Attenuators: School me please

Jeremiah

Yeah, when I said 'that kind of thing' I meant attenuators that use a speaker motor, rather than the mini mass specifically. AFAIK Weber make one that goes up to 150 watts, but I don't have any amps over 12W so don't need that kind of power handling.

slate

p90fool;308943" said:

[quote="slate;308818"]p90fool said:

I have a Jettenuator, I don't think it's up to that level of power tbh.

whats the micsim output like into a DAW?

I haven't tried it tbh, I prefer the flexibility of mics.
[/quote]

digitalscream;308957" said:

p90fool said:

I have a Jettenuator, I don't think it's up to that level of power tbh.





It's designed to be able to handle the full output of a JCA100H, so I'd imagine it can...why not email JCA support? They'll get back to you within a day.




slate said:



p90fool said:

I have a Jettenuator, I don't think it's up to that level of power tbh.

whats the micsim output like into a DAW?
















The MicSim output is, really, a bit crap for recording but OK to get you out of the shit if something goes wrong.

Personally, I'd think it'd be far more useful and effective to run it with the line output (not the MicSim) into the DAW and then use impulses.

thanks guys :-)

custom1981

fastboy said:

ICBM said:

A friend of mine had an "Ultimate" "Attenuator". Something wasn't working right so I had a look at it... it was one of the worst-made rat's nests I've seen inside, and potentially hazardous to any amp of more than 50W which needs anything lower than a 16-ohm load.

It's not an attenuator, it's a simple load resistor coupled to a basic solid-state power amp, but that doesn't make for such impressive marketing copy...

Highly NOT recommended.

As above, it wasn't great but at the time a necessary evil. I actually changed to the power brake afterwards and because I was running the amp so hard I used a reverse boost in the loop for solos (unengage to get the volume boost). Much better tone. 

The ultimate attenuator sounded very solid state. 

I have cooked an ultimate attenuator.... and I had a THD Hotplate literally go up in smoke because the fan jammed and stopped working. I owned and liked the aracom and also thought the Marshall SE 100 was OK . I sold my aracom to someone on this forum cant remember who though .

cosmiccarrot

custom1981 said:

 I sold my aracom to someone on this forum cant remember who though .

(cough). Well pleased and built like a tank and not far off the same size. I bought Fastboys Rockcruser too! the rockcruser started to loose the highs a tad and go wolley, they give you eq options but I found using those led me in a different direction from my core tone? a well built piece of kit though. I found all amps work with different attenuators some better than others but ALL past a certain point fail to sound any good, you've got to try all the options yourself, everyone has their own opinion of what sound they want to hear, imo, forget youtube demos. Also make sure they can handle the load from your amp, there's a load of cheap looking attenuators round now that claim to 'tame your stack and restore your hair loss in seconds' tread carefully.
I was thinking of giving Scumback's reboxed version of the Alex a try too, heard loads of people praise the old Alex, shame he never exported them.

ICBM

I also think it's important to realise that the idea of setting your amp for a great full-volume tone and then turning down the attenuator to give the exact same sound but quieter is doomed to cause disappointment. It simply cannot work, not least because of the way your ears/brain perceive tone at different volume levels.

The best way to do it is to set the volume roughly with the attenuator *first*, then dial the amp in for that volume level and attenuation. If you do it that way round you can usually get better sounds at lower volumes - not the same as at high volume, but good. Use the attenuator as part of the dialling-in process and not as a quick fix afterwards.

prh777

I have a mesa mk v combo which I run through a Two Notes Torpedo reload for home use. Check out the specs. It has a power amp built in with a contour control so you adjust the sound for the effect of the lower volume on our ears. I mostly take the output into a Safire pro 26 then into Logic Pro X. They supply an AU plugin called World of Sound III which has some very good cab sims built in. It's a great setup because you can practise away then grab it quickly in Logic Pro if you find something you like.

custom1981

cosmiccarrot said:

custom1981 said:

 I sold my aracom to someone on this forum cant remember who though .

(cough). Well pleased and built like a tank and not far off the same size. I bought Fastboys Rockcruser too! the rockcruser started to loose the highs a tad and go wolley, they give you eq options but I found using those led me in a different direction from my core tone? a well built piece of kit though. I found all amps work with different attenuators some better than others but ALL past a certain point fail to sound any good, you've got to try all the options yourself, everyone has their own opinion of what sound they want to hear, imo, forget youtube demos. Also make sure they can handle the load from your amp, there's a load of cheap looking attenuators round now that claim to 'tame your stack and restore your hair loss in seconds' tread carefully.
I was thinking of giving Scumback's reboxed version of the Alex a try too, heard loads of people praise the old Alex, shame he never exported them.

Hi Nick... of course.  I was having a senior moment...I remember now.

cosmiccarrot

ICBM said:

I also think it's important to realise that the idea of setting your amp for a great full-volume tone and then turning down the attenuator to give the exact same sound but quieter is doomed to cause disappointment. It simply cannot work, not least because of the way your ears/brain perceive tone at different volume levels.

That's a good point, my first first mistake years ago was to put the attenuator in the chain and turn it down then just keep bumping up the amp volume. It's really a case of balancing the master as well as the pre and eq each time, using your fave settings and turning the attenuator down is nor going to give you like for like. I have to say my earlier ref to the rockcrushers eq options (to me) took on a whole new sku in tone, that was either on or off? and I personally like the amp to give me my tonal options or a good external graphic as an option if all else fails.

dunstanmus

10w mode on MKV is normally pretty good. Are you playing that quiet that your speaker is no longer efficient? You shouldn't need an attenuator. 

steveh

prh777 said:

I have a mesa mk v combo which I run through a Two Notes Torpedo reload for home use. Check out the specs. It has a power amp built in with a contour control so you adjust the sound for the effect of the lower volume on our ears.

The Two Notes Reload is essentially what the Ho/UA is - a reamper. The UA had a "bedroom switch" for low volume use. If the reviews are correct, the Reload is loads better than the UA/Ho though, and it has lots of facilities for recording.

The "newer" reactive attenuators (Faustine, Alex, Rockrusher, Aracom) are expensive but well worth it IMHO. I've been using the UK equivalent - a Sequis Elemental - that has both attenuation and a DI for FOH or recording (the DI murdered the Palmer PDI-03 I'd been using until then). Not sure if Sequis are still going but built like a tank and works very well indeed, right down to a gnat's fart. I can get a 50W TopHat Emplexador down to a whisper, no problems, and it sounds fine. That wasn't the case with simple "resistive" units I've tried.  

prh777

@steveh yep. It's an active/reactive load box as well. Works very well. It wi also run 4/8/16 ohms so will work with most amps. I liked the flexibility plus the re-amp functionality was a bonus.