You *can* record valve amps at a quiet volume yknow...

Drew_TNBD

So in my recent question to find myself a better writing workflow, recording valve amps at low volume has cropped up. I've done it a few times in the past and was never entirely satisfied with the results. But EQ changes and microphone placement matter a lot.

For writing, this sort of thing is more than usable:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/630473/GearDemos/Fryette Sig X/AutomaticWriting3.mp3

It is a little fizzy to be sure, but this is recorded at a volume you can speak over. You can even hear the microphone picking up my channel switcher when I click them. This is a 100-watt valve amp, and for capturing ideas, it works really well at these volumes.

Remember, all you're doing this for is to capture riffs, and later on you can loop them, re learn them, and record them to a click.

Anyways... just a point I thought I'd raise.

randomhandclaps

Having recorded hundreds of different amps over a fair few years I have never found actual volume to be a deciding factor.  When forced and necessitated to record quietly then noise floor is by far the bigger issue.  That then also become tone dependent as we accept more noise in a driven tones than a clean one.

Amp are getting quieter and quieter with respect to noise floor and power points cleaner so I don't think recording volume is a significant issue anymore.  I personally would always sooner select a louder/big amp running on one than any of the small home friendly amps.

digitalscream

I think it depends entirely on the amp and the speaker(s) you're using. All valve amps seem to have that point on the volume control where suddenly switch from "yeah, this is pretty good" to "AWESOME!"; for some, it's fairly high (I find a lot of Marshall amps to be like that, and Jet City are the same) while for others (like my Decatone) it's actually quite low but still in the realms of playing at home.

As for speakers...inefficient speakers are a godsend here. Down in the 94dB-97dB sensitivity range you're still going to be able to get the "boom" feel without having men with clipboards knocking at your door. Use V30s or Wizards, and it's pretty much impossible to achieve that at reasonable volumes.

Deijavoo

Codswallop! That's why you need amps that go to 11 and a cab to make your trousers flap.

In all honesty I totally agree.

guitarfishbay

digitalscream said:

As for speakers...inefficient speakers are a godsend here. Down in the 94dB-97dB sensitivity range you're still going to be able to get the "boom" feel without having men with clipboards knocking at your door. Use V30s or Wizards, and it's pretty much impossible to achieve that at reasonable volumes.

If by boom you mean low end thump then it is surely volume and speaker voicing dependent more so than speaker sensitivity dependent.

V30s don't have the low end extension of say a T75, to get a similar level of boom with the same amp settings you'd need more volume in theory.

I reckon you can get good tones with V30s at lower volumes but it depends on the amp.  V30s work well with a lot of amps but some amps just don't like them at all and hence you get that poke you in the face too much mid sound that feels 'bright' even though there's not a lot of treble compared to most other speakers.

Jalapeno

I believe Sir Brian of May still records using his Deacey - a weeny thing housed in an old hifi speaker cab.

Albeit a solid state amp, which makes it irrelevant to this thread .....

I think I'll go now .....

ThePrettyDamned

I agree.  

It's fizzier, and not as full, but it's functional and often better than cheaper software alternatives.  

However, when recording my amp (admittedly, a cheap solid state amp), at low volume drive tones record SO POORLY, it sounds very dry.  I'm not exactly a sound engineer, but it's quite harsh, even with no clipping in software.  Once the volume is up, I lower the mic gain and it's much warmer and fuller sounding. It doesn't even need to be *that* loud, but loud enough that you'd not talk over it so much as talk 'quite loudly' over it. 

Fair to say my tone is far inferior to yours, and my playing, but the same principles apply to all amps I think - there is a minimum volume for me where it becomes much easier to get acceptable results than the 'talk over' volume. 

Danny1969

I think I prefer something like a tonelab di'ed rather than have to record at too low a volume, For remembering riffs I just use my phone. 

A friend of mine is a session player and he's getting good results with his Wizard and Friedman  through  an iso cab in his flat,