart, that Clarion! Also, what a great explanation of phase and noise! Well done!

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

Yeah, I’d like to think a properly working Hornet would sound much better, but the fact Useful Arts didn’t catch it in QC before allowing it to be sold, turns me off from wanting to know. But yeah, the Clarion. Woof.

[@YTHalilo]

This mic just sounds so damn good!

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

It truly does. It's a shame the Hornet preamp couldn't pull it's own weight here.

[@davidanderson3425]

At least your Hornet wasn't making a buzzing sound! 🤣

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

🤣🤣 But I still feel stung by the experience.

[@davidanderson3425]

Ha ha, very good 😊

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

@@davidanderson3425 David, I'm glad you are a true bee-liever and didn't just accept the buzz going around.

[@scottphillipsvo]

I went all through this tone chasing through external preamps but the conclusion I came to is to just buy the interface with the cleanest preamps and conversion that I can afford. I became obsessed with the sound of my voice through different plugins and hardware and it was difficult to just accept that I'm the only one who wanted to hear me that way 😂. I'm still hooked on gear videos but I have to hold myself back so that I don't blow my money on something that simply won't earn me any extra cash in return. I ditched all the fancy plugins and run everything through Izotope Nectar with only slight settings. I know, I've become boring.

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

So much of this tone chasing is folly. And it always just comes down to finding what makes you money. I agree that finding the simplest path is the best solution and ultimately no client cares as long as you deliver the goods. But I’m a believer that there is no part in any process that shouldn’t be managed and evaluated for improvement. That, and I’m addicted to chasing the tone dragon. 😂

[@scottphillipsvo]

@@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff I love the tone dragon but he was totally screwing me. I'd record a session and weeks later a client would ask me to revise lines and I could never remember what mic I used, preamp, dsp etc. I tweak daily.

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

@@scottphillipsvo I hear ya. I hate that. I had a client ping me this week to do a pickup on a job I recorded 11 months ago and I had to really finesse the EQ to get it close and it took me an hour to do a 10 minute job. I'm starting to think that it's time to invest in a good parametric EQ that does tone matching for just this kind of stuff.

[@Hectagonist]

While I think there’s truth in “absolute phase” I honestly couldn’t hear much of a difference even with headphones, the pre just sounds mehhh The effect you’re probably talking about is something only you could hear during recording. With the pre out of phase, your mic’ed voice arriving at your headphones will be out of phase with the sound of your natural voice and basically create a boxy, noise cancelling effect So all your points stand but it should be noted the out of phase effect is significantly more dramatic when you’re the one speaking into the microphone and getting an out of phase monitor mix

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

I can hear it in playback, and when I watch the video, so it’s not exactly a monitoring issue, per se. But it’s interesting you don’t perceive a difference. There was a post on this old discord server I used to be on where some people heard another user’s inverted phase voice sample and others didn’t so I’m wondering if it’s one of those internet things like “what color is the dress”? But either way, I agree. It’s not a good sounding preamp.

[@Hectagonist]

​@@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff My mistake Mark, you're absolutely right! I really couldn't hear it on my AirPods Pro 2 but the difference is quite obvious on my ATH-R70Xs. Now I'm thinking the "what color is the dress" effect could come down to can your playback system accurately reproduce slightly asymmetrical waveforms like the ones the human voice tends to produce?

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

@@Hectagonist That is an EXCELLENT question! And if your playback system can't, how would you even know? Or do you live your entire life living in an inverted reality like those kids in Stranger Things? I appreciate you checking back in with it because after I read your first comment, I started to wonder if it was something only in my head and I was mis-perceiving it, but thanks to your diligence, I no longer feel like I'm going insane, so thank you for that.

[@BrianMarconi-lg4eq]

This video went from education about out of phase signal to a super critical review about The Hornet. Do you hate Useful Arts or something? You basically got out some Raid Wasp & Hornet spray and used the whole container on this cool little preamp... I used budget (yet good quality) preamps for years before I got BAE, API, Daking etc. and IMHO this holds its own against 'high end' pres. I've used the following budget gear: Black Lion Auteur - 1st addition sounded nice but was too noisy. EHX tube mic pre - beautiful sound but didn't have enough usable gain. Joe Meek vc6q - sounded cool also has eq and comp. definitely a lot of color and character. Rane MS1b - (still have it) lots of clean useable gain. FMR RNP - Awesome, would like to get another one in the future. JHS color box V2 - Awesome character, nice DI for instruments. If you use a microphone you will need to use another pre with it to get enough gain. Useful Arts Hornet (Still have it) not noisy. built like a tank (unlike the nitpicking expressions in this video) VERY VERSATILE piece of gear with the color knob. The Hornet works nice in live situations and also is a nice utility pre to compliment other more costly pres... I bought the Hornet used and never had any issues with it.

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

LOL. I would have loved to have not been critical about it and just demo it but it arrived fucked, so I used it as a teaching moment. I’m glad it worked out for you and you got a properly operating unit.