Doug Turkel
Liz Atherton
Joel Snyder
Tom Antonellis
Marc Preston
A single-channel desktop version of Black Lion Audio’s highly successful Auteur preamp design, the Auteur DT combines an ultra-high-speed front end and a transformer-coupled output stage. The combination, which we’ve seen from Black Lion before, delivers pristine nuance and detail, which is nicely balanced with a beefy, vintage-flavored assertiveness that holds its own in a mix. The Auteur DT has 60dB of clean gain on tap, so you can feel free to use your favorite ribbon mics on quieter sources. A hi-Z DI input is provided for direct injection of electric guitars, bass, keyboards, and the like. Phantom power, polarity reverse, and 10dB pad buttons complete the front-panel feature set. With its rugged, black brushed-aluminum casing and classy wooden end caps, the Auteur DT looks quite elegant sitting on your desktop. It also sports a big, silky-smooth gain control and a cool vintage-style VU meter that’s easy to read even in dim studio lighting. At Sweetwater, we like the Black Lion Auteur DT a lot. It’s versatile, well built, and sounds great!
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Sounds like a record
The Auteur DT is impressively versatile. Think of it as a single channel of a large-format console that takes up very little real estate on your desktop. With its fast front end and transformer-balanced output stage, Black Lion’s proprietary “Chicago-style” circuitry has the remarkable ability to accurately capture and sonically optimize any source — mic or DI — you send through it. This results in tracks that are easier to mix into finished, polished product that “sounds like a record.”
Outstanding value
Since 2006, Black Lion Audio has been helping musicians and engineers improve the sound of their equipment, and they’ve built a solid reputation for coaxing world-class sound out of modestly priced gear. As an outfit that cut its teeth doing acclaimed mods, Black Lion, perhaps unsurprisingly, produces innovative audio equipment of their own design that consistently outperforms its price range. The Auteur DT employs Black Lion’s latest preamp technology, which features an optimized gain stage that delivers higher gain, lower noise and distortion, and a more extended frequency response than earlier designs. Through the Auteur DT, drums sound huge and punchy; vocals sit pretty; guitars soar. No matter what the source, the Black Lion Auteur DT performs like a pro.
Black Lion Audio: the mod squad
Founded in Chicago in 2006, Black Lion Audio has made their mark on the audio industry by hot rodding audio equipment and upgrading the sound quality of popular music-production gear, elevating industry-standard products to new levels of sonic quality. Though they started off modding gear from other manufacturers, they’ve utilized their cumulative expertise to design their own line of boutique mic preamps and word clocks. BLA gear and modded gear can be found in studios from Los Angeles to New York to Nashville and heard on projects from artists like Maroon 5, Alison Krauss, Metallica, T-Pain, George Strait, MGMT, Beyoncé, George Duke, Slayer, Erykah Badu, Rod Stewart, and more.
Black Lion Audio Auteur DT Single-channel Desktop Mic/Instrument Preamp Features:
- Vintage-vibe desktop preamp that’s ideal for capturing any source
- Modern IC-based front end for fast, transparent sound
- Vintage-inspired transformer-coupled output stage
- USA-made output transformer for colorful, authoritative sound
- Rear-panel XLR mic input, 1/4-inch TRS line output
- Front-panel 1/4-inch hi-Z DI input;
- Positive locking LED indicator buttons for phantom power, phase inversion, 10dB pad, and Hi-Z toggle
- 60dB of gain handles all of your mics
- Frequency response: 10Hz–30kHz
- Classic, back-lit VU meter
- Brushed black aluminum chassis, vintage-style wood end caps