M-Audio Preamps/Orange Cabinets (2 questions in one)

[cobhc]

1. I have an M-Audio Delta 1010 LT, and I find I can never get enough presence, or enough mids on my guitar recordings to get the sound to be in your face, and direct enough........even with the mic on the grill, and in my pretty dead sounding room. I have a nice in your face tone in the room, but it never translates properly. Is this most likely a fault of my miking skills/my room setup, etc? Or could a fair amount of this be attributed to the budget preamps on this card, and the fact that they might not be letting the full frequency range through/colouring the tone and cutting the highs?

2. Orange Cabs, the PPC212 in particular....pretty cheap over this side of the pond, killer looks (the black tolex custom orders in particular). Anyone have much love for these? Where do they fall sound/built quality wise compared to the Mesa's/Bogner's, etc? Anyone have any clips or such they can link me to, showcasing this cabinet? Also would this cab be worth the money over just slapping two V30's in my Marshall 2x12 (1936)? I know cab construction comes into play somewhat, but is the Orange that much of a jump, compared to say if I was looking at a Mesa 2x12?


Thanks in advance guys, and I know the first question Kev will be interested in as well, as we both have the same card, and have similar problems.

 

[gorath23]

You may want to look at my thread beneath, (ENGL 2x12 etc). I'm in the Uk and also currently looking to upgrade from my budget 2x12 to something more high-end. I was investigating the Orange Cab, but I keep hearing that for recording 4x12's sound best- I'm now looking at the Blackstar 4x12 which is roughly the same price.

 

[cobhc]

Yeah, I'm a little worried about touching a brand I've not heard much about, similar to you have specified in your thread.

 

[Metaltastic]

Well I'm surprised you say you haven't heard much about Orange cabs, cobhc - I've seen tons of praise heaped on 'em around here, though the same could be said for Bogner's 2x12, and I can definitely say that it did not live up to its hype :Smug: Basically, as I said in Gorath's thread, I don't doubt that there are better sounding 2x12's out there than the Bogner (the Mesa 2x12 I demo'ed it against, for example), but I can't think of a single tone I've heard out of a 2x12 that I really liked (hell, I can't think of too many 2x12 tones I've heard at all), so I'm just done taking chances and am gonna go for a 4x12 next. And as to your first question; honestly, I really don't think the preamp affects the sound that much; the two preamps I have at my disposal are an ART Tube MP and the pre's in my MBOX2; certainly not what one would consider "good," but I've never had a problem with "in-your-face" highs (in my sig, the song "Racing the Night" was actually a 5150 combo with the stock Sheffields, recorded with a single 57 into my MBOX2). And think about all the great tones that've been recorded here with that old standard, the firepod. Better pre's wouldn't hurt, but I fear that they won't solve your woes...

 

[Machinated]

Jusy had an Orange cab in my studio, got to say that I wasn't that impressed. I have had far better results with Mesa cabs, and in this case I preferred the sound of my Marshalls. The high end didn't seem quite right to me. That said I didn't have much of a chance to mic it up, so in that scenario things may be a little different....

 

[cobhc]

Well I'm surprised you say you haven't heard much about Orange cabs, cobhc - I've seen tons of praise heaped on 'em around here, though the same could be said for Bogner's 2x12, and I can definitely say that it did not live up to its hype :Smug: Basically, as I said in Gorath's thread, I don't doubt that there are better sounding 2x12's out there than the Bogner (the Mesa 2x12 I demo'ed it against, for example), but I can't think of a single tone I've heard out of a 2x12 that I really liked (hell, I can't think of too many 2x12 tones I've heard at all), so I'm just done taking chances and am gonna go for a 4x12 next. And as to your first question; honestly, I really don't think the preamp affects the sound that much; the two preamps I have at my disposal are an ART Tube MP and the pre's in my MBOX2; certainly not what one would consider "good," but I've never had a problem with "in-your-face" highs (in my sig, the song "Racing the Night" was actually a 5150 combo with the stock Sheffields, recorded with a single 57 into my MBOX2). And think about all the great tones that've been recorded here with that old standard, the firepod. Better pre's wouldn't hurt, but I fear that they won't solve your woes...

Ok, point taken, so it looks like it's my miking technique that's letting me down, guess I need to really start putting some work into getting the positioning right. I'll get onto it this weekend and really put some effort in.

Thanks for confirming that for me.

Jusy had an Orange cab in my studio, got to say that I wasn't that impressed. I have had far better results with Mesa cabs, and in this case I preferred the sound of my Marshalls. The high end didn't seem quite right to me. That said I didn't have much of a chance to mic it up, so in that scenario things may be a little different....

Yeah, the vote always seems to move in favour of the Mesa's, maybe I should just save for a Mesa Oversized 4x12 and be done with it. Least then I know it's just me being shit, not the cab, or amp.

Cheers guys.