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I've run into this playing bass using an Origin Bassrig preamp. Even if there is an amp I want to use that just for monitoring and let the preamp DI straight to the FOH. This usually confuses the hell out of soundguys...
Ask me how I know all of this
It's far simpler to have the exact same setup as all the other bands without any of that hassle. There's also the fact that real speakers fundamentally sound better than IRs or profiled cabs.
High-gain rack preamp from the late 80s, most notably used by Nuno on Pornograffiti, but also Paul Gilbert, Skid Row and White Lion. Very unique-sounding, and nothing else has ever been made that quite sounds like them.
I go back and forth on the modeller thing a lot. Being a somewhat lazy person with awkward parking/load in & out at home and at venues I love the convenience of just taking a guitar and pedalboard. My problem is I'm a "compulsive A/B'er" and always compare the digital stuff to real amps, or have "does it sound/feel as good?" in the back of my mind. With a real amp there's no question if it sounds right because it's the real thing (for better or worse!), so it's one less thing to nag at my obsessive brain. I don't gig at the minute so I'm mostly just playing through NAM captures at home, but already thinking of getting a load box again so I can have the real thing.
I'm a big fan of Nembrini and I believe they do a very good emulation of one.
Is there anything they are especially good at. Is it kind of an 80's rawk thing?
Portsmouth FA cup final winners parade in 2008 - Marshall EL34 100 / 100 turned up so loud it sounded like 3 Marshalls rather than one. I played one chord through that massive PA and it sounded like the voice of God
Most of the time I'm on ears but a few times a year it's nice to whack an amp up and feel a bit of movement for once. i've used power attenuators and it's not the same thing ... it's not that different from lowering the pre amp output before it hits the power amp.
Things can carry outside but drums lose all their liveliness as there's nothing they can reflect back on. This means the snare will sound like a dead rat falling off a roof onto a dustbin lid and the hat and cymbals will lose all the high end as they lose energy quicker than lower frequencies. The Hat mic has all you need to keep in time with the kit so get that in your monitor.
Everyone knows you need much more than double that wattage to increase the volume just a little bit but outside that's even more so ... a little pub festival can sound loud with 2 x SRM450's and a couple of bins but double that area and now you need 20 x the power really.
- A really percussive, aggressive attack at higher gain
- That creamy sustains-forever compressed character from a lot of 80s solos
- A nice growly mid-to-high-gain rhythm tone if you're sensible with the gain
The yard is nothing but a fence, the sun just hurts my eyes...
There were 4 rack preamps that were popular around that time.
ADA MP1
Marshall JMP1
Mesa Triaxis
CAE 3+
Later the Bogner Fish.
I've owned the first 3 and like the ADA the most out of all of them.
I wanted to love the Triaxis but found it really noisy.
I likes the JMP1 the least.
Just had a look on t'Verb and the ADA is still up around £600.
Given Triaxes are still over a grand and the CAE and Bogner are well over £2k they are probably the one to go for.
Or just use an Axe FX III, which has all the preamp sounds you ever need.
After I sold the Triaxis I went for a Mesa Dual Rectifier Rackmount.
I stupidly sold that back in 2009- if I could find another one I'd buy it immediately.
The one I always wanted though was the Matchless preamp- there are only half a dozen or so of them about.
I think Neil Finn has one.
I don't know why more amps aren't rack mountable- it is the perfect format and they don't get damaged when in a hard/shock mounted case.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Football is rubbish.
Since then been down the rabbit hole. I currently have two pedal boards filled with pedals and have tried various modelers. I've got a few shows with a band this year, where I really want to be mobile and my pedalboards are quite heavy, so I'm hoping that my newly bought Helix is going to do the job. I've spend the last couple of days rewiring my pedalboard, used it at practice and thought there was something a bit odd about the tone (I suspect a cable somewhere),.. So now going to have to go through every cable replacing and checking again to see if there was a suspect or if it was my imagination... That is a pita.
Modeler wise, I'm finding so far that I prefer the helix into a real amp than going direct FOH with the Helix,.
The benefit for that is that I won't have some random fecking cable dying in the middle of gig or a pedal dying, and I can setup some patches for specific songs that will make life a bit easier. Also get the amp in the room feel from there being an amp in the room ...
This is negated by the fact that preset levelling is a dark art, and modelers do need dialing in to the room in the same way an amp/pedalboard does. Its' not as easy to do that I find, but again that could be just where i am with getting used to a modeler
The pedals do sound better to me, but the Helix etc aren't bad, and are perfectly usable.
I've never heard a modeler in a gig and thought it sounded 'better' than a valve amp. I've done loads of shows with bands who've used them and to me at least they don't sound a patch on the real thing.
Maybe for bigger gigs it's very different but in the smaller venues (with engineer etc) that has been my experience. Did a gig a few weeks ago, the other band on the bill had one amp and one modeler. The modeler sound horrible, and took twice as long to dial in for the soundcheck.
In the house and studio, I think Modelers win hands down. Its more convenient and easier to get a nice sound. Recording wise, Engineers will usually take a guitar DI feed as well as the mic'd amp
Last few recordings I've done, I'm not entirely sure how much is the amp and how much is the DI'd feed going through some software tbh.
To be honest, I can't say I noticed a difference in sound of their bands when they changed (in that I only noticed when I found myself looking on stage and thinking "where's their amp?")
Sometimes I do wonder why I'm humping my valve head and 2x12 around to gigs when something like a Helix would probably sound just as good, weigh next to nothing, and costs a similar amount. But so far I've stuck with the amp - I think partly because I just LIKE it and partly because a lot of the venues and events we play as a small local amateur band will only have vocal PA so I'd need to have some sort of decently powerful powered speaker, which partly negates the "one lightweight box" attraction (although I know a modern power amp and speaker isn't half as heavy as a valve amp+cab)
So...it's really that it costs the same as (or less than) the pedalboard, and you get your amp-esque stuff for free. Or you can keep your pedalboard, add the amp-esque stuff with a ToneX ONE for £180 and do away with the amp and cab (if you really want to).
EDIT: OK, just did a quick check of current used prices for my pedals - I was way under-estimating it when I said £250 - looks like it would cost me more than £400 to replace them now, so we're well over a grand for the amp+cab+pedals. That Helix is looking very good value. But I still like my big old amp