Your ears are required!!

Paolo_M

Some of you may have seen my amp build thread.
Well I've driving myself nuts for the past couple of weeks tweaking this and that, it's becoming hard to see the woods from the trees at this stage!!

http://www.netmusicians.org/files/49-First%20amp%20demo%20classic%20rock.mp3


I'd really appreciate your opinion on this tone.
It's the OD channel set as follows:
Gain = 4
Bass = 5
Mid = 7
Treb = 5
Master = 2.5
Presence = 4
Res = .5
Mid boost = off
Fat/Tight switch = fat (listening back the clip seems to be right at the point where the tight should be engaged to prevent a flabby bottom but see what you think)

I'm using my Les Paul with the JB bridge pickup. The strings are months old, spent too much time in this goddam amp!!

A G12H is miked with a Beta 57, close and midway between cone and edge 'cos I don't know any better.

I added a touch of reverb afterwards and a touch of compression to squeeze a bit more volume (that also increase the noise a little but it's still not bad for a high gainer I think).
Other than that there are no other effects or pedals used in the making of this clip.

It's supposed to be a kind of hot rodded Marshall / Soldano type classic 80s rock type tone with my own flavour thrown in.
The OD now is nothing like the SLO circuit wise now, but I hope I haven't gone too far from the beaten track on this.

I'll make some more clips on the clean channel, some bluesy stuff and some proper high gain metal stuff later in the week.

Again I'd appreciate your input.

stephenshields2

Paolo_M wrote: »

I'll make some more clips on the clean channel, some bluesy stuff and some proper high gain metal stuff later in the week.

Again I'd appreciate your input.

Oh yeah man, now your talking! When your doing the high gain stuff, would you be good enough to do it without a tubescreamer/overdrive first, and then maybe try it with one and see how awesome it sounds!

Your rock tone is good man, I still cant believe you built that amp yourself...

Dord

Sounds excellent Paolo! :cool: It really nails that classic rock tone.

We had a meetup recently with far too many amps, guitars and effects... and we were talking about your amps for a while. You should try come up to the "Big Schmoke" for the next one with one of your amps. You'd be more than welcome.

slavetothegrind

sounds nice to me!
i'd buy that for a dollar...or a few hundred...;)

Alanstrainor

Sounds bloody sweet!
You are coming to the next meet up. No excuses:D

Sandvich

Really great sound.

Paolo_M

stephenshields2 wrote: »

Oh yeah man, now your talking! When your doing the high gain stuff, would you be good enough to do it without a tubescreamer/overdrive first, and then maybe try it with one and see how awesome it sounds!

Your rock tone is good man, I still cant believe you built that amp yourself...

Yup, I use a Boss SD2 as a clean boost. I'll make to do one with and without.
I've also got a MXR10 for the loop and it can do a real convincing Mark series scoop. I'll do a clip with that too.

Dord wrote: »

Sounds excellent Paolo! :cool: It really nails that classic rock tone.

We had a meetup recently with far too many amps, guitars and effects... and we were talking about your amps for a while. You should try come up to the "Big Schmoke" for the next one with one of your amps. You'd be more than welcome.

Sure I'd love too.
I'm actually a Dub myself from near Perrystown. Pretty much a Cork laaaaaad by now though.
Let us know when the next one is.

slavetothegrind wrote: »

sounds nice to me!
i'd buy that for a dollar...or a few hundred...;)

Cheers, glad you liked it.

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Sounds bloody sweet!
You are coming to the next meet up. No excuses:D

Hey, just name a time and date and I'm there. I'll bring the '64 AC50 and maybe a vintage Marshall too.

Next time why doesn't someone bring a few mikes and make some boards.ie clips or has that already been done?

Sandvich wrote: »

Really great sound.

Cheers mate.

Dord

Paolo_M wrote: »

Sure I'd love too.
I'm actually a Dub myself from near Perrystown. Pretty much a Cork laaaaaad by now though.
Let us know when the next one is.

Hey, just name a time and date and I'm there. I'll bring the '64 AC50 and maybe a vintage Marshall too.

Next time why doesn't someone bring a few mikes and make some boards.ie clips or has that already been done?

Haha, I'll refrain from making more comments on the Cark thing then. :pac:

Sweet! I'm sure those sound killer! I've given you access to the forum anyways. You should have a PM.

We haven't done that yet, but it sounds like a good idea. I have a Zoom H4 I could bring along... and a few mikes (Sennheiser E606 & Blue Ball). Also I'm working on building some mics now, but they're lo-fi sounding.

Miklos

Sounding pretty serious! Not really a tone I'd go for but it really nails it, you should be dead proud.

zafo

Dord wrote: »

Haha, I'll refrain from making more comments on the Cark thing then. :pac:

Sweet! I'm sure those sound killer! I've given you access to the forum anyways. You should have a PM.

We haven't done that yet, but it sounds like a good idea. I have a Zoom H4 I could bring along... and a few mikes (Sennheiser E606 & Blue Ball). Also I'm working on building some mics now, but they're lo-fi sounding.

Sorry if I'm going off topic a bit here but I could tag along with Boycie next time and bring a few mics and that if yas want? Maybe a few pedals too if that's allowed?

Gonna be based in Dublin in a few weeks...

Paolo_M

Had a crack this evening of double tracking the amp with a simple loop from Grarageband. This is riff we are working on in my band and this is pretty much the way I dial my amp in for it.
I know the loop is lame but I wanted to give you an idea of the tone in some kind of mix senario.
There's also some timing "errors" on my behalf as I threw it together real quick.

http://www.netmusicians.org/files/15-Hard%20Rock%20Tone.mp3

What do ya reckon?

Parsley

i think it sounds pretty damn tasty.

FarmerGreen

That sounds fantastic.
Saved yourself a few hundred quid and a maintenance problem as well.
Nice.

Paolo_M

Lads,

Been beavering away with 'oul soldering iron since and also been working a bit on miking technique and recording stuff.

I've decided to try and give the amp a fairly unique voicing. I started following my ears as opposed to copying a schematic.

Anyways, here's a clip of some heavy stuff.
It's quad tracked (two on the V30 and two on the G12H) and the playing isn't as tight as it probably should for this, but I knocked it together in 20 mins this morning. The riff was just made up on the spot too.

The amp settings are:
Gain = 7
Bass = 6
Midz = 4
Trebz = 7
Master = 1.5
Res = 3
Pres = 4
Fat Switch = on
Mid boost = off
Modern power mode
Choke engaged

And no boost or any other kind of pedal and I'm using my tobacco burst Les Paul with the stock burstbuckers. It's tuned down a half step and then dropped C sharp. (There doesn't appear to be a hash sign on my mac keyboard?)

Lemme know what you think.

http://www.netmusicians.org/files/39-Heavy%20Riff%20July%208th.mp3

68 lost souls

That sounds great. Takes the squeels really well. Nice high gain

Paolo_M

68 lost souls wrote: »

That sounds great. Takes the squeels really well. Nice high gain

I'm struggled to capture the lows properly though.
I understand the proximity effect, these clips are right up to the grill and mix of edge of cone for low midz, and around centre for upper midz and grit.
That amp was shaking my jeans leg with the low end here but I couldn't seem to find a mike position to capture it.
Wouldn't need the lows with a bass anyway (in fact I'd be high passing what I have) but I'd like to able to capture it anyway.

Anyone any ideas?

68 lost souls

I know to capture a bass poroperly one trick is a 57 side on for mids/highs and a kick drum mic straight on for low end. Something like that might work well for your amp as well but Im not 100%. If you have a kick mic around it might be worth trying. A D112 or a 602 or 902 migh tbe worth a try if you have one lying around.

FarmerGreen

Paolo_M wrote: »

I'm struggled to capture the lows properly though.
I understand the proximity effect, these clips are right up to the grill and mix of edge of cone for low midz, and around centre for upper midz and grit.
That amp was shaking my jeans leg with the low end here but I couldn't seem to find a mike position to capture it.
Wouldn't need the lows with a bass anyway (in fact I'd be high passing what I have) but I'd like to able to capture it anyway.

Anyone any ideas?

Not that i know what I'm talking about but, most mics dont need a low frequency response.
I think I would use an ext speaker out to one channel, turn the EQs down to just keep the bass.
Mic in to channel 2.
Sounds pretty damned impressive as it is!