I’ll be honest, this is the best Warm Audio clone I’ve heard, the other ones felt lacking. Great video Ed!

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

I think it’s their best compressor. I’m also a fan of the WA-412s preamps.

Warren Huart made A/B comparison tests between Original CL1B and WA1B the diffrence was like 1-2% Original Unit is $4000+ while Warm Audio is quarter of that price. It's a such a versatile unit IMO.

Admittedly, I don’t have much hands-on experience with hardware compressors, but I think this thing sounds fantastic! I’m mostly a vocalist and my wife does VO/audiobook narration, and I’ve been looking for a compressor to pair with the preamps in my Neve 88M for these applications. I think this might be it!

Wow really great demo, thank you so much.

@EdThorne

6 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful 🙂

i have a CL1-B since 2004 ... the big thing about the CL1B is that the rotary pots have zero resistance, and definitely not stepped, plus they are huge. This makes for a very smooth and fast and intuitive way of using the compressor... Think WA missed the ball not getting that...

Fantastic video Ed!

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

Thank you, Andris. 🔥

Sounds great to me! I think they are about to make a killing with this one considering the wait times for real CL1B. Great examples man!

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

Yeh, I think they’re going to do well with this one. Cheers.

Wow - What a beauty!😍

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

I think Warm will be successful with this.

I bet those new monitors makes you appreciate you 500-series gear more. Once I cracked the code or monitoring I was like I wish I would have done this FIRST. Its the most important tool. If you can't hear, nothing else matters and it stunts the rest of the setup.

@EdThorne

5 ай бұрын

Exactly! I hindsight I should have definitely upgraded my monitoring first, yes. Best of both worlds now. 🤘

It is better than the plugin and ok for the price but if you can afford go with the cl1b

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

We’d all get the original if we could. Apparently they haven’t shipped a unit since 2019!

@fantaztikbeatz

8 ай бұрын

I agree 100%

@geotungz4050

8 ай бұрын

I think if you eq a touch of high end to boost going into it would sound almost identical to the original, maybe coming out a bit too, it has a 3db cut at 5k up to 25k so it shouldn't be that far off the original. All the shootouts I heard sound like it is really the frequency response curve that is most responsible for the sound not matching exactly. Sure certain setting need to be adjusted differently to get a similar result. The price though, regardless of what it emulated, is great for an opto tube compressor with this functionality. This price point, this is beyond excellent. for 4 k less, a little eq in before then out is worth the savings

@sheilasmith8844

5 ай бұрын

That is not true at all. We ordered two last year. Shipping time was two weeks from Denmark. @@EdThorne

Wow! This is cool. Wonder how it compares to the CL1B. You don't happen to have one lying around do you?

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

Yeh, sure…. Right next to my LA2A and FairChild 🤣🔥

@fantaztikbeatz

8 ай бұрын

Compared to the Cl1 there is a noticeable difference in the clarity. The Wa1 has more low mid information and i notice a higher noise floor while watching another video. Still I think it's a decent clone for the price IMO! How do you feel about it?

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

I’ll be honest, I’ve never used a CL1B so I can’t compare. Obviously it doesn’t sound identical, how could it, it’s 1/3rd of the price. But, it is very smooth, it has “a sound” and if it works for your particular sounds source, like I think it does really well in my audio examples here, I think it’s a winner. It’s Warm’s best compressor I think.

@nicefish10

6 ай бұрын

There are lots of videos comparing this the the CL1b. It’s actually offensive that they are marketing this junk as a replacement for such an iconic masterpiece. Much like their LA2~a clone and pretty much everything else they make. This cheap crap is not even on the same playing field.

@user-bo8ex4ji7n

4 ай бұрын

​@@nicefish10 haha what a joke of an ignorant response. I have both sitting right here. I cannot pick out which is which with a blindfold on... There is a slight elevation in 5-8k range on the CL1B, but if you drop Saturn 2 on the WA1B, put a band on 5-8k, set to linear phase, set distortion to "warm tube" and hit with 20-40%, it sounds IDENTICAL to CL1B at 1/3 of the price....

Th need two

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

We all need two. Of everything 🤣

Warm Audio’s figuring a lot out. I’m waiting for the MKII versions of the wa2a and wa76.

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

What would you want upgrading/adding to them?

ive got this and the cl1b and the cl1b is def smoother, classier sounding. not necessarily worth $4000 more, unless you have money

£11.59.. So I'll take 16.. thanx ;-)))

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

Haha.

I think you should open/close your videos with an animated Graham Chapman/Monty Python "I don't like being called Eddy Baby" tribute.

@EdThorne

8 ай бұрын

Hahaha. Watch this space ;-)

Buy cheap get cheap. Nobody has ever called my studio asking if I have a cheap copy of a piece of gear. But I get calls every day for real gear. I wish Warm would market this thing as their own thing and not say its a CL 1b clone (or inspired by etc) Its not even close. If this sold for $400 it would be decent. But at over $1000 it's a rip off. At lest save up your pennies to get a Heritage Audio Tubesessor. If you are 19 years old doing your first projects this may be fine but if you are trying to be serious, best to look for serious gear and leave the cheap stuff alone.

@EdThorne

5 ай бұрын

I think Warm Audio offer a great access to market price point for people wanting to learn analogue gear. But I agree - the real thing is ALWAYS better.

Desert island? Not by a long shot. A used Distressor in the same price range and smokes this thing. On every video I’ve seen demoing these things the bottom out in the low mids when you get about 8DB gain reduction. Distressor doesn’t, and it gives you a Nuke setting as well as an Opto setting. This compressor would be a decent value if it was 500 bucks… Just like all of the other warm audio junk it’s just junk that’s overpriced and overhyped to people that can’t afford the real stuff. I guess pretending to have cool stuff is just as valid today is actually having cool stuff.

@sheilasmith8844

5 ай бұрын

Over compress if that is what you are trying to do for an effect. The reason a 3630 will work on EDM is because it has it's own square waves built into it's crappy circuitry just like most EDM music. And since most EDM producers can only afford a $35 compressor from Ebay then its a perfect match. . RE Thiller...M J recorded each line of each song from three different distances from the mic as directed by Bruce Swedien. So there was very minimal need for compression. they just picked whichever ever version of the line they needed to be the forward one in the mix. Most people today do not have the talent or the patience to go through that since most artists today want instant gratification and everything fixed instantly and perfectly "in the box" @@dannydaniel8975

@harleyrider9166

4 ай бұрын

Warm Audio is not junk. It’s fanboys like you that don’t know how to configure the gear to make it work the way it should work. The average person won’t be able to tell if you mastered with a $4000 Compressor or a $1000 compressor, especially since most average listeners still listen to music in an mp3 format. You’re splitting hairs over something that’s completely subjective. It’s like you’re hanging onto old tech. Catch up.

@sheilasmith8844

4 ай бұрын

@@harleyrider9166 I have been doing PRO AUDIO for 39 years. That means doing it to pay my living expenses. I own a ton of nice plugins, and even more outboard gear. I am quite "Caught Up" thank you. I have personally built and constructed 4 commercial recording studios, and was the A1 FOH engineer for many US and WORLD TOURS. I can fly and tune a sound system that can cover 50,000 people, and I can mix nation wide music broadcasts. So with my experience I am pretty sure I can "configure the gear to make it work the way it should". Warm Audio gear is still cheap junk. Maybe its all you can afford and thats fine. There is a market for it. But do not tell me how "pro" it is. They are mass produced cheap clones with quality control issues and wonky power supplies that are susceptible small power variations with mains. The average person these days is listening to music in MP3 format with on their phone, or with ear buds, or in their car. They also won't care if I mastered with a $5,000 compressor, or mixed on $600 NS10s...but the record company I turn the mixes into will know. And so will many of the artists I work with. So go ahead and have your opinions just like I have mine. We are clearly measuring from a different yardstick.

@user-bo8ex4ji7n

4 ай бұрын

"cool stuff" - you said it all right there. Some people care about the sound more than showing people their cool stuff. 8DB of GR and it bottoms out? What are you even talking about? I have a WA1B and CL1B and they both hold up fine at 20db of GR. Same with my WA76... Maybe you've got your hands on a bad unit?

For £1,159.00 no, no it is not.