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Re: RME Firewire 800 and Guitar Amp Sim - Preamps
Thanks, Luca. Wow, you have really tried a
lot of gear. I will likely wait until I get the FW400 before I rush into
anything for much of the same reason you explain below. Jeff Kaiser keeps
telling me to just wait and see what my guitar sounds like when I plug
directly into the high qaulity inserts and preamps of the FW400. He thinks
I will be pleasantly surprised, and I may well be. The less gear I can get
away with using to get my ideal sound, the better.
Just for reference, I like a very dark, warm, and
"semi" clean jazz tone. With 95% of the amps or preamps I have used, I tend to
turn the high end nobs down to 0% or at the most 25%, mid range about 45%, and
low end anywhere between 50% to 80%. That generally gets me the EQ I
like. I would say I don't like a flat frequency response, then, in my sound
source. The rest is the "tubeness" of the sound...whether it breaks up a
bit if I pick hard (not as much as Scofield, however), it's "sponginess"
(opposite of what I hear with guitarists like Mike Stearn running through SS
amps), and so on...all hard to define characteristics.
I can typically never get this sound when I plug
into a mixer board, because the mixer is just re-producing what it gets, which
is not what I want. In general, unless we are talking about full bodied jazz
hollow body guitara and acoustics, I dislike the sound of the electric guitar
direct into a board....it sounds dry, lifeless, and sterile to me, for obvious
reasons since the sound source is basically a piece of solid wood with a
magnetic pickup. Something I wrote to Kaiser last night. Take my extreme
phrases lightly, as I was frustrated when I wrote the email, but I stick to the
general "spirit" of the message regarding the solid body electric as an original
sound source:
"Guitar is very, very tricky. A lot of people
don't understand that the electric guitar and guitar amp (especially the tube
amp) evolved together. The electric guitar by itself is basically a piece of
wood with a pickup and strings on it....sounds like total crap when you run it
through a regular line input or mixer board, etc. So with the guitar, it
is a fallacy to focus on fidelity of caputuring the sound of the sound source,
unless we are talking about the tube amp as the source, because the electric
guitar as a original sound source is pathetic. And this is unlike the acoustic,
which is a different animal"
I like this idea of the electric guitar and guitar
amp being a mutual evolution over the years. It explains why so many guitarists
get so frustrated with trying to get a decent guitar sound without an
amp.
Kris
----- Original Message -----
=
> Hi
Kris,
> you may consider me crazy but since at least 10 years I play with
no
> speaker simulators at all.
> When I play live I go direct into
the converter ( FF400) just after
> having passed an overdrive, a
compressor and a volume pedal.
> The outputs of the FF go direct to
PA.
> When I record i have a few preamps to place before the converter to
have
> a certain sound or to add what you call the tube drive/compression
you
> get when playing harder.
> If I need to tweak the sound of a
track I prefer re-preamping than
> record with a preamp placed between my
rig and the recording converter;
> this way I keep all options
available.
>
> I think that preamps are the item I checked more
during the last 15 years.
> I tried all the Mesa, Ada, Alembic, Swr,
Ampeg, Brunetti, Hughes &
> Kettner, Soldano, Trace Elliott, Sansamp,
Carvin, Pod, Vox Tonelab,
> Summit, Avalon ...
> I still have my
old Alembic F2-b, Mesa Boogie Studio pre and Spl
> Gainstation 1.
>
1st thing I noticed: most guitar preamps are pumping the mids in a way
>
that even if you cut all of them you can't get a good "flat" signal.
> 2nd
thing: bass preamps are usually more sensitive, natural and wide in
>
frequency range.
> 3rd thing: most voice channels that offer a DI input
are usually darker
> sounding.
> 4th thing: a good preamp can go
direct to board and allow you to tweak
> your guitar later in the
processing ( if you like).
>
> All my albums have been made with
this system, being them ambient or
> rock or jazzy or ....
>
> I think that the ideal preamp ( don't forget pickups) has to be natural
> sounding, replicating the real, acoustic sound and character of your
> electric guitar.
> I look for wideness ( in the frequency range),
dynamic sensitivity, the
> right amount of thickness and that subtle
valve deepness that valves can
> deliver.
>
> Most of the
speaker emulators I tried are just equalizers, in fact I
> think that
speaker emulators are just a clever way to steal money ( I am
> not
talking of those speaker emulators you place on the outputs of a
> real
power amp).
>
> So I encourage you to look for those things you
really need a preamp for
> that are gain, dynamics, wideness ... so that
you still have ALL you
> original sound.
> You can always cut and
eq.
>
> my 2 eurocents ;-)
>
> luca
> www.unguitar.com>
>
> Krispen Hartung wrote:
>
>> Can anyone comment on the
speaker emulation filter and tube
>> sim/limiter of the FW800? Someone
on the Max/MSP list commented that
>> it was one of the best amp sims
they've used. See below. Is any other
>> high end firewire audio
interface offering ann amp sim?
>>
>> I am now focusing
on how I can get the most natural electric
>> guitar/tube amp sound on
my system, BEFORE going into the laptop (so,
>> no tube amp VSTs,
etc). I need to do it with the audio interface, or
>> by adding a real
tube amp or high end tube amp simulator (hardware)
>>
>> Kris
>>
>>
>>
>>
"The FireFace 800's Hi-Z instrument input offers a soft-limiter, which
>> has been tuned especially for musical instruments. Due to a soft
>> transition and deliberate creation of harmonics, the input signal
is
>> compressed steplessly according to taste, or the limiter can be
used
>> for distortion with tube sound. Activate the Drive circuit too
for
>> broad guitar distortion. The Speaker Emulation filter, which
can also
>> be switched on separately, takes low- and high-frequency
disturbances
>> away and guarantees an optimal basic sound even when
recording
>> directly into the computer, or when monitoring through a
mixing console. "
>>
>>
>>
>>
**************************************************************************
>>
Krispen Hartung
>> www.krispenhartung.com
<http://www.krispenhartung.com> /
>> www.myspace.com/krispenhartung <http://www.myspace.com/krispenhartung>
>> Performance Calendar:
>> http://www.musi-cal.com/search?performers=Krispen%20Hartung>> info@krispenhartung.com
<mailto:info@krispenhartung.com> /
1.208.724.5603
>> Discography - http://www.krispenhartung.com/catalogue.htm>> CD Baby Discography: http://cdbaby.com/all/khartung>>
>>
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