My Nebula vs. Mic shootout

[Metaltastic]

Ok, so I made a sample today using the clean Nat template Francesco kindly provided, and then did a shootout between the preamp signal through the Nebula sample of the mic'ed cab and the mic'ed cab itself. I reamped the same performance through, and even captured both the mic'ed signal and preamp signal simultaneously (the Recto has a slave out that I used, the FX send sounded too muffled). I still don't think they sound too similar, but judge for yourselves which is which - here are the audio files, and here's the Nebula sample!

 

[Metaltastic]

And these are the usual setup; Recto Orange Channel in Variable Hi-gain mode with the presence at 2 o'clock, through my Mesa Stiletto slant 4x12 sitting on my trunk to get it off the floor, with the bottom left speaker mic'ed with my 57 (about 1.5" left of the dustcap center) going into my Onyx Satellite!

 

[blackbird]

a Nebula
b Real Cab

 

[SocialNumb]

I can't tell but I suck at these.

I do like (A) better tho.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

A = Nebula
B = Cab

 

[jhrv]

A = Nebula
B = Cab

+1

 

[abyssofdreams]

Wow, what a difference, unfortunately

I am 100% sure A is Nebula. Too harsh, less lowend and less overall amp/cab character.

And work on your tone

 

[Metaltastic]

Haha, yeah, I figured anyone who'd spent more than a few minutes with Nebula would easily be able to deduce which was which.

And work on your tone

Oh wow, thanks for the constructive criticism! I admit it has too much low-mid mud, but that I attribute mostly to the EMG 85 I have in this axe, so hopefully the Blackout Bridge I have in the mail will be an improvement.

 

[musickey]

agree

A = Nebula
B = Cab

 

[Acusticaudio.net]

Hey, i will try to provide better templates, maybe an enhanced version of clean reverb session. Stay tuned!

 

[abyssofdreams]

Haha, yeah, I figured anyone who'd spent more than a few minutes with Nebula would easily be able to deduce which was which.

Oh wow, thanks for the constructive criticism! I admit it has too much low-mid mud, but that I attribute mostly to the EMG 85 I have in this axe, so hopefully the Blackout Bridge I have in the mail will be an improvement.

Haha, I'm sorry Marcus, guess I am little bit biased since it seems to be a kind of a trendy tone on these boards, it just sounds very digital and not natural, not the eq but somehow the voicing, dunno... it might also be the saturation that lacks a bit, your tone is often undergained, it is not necessarily bad but I miss that Mesa vibe!

 

[spioraid]

Mos def a=Neb and b=cab. Did you try moving the mic closer to the dust cap or did that loose too much low end? Not doubting your micing techniques just curious.

I'm not even sure how to describe the Neb tone...it's almost like it has a natural tendency towards the gated/HP&LP tone we look for in a final mix, no amp fizz or stuff. More headroom maybe? Every time I think of a way to describe I disagree and try to think of something better.

It's sharp and clean, that's for sure.

 

[Sickan]

I did some processing on the audio files - I panned nebula hard left and real cab hard right, eq on nebula track, slight lowmid compression and extra eq on 2bus); http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/317055/MetaltasticProcessed.mp3
How noticable is it that the left guitar is nebula?

 

[Ermz]

Thanks Marcus.

Yeah unfortunately the Neb track was easy to pick. There is something unnatural and grating about its high end. Too much presence and unpleasant distortion of sorts. I really wonder why.

 

[blackbird]

Any help from acusticaudio ?

 

[Metaltastic]

Mos def a=Neb and b=cab. Did you try moving the mic closer to the dust cap or did that loose too much low end? Not doubting your micing techniques just curious.

To get rid of the mud on the mic'ed track, you mean? Nah, it was at just the right spot, cuz moving it any closer would've just added fizz rather than taken away mud

 

[Metaltastic]

Haha, I'm sorry Marcus, guess I am little bit biased since it seems to be a kind of a trendy tone on these boards, it just sounds very digital and not natural, not the eq but somehow the voicing, dunno... it might also be the saturation that lacks a bit, your tone is often undergained, it is not necessarily bad but I miss that Mesa vibe!

Fair enough, we all have our opinions (it's just nice to know what they are ) - I wasn't too concerned with tone tweaking for this test, and I haven't messed as much with the Orange channel as with the Red (but the Nebula sample I made this time with the Red channel was AWFUL, so I canned it), but for me the only thing I feel it needs is a bit less mud (and maybe more gain); personally, I'm happy with it otherwise!

Actually, no, now that I'm listening to b again (the only one I care about), I definitely wouldn't add more gain; there's plenty of fizz in there for my tastes without needing more

 

[Ermz]

IMO it definitely needs more gain, but I suppose as far as the impulse is concerned that's beside the point. As far as Rectos go, I never found them to sound all that great combined with a Stiletto cab. I've had the 2 cabs next to each other and the Recto Standard sounded better for every amp we had on hand at the time (5150 III, Mark IV, ENGL Invader 100). With the Recto (amp) the Stiletto seems to accentuate the low mid and fizz qualities of the recto's tone, which IMO is not where the recto shines at all.

Back to the impulse though... where do we go from here? My impressions are that some of your second set of normal impulses are still the best. The Nebula ones so far haven't come close to touching them. hmm.

 

[Metaltastic]

Well honestly, I think this Recto impulse I made that I posted in my first Nebula test is better than any of the JSX ones - see what you think!

 

[Ermz]

Cool, just tried it out with those Peavey tracks I reamped a while back.

My fave JSX impulse of yours: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/285689/Reamping/marcus-81-jsximp.mp3
The new Recto one: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/285689/Reamping/marcus-81-rectoimp.mp3