8 Great Pres that Let You Hear Your Music, Not Your Gear!

Crane Song Spider - Dave Hill, whose resume includes designing some of the most respected preamps in the industry for other manufacturers, struck off on his own to found Crane Song, whose designs are not only born of his previous experience, but tested ("tweezed" as he puts it) in combat so to speak, in a pro, 24-track 2" studio while high-dollar clients look on. Crane Song's TEC award nominated Spider is a excellent eight 8-channel mic-pre amplifier/mixer for recording engineers who do live stereo or multi-channel recording and want a completely flexible audio path. The Spider's 8-channel out allows the rig to function as an analog front end for DAW's, digital mixers, and modular digital recorders. Crane Song's Spider also includes a DSP process to provide tape emulation.

Crane Song Spider at a Glance:

• DSP tape emulation
  
• Stereo Bus can be assigned to digital out
  
• First-class 8-channel mic-pre amplifier/mixer wtih digital outputs
  

First-class 8-channel Mic-pre/Mixer
Spider is a premium eight 8-channel mic-pre amplifier/mixer with two types of digital outputs: stereo and eight (8) channel. Spider's in preamplifier follows an extremely high quality Class A Discrete audio path, crucial to any critical listening enviroment. The stereo out is for recording engineers who do live stereo or multi-channel recording and want a totally flexible audio path. The 8 channel out allows the system to function as an analog front end for DAW's, digital mixers, and modular digital recorders.

Assignable Stereo Bus
The stereo bus of the Crane Song Spider can be assigned to digital channels 7 and 8. This allows a stereo mix of 6 channels to be assigned to digital outs 7 and 8 and leaves 2 channels independent. (eg. drums; kick, snare, and stereo left to right.)

DSP Tape Emulation
Both the discrete Class A pre-amp and the convertor modules are of a totally high quality, low noise design. The max analog level at the insert points is +25dBm. The digital modules include a DSP process to provide tape emulation.

Crane Song Spider Applications:

• Live Stereo Recording
  
• Multi-Channel Recording
  
• Broadcast Engineering
  
• DAW Front-End
  
• Off-Line Signal Processor
  
• Studio Submixer

Crane Song Spider Features

• Six to 66dB input preamplifier gain in 6dB steps
  
• Channel level control
  
• Pan control for the stereo output bus
  
• Phantom power switch
  
• Line - Microphone switch
  
• Phase switch
  
• Low cut filter
  
• Stereo bus assignment switch
  
• Fat amp switch for a fat sounding audio path
  
• 16 segment meter peaking reading 0=clipping referenced to the A/D convertor
  
• Clip light on the pre-amp section
  
• Peak limiter for the A/D convertor. LED indicator showing limit action
  
• Channel insert point may be used as a pre-amp output
  
• Sample rate to 96KHz
  
• WC input and output
  
• Stereo bus can be assignable to outputs 7 and 8
  
• Switch selectable Analog Dither control, 15 to 24 bits
  
• DSP analog tape emulation, tweakable by channel. The level is indicated by the LED's around the process knob. The level is changed by selecting the channel and turning the process knob.
  
• Digital output as AES, and ADAT Optical, or TDIF

Crane Song Spider Specs: Preamp Type Solid State Number of Channels 8 Frequency Response TBD Phantom Power Yes EQ No Compression No Analog Inputs 8 x XLR (Mic), 8 x 1/4" (Line) Analog Outputs 4 x XLR (CH 1-8 Stereo), Digital Inputs No Digital Inputs Digital Outputs 2 x ADAT (Optical), 1 x AES/EBU (XLR), 1 x S/PDIF (Coax), 1 x S/PDIF (Optical) Other I/O 2 x 1/4" (Inserts), 1 x 9-Pin (Inserts), 1 x DB15 (Aux), 1 x Word Clock In (BNC), 1 x Word Clock Out (BNC) Computer Connectivity No Computer Connectivity Rackmount Spaces 4U Height 7" Depth TBD Width 19" Weight TBD