When you’re mixing concerts for a platinum-selling pop band with three Grammys
and a reputation for soaring vocals, you need first-class processing. So when Los
Angeles-based veteran front-of-house and studio engineer Jim Ebdon (Aerosmith,
Annie Lennox, Matchbox Twenty,) chose the PreSonus ADL 600 two-channel tube
preamp and ADL 700 tube channel strip for Maroon 5’s year-long 2015 world tour,
the question on everyone’s lips was: Why the PreSonus ADL series?
“My friend Andy Meyer suggested I try them out,’ Ebdon replies. “He had been
getting great results. That’s how it works in this business: word-of-mouth. So I tried
the ADL 700 on Adam Levine’s vocals, and it worked very well, bringing his voice
out of the digital domain with power and intelligibility. I like the ADL 700’s semi-
parametric EQ for taking out a consistent tone inherent in the microphone; I usually
don’t touch the EQ after the initial setup of the unit. And the ADL 700’s compressor
has that tube tone that is so endearing to live sound. It’s warm, smooth, and fast.’
The ADL 600has long been popular for live and studio sound and Ebdon agreed that
it added power to the mix.
“The ADL 600 was a beast right from the start. As with the 700, the tube preamp
brought the sound out of the digital domain and gave the mix another dimension.
The harder I ran it the better it sounded,’ he said. “I then mixed it up a bit and put
the ADL 600 on Adam’s vocal. I reset my original vocal chain and put one side of
the ADL 600 on at the end, strapped across the master bus. Again, the vocal popped
and became bigger. I tried the main guitar through the ADL 700 with phenomenal
results. I got the biggest guitar sound imaginable, and it was warm, smooth, and
clear.’
For more information about ADL-series preamps, click here.
Watch the Jim Ebdon video here.