Warm Audio WA-1B Tube Optical Compressor Review

Let's try the Warm Audio WA-1B Tube Optical Compressor, a clone of the TUBE-TECH CL 1B all-tube optical mono compressor. (The industry-renowned Lydkraft-style compressor.)
Buy the WA-1B - sweetwater.sjv.io/MmVdZn
Changing the Studio (Part 1) • Changing up the Barn S...
Changing the Studio (Part 2) • Changing up the Barn S...
My Analog Tape Recording Course
tinyurl.com/2t2p69us
My Preamps & Compressors:
Neve 1073SPX - sweetwater.sjv.io/an2LkR
Warm Audio MPX - sweetwater.sjv.io/m55LY7
Warm Audio ToneBeast - imp.i114863.net/ZdD2Zz
Warm Audio WA-1B - sweetwater.sjv.io/MmVdZn
My Mics:
Warm Audio WA-47Jr - sweetwater.sjv.io/LX0m9o
Audio Technica AT4040 - sweetwater.sjv.io/rQggxR
Audio Technica AT2020 - imp.i114863.net/zakW7G
Electro Voice RE20 - imp.i114863.net/n1KG79
Electro Voice ND68 - imp.i114863.net/4e7bbr
MXL Revelation II - sweetwater.sjv.io/nLnnJ6
MXL 990 Condenser Mic - imp.i114863.net/Xxq6V3
MXL v67g Condenser Mic - imp.i114863.net/BXQj6J
Shure SM7B - imp.i114863.net/WDLb1e
Shure SM57 - imp.i114863.net/Eajk3D
Lauten LA 120 sweetwater.sjv.io/xkvO9k
Lauten Snare Mic sweetwater.sjv.io/rQyRnG
My pedals:
Timmy Pedal - imp.i114863.net/n1zqoR
Electric Mistress - sweetwater.sjv.io/VmBQWO
Warm Audio Warmdrive - amzn.to/3XAre2M
Warm Audio Mutation Phaser - sweetwater.sjv.io/oqXrJW
Warm Audio Centavo - sweetwater.sjv.io/QyYnkx
Warm Audio ODD Box - sweetwater.sjv.io/QyNgNz
Big Muff Triangle - sweetwater.sjv.io/9gMKBj
Ibanez Tubescreamer 808 - sweetwater.sjv.io/LXxdYa
Danelectro Honeytone - imp.i114863.net/RyXzkv
line6 m9 pedal - imp.i114863.net/jWgNnn
My Guitars:
Gibson Les Paul - sweetwater.sjv.io/ZQxj2k
Kramer Baretta Special - imp.i114863.net/153XP6
Epiphone SG - imp.i114863.net/5b3R61

[@piggsquigg983]

love the music you've done on the last couple of videos. really really nice, and the vocals sound great.

[@travisraab]

thank you!

[@Mrpsblobsoflowendmung]

Great video travis . All sounding great . Love the setup . Have fun and keep recording .

[@travisraab]

Thanks, will do!

[@simmermusic3894]

Loving the character and warmth of your sound and your room sounds great!

[@travisraab]

thanks!

[@diyrecordingstudio]

New setup looks awesome dude. Your barn is such a lovely live wooden room, maybe some acoustic paneling on the walls and clouds on the ceiling might get particular sections of the rooms sounding the way you want. Building more gobo type panels for your drums might be a way to go too.

[@travisraab]

I was thinking about doing that actually

[@slipknotcollector515]

Hey Travis, Been watching your channel for years now and let me just say that your the best channel on KZbin keep up what your doing I love your videos you have inspired me to record analog now I have a revox b77 mk2. I started playing drums when I was 3 now im 12 and I have a bunch of analog stuff, thanks for everything you've done, Ash

[@travisraab]

Hi good to hear from you! Thanks for watching and I'm happy that you are making music :)

[@Mofdarts]

Love your Videos and your Studio and your jams. Please keep them coming. Specialy multitrack tape recording technique.😎😇👍🏼

[@travisraab]

thanks for your support!

[@waskerbasket9601]

sounds really good, keep it up.

[@PharaohLawLess1]

Very nice and jazzy and relaxing track my brotha

[@ironweedstudios]

love your vids and the relaxing barn. Its prolly not relaxing to you at this point, but i love the quiet times and the opportunity to be up in the middle of the night and just relax with your vids.

[@travisraab]

Glad you like them!

[@bugattiveyron620]

Nice groove bro I like it

[@jasonjohnson4170]

Love the reel to reel!!!

[@travisraab]

yeah its fun!

[@benjicrane]

Very good work, thanks

[@travisraab]

Glad you liked it!

[@jimroberts3504]

Greetings fellow Raab. Very nice videos 👍🏼

[@travisraab]

Welcome, Raab.

[@AJOrpheo]

ngl liking the sound on the RE20. Might give that a try. Our go to is the Audix D6, its a great sound for us

[@travisraab]

oh yeah it was a game changer. I didn't even know people did that but I tried it and it was awesome. I heard Butch Vig and a lot of other producers in the 70s and 90s did it.

[@theCarouselPainter]

Dude, time to get an 1176 clone, mine is from Lindell Audio, but i guess the WA76 or WES audio would work just fine aswell !

[@shamaruku]

Sounds great, sounds alive

[@travisraab]

thank you!

[@kenny_murray]

Miss your videos - hope you're well!

[@travisraab]

Working on it!

[@ManiacX-rf3nx]

That snare rules

[@travisraab]

thanks I dig it !

[@jbonillaguitar]

Miss you travis!! make more videos!!

[@travisraab]

Man I was thinking about it! I'm not sure the algorithm gods will be friendly to me at this point. But I wanted to do some basic stuff and just talk about things, do simple music

[@jbonillaguitar]

@@travisraab how's Walter doing?

[@travisraab]

@@jbonillaguitar I think he's well. I haven't seen him in a minute.

[@Rhuggins]

Have you seen the Revive mod to these? I think they are about 7-800 dollars, they claim to improve many of the components

[@travisraab]

I can't imagine it sounding any better I think warm audio did a great job!

[@Rhuggins]

@@travisraab well Thats great! Revive claims (and it stands to reason) that the signal path is very similar to the original, but the components (resistors, capacitors, etc.) are of much lower quality. They claim to be able to increase headroom and upgrade the parts to be in line with the original unit. I do find the Warm a bit grabby and more colored in the mid range than the original, which is smooth as butter. Really debating buying a modded unit

[@johnnyhov2509]

Hi all! I got a WA-1B today and nothing happens when I turn it on. No light in power, display or tubes. I guess at least the power lamp should be lit all it seems like in the video :)

[@travisraab]

is your power turned on?

[@johnnyhov2509]

@@travisraab solved. Opened it and the connector on power switch were loose.

[@sl3102]

Nice! I like the latin vibe!

[@travisraab]

Thanks 🔥

[@hjk2920]

Hello, I really enjoyed the video. I don't think there's anyone as expert as you, so I'd like to ask a question. It's not related to the video, but I'm currently using Tascam 488. I got it for free and am about to get it operational. First of all, I am using a DAW (Ableton Live or Logic Pro) and an audio interface, Behringer umc404hd. The problem is that I don't have real drums or bass, so I have to use virtual instruments for everything except the guitar. So, I would like to know how to transfer or transfer my music created in daw to Tascam 488. We will be waiting for a hero you may know.

[@travisraab]

Simply hook it up to your tascam 488 and record from there!

[@hjk2920]

@@travisraab thanks!

[@juanrodriguezluis4811]

Hey man, i just need to abo you. can you talk a lil more about your Mastering Process?

[@travisraab]

abo? I use izotope

[@overundah]

Get yourself a patch bay!

[@travisraab]

that's what I keep hearing

[@inspectasexy1264]

i dare u to make a vid ab why some people have so many damn guitars :)

[@travisraab]

it's ridiculous. luckily im not one of those people.

[@oinkooink]

You're a funny dude. :)

[@AbeldeBetancourt]

128 is where it's at. Better vanilla chips and cream.

[@travisraab]

whoaaaa

[@MaggieKeizai]

Puig can suck it, 48 rules. My aphex converters only go at 48, so it's tops. Great tune, btw

[@travisraab]

lolll thanks!

[@zakaroonetwork777]

96K has Lower latency. 24-96K All Day long. You got All the Dream analog gear. Dont Cheap out on the Hard drive space.

[@Mr_A99]

Bro you gotta get a real rack sometime or build one with actual rails. This jank solution you are doing now is not worth that nice gear! Just a strong suggestion. Also plz turn up the audio samples a lot, your camera voice is pretty loud compared to the samples. Love the home vibe in your vids btw! Keep'em up! Regards from Denmark 🙂

[@ralphups7782]

do you leave that window open, because you have a cat with a short temper which would knock the front door to get in and out at all hours.? 7:08/8:34 👈😒🚬👺👀👀👉😹

[@Rhuggins]

Bro get yourself a proper rack

[@nicefish10]

WA 1b is trash. How many videos are people gonna put up with that thing bottoming out on the low meds at about five DB of gain reduction? I think it’s really sad that warm audio has decided to market that like it’s a CL1B clone and it’s nowhere near. Just because people spend their hard earned money on crap gear They automatically have a bias towards it. This thing would probably be fine if it sold for $400. But trying to charge over 1000 for it is a rip off.

[@travisraab]

I appreciate you sharing your opinion. I will take a close listen to it and if I get my hands on a cl1b I'll give them a nice comparison.

[@Mrpsblobsoflowendmung]

Well mister @nicefish10 I think opinion is utter trash. I actually own both . I have a tube tech CL1b I’ve had for nearly 20 years and a few weeks ago I got a warm from a local dealer just to see what all the fuss was about and they asked me to compare them see how it stacked up . And it’s actually pretty damn close . In fact very damn close . Not as slow an attack at the slowest and a tiny low mid boost your talking less than a DB . But the characteristics are so damn close I kept the wa1b and added it to the rack cause who dosnt want 2 of them ! And I’m been pumping a lot more than 5db of gain reduction and it ain’t bottoming out at all as you say it ! And to be fair a friend also has a CL1b not as old as mine his about 11 years old and it sounds different to mine more so than the warm !! So less of the negative vibes . And maybe just go and buy a tube tech or at least get on that waiting list and pay your $4000 and quit moaning about it ! It’s a quarter of the price for a very very very similar sounding and behaving compressor .

[@SupremeSpeaking]

@@Mrpsblobsoflowendmungthank you for validating what I thought by comparing it to a CL1B. I’m glad I made the investment. Warm definitely got it right with the WA1B, although it is slightly different it’s definitely a wonderful addition when CL1B’s are hard to come by

[@yule41]

People use this as a tracking compressor, you’re never going go use more than 5. And the original does the same thing buddy. Not all CL1B’s even sound the same.

[@atleengelstad5303]

You are in a dangerus zone right now....focusing more on gear than on the music,,,,,

[@travisraab]

is this what Kenny Loggins was talking about?

[@thomasadams9199]

@@travisraabhahahahahahahhaha love your sense of humor almost as much as your videos! Keep it up dude! The quality of your audio is literally why I just went out and purchased a focusrite Clarette plus 4 pre. Ticked me off when I saw that it came without an ungrounded power supply. Is yours ungrounded?

[@travisraab]

no mine is not grounded@@thomasadams9199

[@fickbasterd]

i used to be obsessed with tape machines and analoge outboard gear like in this channel i had 2 avalon vt 737 for mixing and several mics neumann xyz... and and everything you could imagine a nice room with treatment and audio system a controller from dangerous audio for the speakers and at one time even a studer tape machine BUT i ended up selling the most stuff because of the lack of time and i feel free now what i now do is i take pre recorded drum tracks and chop it up so i can play and i mean from real records which already have been mixed perfectly and recorded in a manner which nobody could do anyways i can play that and overdub with vocals and guitar and bass or piano thats it i dont bother anymore about the signal chain and drum mics and everything but it is very cool to see and brings back cool memories at that time i laid down all my gear obsession i started experimenting with sequencers but not in that way the (wanna be musicians) like the electronic hipsters would treat the sequencers in all the youtube videos (teenage engineering) with lots of reverb and chaos but in a musical context and way that it has a melody and hook and so on well it sparked a new way of making music and it was so easy i can take my favourite drum sound on the go and play what ever i want and nobody will notice anyway it sounds just mixed and ready without the mixing process ;) ich hoffe das wird dir helfen auf deinem musikalischen Weg. Alles Gute (german) Tschüss

[@travisraab]

that sounds like a lot of fun thanks for explaining your work flow! For some reason, every time I have ever worked with drum samples (instead of making my own samples on the spot) my track ends up sounding sterile and lame. It's probably just because I'm not very good at that style of production with sequencers. I think it's because I rely on the drums to tell the story of the song and since I started out as a drummer, I kind of view music from the drummer's seat. I will try to use your approach soon!

[@fickbasterd]

cool man the trick is to releave yourself from to much stuff so you can concertrate on melody and harmony so .. samples do work very well. Lets say you have a favourite record you use izotope and isolate the drum track then chop it up and in the mix you wont notice it anymore if a sample is to short becuase it is overlaid by other instruments you know what i mean and on top you dont have the hustle to mix it you can totaly forget about it and work on other melodic stuff nontheless i love watching somebody doing repair work on old machines and tweaking the sound haha @@travisraab

[@dannydaniel8975]

@@travisraab Drum samples are ok, just turn off that quantize button...