ef37a wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:26 pm
I don't want to mislead you Tony, the "compression" is quite a crude affair as its function is to prevent the first valve being driven too hard. Therefore it will only come into play at very high levels and will not behave anything like a Fairchild!
You see if valves are driven very hard you can get 'blocking distortion' which is not at all nice. N.B. You will not overdrive and damage the pedal with a synth level input and I doubt even +26dBu from a good mixer would harm it either.
Dave.
I would be using synths, hoping for a good valve overdrive, type sound.
Oh aye, they will do that. The response is of course aimed at guitars and guitar speakers, i.e. low bass and low treble beyond about 8kHz but there is a decent range of T&B boost available. All but the simplest pedal has speaker emulated output and should give nice results for recording.
Dave.
Thanks Dave, sounds like it’ll be OK, I’ll get one on sale or return.
I’m always a bit reluctant to fork out for distortion, as I can get it in more than one link in my recording chain, just by turning up the gain!
ef37a wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:26 pm
I don't want to mislead you Tony, the "compression" is quite a crude affair as its function is to prevent the first valve being driven too hard. Therefore it will only come into play at very high levels and will not behave anything like a Fairchild!
You see if valves are driven very hard you can get 'blocking distortion' which is not at all nice. N.B. You will not overdrive and damage the pedal with a synth level input and I doubt even +26dBu from a good mixer would harm it either.
Dave.
I would be using synths, hoping for a good valve overdrive, type sound.
Oh aye, they will do that. The response is of course aimed at guitars and guitar speakers, i.e. low bass and low treble beyond about 8kHz but there is a decent range of T&B boost available. All but the simplest pedal has speaker emulated output and should give nice results for recording.
Dave.
Thanks Dave, sounds like it’ll be OK, I’ll get one on sale or return.
I’m always a bit reluctant to fork out for distortion, as I can get it in more than one link in my recording chain, just by turning up the gain!
Ah yes but it ain't THERMIONIC distortion!
Dave.
Thermionic? even I wouldn’t pay three grand for distortion.
Wonks wrote: ↑Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:15 am
It's almost like an ode to valves.
Three or five of them?
Just FYI. I have met and worked with for a short time, two very, very clever men who designed guitar amplifiers. One, sadly no longer with us was adamant that, although he used them (bloody well!) in his designs, valves were nothing special and the same OD qualities could be got from transistor circuits and later DSP.
The other chap, equally brilliant was in the and out and out "valves is best and cannot be simulated perfectly" camp.
Yer pays yer money. Then there is the third section that says, "No matter if you had an exact replica of Clapton's rig you would not have HIS hands"
ef37a wrote: ↑Sat Jan 29, 2022 3:36 pm
Yer pays yer money. Then there is the third section that says, "No matter if you had an exact replica of Clapton's rig you would not have HIS hands"
The landscape has changed, I spoke to a friend last night. he’s selling his Mesa Boogie Mark 3 60w Combo, 80’s job.
It’s got a line out, I’m thinking I can use this to record my synths, but it may be a bit OTT?
Reading the Mk III manual, the direct out (line out) has no speaker emulation, and is basically a variable output DI connected to the amp output. So it will sound very fizzy indeed with distortion.
The alternative is the effects send output, which is taken before the reverb, but again that will be very fizzy sounding. So, you'll need to pass the result of either through a cab sim, be it hardware or software, or a basic low pass filter, if you don't want the distortion to be too bright.
I was thinking that there surely should be a passive EQ on the market that can be put in the line output of an amp to give speaker emulation? Not so it seems and digging out the EMu circuit of the HT-DUAL I see it is quite complex. 4 op amp stages with a gyrator in a state variable filter. Might still do it with a few C&Rs and an inductor?
Still, with modern SMT should not be too costly. My preferred powering would be an on board battery rechargeable from a USB port/supply and a DC-DC converter to give decent rails and therefore good headroom.
The Mesa is incredibly noisy, I mean, really noisy.
It’s great at full tilt, sounds incredible, but thats no use to me, and my friend is selling it because he no longer plays live, and wants something more suited to playing at home.
Arpangel wrote: ↑Mon Jan 31, 2022 8:39 am
The Mesa is incredibly noisy, I mean, really noisy.
It’s great at full tilt, sounds incredible, but thats no use to me, and my friend is selling it because he no longer plays live, and wants something more suited to playing at home.
That is the Great Conundrum of the home recordist's world and one that I read constantly in forums. Goes like this...
Gigging musician has been playing for 20years + with his beloved 'Plexi', AC30 or indeed Mesa and then decides to get into some of this computer audio stuff. Stuff a mic in front of well travelled amp and, AT THE LEVELS HE CAN USE without waking the chavvy in the bedroom (why he came off the road!) the signal to noise ratio is bloody terrible!
There are of course several solutions. Get an amplifier that has been designed FROM THE GROUND UP to be low noise (spam forbids!) Get a power soak so you have a big signal then attenuate it along with the noise. Noise gates and of course, DSP and IR. None of these really satisfies. Do not sound or feel like 50-100W through a 4x12 but, them's physics! Cannot be done but you can get close.
ef37a wrote: ↑Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:21 am
Get an amplifier that has been designed FROM THE GROUND UP to be low noise (spam forbids!)
I don't think it's spam if you mention it in context, Dave, particularly as you no longer work there, and certainly not if you declare an interest. But either way, there's nothing stopping *me* pointing out for the benefit of others reading the thread that you're talking about Blackstar amps
On the subject of quiet amps, I recently had an impressive demo of a rather pricer model by Hamstead Soundworks, who are just down the road from me. Very quiet, switchable wattage, and some very lovely sounds... You'd have to be very serious to part with that amount of cash, but if you already have a big Mesa that's maybe not an insurmountable problem.
ef37a wrote: ↑Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:21 am
Get an amplifier that has been designed FROM THE GROUND UP to be low noise (spam forbids!)
I don't think it's spam if you mention it in context, Dave, particularly as you no longer work there, and certainly not if you declare an interest. But either way, there's nothing stopping *me* pointing out for the benefit of others reading the thread that you're talking about Blackstar amps
On the subject of quiet amps, I recently had an impressive demo of a rather pricer model by Hamstead Soundworks, who are just down the road from me. Very quiet, switchable wattage, and some very lovely sounds... You'd have to be very serious to part with that amount of cash, but if you already have a big Mesa that's maybe not an insurmountable problem.
Nice of you to say so Mix' and I am probably being over cautious but then I don't want peeps to think "Oh! 'Im and his ****** Bstar amplifiers!"
Specifically, the HT-5 is a very quiet amplifier and unlike most 5W* valve amps it uses a fixed biased, push pull output stage and thus overloads in a very similar way to the noisy monsters. The combination of balanced drive and op amps that give very low noise and NO hum allows the valve pre amp stage to work well above its intrinsic noise level. The late designer Bruce was almost OCD about keep noise levels low and I am sure Blackstar have continued that policy.
*And being FB, PP it can be driven to some 10 watts and thus can give a good account of itself when gigged with a suitable speaker system. And...
BEWARE OF CHEAP IMITATIONS!
