Diezel VH4 silent recording

[TheEngarn]

Hi Folks!

I have been trying ways to silently record my amps at home. It is not that sims can't do a good job nowadays but yet the real deal still can make a difference...

Anyway, I am taking the signal from the poweramp section via a dummy load and use impulses in the DAW. I think that when optimized such method could be pretty versatile. For example one can use even different cabs or mixtures of mics in different parts of a song. Cabs and mics that if one would buy would cost some...

Is anyone else here using such method for recording? Cheers!

 

[anotherpaul]

Hey, man! I've just recently started experimenting with the same thing. Getting good results with my Orange Rockerverb clone so far:

 

[TheEngarn]

Hey, man! I've just recently started experimenting with the same thing. Getting good results with my Orange Rockerverb clone so far

This sounds grindy!
I've noticed that the dummy load quality/clarity can make a big difference. Never heard of those EC Electronics. Are they faithful to the amps sound?

 

[anotherpaul]

EC is a rather small company from Ukraine, I think they don't even have a website, maybe just a facebook page. However, they make all kinds of inexpensive but good quality guitar stuff, including tons of stompboxes, rack and floor copies of engl, mesa and peavey preamps. Preamps go for about 300$ + shipping. I've got my loadbox from them through a local retailer for 100$ or something. For such a low price it works great! It's basically a boxful of resistors that emulates a 100w load. Doesn't get hot with my 30w amp and has a nice volume knob.

P.S. the amp was also built from scratch by another ukrainian guy!

 

[TheEngarn]

Nice!

 

[TRUIE]

Doing this all the time with my Jet City JCA50H poweramp out + Countryman Type 85 + Tubetown ToneHound loadbox.
Then I use Nebula Cabs, Torpedo WoS plugin or regular IRs.

Here is an (old) example :
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6120012/Studio/Masters/PERSO/TEST%20JET%20CITY%200627%20Mix2%20MASTER.mp3

I also think it's a good alternative, but to me it doesn't sound as good as a mic in front of a cab, especially regarding the high end, which always seems to sound harsher / fizzier when doing this.
Loadbox/DI quality is very important, I still haven't found the holy grail for this (can't wait to try a Torpedo Reload and hear if it's better than my actual chain).

 

[Skinny Viking]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbpePY3cVw4&feature=youtu.be

 

[TRUIE]

Nice video !
What's your thoughts on Torpedo Live ?
More generally, do you find the highs to be a bit harsh / "cold" when recording directly a poweramp out, compared to a real miced take ?

 

[Skinny Viking]

thanks man

I'll be honest, I love it. I think there's always a little give / take when using something that is replacing a part of a "true" recording signal chain ... in the Kemper's case its that you're using a profile of an amp (no matter how accurate it may be its still not THE amp) and for the Torpedo its the cab / mic aspect. That being said, I've compared 1 of the rhythm tracks I recorded for that video directly to a single track that I had recorded for another album using the same guitar/pup combo but done through a Neve pre and apogee converters in a well treated room with good positioning. Only other difference being the amp which was a 5150 in that case and the Triaxis / Simul in the video. I've noticed nothing detrimental between the two to make me feel that one may have not been recorded with all of the "real" aspects you'd expect. Only real difference being the amp sound itself.

So for my experience with it ... nope, sounds just as good

As I also commented on the video, the 4 rhythm tracks in the performance part of the video were left "pure" ... no additional EQ really other than a hi / low pass. Thats pretty much the raw sound of that particular patch & preset

 

[TRUIE]

Great !
Thank you for your feedback.
I fully agree on the give / take thing, maybe I'm overthinking it about this high end thing.
Will have to contact TwoNotes and see if I can try a Torpedo Reload to compare it to my actual chain (Reload and Live have the save loadbox, and I already own the VST so the Live won't be necessary to me - and Reload provides great guitar tracking options).

PS : laughed so hard when you plugged the speaker cable, wasn't expecting less from you

 

[Skinny Viking]

Great !
Thank you for your feedback.
I fully agree on the give / take thing, maybe I'm overthinking it about this high end thing.
Will have to contact TwoNotes and see if I can try a Torpedo Reload to compare it to my actual chain (Reload and Live have the save loadbox, and I already own the VST so the Live won't be necessary to me - and Reload provides great guitar tracking options).

PS : laughed so hard when you plugged the speaker cable, wasn't expecting less from you

No problem man, yeah I think it'd be worth for you to check into. As far as I know the Reload is not limited to just 8 ohms and if you already have the WoS plugin you should be totally good to go

Used the wife's camera for the video stuff so I thought it'd be funny to throw her in there a little

It'll be better when I do the next one and find the right reason to have "Nein!!!" yelled at me with the full power of german accent

 

[TheEngarn]

Nice clips guys!
Quite surprised with the Jet City. Huge sound man! The torpedo sounds killer as well. I will see if I can try one out.

 

[TRUIE]

No problem man, yeah I think it'd be worth for you to check into. As far as I know the Reload is not limited to just 8 ohms and if you already have the WoS plugin you should be totally good to go

Yeah, the Reload as a selectable impedance (4 - 8 - 16 Ohms).
Can be useful depending on the situation.
Hope I'll soon have the cash !

It'll be better when I do the next one and find the right reason to have "Nein!!!" yelled at me with the full power of german accent

Can't wait for this one ahah

Nice clips guys!
Quite surprised with the Jet City. Huge sound man! The torpedo sounds killer as well. I will see if I can try one out.

Yeah the JCA50H is a beast ! And ridiculously cheap (got mine for around 300€ brand new, and it's even cheaper now).
Never tried a SLO but it's supposed to sound close.
FYI the clip I posted was boosted with a Maxon OD808.