Millennia Music & Media Systems has had its new HV-3R eight-channel microphone preamplifier certified by the Music Engineering and Technical Alliance (METAlliance).
The HV-3R employs the same HV-3 mic preamp circuit found in their popular HV-3C and HV-3D units, while gain control is achieved via ultra-quiet, proprietary techniques.
MIDI and Ethernet are the HV-3R’s primary remote protocols and MIDI interface allows plug-and-play compatibility with Pro Tools systems.
John La Grou, Millennia Founder and President, remarks, “It was critical that the remote control of our HV-3 preamp did not compromise our signature sound in any way. After several years of experimenting with different circuit designs and hundreds of critical listening sessions, we came up with the proprietary method used in our HV-3R.
“I’m glad that the ears of the METAlliance agree with ours.”
Established as a classical music recording company in the 1980s, Millennia Media has now shipped more than 30,000 microphone preamplifier channels.
METAlliance Co-Founder and Grammy Award-winning engineer Ed Cherney comments, “My Millennia mic pres go with me everywhere, and I especially rely on them for live recording. I’ve used them exclusively for dozens of Rolling Stones recordings and live broadcasts I have done, and they have all of the headroom and gain I ever need.
It’s difficult to get them to distort and typically all I have to do is adjust the gain and record. When recording live, there are long cable runs and when I place the Millennia racks on stage there are never issues when I have to send audio down a few hundred feet of wire. The audio is robust and the transients are always fast and accurate, with an incredible signal-to-noise ratio. I can’t imagine going into a live recording without them.”
Millennia’s Ethernet interface coupled with AElogic HV-3R control software offers a wide-range of features, including high-resolution virtual metering, headroom and dynamics indication, 10 link-groups of channels, extensive scene management, channel naming and scratch-pads, instant system-wide visual data presentation, context-sensitive help screens, and a self-correcting “smart” data error detection hierarchy to protect against accidental removal or disabling of a remote preamp unit in the middle of a network.
METAlliance Co-Founder George Massenburg notes, “For a long time there’s been a slot in my rack allocated to Millennia. The HV-3R is a terrific high-performance front-end, and fits right into my high-resolution setup.”
Frank Filipetti adds, “A remotely operated mic pre is one of the most valuable and underused elements in the studio. The Millennia software worked right out of the box and they have added tremendous capability to an already excellent mic pre.”
The HV-3R can also be used as a stand-alone mic preamp with “white light” liquid crystal displays showing channel numbers, gain settings, eight-segment metering, and an intuitive menu structure.
“I’m very impressed with the sonic and build quality of the Millennia mic pre,” says Chuck Ainlay. “In a live recording or large, multi-room facility situation, the remote capability makes this pre-amp a first choice.” Al Schmitt concluded, “We are very impressed with the Millennia preamps and highly recommend them.”
The METAlliance is comprised of a group of globally-recognized, award-winning audio engineers and producers who have been deeply involved in establishing techniques and technical standards that are the foundation of modern music recording. Founders are Chuck Ainlay, Ed Cherney, Frank Filipetti, George Massenburg, Phil Ramone, Elliot Scheiner and Al Schmitt.
