_Phoebe
NG500 FULLY ANALOG PREAMPLIFIER
Class A microphone/line/instrument preamplifier with digital recall
_Phoebe
NG500 Class A preamplifier with digital recall
Main Features
_PHOEBE
ANALOG SOUND, DIGITAL CONTROL
Class A microphone/line/instrument preamplifier with digital recall
+28 dBu of Analog Headroom
+28 dBu of analog headroom, Class A fully analog design, inspired by the renowned British dual amp topology.
Input and Output Transformers
_PHOEBE is a fully transformer-balanced unit, staying true to its vintage heritage.
Crank Up the Gain!
Microphone gain up to 75dB — providing high gain, ideal for low-level microphones!
Recallable Signal Source
Keep two sources connected and easily switch between the XLR socket (LINE/MIC) or front panel XLR/TS socket (LINE/MIC/Instrument) via the DAW plug-in for quick recall.
Output Passive Attenuation up to 15dB!
PAD – A passive output attenuation circuit with 1 dB steps, managed via a relay cascade, located after the output transformer for precise level control.
Switchable Input Impedance
The input impedance can be switched between 1200 ohms and 300 ohms, ensuring optimal integration with vintage microphones for enhanced performance and sound quality.
Precise Signal Metering
Fully integrated with DAW plug-in, featuring output signal metering and CLIP detection for precise monitoring and control.
Full Remote Control
Now you can place your preamplifier wherever it’s most convenient, and manage everything effortlessly from your sweet spot!
Main Features Summary:
Other Features:
APP FOR MAC AND PC
Digital control features for fully analog units.
Specification
_Phoebe specification
| Frequency response | +/- 0.5dB 20Hz-20kHz; -3dB at 50kHz |
| Distortion | 0.005% at 1kHz at +20dBu output |
| Line input impedance | 5.5k ohm bridging |
| Microphone input impedance | 300/1200 ohm |
| Noise | unity gain (better than -100dbU) Max gain +75dB (better than -70dbU) |
| EIN | better than -120dB |
| Max power consumption | 170mA(+16V); 100mA(-16V) |
| Unit dimensions | 38x133x145mm |
| Box dimensions | 105x162x234mm |
| Unit weight | 1 kg |
| Box weight | 1,2 kg |
| Warranty | 2 years |
User Manual
_PHOEBE VIDEO STORIES
Watch the product videos
I like the WesAudio stuff mainly for how it sounds.
Katy Perry, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ariana Grande, ZZ Top, Justin Bieber
This is technology that I’ve been waiting for a long time. It’s taken this long…it’s taken Wes Audio to be the ones to have seamlessly made this digital control work well. Wes Audio has created an analog compressor that sounds amazing and has the flexibility of any great stereo analog box
Beyoncé, Mariah Carey,James Brown, Lady Gaga, Notorious BIG, Black Eyed Peas,R. Kelly, Jennifer Lopez, Puff Daddy, Tupac Shakur, and many others
WesAudio nailed it with ngBusComp. It's been on my mix bus since the first time I tried it. After A/B'ing it with the original quad VCA unit, I was honestly blown away by how much better it is.
Beyonce, Jay-Z, Fka Twigs, and more.
I did a lot of a/b with my other SSL clones and plugins. I find that ngBusComp sounds better than all of them.
Olivia Rodrigo’s Multi-platinium “Driver’s License”, Carlie Rae Jepsen, Niko Rubio, Giorgio Moroder, Lady Gaga, Lost Kings, Melanie Martinez, LP, Bebe Rexha and more….
The ability to control an analog compressor from within the DAW has become a valuable feature to my workflow. The Dione is a great sounding unit and is a perfect example of where the future of pro audio is heading.
Gold & Platinum award producer
_MIMAS is as good as my other 1176 in the rack…I love this technology.
The diones are so very good. It’s such a flexible all purpose compressor. I haven’t found anything it doesn’t do well. Parallel compression on drum bus, compressing multiple keyboards in order to level them all out etc… they are sonically rich sounding, and the distortion modes sound fantastic.
I had several SSL type compressors in the years and for me there’s zero doubt, the WesAudio _Dione is by far the best in that category. _Dione never left my 2bus since the day I got it.
These days it’s really easy to excited about all of the technology we have access to. Which is also another the reason why I do my best to try and spot what really shines in this industry. To me, Wesaudio has something really special going on. Not only are the analog components up to snuff…but I believe they have the potential to be the leaders of the 500 series format. They have the analog/digital hybrid down to a refined science without the need of middle hardware. But most importantly, their stuff simply sounds great!
_MIMAS – This first enhanced 500-series module from Wes Audio is both convenient and impressive: it provides an updated version of the classic 1176 compressor, but with full remote-control facilities via a VST 3/AAX plug-in.
_DIONE – A well thought-out interpretation of the classic SSL bus compressor design that genuinely brings something new to the table.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no need to uninstall the WesAudio application before installing a new release. The update process will seamlessly overwrite the existing version.
If the module doesn’t react to any changes to the knobs on the front panel, the first necessary step is to rewrite firmware into the flash memory (Factory reset procedure re-writes firmware into internal flash memory – it doesn’t affect anyhow unit configuration). To proceed with factory reset, please follow below steps:
- Connect unit either:
- Through front panel USB socket,
- Or keep the unit in ng500 chassis – _TITAN, but please note that chassis has to be connected to the PC/MAC either via USB or Ethernet cable.
- POWER OFF your 500 series chassis.
- Depends on the product please press following front panel control:
- _MIMAS – RATIO button,
- _DIONE – RATIO button,
- _RHEA – THD button,
- _PROMETHEUS – HIGH CUT encoder (top-right encoder),
- _HYPERION – LMF GAIN encoder,
- _CALYPSO – MENU encoder,
- _PANDORA – HIGH SC FILTER (right button).
- While keeping this control (button/encoder) pressed, POWER ON your 500 series chassis.
- LEDs should present a strange pattern.
- Now open GConManager:
- WIN: C:/Program Files (x86)/WesAudio/GConManager.exe
- MAC: /Applications/WesAudio/GConManager.app
- Or click on the WesAudio “Tray” icon, and select “Open GConManager”
- Go to _UPGRADE application.
- Hit start!
If the module doesn’t react to any changes to the knobs on the front panel, the first necessary step is to rewrite firmware into the flash memory (Factory reset procedure re-writes firmware into internal flash memory – it doesn’t affect anyhow unit configuration). To proceed with factory reset, please follow below steps:
- Connect the unit to either USB or Ethernet.
- POWER OFF your unit.
- Depends on the product please press following front panel control:
- ngBusComp – far left Ratio on Channel 1 (Ratio “-”),
- ngTubeEQ – THD encoder on Channel 1,
- ng76 – “IN MODE” button,
- ngLEVELER – use a small screwdriver and press button available on the rear panel via a small hole in the chassis.
- While keeping this control (button/encoder) pressed, POWER ON your unit.
- LEDs should present a strange pattern.
- Now open GConManager:
- WIN: C:/Program Files (x86)/WesAudio/GConManager.exe
- MAC: /Applications/WesAudio/GConManager.app
- Or click on the WesAudio “Tray” icon, and select “Open GConManager”
- Go to _UPGRADE application.
- Hit start!
This is a very common issue and in most cases the root cause lies in the connection of the unit and audio interface. If that happens it should be checked if audio interface input isn’t connected to the chassis input and if audio interface output isn’t connected to chassis output. As this initially would seem to be entirely wrong and shouldn’t work at all, as all our units implement “True Bypass” via relays, the unit will pass a signal when the bypass is engaged. The reason for that is that the relay is in fact hard wiring input to the output, and thus the unit will pass the signal, as it doesn’t go through any active circuit of the unit.
This is actually how it is supposed to work, so after the plug-in instance is created, please use a small triangle button which usually is on the bottom side of the plug-in and select proper HW ID from the drop down menu. If the drop down menu doesn’t list any hardware units, please check Your connectivity and other possible root causes in this FAQ.
This is a wide topic, and there may be at least several root causes, but there are few things that should be checked. However, the first and most important thing is to double check that GConManager doesn’t list this device in the _CONFIG app. If this is the case, it means that WesAudio unit can’t connect on the OS level, and some of the below steps may help:
- First of all double check if module connection is properly executed, this procedure is described here.
- USB specification indicates that USB 2.0 works up to 5 meters. This is however not entirely true, as it strongly depends on the peripherals that unit is connected to. Even if our modules are USB 2.0 compatible, your USB port could support USB 3.0 – USB is a backward compatible protocol, so it may be that USB 3.0 cable length limit should be considered which is 2 meters. We would recommend having a USB cable up to 2 meters to remove those limitations from the equation.
- USB HUB is very common root cause to those problems, if module can’t connect via HUB – just for the sake of the test, it is mandatory to connect unit directly to PC/MAC to verify if the problem isn’t caused by it.
- Please note any system warnings attached to “WesAudio Tray Icon”.
As USB controllers have limited capacity it could be a reason for random unit disconnection. Usually, it happens when a lot of USB devices are plugged into the PC/MAC. The usual behavior would be that the unit works normally, and after reboot it doesn’t, but it strongly depends on the OS implementation so exact reaction could be a little bit different. If this is suspected, just for the test, it would be good to disconnect most of the devices from the USB ports, reboot PC/MAC and double check the connectivity from stability point of view. If it leads to the conclusion that this is the root cause of the problem, we would recommend using a decent USB hub, and ideally a TB/USB dock station which tends to offload a lot of responsibilities from our PC/MAC.
If the unit was working fine, and suddenly it couldn’t connect (it is not visible in the GConManager _CONFIG app) that could lead to the conclusion that some devices were added to our USB line, and we could have problems with the USB controller inside PC/MAC. In that case please check the description in the above “Unit disconnects by itself”.
GConManager in Admin mode enables special functionalities which are used during WesAudio units calibration.
OSX:
- Please open terminal.
- Copy-Paste following command:
open /Applications/WesAudio/GConManager.app --args --admin
WINDOWS:
- Go to “START” and open “Command Line”.
- copy paste this command:
"c:\Program Files (x86)\WesAudio\GConManager.exe" --admin
