The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

Good Evening Everyone!
I have a question ...
What size amp (wattage) do you use when recording? Or perhaps you use a pedal for overdive / distortion?
The reason I ask? When I get my amp loud enough to sound good (heating the power tubes), the entire house rattles !!
It's fun, but the recording suffers. I'm wondering if I need to pick up an amp with much less power. Currently I use a Fender with 60 watts of tube power.
Have a good'n, cause I'm gonna!!!

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Don't listen to your wife! LISTEN ... You gotta listen to Me!!!

Some may consider what I use as taboo when considering a tube sound, but I've found that I can tweak my Pod to get a pretty rich sound, both clean and distorted. Of course that depends on what style your into, but I find it very easy.

On a side note... Believe it or not I've found a pretty good distortion (pretty clean) on my QY100. I don't use it much, but when I have it's worked. Even through the 1/8 output.

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My top 50 album (Japan) with "Stride" is here http://www.myspace.com/garybelinstride
My new pop rock demos are here http://www.myspace.com/garybelin

I know what you mean ...
To be honest, and I feel an attitude coming on, I am really close to saying that solid state has a better tube sound than tubes. There is the chance that it may be due to the fact that I don't know how to dial in my overdriven / distorted sound on the tube amps I've owned, it's highly possible.
Now when it come to a Fender clean tone ahh ... Heaven!
But I've never been able to get a smooth distortion at a reasonable volume. I use a Korg AX1500 with pretty good success straight to the PA and in front of any amp for live gigs and am generally pretty happy.
However I'd like to be successful with the tube amp, then I could sing the praises of tubes in harmony with the masses.

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Don't listen to your wife! LISTEN ... You gotta listen to Me!!!

I've had pretty good luck doing some things for other people with on of those little Blues Junior Fender thangs. The other thing you can consider is putting a hot plate on your amp.. it'll load it down without the massive volume...

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i- ... dium=feed&

I use one of those little pod type things too. It's great for late night when you have to be quiet, or if you just need to dial in something really quick and don't feel like messing with mics and stuff.

-== Beer

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I LOVE THIS!!! Ted Stevens, 82-year-old US Senator from Alaska and chairman of the Senate Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation, for explaining in a speech how the Internet actually works: “It’s a series of tubes.”

I once heard a 5 watt guitar amp that was smokin'. For small studio recording using an amp, I'd consider something 30 watts or less. Check out a Vox. Pods are awesome units and are definitely tweakable. There's everything from cabinet choices to mic placement. It's whatever melts yer butter.

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GSMUSIC: Hey RZ, Im not no upper class american, the gear I own is what I have special to me. My car sucks, my house sucks, my nieghborhood sucks. Does yours RZ? Does it?

rz-land

Hi xld,

for my ears nothing can beat the sound of a good tube amp. Have had the same problem here with an handwired Fender Tweed Twin clone (40 watt, 1 channel, no mastervolume). Now I have a studio in my home basement, so a cranked amp is no more a problem for me.

What I had done before is using a weber mass (power soak, similar to the THD beerosaur linked here) to get the sound of the cranked tube amp at lower volumes. There are some other powersoaks like the Dr.Z airbreake on the market. All with the same advantages and disadvantages of a power soak. This really works specially for recording. If you think you can get the volume down to bedroom level, it will do it but the sounds lacks of dynamics and the highs suffered. Thats because a lot of the sound comes from the driven speakers, too, and a 12speaker at beedroom level sounds crappy. Also your ears will recognize the sound thinner because of the lack of volume. I use the weber mass for club gigs now, to reduce the volume just a little bit and you can hear no tone loss when using it this way.

So, if you want a good sound at real beedroom level, a modeller will be the better choice, also if you think of the 1000th of sounds you can get with it. If you only want the volume of the cranked tube amp reduced for half the way and you dont need 1000th of sounds a power soak will do it for you. In this case I recommend to buy a powersoak with the possibility to send it back if it not works for you. Some people love it, some hate it.

Hope it helps
Andreas

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Blues aint nothing but the blues!

Thanks much for the tips.
I have never gone the power soak route, I may have to try it. (Is it harder on the amp than running it at full volume?)
We once hooked a Fender Blues Junior to a Marschall 4x12 cab in a local music store while having the "power tube -vs- preamp tube distortion" conversation. All tens on the pots ... and what a fantastic tone and at a reasonable volume!!
Well, time to stumble into Friday/Slideday!!!
Have a goodn', cause I'm gonna,

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Don't listen to your wife! LISTEN ... You gotta listen to Me!!!