rate my rhythm tone!!! (cobra content)

[cobrahead1030]

in all honesty, rate this from 1-10 (1 being awful, 10 being great)

http://disvisioned.net/clips/cobrahead_heavycobra2a.mp3

any suggestions for improvement are also welcome...

i spent some more time messing with channels 2 and 3 of the cobra, trying to mix them together

i've found that it's relatively easy to get a pretty good tone, however i always seem to be missing some fullness and depth when laid down (even tho there's plenty to be heard in the room)

even when i crank the deep knob for some earth shaking low end, it's like the mics just aren't picking it up well

and altho i can get it manageable, the high end presence never sounds quite right to me either

btw, i'm using the mic method from the claymand thread, with an audix i5 (centered) and sm57 (off axis)

with the mics on the eminence governer on my splawn 4x12...here's a pic of the setup i'm using (on the left)

 

[EtherForBreakfast]

The live sound is most definitely a 10 - no doubt. But this MP3'd / recorded sound is a 6.5 - to my ears.

I can totally see your frustration with the recorded sound you are sharing with us, versus what it "really" sounds like. I'm curious as to the choice of the Splawn cab and the Eminence speakers. What was the reasoning there?

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Try adding a bass line, with heavy emphasis on the extreme low end. You've got plenty of low in the guitars, no question there. But for that skullcrushing bottom, you're going to need a bass guitar.

-0z-

 

[cobrahead1030]

The live sound is most definitely a 10 - no doubt. But this MP3'd / recorded sound is a 6.5 - to my ears.

I can totally see your frustration with the recorded sound you are sharing with us, versus what it "really" sounds like. I'm curious as to the choice of the Splawn cab and the Eminence speakers. What was the reasoning there?

i just listened to the ripped version of this, a better quality mp3 would help a little...but my mixing skills aren't great, so that isn't helping

when i got the cobra, i tried every cab imaginable...i was dead set on a bogner uberkab (which was $1k) i heard about splawn cabs, and they're only an hour or so away from me so i decided to give them a try before i spent the coin on the bogner

the splawn cab sounded just as good as the uberkab did...the one i demo'd in the store had an x pattern of eminence governers and manowars (which was scott splawn's favorite setup) so that's what i got...for live sound the cab sounds phenominal, i don't regret my decision a bit

altho i have had second thoughts about the eminence speakers for recording, and there's a good chance i'll get a splawn 2x12 with a v30 and gt75 down the road (need to spend some money upgrading the studio first)

the marshall cab in the pic next to it, also has that same speaker setup and was modded by the guys at splawn guitars

 

[SickBoy]

I reckon we'd get a much better picture if you haven't encoded the mp3 at 22050Hz It's my guess that the sampling frequency made a high cut.
Re-encode the thing with normal mp3 codec like Lame at a decent 16/44.1 bitrate...

 

[GuitarMaestro]

That sound is seriously missing some high-end/ high mids. Either the low encoding rate killed it (very likely) or you killed the high freqs with the Clayman method which is very easy if you phase cancel them. Did you phase align the mics properly?

 

[cobrahead1030]

i'm working on a higher bitrate file now, tho here on my laptop speakers i can't really hear any difference in the sound...the room i mixed this is in (still under construction) is a pretty bright sounding room, and despite my efforts to compensate for it my recordings still tend to sound kinda dark

i'll upload the new version in a few

 

[Salvation 13]

That sound is seriously missing some high-end/ high mids. Either the low encoding rate killed it (very likely) or you killed the high freqs with the Clayman method which is very easy if you phase cancel them. Did you phase align the mics properly?

It's pretty easy to check. Just mute the other track. The amount of high end should increase when you put it back on.

 

[chadsxe]

That is something I think we all went through. I know I use to think that huge bottom came from the guitars. Shit the boss metal-zone pedal was amazing to me until I got a half of brain. Like everyone else said look other places for that huge bottom end.

 

[Fragle]

dude, iirc you also own a 5150. could you please compare the amount of gain available on the cobra's crunch channel to the 5150 lead channel? like crunch channel gain dimed = ? o'clock on the 5150 lead channel?

i just recently purchased a cobra and so far i found that it really has to be turned up to sound halfway decent - by no means a bedroom amp, much worse than the 5150 which again isn't too great of a low volume amp imho -, and that the crunch channel has way less gain than i expected. the lead channel has shitloads of gain, of course, but i always thought the crunch channel alone could compete with e.g. a 5150's crunch channel. however, it seems to be more in the jcm800 2210 (split channel head with more gain than the single channel versions) ballpark.
basically, what i'd like to know is whether there's something wrong with my amp or if it is intended to be that way. maybe it's because of the volume? (haven't been able to crank it yet, just low to moderate *slightly louder than bedroom* volumes).
so far i have to use a clean boost in front of the amp in order to get anywhere near the gain i need - and i'm by no means a gain freak. however, it seems like the voicing of the amp is a damn fine one. kinda like the low mid madness of a rectifier blended with an old marshall jcm800.
thanks

 

[cobrahead1030]

the cobra's crunch channel gain dimed i'd say is about equal the 5150's lead channel, gain @ noon (using the high gain input)

more than enough gain for me (i believe i had the gain around 2:00 on both channels in this clip...left is the crunch and right is the lead)

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

It sounds to me like you might be getting too much room there. Granted, it's definitely the mp3 too. What's the recording room like?

 

[GuitarMaestro]

It sounds to me like you might be getting too much room there. Granted, it's definitely the mp3 too. What's the recording room like?

Thats true. It sounds too far away and muddy. But I doubt that it's the room as he close miced and a room, even if it is bad cannot have such a drastic influence in my expirience. The question is more what kinda sound you are Cobra. Ypi say the sound lacks bass?!?!? In my opinion it is too bassy and muddy and lacks definition and high-end. You will have a hard time getting it bassier and more cutting at the same time....

 

[Fragle]

the cobra's crunch channel gain dimed i'd say is about equal the 5150's lead channel, gain @ noon (using the high gain input)

more than enough gain for me (i believe i had the gain around 2:00 on both channels in this clip...left is the crunch and right is the lead)

mh...weird. so either my amp is fucked, or the high compression of the 5150 vs. the rather dry almost vht-esque sound of the cobra is fuckin with my brains. as i said, i'd much rather compare the amount of gain on the cobra's crunch channel to a dimed out jcm800 split channel head. think savatage - edge of thorns, that's about the amount of gain i'm getting out of it.

 

[cobrahead1030]

in this clip i had the cab pointed at a wall, which is covered in eggcrates so there's really no room sound to speak of

i'm using the preamps on my $300 alesis mixer (multimix 16) i'm really wondering if that's the culprit? i don't have too much experience with nicer preamps

it's not really a lack of bass i'm having trouble with, it's a lack of depth...i don't know how to explain it really

the high end could come up as well i agree, as i said my mixing room is pretty bright so it's hard to get that right

mh...weird. so either my amp is fucked, or the high compression of the 5150 vs. the rather dry almost vht-esque sound of the cobra is fuckin with my brains. as i said, i'd much rather compare the amount of gain on the cobra's crunch channel to a dimed out jcm800 split channel head. think savatage - edge of thorns, that's about the amount of gain i'm getting out of it.

do you have the stock tubes in yours? upgrading to better power tubes and having it biased warmer made a BIG difference in the sound of mine

not sure about the gain tho...where do you run your volumes? i find that having the channel volume around 3:00 brings out the gain pretty nicely, and i usually keep the master around noon

 

[Jackal_Strain]

I would start with turning the cab so it didn't face the wall. Even though you've covered the wall with eggcrayes, you're bound to get some nasty reflections.

 

[KeithRT99]

despite the quality of recording, i think the tone was really cool.

 

[Black neon bob]

Yeah.. the guitars sound best of all.. i would figure with a better mix, and better quality, it would sound, really, really good..

8!

 

[Nebulous]

Definately turn it AWAY from the wall dude.
If you're having problems getting "depth" out of it, i would put at least 50% of it down to your mixer/ pre's.
I get the same problem with my Eurorack.

 

[cobrahead1030]

we'll be upgrading our setup to a presonus firepod here pretty soon, i'm hoping that will help out a bit (i may actually buy a firebox from gc for a week just to see what will be in store for when we do)

right now we have a drum set, behind my cab so i can't really turn it away from the wall...i guess it couldn't hurt to experiment with that when i can tho