Tube amp direct

[TomiR]

Hi, a newbie hailing from Finland here. I love recording my own stuff and a good sound is essential to me, so I decided to join this group of maniacs. Been playing guitar for about 8 years and I also sing and play drums. And yes, I am a metalhead to the bone.

Gear:
Peavey 6505
Boss SD-1
Koch LoadBox power attenuator
Marshall 2X12" w. Eminence Swamp Thangs
Ibanez RG1527 w. Dimarzio Evo7
Gibson Gothic SG w. EMG 81 and 85
Drums: PDP CX w. Iron Cobra's
etc.

Well, back to the point.

What are your opinions on recording my Peavey through the speaker sim on the Koch and tube amp's through speaker sim's in general? Does anybody else do it this way?

I have gotten waaay better results in recording this way, than doing it the "normal" way. ( micing the amp ) But I still wanted to get some opinions from the experts

When I record the guitar's by micing, the sound is usually a lot thinner than when I record direct through the speaker sim on the Koch. I have tried a couple of different mic's and drove myself mad when trying different positions of the mic, but still the speaker sim was better. It was more HIFI so to speak, and it still maintained the amp's own tonal characteristics.

The Koch works as a dummy load, so I connect the amp's speaker cable to the Koch, and the Koch to my PC and voila.

But yeah, any tips on micing the amp would be great too, because I still think that I should learn how to get a big tone by using mic's too. Using the speaker sim would be taking the easy way out

And I have had the 6505 for only a couple of months and I love it to death, so if any of you guys have some EQ settings etc. you'd like to share, I am all ear.

And keep it heavy mates

 

[006]

Welcome to the community man! First off, about the speaker simulation stuff...there has been a recent slew of threads about using speaker impulses instead of mic'ing up a cabinet. It sounds 99.9% identical as mic'ing the speaker up, which is really cool. I haven't tried this yet, however all the stuff is on the way, such as a Weber MEGA DUMP (attentuator) and possibly Waves IR-L for the impulses.

In a couple of months I'll actually be using this technique on a project with a guy that's on the other side of the country, he's sending D.I.'ed guitar tracks for me to reamp in to the Dual Recto combo of his that he sent me, and using the Weber to go right into the DAW using impulse speaker sims. Should be really neat.

As far as which way...dude if it sounds better to you through the Koch, use it. Although learning to mic up a cabinet to get the same sounds is a very useful skill. There are several things on this forum to help with mic positioning basics and starting points. Also try this site for great recording tips straight from Mr. Sneap himself!

~006

 

[TomiR]

Thanx man! Hey, do you post at sevenstring.org as well?

Yeah, I still have been playing around with mic positions just to get the "tone", and I have gotten some great tones out if it. So maybe I will go the good'ol way and mic my cab.

Thanx for the link too. Wicked site. I love Carcass' tone on Heartwok, so it was priceless to read about who they got it.