Join us as we delve into a large chunk of audio gear from the WesAudio suite
Today, at Noise Machines, our focus turns to a collection of cutting-edge audio gear from WesAudio, the Titan lunchbox, loaded with two brand new next generation 500 series stereo EQ units, the WesAudio Hyperion Eclipse and the Prometheus Eclipse, and we are also gonna take a squiz at their Phoebe preamp, and their Rhea and Dione compressors.
WesAudio is an audio company founded in 2010 out of Poland, leading the field in digital/software interfacing hardware. So like I said, today there’s a few things to look at, first up let’s take a look at the Titan 500 series chassis.
Now, it’s your regular kinda 10 slot lunchbox with a solid external power supply, EXCEPT there’s an extra connector slot up the top of each connector along the back to accommodate the Wes recall and software interfacing componentry.
Each of the Wes units we are looking at today has a plugin equivalent that you can use to control the hardware, and it sits seamlessly in your plugin stack in your mix window, like any other plugin.
So you can control all these via the hardware or software but it’s all hardware processing. Especially cool because it recalls settings, but most importantly, it makes hardware automation easily replicable every. single. time.
If you don’t have the Wes lunchbox you can connect each module via the micro usb slot on the front, but with the Titan it’s just a matter of a single USB or ethernet cable on the back to get all this up and running, which is what the ng in the ‘next generation’ 500 series.
First up, we are gonna delve into the limited edition black, brand new versions of the Hyperion and Prometheus, now called the Hyperion and Prometheus Eclipse.
Looking over at the Prometheus, we’ve got a Pultec style, inductor based passive EQ. If you’ve used as Pultec EQP-1A you’ll be familiar with what’s happening here – a low frequency boost and cut (which also does the ‘Pultec trick’), a single boost, and a high frequency cut. In addition it’s got the ability to work in stereo, dual mono, and MS, 15 dB of output boost or cut, and selectable total harmonic distortion. Kinda an upgraded, solid state, digitally recallable Pultec.
Now, The Hyperion is a fully analog 4 band selectable frequency parametric equaliser, with the ability to switch boosts and cuts from a conservative 5dB to a large 15dB, plus a high pass filter that runs up to 350Hz, at either 6 or 12dB slope.
Each of the bands is individually bypassable as well. The unit is switchable between stereo, dual mono, and mid-side processing, has 15dB of output cut or gain, and the ability to switch total harmonic distortion from off, to medium, and high. Plus you can have an A and B EQ set up and cycle between both to find your perfect EQ variation. It’s kinda got everything you’d want out of a solid state parametric EQ.
Aaaand, to the Phoebe preamp – what can you say about a preamp? It’ll give you up to 75dB of gain, it’s got variable, up to 15dB pad, phantom power, phase, an input impedance switch for 1200 to 300 ohms, and a front input too.
And how does it sound? It’s a Neve 1073-esque, Carnhill transformer-based solid state number, and it sounds like a good volume boosting preamplifier.
We’ve also got the Rhea Vari-mu tube compressor (featuring a pair of Russian 6N3P tubes) and the Dione SSL style solid state compressor. Both are stereo pieces with THD options, and I’ll put both to work in just a moment.
So, these units will all run as standard hardware pieces without connecting em to a computer, no computer necessary. But connecting ’em up is pretty easy. You need to download the WesAudio GCon manager, select your hardware, and connect em up, then the firmware will update, and you can rip straight into the plugin controller.
Or even better, just have the control window open while you watch your EQ moves on the hardware unit appear on the screen. It was super easy to set up, and there was honestly zero farting about trying to get it working, which can be a refreshing change in the audio world *shrug*.
Watch the video above where we demonstrate both of these EQs and a little compression over the mellow tune Mac by Circle. I’ll be making some extreme EQ moves just so you can see how things react at both subtle and extreme measures.We use the Prometheus in regular stereo mode, and the Hyperion in MS mode, and I’ll let both compressors give a touch of dynamic control.
And there we have it, a large chunk of the WesAudio suite, the Titan Next generation 500 series lunchbox, the Prometheus Eclipse stereo passive EQ units, the Hyperion Eclipse stereo parametric EQ, and Rhea Vari Mu and Dionne SSL style VCA compressors.
All the Wes stuff actually sounds really great, we are glad we got to play with it all. They’re all units with features beyond whatever inspired them, and, while at first we were kinda suss on the plug in and digital control, now it makes units without these seem sorta lacking.
The way that you can pull up a plugin and have the settings instantly recalled. And being able to automate hardware settings is completely beautiful.
Like we said, we were suss on the digi interfacing, but maybe the future is brighter than we thought! We can’t wait for someone to invent a hardware unit that will be controllable via plugin with built in conversion so we can plug it all in digitally and not even have to run cables to the patch bay. Guess we’ll see!
The Titan enclosure retails for around $1800AU, the Phoebe preamp for about $1100AU, the Rhea Vari mu comp for around $1800 AU, and the Dionne VCA bus comp for about $1500AU. And the Hyperion retails for around 1150 Euros, and the Prometheus for 1136 Euros – I haven’t seen any priced for sale within Australia just yet, and should be available very soon from all reasonable online portals.
Check out WesAudio here, and catch you next time for more STUFF!
