New Gear Day

[CrowsofFritz]

Rack is filling in.

Nice! I've never played around with the MPA, but I've heard good things. I just swapped out my PRO VLA II for a TransY this weekend, and I love this thing so far. ART makes good stuff.

Definitely. I read a Sound on Sound article where this ART preamp beat out a Neve 73 in a blind test. I know they’re two different things, but it just goes to show you don’t have to spend a lot to get a sound that people like.

[WhiskeyJack]

Nice! I've never played around with the MPA, but I've heard good things. I just swapped out my PRO VLA II for a TransY this weekend, and I love this thing so far. ART makes good stuff.

Definitely. I read a Sound on Sound article where this ART preamp beat out a Neve 73 in a blind test. I know they’re two different things, but it just goes to show you don’t have to spend a lot to get a sound that people like.

LOOKS AWESOME CROWS!!!!!

That is pretty remarkable! I'd love to read that article not only for myself but also to send it on to a few people I know who I think need to hear this stuff. I had to talk a buddy down off a ledge here a couple weeks ago, he was just about ready to drop some major $$$ on that Apollo heritage Edition Interface. The reasons he was giving me were just outrageous, but in his defense he is a newb and his logic checked out. Even still, i couldn't stand by and let someone drop gobs of cash on an interface just becasue it came with Neve preamp emulators and plugins that he can technically get for free elsewhere.

After a bit of back and forth he ended up getting the Presonus 26 input Rig and i saved him a few grand. Felt like i did a good deed haha.

[CrowsofFritz]

Definitely. I read a Sound on Sound article where this ART preamp beat out a Neve 73 in a blind test. I know they’re two different things, but it just goes to show you don’t have to spend a lot to get a sound that people like.

LOOKS AWESOME CROWS!!!!!

That is pretty remarkable! I'd love to read that article not only for myself but also to send it on to a few people I know who I think need to hear this stuff. I had to talk a buddy down off a ledge here a couple weeks ago, he was just about ready to drop some major $$$ on that Apollo heritage Edition Interface. The reasons he was giving me were just outrageous, but in his defense he is a newb and his logic checked out. Even still, i couldn't stand by and let someone drop gobs of cash on an interface just becasue it came with Neve preamp emulators and plugins that he can technically get for free elsewhere.

After a bit of back and forth he ended up getting the Presonus 26 input Rig and i saved him a few grand. Felt like i did a good deed haha.

Here’s the article!

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/preamp-post-mortem

[WhiskeyJack]

LOOKS AWESOME CROWS!!!!!

That is pretty remarkable! I'd love to read that article not only for myself but also to send it on to a few people I know who I think need to hear this stuff. I had to talk a buddy down off a ledge here a couple weeks ago, he was just about ready to drop some major $$$ on that Apollo heritage Edition Interface. The reasons he was giving me were just outrageous, but in his defense he is a newb and his logic checked out. Even still, i couldn't stand by and let someone drop gobs of cash on an interface just becasue it came with Neve preamp emulators and plugins that he can technically get for free elsewhere.

After a bit of back and forth he ended up getting the Presonus 26 input Rig and i saved him a few grand. Felt like i did a good deed haha.

Here’s the article!

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/preamp-post-mortem

Brilliant!!!

[Lt. Bob]

I read a Sound on Sound article where this ART preamp beat out a Neve 73 in a blind test. I know they’re two different things, but it just goes to show you don’t have to spend a lot to get a sound that people like.

Absolutely true ...... for Salty Balls the absolute best sound I've been able to get on my voice is by using my Peavy PV10 BT mixer as my pre-amp direct into the recorder.
Sounds better for this specific purpose that my ART ProChannel, which I really like actually.
Sometimes even cheap stuff has its own characteristic that fit better than superior gear in some situations.

[CrowsofFritz]

So I tried out this preamp (electric guitar) and the sound is a little bit better than the interface’s pres. I also experimented with the noise issue. I’ve found that if I orient myself perfectly, cut the high frequencies on the DI track while micing the electric guitar, I can still retain those highs while practically eliminate the noise completely.

[CrowsofFritz]

Micing the electric guitar as in no amp. Just the guitar.

[Lt. Bob]

Micing the electric guitar as in no amp. Just the guitar.

plugged into the interface right?
Not a mic stuck in front of an electric?

[CrowsofFritz]

Micing the electric guitar as in no amp. Just the guitar.

plugged into the interface right?
Not a mic stuck in front of an electric?

I have a DI into the interface and a mic a couple inches in front of an electric. The micd track sounds really tinny, of course, but when blended with the DI track that has the highs rolled off (14k and above) it sounds perfect.

[Tadpui]

plugged into the interface right?
Not a mic stuck in front of an electric?

I have a DI into the interface and a mic a couple inches in front of an electric. The micd track sounds really tinny, of course, but when blended with the DI track that has the highs rolled off (14k and above) it sounds perfect.

That's an interesting technique, and cool problem solving. So do you feed a blend of the DI and the mic track into your amp sim? Or blend the mic track into the output of the sim?

[CrowsofFritz]

I have a DI into the interface and a mic a couple inches in front of an electric. The micd track sounds really tinny, of course, but when blended with the DI track that has the highs rolled off (14k and above) it sounds perfect.

That's an interesting technique, and cool problem solving. So do you feed a blend of the DI and the mic track into your amp sim? Or blend the mic track into the output of the sim?

I haven’t experimented with amp sims yet. That will come next. Just the unaltered signals except for the low pass DI track.

[Greg_L]

Wait wait...you're miking an unplugged electric guitar and blending it with a DI track?

I gotta hear this. Post a clip!

[CrowsofFritz]

Wait wait...you're miking an unplugged electric guitar and blending it with a DI track?

I gotta hear this. Post a clip!

I’ll post the DI track in full. The DI track with the highs rolled off, and then the two tracks blended!

[CrowsofFritz]

Okay, the blended tracks sounded much better when I finger picked, because the mic track didn't pick up the loud sounds of the pick hitting the strings, but the results are still interesting. At least I don't have much noise when doing it.

[Greg_L]

That is really weird. It sounds like a mic'd amp with the volume so low you can hear the pick hitting the strings.

So that buzz...that's the noise you're talking about? Is that the guitar buzzing?

If that's a single coil guitar, well they buzz. That's just what they do. There's no real good way to get around it. That's why humbuckers were invented.

[CrowsofFritz]

That is really weird. It sounds like a mic'd amp with the volume so low you can hear the pick hitting the strings.

So that buzz...that's the noise you're talking about? Is that the guitar buzzing?

If that's a single coil guitar, well they buzz. That's just what they do. There's no real good way to get around it. That's why humbuckers were invented.

The buzz is from a grounding issue. I’m surprised the noise wasn’t so bad in this recording. If I switch to humbuckers, the noise gets worse from higher output.

[WhiskeyJack]

I have a DI into the interface and a mic a couple inches in front of an electric.

That is quite the interesting set up Crows. I'd never in a hundred years think to just mic an electric guitar. Unless it was maybe a hollow body or something maybe? Interesting results man. Curious to see what you do with this and where you take it.

[rayc]

It's a good experiment. If you can find a mic/plectrum/distance combo that's not too in your face you'd get something really useful.
This track has my Bruno guitar mic'd at the same times as it's going through and FX unit - two tracks in one take...the FX is the synthy sound in the background.The "acoustic" recording is fairly upfront. This guitar does, to me, sound nice unplugged.

[CrowsofFritz]

Plugged in patch cables for the first time in 10 years. Feel right at home.

[CrowsofFritz]

It's a good experiment. If you can find a mic/plectrum/distance combo that's not too in your face you'd get something really useful.
This track has my Bruno guitar mic'd at the same times as it's going through and FX unit - two tracks in one take...the FX is the synthy sound in the background.The "acoustic" recording is fairly upfront. This guitar does, to me, sound nice unplugged.

Do you remember how far away the mic was?