Post by DefJef on Jan 12, 2020 17:38:08 GMT
I do believe that modeling has come a long way in emulating the characteristics of various amp's circuits. Whether they can then model the sound of certain speakers effectively and then play that through a full range full response (FRFR) speaker I have no idea. Perhaps that concept is moot if you are going straight into a DAW afterwards.
I've never enjoyed going direct into a computer but that may be because I find monitoring and playing that way a chore to set up and hate playing with headphones on. Even getting the computer to recognise an amp is usually a faff in itself and I've completely lost the urge to play whatever it was I had just come up with by the time I have sworn at the computer a few times and switched off and on again and open and closed and reopened and closed some software. Probably on my shoestring budget I'd never get a happy setup trying to do things that way.
It's good to hear that you ARE getting that breakup in your hybrid's preamp blindwilly3fingers . At home levels I wonder how little you are missing from having a sold state power section anyway? Even if they were tubes, at low levels they wouldn't be adding OD even if they were EL84s.
I think a lot of the charm of a valve amp in a room may be how it feels rather than how it records. And what that feeling does to your playing. The way the crunch, now that I can finally get some, also compresses the volume so that playing harder doesn't mean playing louder. I've never been impressed with a compressor's ability to do that. Then again I've only tried Boss products to do it.
I probably can't tell in the listening whether tubes or modelling or just solid state has been used though. I certainly wouldn't ever stake my life on being able to do so. I wonder if I could accept a challenge to be able to tell them apart if I was allowed to play them. I feel nervous now that I may not! I do know that the Katana's speaker and general characteristics as it comes out of the factory doesn't seem to feel big and tubey. I wonder though if I would think it was if I was told it was? I feel I might think it was a not very impressive tube amp with a bad speaker in it.
I have tried using a valve filled Blackstar HT Dual as a clean boost and it was no great shakes. I have tried using a valve filled Behringer MIC200 mic preamp in the same way (in fact I bought it to see if it could behave as a sort of valve preamp to my Fender Champ SE25) and, again, no. But this was again me expecting the valve preamp to do all the work. What I haven't tried, and this may be a fix for the Katana and some other solid state amps, is using the Blackstar HT Dual or the Behringer MIC200 with the Kokko pedal into THEM. Getting that tubey breakup before it even gets into the Katana's circuit. Hmm.
I've never enjoyed going direct into a computer but that may be because I find monitoring and playing that way a chore to set up and hate playing with headphones on. Even getting the computer to recognise an amp is usually a faff in itself and I've completely lost the urge to play whatever it was I had just come up with by the time I have sworn at the computer a few times and switched off and on again and open and closed and reopened and closed some software. Probably on my shoestring budget I'd never get a happy setup trying to do things that way.
It's good to hear that you ARE getting that breakup in your hybrid's preamp blindwilly3fingers . At home levels I wonder how little you are missing from having a sold state power section anyway? Even if they were tubes, at low levels they wouldn't be adding OD even if they were EL84s.
I think a lot of the charm of a valve amp in a room may be how it feels rather than how it records. And what that feeling does to your playing. The way the crunch, now that I can finally get some, also compresses the volume so that playing harder doesn't mean playing louder. I've never been impressed with a compressor's ability to do that. Then again I've only tried Boss products to do it.
I probably can't tell in the listening whether tubes or modelling or just solid state has been used though. I certainly wouldn't ever stake my life on being able to do so. I wonder if I could accept a challenge to be able to tell them apart if I was allowed to play them. I feel nervous now that I may not! I do know that the Katana's speaker and general characteristics as it comes out of the factory doesn't seem to feel big and tubey. I wonder though if I would think it was if I was told it was? I feel I might think it was a not very impressive tube amp with a bad speaker in it.
I have tried using a valve filled Blackstar HT Dual as a clean boost and it was no great shakes. I have tried using a valve filled Behringer MIC200 mic preamp in the same way (in fact I bought it to see if it could behave as a sort of valve preamp to my Fender Champ SE25) and, again, no. But this was again me expecting the valve preamp to do all the work. What I haven't tried, and this may be a fix for the Katana and some other solid state amps, is using the Blackstar HT Dual or the Behringer MIC200 with the Kokko pedal into THEM. Getting that tubey breakup before it even gets into the Katana's circuit. Hmm.