Listen to The Bass Hang's Steve Araujo talk about the Boostmate's functionality followed by an in depth demo of the Boosmate being used with an A-Designs Reddi, a Sennheiser 421 and a Form Factor cabinet to capture a variety of basses.
Introducing the NEW Tonecraft Boostmate
THE TONECRAFT BOOSTMATE
CONVERTS YOUR TUBE D.I. INTO A MIC PRE
AND LETS YOU UNLEASH YOUR MICS ON PEDALS AND AMPLIFIERS
The NEW TONECRAFT BOOSTMATE is a simple yet powerful solution that allows you to use microphones with your studio's tube direct boxes, effects pedals and guitar amplifiers. Simply plug your mic into the BOOSTMATE's XLR input and run a short 1/4" guitar patch cable to your Tube D.I., effects pedal or amplifier. Your Tube D.I. has now been transformed into a high quality Tube Mic Pre with an extra 20db of gain and your effects pedals and amps are being fed with a full frequency, noise free signal so you can create superior amped and effected recordings without having to re-amp later.
In the past the common fix was an inline Lo-Z to Hi-Z adaptor, but these units use tiny, unshielded transformers that are notoriously noisy, prone to overloading and dramatically roll off both high and low frequencies. The BOOSTMATE features a high quality Mu Metal shielded transformer with excellent frequency response, level handling and noise immunity. The body is all steel and designed for heavy use. A fully passive device, the BOOSTMATE requires no power for use with dynamic, ribbon and tube microphones.
The BOOSTMATE is a simple necessity for every studio.
Chris Stillwell's Fender P Bass with Flats, Solo'ed
We are a big fan of bassist Chris Stillwell. His playing with The Greyboy Allstars and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe has set the high bar for old-school style funk bass. He's a big fan of flatwound strings, as are we, and this is a great sample of what flats sound like through the 363.
Tonecraft at Dave Grohl's Studio 606
The Tonecraft 363 was recently put to good use by Grammy winning producer Jason Carmer recording Italian superstar Luciano Ligabue. Sessions took place at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 featuring his "Sound City" Neve.
Carmer raved about the 363, 'It's a really cool box. Super warm and fat!'
Tape Op 363 Review
The Tonecraft 363 was reviewed in the September/October issue of Tape Op Magazine. Read the text here or better yet, get yourself a free subscription if you don't already have one. TapeOp rocks.
Visit Tonecraft at AES Los Angeles October 9-12 and get your Free Badge here.
Tonecraft Audio will be exhibiting at this year's AES conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center on October 9-12th. The Audio Engineering Society is a scientific organization where papers are presented and historic advances in audio technologies have been made. Conferences are held around the world and the really big ones are held here in the U.S. The show features a huge exhibit hall where manufacturers show their wares. It's not completely unlike NAMM except 90% less mullets and a lot more high end equipment and PhDs. It's a very fun event and the AES folks are cool enough to let us offer free badges to our friends and clients. We'll be at booth 1452 and hope to see you there.
Get your badge HERE.
Kaveh Rastegar discusses bass and friendship from Red Rocks Amphitheater
Bassist Kaveh Rastegar is wrapping up the U.S. leg of John Legend's All of Me Tour and had a few words to say about his experience with the Tonecraft 363 Tube Direct Box live from Red Rocks Amphitheater.
Chris Stillwell's old school bass rig at the Fillmore
Chris Stillwell had a great rig going last week for his show with Karl Denson's Tiny Universe at the Fillmore in San Francisco. 2 X 15" vintage Fender cabinet, Tonecraft 363 on the front end with a GK 400 being used as a power amp. His vintage Fender P and Jazz basses are both strung with heavy flatwounds. No complaints.
Here's a video of Chris and Karl tearing up their original song Inland Emperor with their funk supergroup The Greyboy Allstars.
Kaveh Rastegar on the road with John Legend and Tonecraft
Kaveh with Italian pop superstar Luciano Ligabue
Modern bass legend Kaveh Rasteghar has been using the 363 on studio sessions for the past 6 months and is currently running it on upright bass with John Legend's acoustic summer tour. Kaveh is one of the greatest bassists on the the planet right now and is making music all over the map: European stadiums with Ligabue, tracks with bay area underground hip hop group Latyrx, musical director for Sia, songwriting with Bruno Mars, Kimbra, Cee Lo Green, Kimbra, De La Soul and Meshell Ndegeocello, experimental jazz with Kneebody and Thruster. On top of that he's a super down to earth dude. We're proud to have him as a Tonecraft artist.
Kaveh quiver on the road with John Legend
363 studio action
Tonecraft on the Road with Freddie Washington and Steely Dan.
“Tonecraft will totally change the way you hear your instrument and respond to it. In all my years of being a professional bass player I’ve never heard anything like it before. It’s the sound and tone I’ve been searching for.”
We are proud to have the Tonecraft 363 Tube Direct Box on Steely Dan's Jamalot Ever After Tour currently making it's way across the country. The 363 is being used by legendary bassist "Ready" Freddie Washington. Freddie is a true gentleman with one of the all time best bass grooves. Thanks for the support Freddie and we look forward to hearing you on tour!
Tony Berg chooses the 363 for bass on new AJ Croce track "Always and Evermore"
Legendary LA producer Tony Berg (Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan, Michael Penn) recently put the 363 to the test recording Sebastian Steinberg playing through a 1964 Hofner flatwound strung violin bass on AJ Croce's track Always and Evermore from his new album Twelve Tales. Steinberg dug deep into to the 363's tones and you can really hear it on his impressive runs. Proud to be part of such a great album. It's climbing the charts fast (#23 Roots, #50 Rock as of today) and we urge people to pick up a copy! You can check the track out here.
Strummy strum strum
Listen to the sound of the Tonecraft 363 amplifying a Fishman soundhole pickup fitted Gibson acoustic guitar. The guitar fed straight into the 363 to Lynx Aurora converters. No additional EQ, compression or processing has been used.
Isolated Fender P Bass with Flatwounds
Isolated 1971 Fender P Bass with flatwound strings. No compression, EQ or other processing. This is simply the sound of the bass through the 363 to converters.
Some lovely fingerpicking guitar for your day...
Tonecraft 363 Sample Audio Clips
We recently recorded a set of audio clips in a band setting with select instruments broken out into solo'ed mixes. These are unadorned recordings so that you can hear the sound of what an instrument sounds like from cable to 363 to converter. You can listen to electric bass, electric guitar, Nord, Hammond, Wurly and Clavinet as well as two different acoustic guitars with very common pickups played with pick and fingerstyle. We will be creating more samples in the coming weeks and please feel to contact us with any questions or comments.
We have created a playlist at Soundcloud. The mixes are 24 bit/48k and you are welcome to download the hi-resolution files.
Flyline Music named exclusive Tonecraft distributor for Switzerland
For Immediate Release
5/20/2014 La Jolla, CA
Tonecraft Audio has named Flyline Music AG as the exclusive distributor for Switzerland. Flyline chief Andreas Michel immediately saw the value in our product stating, "We are very excited to offer the 363 Tube DI to our clients. After testing we're absolutely convinced that it can compete with all competitors in the professional market. It's great for musicians, PA companies and should not be missed in any professional recording facility."
Tonecraft's Jon Erickson states. "We first met Andreas for a demonstration in his hotel room during NAMM. We didn't have a booth so we had to go guerilla style. Co-designer Ryan Feves played his 19th century French upright bass through the 363 into a powered floor monitor. The sound was tremendous. After a few strokes with the bow, I think Andreas was hooked. We are proud to have Flyline, a world leader in professional audio, embracing our new company. Andreas saw straight away that we are obsessed with the finest details in our designs and our mutual respect for quality and service should be the basis for a long relationship."
Andreas Michel carefully balancing his brands