Home Studio: IK Multimedia Amplitube 3 plugin - first contact

Introduction

Note: this entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around February 2010. I am revisiting it here, with added comments.

Alright!, the "Tone King", as IK Multimedia's guys name it, took a while to be ready but, it was finally released and, I've got it, downloaded to my PC and in testing phase.


Major enhancements?

Respect of Amplitube 2, I think that Amplitube 3 shines specially in two areas:

• Dynamics of amps and effects models
• Micking system for cabs and speakers

For sure, there lot of other minor enhancements but, in my opinion, those are the two new things that worth the upgrade from Amplitube 2, hands on.



Cab / Speakers control

This new area of Amplitube 3 is simply awesome.
Not a new idea, indeed; Sweeden company Softube already developed a virtual system of micking amps, in their amp simulation plugins. I always wanted to buy Softube' stuff but, I've found their products expensive enough and, even more taken into account the short list of amp models included in each plugin.

Now, it is posible to apply this new virtual micking system to all your well known amp models, as well as the few new models that came with this new version.
A wonderfull way to suit the sound to your like.
Just swap the mics and the sound changes. Move any mic around and the sound changes.
Typical phase cancellation issues occurs, as in the real world and, this is not necesarely bad, since it can help you to remove unwanted extreme frequencies or even get some weird and freaky effect.
You can select the output level of each mic, as well as its panoramization in the stereo image.
Additionally to this, there are two ambient mics but, for those, you can just change the gap between both, what wides or narrows the stereo ambience.
It also includes 4 convolutive ambience models, to emulate rooms of different sizes.
Those two mics can be mixed together with the cab's mics to taste, helping to make the amp simulator to sound as real as in a recording sesion.

I think IK Multimedia did an awesome work here but, to be perfect, I would like this plugin to have the possibiliy to route each mic to an independent track or bus in your DAW.
In that way, you could process individually each mic, even with different audio processors, depending on the needs.
Currently the micking system gives to you infinite possibilities to sculpt your amp' sound to taste but, that additional control over different tracks in the DAW would give to IK Multimedia the real name of "King of Tone".

Dynamics

One of the things that were very clear in Amplitube 2 amp and effect models was a real lack of dynamics. Models response was very uniform and independent of your picking stregth. Models were sounding overall good but, with a complete lack of sensibility respect of your picking technique.
In this new version, amp models have a very dynamic respnse. To play lightly can put the sound under the tube break-up point and, picking hard you can make the "valve" to explode in harmonics, like in real amps.

Effects are also more sensible and, knobs are really responsive and closer to real world. Now, they make real changes in the pedal effect, while in Amplitube 2 each knob had just 3 positions: right, middle and left.

Amp models

Most of the amp models are those that were already included in following packs: Amplitube 2, Jimi Hendrix and Amplitube Metal. Some of models disapeared but, most of them are there.
As new, some Orange (OR30, if memory doesn't fail), some other version of a Vox AC30 (copper pannel), a Mesa Boggie MKIII, three new bass amplifiers (very nice to escape from Ampeg, from time to time!) and, very few else.
Any other Amplitube's pack that you had installed continues working fine but, this time integrated in Amplitube 3 and, with all those enhancements already discussed above.

X-Gear follows working flawless but, it makes more sense to use the new, clearer and powerfuller interface of Amplitube 3.
I am missing some mythical amps of several makers as:

• Hiwatt
• Conford
• Matchless
• Bogner
• Soldano
• Diezel
• Dumble
• Dr. Z

I can fully understand the huge amount of work that is behind modeling each amp, effect, cab, speaker, rack effect that comes included and, that price of boutique amps and effects is really high but, to be the real King of Tone, you need the Kings of Amps, vintage and modern. Period.

Something I don't like about the plugin and drives me crazy with some amp models (very specially, AC30 ones) is that there is no way to select a "pure" amp and tweak its controls. You have several versions of an amp: Clean, Crunch, etc and, for each one, some knobs are available, some don't so, there is no way to work on the whole pannel of your amp, switching the channel and tweaking each knob as in real world.
Even that the different "sides" of an amp do the job, it seems an unnatural way of doing things.

Cabs and speakers

In this version, you can clearly see which cab mounts each amp so, it's very easy to test different cabs and learn which cab better matches which amp, when looking for that tone.
This, together with the micking subsystem, brings to you huge oportunities to catch your tone.

It would be just DA BOMB if, for each cab you could choose the speakers and their configuration (parallel, series, X, etc).
This area was really nicely enhanced and I love the changes!.

Automatization

More or less, equal to Amplitube 2 but, made way easier.
There is a knob named AUTO where you assign each knob or characteristic (bypass, mute, gain, tone, etc.) to some parameter. In other place, you assign a pedal, effect or whatever to such a parameter. Then, you can use the possibilites of automatization inside your DAW, by example, to activate or deactivate some effect during reproduction.
By the way, the most interesting from the point of view of playing would be to have some kind of controller to do it in real time. I think IK Multimedia will release son control pedalboard for Amplitube 3, around June 2010, what would be nice.

Today, it's possible to work with other units but, they are both, audio interfaces and controllers. I don't need audio interfaces, because I've got mine, or superior quality.


Conclusions

For an user that already has all Amplitube 2 packs... worths it the change?.
ABSOLUTELLY YES!.
All the micking subsystem opens a new borad horizont in the ways you can modelate the sound within Amplitube 3. This is the Key Stone of this new version.
Even that most of amps were already available in several Amplitube 2 packs, now all them have a more authentic behavior, more "real", dynamic and responsive and, the micking system makes them more convincent.

For new users, price tag can be a bit too much but, a crossgrade or upgrade still have an attractive price as to move on this. For new users that have to choose between version 3 or old version 2 packs, if they were interested in more than one version 2 pack (what's very probable), it's better to go for version 3.

Amplitube Fender and Amplitube Ampeg AREN'T included in Amplitube 3, because they had already most of the modeling technology that has been used later to re-modelate gear in Amplitube 3.
If you already have those, you can still benefite of the enhancement of the cab and mic subsystems.

In my honest opinion, for the price tag of this new Amplitube version, all the old packs should be included by default, leaving for the future new packs to include those boutique amps that I am always missing in Amplitube plugins.

The micking subsystem would be perfect with an individual routing of each independent mic to a separate track of your DAW.

The possibility to record the clean signal y one single track and, all the automatisms of the pedalboard in a separate track could be of real utility for live playing, as well as for live recordings, with the possibility of giving a final touch later, in the mix.

So, in my opinion an awesome PRINCE but, still not a KING.
Dont' be fooled, this is a GREAT PRODUCT but, once you see all those new possibilites, you start to think that they could probably went some steps further.
IK Multimedia people is doing it REALLY GOOD so, let wait for new enhancements!.

Pedals: Wampler Tweed '57 in depth testing

Introduction

Probably, this is the pedal from Wampler that drove me crazy for a longer time. I wasn't sure how to achieve my "Tweed" sound, until I've carefuller read the user's manual.
This pedal is tricky, indeed. To know which goals were behind its design and, how Brian Wampler designed the controls to work to let you achieve your wanted Tweed sound, is key to get the best from this pedal.

Once, I've understood how every control works (despite of its name), things were way easier.
I would like to share with you my experience tweaking this pedal, with an in-depth demo that you can watch in the video attached at the end.


The Tweed Sound

 Firstly, we need to understand that there is not such a Tweed sound. Tweed amps were those early Fender amps with a cream colored cotton twill and a circuitry slightly different to the ones designed for Blackface Fenders (with black tolex). I think the main change was in the negative feedback circuit implemented for Blackfaces that gave them a compresser and thicker sound.

Maybe, there are some common characteristics behind all Tweed era amps. Most have a very mid ranged voice, more in the dark side than in the bright side. They were very dynamic, getting all the nuances of your picking technique and driving he tubes accordingly. The overall sound was warm and silky, with nice harmonics in the tube break up borders and with a dense saggy basses when pushed really hard.

Some of the models you can think on are: the Bassman, Champ, Deluxe and Twin, by example. All sizes, paired with different cabs and speakers, different power, slight differences in circuitry or tubes... so... they were all similar but different, at the end.

When you as for the Tweed sound, everyone has it's own in mind and, that depends on which one made the job for him. From low powered studio combos with single 10" or 12" speaker to powerfuller heads paired with a 4x12" or 4x10" cab. Mounted speakers have also a clear impact in the sound, depending on if they were ElectroVoice or Jensen, by example, or which models were used.

So, to make a Tweed sounding pedal has a wrong starting point for design, since there is not such a thing, there is not just a single and clearly defined Tweed sound.


Brian Wampler's approach

Brian wanted to bring together all those Tweed sounds and, make a pedal versatile enough to be able to emulate the different Tweed models and their differently paired cabs and speakers.
That was a very ambitious project but, If successful, could leave to each player to exactly nail the Tweed tone he was after.

And how Brian designed pedal's controls to achieve this goals?. That's the key to get the best from this pedal. Let explain it a bit.

The key Knob is the Middle one. Forget for a while that has a clear impact on the notch frequency around which middle frequencies are being bumped. Imagine it as a Tweed model selector and, move that knob until you hear the foundational tone of that Tweed you have in mind.
For sure, you will have to revisit this knob several times, while working with rest of controls, since there is a high interaction between all them but, you get the idea...

Now, think on the Treble knob as if it was an speaker selector. Small speakers had a higher projection of trebles so, move it to right hand if you are after that kind of speakers or, move it to left hand if you are after bigger speakers.

Then, think on the Bass knob as the cab selector. Small combos will have a cab that projects less basses and, very specially if its mounting a single 10" speaker so, move that knob to left hand if you are after such a kind of cab. Big cabs and, very specially closed back ones, projected powerfull basses so, move that knob to your right hand if you are after such a kind of cab.

Sure, those three tone shaping knobs work closely together (and affect and are affected also by the Gain knob) so, it would take a while of revisiting all them together to leave you were you wanted but, I am very positive that you will get what you were after.

Now, the Gain knob. Maybe, this is the knob where I find I would like more clean headroom and a smoother transition between clean, break up and distortion.
In my opinion, the Gain at minimum gives the only "clean" this pedal has and, it's a dirty clean anyway. But, that's ok. I always heard those Tweed cleans as warm broken-cleans with nice and full harmonics.
If you are planning to use the Tweed '57 just to shape your overall tone, I like the gain at minimum, because, it just colors the signal and leaves you to stack any pedal before, as if you were playing in front a Tweed.
That broken cleans sound as heaven and are very dynamic and responsive to your picking technique.

Pedal cleans really nice with your guitar's knob, specially in normal and bright channels and, not so good in the linked option. This allows you to work a la old school and therefore, setting your Tweed pedal to the maximum gain you will need and, regulate the break up level with the help of your guitar's knob, in a way quite similar as you'd do in a real amp of that time.

Last tone shaping control that Brian implemented is the Input Simulator. Most of Tweed amps had two channels (with a pair of inputs each one), that were named Normal and Bright. The behaviour and particular voice of such a channels is being reproduced in this pedal unit so, they make a clear difference when you switch the Input Simulator to one or the other.
Finally, a very common practice those days was to jumper both channels together (by example, from input 2 of normal channel to input 1 of bright channel) so you've got a thicker and complexer voice. This is being reproduced with the Linked option of the Input Simulator.

So, you have there all the tools to achieve your wanted Tweed sound and, now, you know how controls were planned to work to get the right results.

Do this pedal achieve Tweed sounds?.
I cannot really answer that, since all tweeds I've heard were owned by others and, even that you can hear those in lots of recordings, you know that studio work masks the real thing so, I really don't know.
What I can say is that this pedal sounds purely awesome (once you understand how it works) and, it delivers wonderful sounds and, leaves my to get the Tweed I have in my mind (that shouldn't necessarily be your Tweed!).


The Video

The sound is better to hear than to explain. This video discusses a bit what was already discussed above in the blog entry and, starts demoing how he different controls help to achieve the tone, as described above.
Finally, an small channel by channel comparison.
It's around 30 mins long so, get your pop corns a beer, relax, push the volume button and watch it or, leave it for when you have time.

Pedals: Wampler '57 Tweed and Wampler Leviathan Fuzz

Introduction

As a Wampler's fan, I am interested on every pedal that Brian Wampler makes, even that I recognize that not all its pedals are workhorses for each song or gig.
Wampler has a line of awesome all purpose pedals, as the Euphoria OD, the Sovereign Distortion, Faux Tape Echo, EGO Compressor, Nirvana Chorus and, even the Paisley OD.
But, it also has a line of one pony trip pedals, that are after nailing a particular sound, like the Pinnacle, Plextortion, SLOstortion, Blackface, Triple Wreck, etc.

Well, the '57 Tweed is some kind of amp-in-a-box, like the Plexi Drive and, a pedal that is being designed to be at the end of your gain chain, to give that color to your sound as if you were playing into a Fender Tweed amp and, this is a bit complex, since under the Tweed umbrella we can find different amps (Bassman, Champ, Deluxe, Twin...) and, despite that all them have a warm and saggy voice, not all them have the same headroom or break up character.
So, firstly, is there a Tweed sound?. I am sure the answer is not. If you ask for the Tweed sound you will get a different answer, depending on which of the Tweed amps that particular person liked more (a Bassman with a 4x10" cab, a Tweed Champ, ...) but, there are some characteristic that could be common to all them and, in my opinion, I think that's what Brian Wampler tried to catch in this pedal, providing a wide range of gain, three different channels (normal, brigth and bridged) and a complete tone stack that follows the behaviour of the tone stack in those amps.

Then, we have the Leviathan fuzz. As per Brian descriptions, this is fuzz designed from scratch and, that tries to cover every kind of fuzz and go beyond. One of the things that can surprise you more is that the clipping is achieved with diodes, instead of transistors (classic) or IC chips (as moderner takes).
An ambitious project, trying to cover all the ground but, without being based in any old or modern fuzz and, removing all the impedance issues that classic fuzz have, being able to place the pedal whenever you want in your pedalboard. Sounds interesting, indeed.
I am a lover of Fuzz effects but, I am always fighting with my love for fuzzes and the odd issues that introduce in my pedalboard (positive ground, impedance issues, instability, ..) so, I wanted to give a try to this new design.



Presentation

On the line of the rest of Wampler's pedals. Both come in a discrete white carton box, with some sticker on the front, with a picture of the pedal and Wampler's logo. Each pedal comes inside a fabric bag and wrapped on bubble plastic. Inside the box, as ever, a single-sheet "user's manual", one sticker with Wampler's logo and some info about other pedals.

Pedals seems built as a tank with the appeal of a racing car.


'57 Tweed
Controls

Volume

Sets the overall output level of the pedal. It's is better to leave it a bit over the unitary level, while dialing the wanted tone and then, to set up to Unitary Volume Level.
Gain

Sets the distortion level and character but is highly influenced by all the rest of controls and, specially by the Input simulator switch

Input Simulator switch

This switch provides three modes that correspond to the two channels available for some models (normal and bright) and the linked option of both channels (as it was often used).
Highs

This one is some kind of highs contour knob. It gives the overall character when you are searching for one or another Tweed amp. For sound similar to 10" speakers, raise the highs, for deeper and warmer cabs, lower the highs.
Middle

Tweed were all about midrange and, this knob is the key to achieve the exact tweed tone you are after. This is the key knob and, it's the one you have to put your hard work.

Bass

This takes care of the low end, helping to shape the Tweed sound you are after. It has a great impact in body and distortion grain.

Playing it

I would say that this was the hardest to tweak pedal of all Wampler's.
Firstly, the Gain control leaves very few clean headroom. The pedal gives an instant break up with very low gain positions and goes to full saggy saturation so, to get just that sweet spot, in the borders of tube break up with warm harmonics singing was a challenge.
Secondly, as discussed, which Tweed tone do you like is a very personal matter so, it took me a while to find the right settings for tone controls.

Depending on your settings, the pedal can sound lost in the mix or cutting the mix with authority so, you should take your time to adjust the pedal to your rig and, if you can, test it with some backing tracks.
In my tests, the pedal seems to always have some break up level so, I found no way to just get a warm clean sound, it goes dirty very soon.

With the gain very low, it lacks some sustain, what forces me to raise the gain (and obtain break up, again). Probably, the best is to tweak it to the maximum distortion level you will use and then, to control the headroom with your guitar's knob (in the old way). It cleans nicely when you roll off your guitar's volume.

I've tested it with some blues backing tracks and loved the sound. I am quite sure I am still not getting the best of this pedal but, I just need time to exactly get what I am after.
I've focused mainly in the normal channel voice and, I still have to check in depth the other two voices and, very specially the linked one (because it was the most used mode in these amps).

If you are facing this pedal for your very first time, my recommendations are:

• raise your volume level over the unitary volume level
• rest of knobs at noon
• focus first in the Middle knob, set the middles were you wanted them
• focus then in the Highs knob, choose your "speakers".
• focus then in the Bass knob, choose your "cab".

Leviathan Fuzz


Controls

Volume

This sets the overall output level of the pedal.

Gain

This one controls the level of the fuzz effect and, the amount of available gain depends also on which fuzz mode is active. In its lower settings you can achieve classic Fuzz sounds while set at full you can go beyond Big Muff settings.

Treble

Shapes the high frequencies. Roar mode has more high end representation than the Rumble mode. It works very interactively with the Bass knob.

Bass

Controls the low end. Adds body and modifies the fatness of the distortion. Overdone, can be a mess. Highly related to Treble, Gain and Mode.

Rumble / Roar toggle switch (mode)

This switch allows the Fuzz to work in two very different modes: Germanium (Roar) or Silicon (Rumble) and, it does it without the positive ground or impedance issues of the classic fuzzes!!!.
The Roar (GE) mode is louder, more raw and unpredictable (what I love) and covers from Tone Bender fuzzes to high gain razor fuzzes.
The Rumble (SI) mode is quieter, more synthetic sounding, more stable, with more refined voice and, covers from Fuzz Face sounds to high gain muff.


Playing it

I need more time with this pedal. It goes from very subtle fuzzes to high gain muffs, with everything in between. You can get razor-like sounds or deep and muddy ones. All controls have a high dependency so, to achieve a certain sound, you need to tweak and tweak and tweak.
Manual comes with 4 sample settings that will allow you to get the overall possibilities of the fuzz.

I've tried first classic tones: a la Tone Bender and a la Fuzz Face. I wouldn't say that I was able to nail the tone of those fuzzes. I've got a Tone Bender MKII clon (Stroll On) and, they don't feel the same, in my opinion. You go close but you don't get exactly that tone.
Silicon tones are easier to nail, since silicon transistor delivered a more consistent tone, while Germanium was always very unpredictable.

Anyway, no impedance problems!. I can place the fuzz where I want with no issues and that's really good.
It sounds quieter than traditional fuzzes, even at high gain levels and, its tone controls allows you to exactly dial the amount of body, distortion grain or cutting highs you need. In that way, the available range of tones is so huge that makes it difficult to choose which one to use.

Since I ever found Silicon fuzzes as very "processed" and even "synthetized", I focused my experiments firstly in the Roar mode so, I still have to investigate harder the Rumble mode.

I am not sure to get exact classic fuzzes (by now) but, maybe I even don't need those. I just want a flexible fuzz (in all senses) to engage it on demand and that can be compatible with rest of my pedalboard.
The sounds I can get from the Leviathan satisfy me and, I am happy to forgot all the issues I've got with classic designs so, I finally have a Fuzz!.


Video

Since I am still not mastered in those two pedals (that I am still discovering), I wanted to set up them for an usable sound and make some tests with some backing tracks.
The Tweed is being used in the three songs and, the Leviathan just in the last one, with a more fusion approach than classic.
There are other videos already covering several settings of those two pedals so, please, watch those if you wanted a complete review of such a pedals. I was more interested on to know if they were capable of being integrated in my pedalboard and be of help in my songs.
I honestly thing that they have a place in my pedalboard but, I need more experimentation with both pedals to get the best from them.

Accessories: Test of picks or plectros

Introduction

Everything between yourself and the output of speakers is affecting the sound in any way. Sometimes, very subtly, sometimes dramatically. Picks (or plectros) are some of those things that a guitarist is often unconsidered by the guitarist as something that can affect his sound.

In fact, I am quite sure I bought a wide variety of picks along my life, of different makers and with different characteristic and that, maybe at some point of time, I had my own preferences but, I really forgot it.
One day, I saw a thread in Seymour Duncan, discussing about pics and, it took my attention.
Can a pick be so determining in my playing?.

Nowadays, we have a huge offer of different makers, models, with very different shapes, materials, stiffness. Do they make any difference?.


Materials

Nowadays, picks are made of a bunch of different materials, as Cellulose, Delrin, Ultex, Nylon, Bone, Wood, Copper, Aluminium, Shell, to name a few.

Material affects to the touch and, interacts directly with the string, transmitting our movements in different ways. Some materials seem to have some grip and, seem to hijack the string (for milliseconds, if you want) while you are playing. Other materials seem to release strings easily, allowing you smoother pick down/ pick up stuff. By example, I've got a wooden pick that seems to hijack the string, making it really difficult to do something speedy there. Something similar happens with  a bull-horn pick I've got. Dunlop's Tortex and Nylon picks have this effect in a lesser degree but, in higher degrees that same picks of other materials.
So, they are affecting to how fluid is your playing.

Materials are also affecting the attack and sustain phases of your sound. By example, Nylon has a sweet attack and, the resulting sound is somewhat more mitigated; this can be a wanted thing for certain songs but, I personally don't like the resulting sound. I've got a copper pick with a really hard attack, even making the strings jumping as crazy, even altering the pitch of those. It gives a hard bite, adding some metallic high end to the sound. I know Brian May plays with a penny coin of copper but, I personally cannot stand the results. The copper pick, together with the bull-horn pick are the ones with the harder attack and bite.
In my memory, Cellulose or Shell picks were working better but, I've got none to test and, maybe, they are not of my taste, nowadays. Who knows!.

Personally, I like more picks made of synthetic materials, with a very well sanded surface, were you can feel your finger sliding smoothly on its surface. That usually corresponds to a pick that easily releases the string.
Something else to consider about materials: some are really soft and weak and, therefore, last less time. Also pick' shape will be lost earlier in time.


Stiffness

This little detail affects a lot on how do you play. If it is thin enough, it seems to get trapped between strings, when jumping from one to the next one and, this is independent on of which material it was made.
If it is stiff enough, the strings are attacked so hard that, they seem to jump out of the guitar's nut.

It seems that, the more stiffer the pick is, the easier is to play speedy riffs but, as always, the stiffness that works for some people cannot be the one you need.

I am finding also that certain stiffness are more valid to play a certain type of music so, even each musical style can have a stiffness range that better suits its needs, depending on what are you after (bite, attack, smoothness, warm...).


Shape

You can think that Shape is just an aesthetic thing but, it isn't in any single way.
Some of the shapes are a real mess to my playing technique. Big shapes are specially bad for me, specially those big triangular picks. The bigger they go, the bad for my own needs.
By example, the Dunlop Stubby Triangle (purple), with an stiffness of 2.0 is made of a material that I like but, I cannot stand the shape, it's a real mess. The point of the pick stands so far away my finger that is really difficult to get some good overharmonic, by example.
One more example is one of those V-Picks (expensive as hell). I've got one Shredder, with a perfect triangle shape. The tree points are well finished, with a very sharp profile. It's a very rigid pick and, with excessive attack to my taste (stiffness 3.0).

I usually prefer Tear-Drop shaped picks and, the smaller the best. I like them with a softer point, not so sharped as the ones of V-Picks, by example.
I've found that the shape named "stiffo" by Dunlop is the one that best suits my needs.
The Dunlop Jazz III Stiffo is perfect in shape but, I don't like the material so much. Maybe, same shape with the material used for the Stubby Triangle or the one used in V-Pickup would be my natural election.
The Jazz III seems less finished, with its margins not so well sanded as the Stubby or V-Picks or, even the Ultex ones by Dunlop but, this pick has a nice grip and its the most similar to play without a pick.

Currently, I am using the Jazz III Ultex, that convinces me more than the traditional Jazz III.

Conclusion

To choose the right pick for everyone isn't so easy as you can think. It's incredible how much you can improve your playing technique with the right pick and, this is one of the cheapest "mods" you can buy.
Lot of people is spending lot of money trying to sound better and focusing in expensive things that add way little to the sound than a simple change of pick.
By example, to upgrade your caps from ceramic disk to sprage orange drop has a ridiculous impact in your sound, compared to the effect that a different pick will bring to you.

I've personally reached to the conclusion that the kind of picks I like more are made of very well polished synthetic material, with an small tear drop shape, with a not so excessive sharp point and, with an stiffness between 1.0 and 2.0.

The best pick I've tried up to now (for my needs!) is the Dunlop Jazz III Ultex.

Home Studio: Making of the video "Charvel SoCal Type 1 demo"

Introduction

Note: this entry was already publishe during January 2010 in my old Spanish version of this blog. I am sharing it here since I think it could be of interest.
If you already read my previous entry in this blog and, saw the video demoing the guitar Charvel SoCal Type 1, improvising over a free downloadable backing track based on Steve Vai's "For the Love of God", you could be interested on to know how it was made.
So, this entry is just a plain "Making Of" such a video and, contains information about Home Studio tools I've used for this particular video, focusing mainly in Pro Tools stuff.

I am currently using Pro Tools 8.0 LE as DAW, with a Digidesign Rack 003 as sound card and, I've got a single pre-amp: SPL Track One. Even that the Track One is more vocals-oriented, since in Pro Tools you cannot regulate the input volume (instead of that, you must change the output volume of your input source). the Track Pro gives me greater control over that input level.
I am hearing the output with a pair of near field monitors: Dynaudio BM5A but, usually, I cannot mix at a right loudness level (neighbors) so, most of the work I must do it using my headphones (Sony MDR-7509HD). As the headphones image differs a bit from the monitors one, I am using the plugin Redline Monitor for silent tasks, which works psychoacuostically to emulate a stereo image close to the one you can hear coming from your monitors. Even not being perfect, this plugin is of a great help.

During my first steps with this small Home Studio, I've realized that I wasn't able to get a right mix. When I made it to sound good across monitors, after trying it in a typical home audio set, the results were just horrible. That's when I've learnt about the convenience of having a right acousticall treated room but, after reaching the conclusion that I cannot do such a thing in my small room, I went for IK Multimedia's ARC System to get rid of most of issues and, yes, it helped me a lot.
Some other useful tools I'm often using are: RNDigital Inspector XL plugin (to monitorize several important aspects of the sound: correlation, loudness by frequency range, sound shape, peak frequencies, etc.) and, the TTL Dynamic Range Meter (that helps me to raise the mix loudness, at the end, while I am sure it's preserving a reasonable Dynamic Range).

After long tests, I went for Sonnox Elite pack and IK Multimedia stuff and, all those are the weapons I used for this video.


Making Of


Organizing the job

First thing I did was to recharge videocam batteries and to prepare the minimal tracks in Pro Tools to start working on this project. The idea was to record the full sesion with the videocam, telling the number of the take I was going to record everytime and, then, pushing the ProTools recording button for each take.
I've armed several guitar tracks. You know that, once you want to record, you go nervous and, start to make the most silly errors in the most simple parts so, to have a bunch of tracks ready is a good trick to save you a lot of work.
The Backing Track was inserted in one more track, without processing.

All guitar's takes tracks were send to a "guitar buss", to be able to insert there the amp emulation plugins, in a separate auxiliar track, common to all the takes, what saves lots of CPU consumption.
In next picture, you can see the final state of all mixing tracks.



But, the initial state was to have just the "backingtrack" track, several "guitar" tracks and, an auxiliary track named "guitar revalve".
The only active plugin was inserted in "Guitar Revalve" track and, it was an emulation of an Amplitube's amp, a Marshall 100W model, as you can see in the following image:


as stompbox, just an overdrive (emulation of a TS-9):



All guitar takes were recorded clean in a track named "Guitar #num" and, all them were sent to the auxiliary track "Guitar Revalved", where the amp emulation was. In that way, I was executing a single instance of such a plugin, releasing CPU resources and, additionaly, I would be able to swap the amp model at any time, later or, just fine tune the several parameters (tone stack, presence, etc.).

With that initial environment, I've started to record 4 different takes, one by one, in a row and, recording those simulteneusly in Pro Tools and the videocam, that got a wrong sound, since it was placed behind the montinors, but I was interested just on the image and a little sound to synchronize image and sound later.


Selecting the best take

Next step was to choose the best take. I've prepared a sheet with 4 rows (one by track) and, about 10 columns (corresponding to 10 song's parts). I've heard each track, valuating each part of the song separatelly and, giving a value between 1 and 5.
Once done, the track with higher score was the right one.

Suiting the guitar in the mix

Since the backingtrack had a good quality, all my job was concentrated into suit my guitar into such a mix, in the right 3D space, in a way that would look like it was part of such a backing track.
First I had to do is to tweak the amp's parameters, until I had a good sound and then, I've followed with the most basic task, to panoramize the guitar (I leaved it dialed to 24 right).

But, guitar' sound still needed of a greater help to suit the mix. Some frequencies were partially masking Guitar Bass and Drums so, I had to give some room for Bass and Drums frequencies, using some corrective EQ. I've choosed Sonnox Equalization plugin for this task.




First action was to remove frequencies under 30 Hz.
Since the Kick drum has its fundamental frequencies around 65 Hz, I've dipped guitar's frequency around there to give some room to the Kick drum.
Bass Guitar was peaking around 90 Hz so, I've dipped guitar's frequencies also around this center frequency, to give room to the Bass. Since Toms are sharing also near frequencies, those were instantanely enhanced, also.
Snare was well represented around 240 Hz so, I've dipped guitar frequency around this center one but, with not so dramatically and with a wide Q.

I've pushed frequencies around center frequency of 4 KHz, to give some presence to the guitar and, finally, I cutted off frequencies above 15 KHz.
After this job, guitar and rest of instruments were better individually indentified.

Next step was to use IK Multimedia's Fairchild 670 to give a bit of color and compression to the guitar. I don't like to compress too much the guitar's sound, I prefer to maintain a wide Dynamic Range and, I was more interested on to give that vintage touch that the Fairchild has.



Please, notice that I first did the corrective EQ, to remove unwanted frequencies and, then, the amp simulator to amplify wanted frequencies, followed by the compressor, to give some body to the sound and to raise the quietest parts.
After this, the guitar was sounding really nice but, too much "in your face" so, I needed to push back a bit the guitar, deeper in the mix' image and, adding some ambience.
I've sent the output of this track to one more auxiliary track, named "guitar reverb", with the only goal of adding some reverberation effect that helped to put the guitar some steps back in the image.



I've choosed Sonnox Reverb, since I like how it sounds and its interface is really smart and easy to use to exactly achieve what you are looking for. I've set up a reverberation of type Plate and, leaved the plugin output 100% wet.
I like to work the reverberatiion effect in a separate auxiliary track. The guitar track is mono, while the reverberation effect is stereo. Adjusting the volume of the reverb, I was able to put the guitar on the right depth in the mix.

"Masterizing"

Once I had an acceptable mix, it was the moment for the final touch.
Tracks  named "backing track", "revalve" and "reverb" were routed to an stereo track named "Mix Bus", where I can adjust their individual loudness before sending all the mix to the "Master Bus".
I've prepared the Master Bus with those plugins I thought I would need for that final touch.

First plugin in the chain was the Sonnox Inflator:



The Inflator adds harmonical information to the program so, pysichoacoustically, it seems to make it louder, while isn't really altering the final volume. It also adds some kind of tube-like warm and, helps to "glue" the mix.

Next one in the chain was the Sonnox Dynamics:





I love to use this plugin mainly to give an overall gain to the mix. The presetting named Master1 is a nice starting point. I just added +3dB of gain, leaving the rest of work to the Limiter.

Next plugin was the IK Multimedia Pulteq EQP-1A:



Just an small touch of Pulteq can give some presence to the full mix and, helps to recover some of the lost ambience (after using the compressor). I like this effect practically always in my master chain (and even in some instrument track). Is one of those pluging with some magic, if you don't overdo it. It helps also to give some kick to Bass Guitar and Kick drum, with a result that sounds always warm and musical.

Finaly, last plugin was the Sonnox Limiter, to push the loudness of the mix up to reasonable levels without loosing excesive Dynamics.



During the masterizing process, the TT Dynamic Range plugin was always active:



Which I use in several ways:
First, the dynamic meters allow me to use the controls of dynamics plugins, raising the volume of the track, without loosing more dynamic range than wanted. The Dyanmic Range (Peak RMS minus Average RMS) it's being updated in real time so, it's quite easy to see how every change in dynamics plugins affects to the dynamic range.
Second, the button named Mono allows me to check if there is some comb filter effect, that can maks the mix when heard in mono mode. Usually, you can get rid of this issue just narrowing the panoramo of certain tracks, specially those with effects based on time (reberbs, delays, etc.).

The Original backing track had a Dynamic Range of 9dB, a bit compressed but, good for a Rock song with nice kick and, that was the range I tried to preserve in the final result.

Well, still learning to mix and master. I would prefer to just play the guitar but, I recognize that all this helps me to better understand the sound and to educate my ears, what at the end helps me in my performances.

Guitars: Charvel SoCal Type 1 (batch #6)

Introduction

Note: this entry was originaly posted during January 2010, in my Spanish version of my blog. I am revisiting it here with added comments.

My playing style gravitates around classic Hard Rock and Blues tones so, I am usually feeling at home with classical guitars, like the Stratocaster or the Les Paul, by example and, I am not in the need of excesive Dive Bombing or Ultra High Gain sounds. But, you know, from time to time, I have a lot of fun playing a Floyd-Rose loaded guitar and, going wilder.
I was looking for a guitar with an Original Floyd Rose tremolo but with a reasonable price. The guitar I really wanted was the Ibanez Herman Lee's signature one, since it had all I wanted on papers but, its price tag was so high for what I planned to spend in a guitar of this kind.


Presentation

The guitar comes with a padded soft case, inside a carton box. While this kind of presentation is usual in Asian imported axes, lately, it seems that is beginning to happen also with well known American brands.
The soft case is of quality and its well padded so, it perfectly protects the axe but, I was expecting a hard case for a guitar that costs 1000 Eur. So, I had to buy a generic hard case for about 30 Eur, since I prefer to store guitars inside hard cases.

Anyway, once you open the case, the guitar catches all your atention. It's so sexy...
The body is an Stratocaster one, with a naked Mapple neck (without clear lack or paint) and an Original Floyd Rose tremolo. Maybe, not the one Made in Germany but, Original Floyd Rose, since Fender bought both companies: Charvel and Floyd Rose.

The fretwork is really awesome. Frets are very well filed and leveled. The overall look of the neck is as appealing as any Fender Deluxe or Ibanez Prestige, by example.

Finishing

Not my most preferred color (metallized purple) but, it was the only one available. Once on hands, I think it looks like very sexy.
Painting work is also perfect. The guitar accidentally fall and there is no chip or scratch so, I guess this guitar will retain its good lock for a long while.

The most important part of any Charvel is its neck. Shape is of the tyep wide-C and not very deep. Not the shape I like more but, I have no issues. You need need a nice clearance between your pinky and thumb fingers to get the mastil and, it's difficult to me to use my thumb for chords a la Hendrix.
I find the fretboard slightly narrow, with few clearance between strings. The strings' stress is high and, it's difficult to do extreme bendings.
First string, from time to time, gets trapped in the border of the fretboard, during extreme dive bombings. It seems that the rounded border facilitates this issue.

Frets seem medium-jumbo, not so high but wide, what allows a very low action. The low profile of frets makes difficulter extreme bendings.

The dots of the fretboard, instead of being some kind of inlay, are just painted over the fretboard, as the logotype on the peghead.

Frets are perfectly inserted in the fretboard and awesomely well filed and sanded. Excelent work.
One more interesting thing of this fretboard is its composite radius and its steped profile. In first frets, the neck is more deeper and wider, with a greater radius. As you walk down the fretboard, it's loosing some deep and the radius dismishes. You start with quite well plain frets to end with way more curved ones.
This neck would be just perfect for me, if it had the shape of a Light V, intead of Wide C, but, that's just my taste.
Neck seems hard as a rock and, was perfectly build and sanded.

The body is the typical of any Stratocaster so, no surprises, as comfortable as any Strato. The rear cavity, where the springs lay, is totally closed, without any kind of window. The pickguard is metallic, instead of the typical plastic pickguard that Stratos wear.
Controls are the minimal expresion. Just one volume potentiometer and a 3-ways toggle switch as pickups selector. I don't like the look of the knob and neither the look of the toggle but, they work perfect and seem of high quality. The Jack is the typical you will find in any Strato.

The electronics work is the neatest I ever seen in a guitar. Electronics components are of quality, as wel as wires used for the work.

Lastly, the guitar mounts an Original Floyd Rose tremolo but, the rear side of the body isn't carved so, you cannot do extreme pull ups, because the tremolo can go down few milimeters.
This Original Floyd Rose ins't a Schaller's Made In Germany one but, it's Original, since Fender owns Floyd Rose. Where was it made?. No clue but, fortunatelly works perfectly well.
Overall, the instrument has a quality look, at the level of a Fender Deluxe or Ibanez Prestige but, with a more affordable price. 1000 Eur for an axe with Original Floyd Rose and this level of finishing seems to me an authentic bargain, nowadays.


Playing it

The guitar was perfectly tuned (but not in the reference tone) as it came from factory.
Factory action is really low and, probably, the lowest of all my guitars.
I would prefer an slightly higher action, maybe.

As I've mentioned, the special shape of this neck, makes me difficult to use my thumb for chords a la Hendrix, because I've got small fingers and, a relative short hand.

The fretboard is made of mapple so, it's fast and with a good attack. Frets are wide and not tall, and this, together with the high stress of the strings, makes a bit difficult to make extreme bendings.
The first string goes stuck on the border of the fretboard after some extreme dive bombings, from time to time.

The wood resonates really nice unplugged, round and with a nice sustain, even loading a floating tremolo.

Stock comes with a couple of Dimarzio pickups. Evo model for neck position and a Tone Zone for bridge position. Not the pickups I like more but, of the very best from Dimarzio.
I already knew both, since my ex-JEM7V was loading a set of Evos (which I liked a lot) and, I also mounted a TZ in one of my Stratos (I liked it cutting under distortion but, hated how it sounded for clean work).

Don't go fooled, those are very good pickups but, usually, all Dimarzio pickups sound a bit "processed" to my taste, as coloring the natural tone of the guitar.  I've swapped them later, with a couple of Bareknuckle's Nailbombs but, after trying my friend's Japanese charvel, I am thinking on use just the typical '59 / JB pair from Seymour Duncan, because I loved how it sounded in the Charvels.
When I first tried this guitar, it was harder to play than the PRS 513 with 0.10" strings, because the strings' stress made it even tighter than the PRS. But, after I went for 0.10" in all my guitars (except the Charvel), I find it as easy to play as any other. Both, the PRS 513 and the Charvel SoCal have the speedest fretboards  of my collection.
BTW, extreme bendings are not an issue anymore and, that tremolo allows you to do any kind of crazy things. It plays awesome. Very nice guitar, indeed!.

I would say that this one has one of the best fretboards I've ever tried (maybe, just the JEM7V is one step over).

Under slight distortion, overdrive or crunch, I don't dig so much the sound but, it works well in clean and under high distortion (this, with stock Dimarzios!).


Conclusion

A very well made guitar, with Original Floyd Rose, made in USA and for about 1000 Euros?. A winner, without any doubt!.

I find it very interesting for anyone looking for a superstrato and which, after valuating the prices of Fender USA (Deluxes with Floyd Rose) or Ibanez Prestige, wanted that quality at a lower price.
Respect of Ibanez offer, the main difference is the quality of the body wood. Ibanez usually uses basswood (a wood that I don't like, because sounds dumb and boxy to my taste). You can find Alder body in very few models, by example the JEM7 series (way more expensive) or Mahogany in S series (also more expensive).

To have a better idea, in this range of prices, the only interesting alternative was the Dean Vendetta 4F but, we are comparing an Asian importation guitar against a true Made in USA and, a brand with no so good press related to finishing against one of the Brands with best press related to their works. So, the election of the Charvel was a natural choose.

Maybe, this is not a pure metal guitar, in the way as an ESP Eclipse or Jackson Soloist are. It hast 22 frets, instead of 24 and mounts passive pickups (what I prefer), instead of actives but, of course, you can shred with this.

But, anyway, due to the special shape of the neck, I recommend you to test it before buying it.

I am missing a carved cavity under the bridge, to make it possible the pull-ups, as in the JEM7V.



The Video

During my first week playing this guitar, I've prepared this demo video.
First part, very short, shows the clean sounds of the guitar.
For second part, I am improvising over a free downloadable backing track based on "For the Love of God" by Steve Vai.
I am not an shredder in any single sense and, this is my first guitar with FR so, don't expect great things.
This is also not a cover, note by note. Just following the overall line of the song and improvising freely.

I appologize for image effects. This was one of my very first video editions and, I tried everything together.
Sorry for any headache.

Home Studio: Sony Oxford Elite Native Pack test

Introduction

Note: this is a revisited entry that was originally posted in my Spanish version of this blog, with added comments after using more often this pack of plug ins.

If, like in my case, you are trying to build your own home studio and, you are thinking on recording, mixing and masterizing in your PC, with acceptable results then, you should be looking for those plugins that can help you in each phase and, I am quite sure that you have already heard about Sonnox plugins, as well as the highly spread Waves' ones.

Lot of Masterizing or Mixing Engineers give credit to some Sonnox plugin. By example, Bob Katz considers them as top quality ones, as well as Friedmann Tischmeyer do it.
Of curse, I've tried every plug in that was included in Pro Tools 8.0 LE and, even that all them are over most of available plugins (with the exception of the big names), I find my mixes as lacking something.
I've noticed a high improvement in sound, when I went from Cakewalk Sonar 9 PE to Pro Tools 8.0 LE and, the quality of included plug ins was what made the difference.
I can easily imagine that the use of top-notch outboard units can improve everything even more but, tag prices go way higher when we talk about hardware.

I've tested demo versions of Waves, Wave Labs, Brainworks, Snolksis, PSP, Voxengo, Izotope as, well as practically every free VST or RTAS plugin. I am still pending on trying some renamed brands, as URS, McDSP or Metric Halo.

About those plugins I've tested, some are better than others but, usually, free plugins doesn't work better (or with a better quality in sound) than those plugins already delivered with Pro Tools 8.0 LE. I even was a bit disappointed with Waves plugins.

The only exception, to me, was the suite of mixing and masterizing provided by IK Multimedia and, very specially those plugins that modelate vintage outboard (Fairchild 670, Pulteq EQP-1A, LA-2A, 1179); those are top-notch plugins, that deliver exciting and very musical results and, that are cleary over PT's takes of same equipment.
ARC system of IK Multimedia was also very useful to remove most room's problems.
RNDigital's Inspector XL is very useful to understand what is going on in the mix, from a forensic point of view and, helps to better "visualize" issues in your mix.

112dB's Red Monitor is helping me to mix during the night, in a silent environment, balancing the stereo's phantom center to hear the mix in headphones very close to what you hear thru your monitors.
TT Dynamic Meter helps me to better monitorize and control the dynamic range of the mix and, the compression level that I am giving to the whole program.

Massey's plugins are awesome. The Limiter 2007 is one of my preferred ones and, Tape Head helps to give some warm to programmed drums tracks. TCH4 is a very easy to use compressor that delivers good results.
But, one of my main issues was to have a good equalization, without coloring the track or mix. Some new compressor is always welcome, since not every compressor it's the best for every work. I was also interested on the Transient Modeler (specially for those high transients that can even ruin the work of your compressor or limiter) and, about that cryptic Inflator plugin, that seems to be highly used by those mixing and mastering wizards.
Even having the amazing Wizoo Wizooverb W2 for reverberations, I find that isn't working fine in every situation. Sonnox has a very good reverb plugin also so, I wanted to compare those two.

Related to Delay, even that PT's delays work ok, the quality of Soundtoys Echo Boy's bundle is over anything else I've heard. EchoBoy can be purchased just as a part of their Native Bundle so, I have more freaky filters than I need but... how knows!.
I was after Sonnox plugins during loooong time but, the price was my stopper. The Elite pack, taking into account that you get the higher discount respect of the sum of their individual prices, was priced over 1000 Eur. Finally, I found a sale in an Spanish online store for 799 Eur and, I couldn't miss the opportunity to have such a quality plugins pack for the best price I've ever seen.

Presentation
Plugins come in a single carton box, in a single CD with some little information. I had to go to Sonnox official page to download the last updated versions of each plugin, together with their manuals.


Playing with Sonnox Plugins

Well, mate, every Sonnox plugin is a Little World in itself. Maybe, the simpler one is the Inflator but, for everyone, I highly recommend you to read the manual first. I wish there was a real-time button where you can browse the manual while working with the plugin.

First impresion is clear: they aren't friendly or easy to use as, by example, Massey's plugins. If you are already done in mixing and, you have a clear idea of what do you want to do with each plugin, don't worry, everything is there, plugins are really versatile and complete.


Sonnox Dynamics
Here we have the monster of Dynamics control. This plugin is some kind of high level channel strip, with several sections that you can activate or deactivate: a Gate, a Expander, a Compressor, a Side Chain, a Warm section and a Limiter.
If memory doesn't fail, it's based on the Sony's Oxford gear.

So, any kind of dynamics work you can imagine, can be cover with this plugin and, results are always of high quality. Controls really "make something", in fact, they are so sensible that, you better go for light adjusts and check results.

The Gate section allows you to filter the sound and reject the part that doesn't reaches a certain loudness level, what helps to filter the floor noise but, as every Gate, to get the right settings is a very tricky thing but, once done, the gate works awesomely. Gates have other creative uses, as gated reverbs or gated snares or, you know...
The Expander section can help to increase the dynamic range of a previously highly compressed source material. By example, I've found it very interesting to open the dynamics of highly compressed Drums Clips, as well as some old takes I did with overdone compression.

The Compressor can be used anywhere, in a track or in the master track and, works awesomely to sculpt the exact dynamics you wanted. Has even a Hold control, for a complete control of the Dynamics Envelope. This one is always in my master track, while I usually prefer other plugins at track level.
It works in three different modes: Normal works like the Oxford console; Classic emulates a Drawner DBX-160 compressor and; Linear is some kind of Linear Compressor (for very specializated use).


The Side Chain section allows you to better determine the range of frequencies that should be compressed.

The Warm section introduces some tube-like distortion and harmonics, giving the warm that a tube-based compressor would do to the mix, with silky results.

The Limiter section, help to completely control the peaks and avoid overs when converting the material to lower resultion formats. It's one of the best Limiter around and, I have it always at the end of my master chain.

I haven't checked the real CPU consumption, because I didn't had the necessity. Those huge and quality plugins seem to work without overloading the CPU too much.

Sonnox EQ

This is probably the highest rated by experts Sonnox plugin, because of its transparency and accuracy. It works really awesome but, you SHOULD read the manual before working with it.

EQ filters can be of 4 different types, some have the Q and notch level in a narrow relation, in a way that a parameter dramatically affects the other.
The EQ has 5 bands, each can of of a different type. Includes also a low-pass and a high-pass filter, to work on lower and higher frequencies but, those can work as shelving or parametric so, in fact, you can have up to 7 parametric band filters.
Parametric filters can work 24 dB per Octave down or up, while the pass-filters work with up to 36 dB down per Octave.
Some of the filters are good for overall work, some for the master channel (to slightly correct the overall EQ) and, some other to work on notch frequencies.

Sonnox EQ highly substituted the EQ III plugin of PT in my mixes, because the EQ III often gives some color the track or mix and, sometimes, very noticeable digital artefacts, when used over a 6 dB correction.
As colored EQ, I like more the IK Multimedia's Pultec EQP-1A.

Sonnox De-Esser

If you are done to friendly de-esser, you will be surprised with Sonnox one. Can be so deep and huge as the Dynamics plugins but, fortunately, it can work in two modes and, one of them is for people like me: dummies. In this mode, the plugin automatically detects the band were "s" happens and, sets up a band and a reduction level that works dynamically and fully automated. You can always increase or reduce the band with your mouse and, the threshold and level of reduction.
You can hear separately what is Inside the de-esser (what would be reduced) and, what is Outside (original signal), as well as the resulting mix.

The de-essing levels are automatically reset during the time, using a smart look-ahead algorithm, depending on the dynamic range of the source material.

The Expert mode allows you accurate control over every parameter hidden in this plugin and, was highly cryptic to me in my first experiences.
The Easy mode works really good, very transparent, smooth and without distinguisable artifacts.

De-Essers can be always used to get rid of certain frequencies that are a mess for the track or the mix. I've used this one, by example, to filter some fret noises in the Bass guitar track and, worked awesomely.

Sonnox Inflator

This plugin, very cryptic, is some kind of Harmonics Exciter, in a similar way as a BBE unit works but, is
able to add some warm to the the mix, as well.
It's very easy to use (maybe the easier of Sonnox plugins) so, test it and see what can it do for you.

Sony is describing it as "this kind of plugin that apparently increased the perceived volume of any track, adding warm and, making the material sounding better, overall". Go figure!.
Well, a really cryptic description but, whatever this plugin is technically doing, what is true is that it gives some kind of "sonic glue" to the track or mix and, well used, can enhanced a boring track.
It recalls me the Warm section of Dynamics plugin so, I use just one of them in the same track.
It worked specially well with Drums and Vocals, in my mixes.

Sonnox Limiter

Another highly acclaimed plugin from Sonnox and, in my opinion, is the best Limiter plugin I've ever tried.

Not so easy to set up as the Massey L2007 (that is second to none) so, once more, I had to read the manual to test this plugin.

It took me some time to fully understand the plugin but, now, it's always the last plugin in my master chain and, I had no overs anymore when translating the mix to lower resolution formats (MP3, 16 bits, etc.).
Usually, all limiters are darkening the sound but, this one works very transparently (if you want!) but, has controls to enhance the mix (to add some harmonics and warm).
Limiting can be of any kind, including a highly accurate breakwall limiter that uses smart look ahead algorithm to do the right thing depending on the dynamics range of the source material, just in time.
You can run it in safe mode (to ensure no overs) and, even push the input level higher than desirable, without affecting so much the quality of the output processed signal.

I love to work on 24-bits dithering but, before I start bouncing the mix to a lower resolution format, I like to change it to 16-bits and do the last adjust. Sometimes, to change the limiter from 24 bits to 16 bits, reveals that your mix will sound with issues when transformed to 16-bits (usually darker and boomier) so, a final check with the 16-bits mode saves me a lot of time later.

Sonnox Reverb

Well, that's a digital reverb, not convolutive but, of very high quality. Parameters everywhere. Has lots of slide controls to accurately sculpt the kind of reverberation you are after, for each particular situation.
Comes with lots of Factory settings, some really useful and pretty sounding, so you can start your tests choosing some of them and, modifying them to your needs.

You have complete control over any parameter and, I like specially the Blend control, that helps you to get the exact mix of Early and Late reflexions (even just one type of both).

I've tried it with everything and like everywhere so, this is my Reverb plugin for every work.

The Reverb includes an EQ section that helps to give the exact color to your reflexions or, even use the low and high pass filters to limit the band of frequencies were reverb should take place.
I totally forgot the Wizoo plugin after trying the Sonnox one and, I prefer it to all convolution reverb I've tried up to now.

Sonnox Transient Modeler

This plugin allows you a nice control over transients (peaks of small duration, usually at the beginning of the attack phase of the sound), sweetening them or giving more punch.
It's very usefull for very dynamic material. I used it with Bass Tracks that have high peaks and low valleys, to better balance the material, with very good results.


Overall Conclusions

The overall impression I had when I tried them first time is that every plugin was way huger than I was expecting. There is a lot of development work behind the complex and efficient algorithms that implement these plugins.
Every plugin is delivering a sound of the highest quality and, it's really difficult to make them to clip and, when they do it, they do it in a very musical way.

But all that complexity behind is being pop up to the surface so, overall, they aren't friendly-user plugins, you need several hours of tests to understand how they work and what can they do for you.
I highly encourage you to read the user's manual of each plugin before using it. Differently from other manuals, this Sonnox manual are really well written and of big help. To understand how each parameter affects to the sound, together with the suggestions and guides included in that manual, will lead you easily to get nice results.

The user's manual of the Dynamics plugin, worths the time, even if you aren't a user of the Sonnox Dynamics. Its explanation about sound dynamics and the tools to sculpt dynamics to your needs is highly recommendable for everyone!.

Those plugins are really workhorses, very capable to process any kind of material. The learning curve is high, sure, but I am quite sure you will end using at least one by track (sometimes, even 5 of them in the same track!).

I would specially thanks to Sonnox the excellent work made with their manuals. Usually, we have user's manuals with lot of marketing and very few useful tips or information. Sonnox manuals are of real help. Read them, they are not a waste of time, they are your best inversion of time.
If you are learning to mix (as myself) there is a lot of interesting and useful information inside those manuals what will help you to choose what to do for each particular case.

These plugins, together with IK Multimedia T-Racks 3, RNDigital IK Inspector XL, 112dB RedMonitor and TT Dynamic Range plugins is all I usually need to have the job done.

Be sure to check Youtube often. Sonnox have an user with very useful videos showing how to achieve some interesting studio tricks, where you will learn a lot about the potential of your Sonnox plugins.

Amps: Vox Night Train + NT112 cab

Introduction

Before I've got any real tube amp and, while I was trying amp models in multi-effects pedal boards (as the Line6 Pod X3 Live) or in plugins (as IK Multimedia Amplitube 2), there were some models of amps that I really liked, specially in clean and, Vox AC30 was one of them.

I had the opportunity to play an AC30 in a friend' studio and, yes, its a great amp but, LOUD has a hell and, weighty as an elephant. I couldn't imagine transporting such a best from home to any other place and, either not inside my home, any way.
Other issue was the price tag. UK Made ones go really high and, I didn't wanted to have a big sounding elephant at home so, I've decided to go for some little brother in Vox catalogue.
I was really happy when I've saw the announcement of the new Night Train and, liked everything about it, the size, the weight, the price, the sound and, even that odd look. So, I've decided to give it a try.


Presentation

Well, this people of Vox knows how to present their products. The take care about each single product. Cables come in an useful fabric bag, Wah comes in a plastic bag with a handle (nice and easy to transport), and this amp comes in a nice padded soft case that you can hang on your shoulder like if it was a video camera.

The cab comes inside that padded case, protected with a plastic film and, includes a cheap speaker cable and the mains cable, as well. The handle of the amp's head is over the top of the case so, you can choose to carry it on your hand or in your shoulder.

The Head is weightier that it seems. The little size of the head makes you to think that will weight not so much but, the big transformers used for this baby weight a lot, they are really good dimensioned.

The look was stunning. This little amp, together with Orange's Tiny Terror were the ones starting that trend of lunchboxes-like heads. But, the look of the Night Train was really closer to a lunchbox than the Tiny Terror, that looked way moderner. Nowadays, we are very used to this look but, that was really special when I bought it.

The amp loads a pair of Sovtek 12AX7-WA tubes in the preamp and a pair of Sovtek EL84 in the power amp. The cover is easily removed unscrewing the 10 screws that stand it. Once removed, the access to tubes is clear and a child's game to swap tubes.
Probably, the weakest part of this amp are the holes for those screws, that tend to wide after some screws and unscrews, leaving the corresponding screw loose but, after 3 years (with intensive tube swapping tests), the cover still remains in place and just one screw came loose.

Rest of parts are of quality, beginning with the input and output transformers and, following with jacks and knobs. All work flawless and are solid. Switches aren't that kind of cheap Chinese ones but, sturdy ones.
The surprise was to look to the label and see that the amp was MADE IN VIETNAM!.
Well, I have to say that it's really good made and, I have no complains 3 years after.

The cab is surprisingly small and weights less than the head so, you can easily carry on your hand. All together makes really easy to transport head, cab and your rest of rig in a single trip and, without compromise your integrity.


Controls

This is a very simple amp and, that's something that I love since any little change in their tubes is immediately noticeable. It has just a single channel, but with tricky modes that provide this amp with a high versatility. It has no FX loop but, it takes practically good all the pedals I've throw in front (some very few exceptions).

In the front panel, we will find:

• The input jack
• Mode switch: thick or bright
• Gain knob, to select the gain of the preamp section
• Volume knob, to select the loudness of the power amp
• Tone stack: treble, mid, bass
• Bypass switch: triode / bypass / pentode
• On/off switch

In the back panel, just two speaker outputs, one for 8 Ohm and the other for 16 Ohm.

The combination between thick / bright modes and pentode / triode modes gives four very different amp sounds to this head, that can be rounded with the help of a very responsive tone stack.


Using it

The amp delivers about 15 W RMS in Pentode mode and, about the half (7.5 W RMS in Triode mode).
The amp is cathode-biased and therefore, needs not to be re-biased when swapping the tubes.
EL84 tubes are really affordable and there are good new production ones to test so, it's an amp easy and cheap to tweak and maintain.

The Pentode mode uses the full power of both power tubes and delivers an strong and bright sound. The Triode mode doesn't includes the two additional control grids of a pentode tube and, lows the power to half but, also changes the nature of the sound, giving a warmer and silkier (think on Class A) sound, absolutely tasty.
The Thick mode bypasses the tone stack (so, your treble, mid and bass controls make nothing) and, delivers a pure tube-like sound that resembles the sound of the good old vintage amps. Also, the gain is way higher there and it's quite easy to achieve overdrived sounds, with lot of sustain but, always very natural and harmonically rich sounding.
Every combination worth a try and have its use.

Behind this amp is the hand of Tony Bruno (a great boutique amps maker). The history seems to be that Tony designed the amp, point to point and, it's design was then translated to cheaper components and a PCB board, to reduce the cost of production and then the final cost for the buyer.
But, the soul of its design is there and, the four different modes make this little amp a very versatile one, specially for home or studio applications or, where the amp will be miked and routed thru a mixing board.

Triode mode can be very quiet for gigging, IMHO but, it's so sweet sounding that gives excellent Blues / Hard Rock tones.
Bright / Pentode mode gives you the classic bright and chimmey tones of Vox, with beautiful and crystalline cleans and, with a nice crunchy break up, when drived hard. The amp is LOUD enough, don't be fooled about their 15W. A 50W amp is just -3dB quieter than a 100W amp and, a 25W amp just -6dB quieter than a 100W amp so, the NT is about -9dB quieter than a 100W amp and, -6dB quieter than a 50W amp.

The NT112 cab mounts a Celestion G12M, specially designed for this amp that is very efficient and, projects the sound open and loud. I'm still impressed how good and high can this little cab project the sound, being so small. With good tubes, this little cab shines in a way that you will never expect for its price and size.

I've tested it with a band, 2 guitars, 1 bass guitar, 1 drum kit, 1 singer and, they said that it was sounding really loud. I've tested it in a little venue, little local, little people, without miking it and reproducing the backing tracks thru a 300W PA and, everything sounded really good.
So, despite of its size, it can do a great work.
I have tested it also with a 2x12" Cab (the powerful Orange PPC212) and a 4x12" with Celestions V30 and, of course the loudness increases significatively so, there is always a way to make it useful for each situation.


Tube Swapping

Even that with stock tubes the amp sounds good, you will never know how good can really sound until you swap, at least, the two pre-amp tubes for something better.
Sovtek 12AX7-WA tubes are the worst tubes, from a sonic-point of view, that you can load in an amp but, they have very low noise, very low microphonic issues and are cheap and consistently produced, what makes them a natural choose for amp makers (together with JJ's).

Any NOS tubes there will do an excellent job but, also lots of new production ones will work awesome and will give a great amplitude, definition and character to the sound than the stock ones.
Even the cheap JJ ECC83S will be one step over those.
You will start to notice a nice improvement with a couple of EH 12AX7 and, to my taste, the best you can throw there (new production) are the Mullard 12AX7 reissue.

Or you can choose the 12AX7 of your like (a Tung Sol or EH or JJ) for the first tube and some NOS Philips 5751 for the second tube, or a new production EH 12AT7 (long plate), or a NOS 12AT7 or a Mullard 12AX7 reissue.

With that change of preamp tubes, the Sovtek EL84 in the power amp will sound nice, since they are very well balanced and break up with a nice distortion grain. But, the Sovtek are a bit monodimensional and project the sound in a very centered beam.
Just swap those with cheap JJ EL84 and the amp will rowl like a tiger. I like those while clean but, I don't like how they break up but, without any doubt, are the powerfullest of new production EL84s.
The TAD EL84-STR is quite similar to the JJ but, less powerful and with a different EQ. I liked it more in this amp, since the way as it breaks sounds more natural to my ears but, both are in a very similar ball park.
The Mullard EL84 reissue is my personal election for this amp, since they are the ones with a greater 3D projection of the sound (with a wide beam), are very linear, very plain EQ'd and they go better and better the more you push them, with an incredible definition note-by-note even hardly driven.
I loved the sound of the Genelec Gold Lion EL84 a bit more but, those tubes are really weak and stand just few hours and, they are even expensiver than NOS tubes so, it makes no sense to buy those.

After tube swapping, I never had the need to change or upgrade the cab. I think the NT112 works really good paired with this amp and, just a tube swapping puts everything sounding as it should. And, that cab is cheap enough so, you can get head and cab for a funny price (taking into account that we are talking about a tube amp).


Videos

Well, that little lunchbox is appearing in many of my own videos but, there are some that are specially dedicated to this amp. The following one it's a travel along the several sample setting that Vox has in his site and, it's useful to check the different voices that this amp can deliver. Sorry, the guitar was so close to the recorder that there is a lot of feedback about the "acoustic" unplugged sound of the guitar.



But, this is one of my preferred demo (not mine):




And, if you are interesting on how different tubes sound in this amp, here you are the series of videos that I did while testing the different tubes for each position.

Wiring Diagram: Hermetico's LP Exchanger mod 2

Classification

Guitar Modded

Gibson Les Paul


Description

• HH Pickup layout (4 conductors)
• 1 Swiftcraft 3-way toggle switch
• 2 volume pots with pull/push
• 2 tone pots with pull/push

Difficulty Level

Hard

Features

• Provides standard LP combos, plus a high variety of other combinations.
• Independent volume and tone for each pickup.
• Enhanced version of Jimmy Page's wiring design

Wiring Diagram

Click on the diagram for a full sized view.

Comments

Jimmy Page's wiring mod achieves a lot of different combinations but, in my honest opinion, it does it in a way that isn't easy to recall and, some of the combinations produce just silence (the guitar shuts up).

The Exchanger 2 mod is my own take around the Jimmy Page's mod but, making controls easier to map in your mind so, you will be able to easily achieve exactly the combo you were looking for.

 

Each Tone pot splits its corresponding pickup.

Neck Volume puts Neck pickup out-of-phase (changes polarity).

Bridge Volume puts both pickups in series, overwriting the 3 positions of the 3-way (instant booster).

 

But there are some tricks hidden under this design.

Default, NT splits the neck pickup to outer coil but, if you have also BT up, selected coil is inner, instead.

Default, BT splits the bridge pickup to inner coil but, if you have also NT up, selected coil is outer, instead.

Also, the NV (neck volume), when changing the polarity of neck pickup (OOP) is reverting which coil is split by the NT pull/push.

 

In this way, we are achieving one more unique combo than in JP's wiring mod and, the best of all: there is no combo that can accidentally shut up the guitar!.

 

Click on this picture to see a full size of the list of combos:

 

 

In red, unique combos (that appear at least once in that list).

Notice that when the serial switch is up (BV = Bridge Volume), the three positions of the 3-way toggle switch have exactly the same combination. Once you push down BV, whatever the combo that was before in the current position comes back.

By example, imagine we had BV = down, NV = up, NT = up and BT = down and we had selected Rhythm position, we should have selected Neck Inner Coil but, once BV is up, we are having Bridge humbucker in series with Neck Inner Coil Out-of-Phase.

Imagine that, while in series, we change to Treble position. There is no change in the sound, since we are getting the same combo but, once we push down BV, we are getting Bridge Humbucker, instead.

 

As in the case of JP's wiring, volume controls are independent and allow you to mix both humbuckers at your taste but, when both pickups are in series (BV = up), both controls are also in series so, rolling off a bit  one will also reduce the overall volume and, totally rolling off one we will shut up the guitar. In this case, the neck volume acts as some kind of master volume.

 

In the middle position (and in parallel, BV = down), you will achieve different nuances by mixing each pickup at different levels, since some frequencies will be reinforced while others will be dimmed.

Also, when in middle position and out-of-phase (NV = up), the different volume levels for each pickup, will give you different textures of the out-of-phase sound (Peter Green's mod), some are edgier, some are more subtle.

Just experiment with all this.