Amp/Guitar modeling and related discussion thread

^So you don't reamp then? I tend to just reamp through POD Farm, so admittedly a tube preamp would do nothing at all. What I am going to do however, is invest in a proper firewire interface and DI box so my DI tracks can improve in quality. Although that was interesting though, I've heard some other people do the tube preamp approach too.
Regarding noise, what pickups are you using ? I just got active pickups installed in my Ibanez RG 7421 (7 string), Seymour Duncan Blackouts to be precise and they are very quiet compared to passive humbuckers.
I was originally gating at -66dB on the Noise Gate, now I'm using about -79dB, it's crazy how much difference switching to active pickups make.
I would have responded earlier, but I spent all day testing my new pickups haha.

Pickups in my strat & mini-V are, Seymour Duncan Trembucker (cut through excellent when using higher gain and intricate picking) and a Hot Rail for lead. In my custom Tele, a Dimarzio  Air Norton and a Hot Rail. But lately I've been using 2 Dimarzio Custom wound EVH pickups and their surprisingly great. The comment about the pre-gating before my POD for live, is when using high gain I really hate that sshhhh sound when the gates close usually no matter how fast you set them, and during recording I was getting tired of editing. So with that extra gate and cutting of my guitar signal when I stop playing, there's no hiss at all. Although I do turn that gate off when recording solos so I can get more sustain/feedback etc...

Walking advertisement for the Variax lol.
Yesterday I was out jamming with some guys, cranked out tube amp combos, I had my X3 Live plugged into the effects loop of one of the amps to use the power amp section, and with the Blackouts I seriously didn't need more than -75dB to keep my guitar quiet. For this reason alone I don't even want to go back to passive pickups.
They are also way more articulate than my old stock pickups, as well as having far superior note separation under high gain even with complex chords. The high output allows me to back off the preamp gain level, allowing more dynamics to come through.
Can your Variax do that?
They aren't for everyone, but to Meatal, you'll probably find if you switch to active pickups some of your problems with noise will just go away and you'll need to use less threshold on your noise gate.

Oh and BTW Trembucker simply denotes they are made to be used with a trem equipped guitar, so it doesn't tell me anything about what actual pickup it is.
You can buy a Seymour Duncan JB model in trembucker form and you can buy a '59 model in trembucker form, but they sound nothing alike.

Also read my post on the other page Mike about the frequencies thing.
It might inspire you to get studio monitors so you'll actually be able to hear everything.


Edited by Petrovsk Mizinski - October 04 2009 at 01:24

Ooops! To clarify, my main pickups are Seymour Duncan Parallel AxisTrembuckers (Original) in Bridge postition and the Seymour Duncan Hot Rail in the Neck.
 And I don't have any ground hum at all, I'm using the gate to competely shut off my guitars signal through my POD and then to my amp, so my amp/monitor doesn't have any operating noise/hiss, even at super high volumes.
 As for recording monitors I still use my Yamaha NS-10's (used them for so long I'm comfortable with them)  w/matching Yamaha sub woofer. Actually have 2 pairs of them the industry standard ones everyone knows (black box w/ white cone 6" spkr and tweeter)  and the actual early NS-10's from the 1970's that had (10" oval spkr and a tweeter).
Unlike a lot of you recording using your computers, I guess I'm a little old school, coming from having a studio way back when and using 2" reel to reels, Fostex G-16's reels, I worked for Roland for years and then moved up to my VS-1680EX's and VS-880EX's synched, I know how to push the limits of these machines and have used them for over 15 years, and well I'm too lazy to change. And I have lots of people keep telling me to just use my computers/programmes but I hate relearning crap, wasting time.  I can get jobs done quicker this way.
Don't get me wrong I do use the computer for a few things (editing etc,,,), but any mastering (a real  artform in itself)  is always sent to professional.

And to add to Kingfriso's comments, I agree technology has sucked some of the life out of music, however there are still a few bands that record old school "live" off the floor, sure they multitrack, but use whole takes instead of overedited computer perfection. Trying to be a little more human again.

Petrovsk Mizinski wrote: Walking advertisement for the Variax lol. Yesterday I was out jamming with some guys, cranked out tube amp combos, I had my X3 Live plugged into the effects loop of one of the amps to use the power amp section, and with the Blackouts I seriously didn't need more than -75dB to keep my guitar quiet. For this reason alone I don't even want to go back to passive pickups. They are also way more articulate than my old stock pickups, as well as having far superior note separation under high gain even with complex chords. The high output allows me to back off the preamp gain level, allowing more dynamics to come through. Can your Variax do that?

Absolutely - the Variax uses active pickups. They're also piezo, which means that they don't pick up any hum caused by other electric devices (like computers, light dimmers or washing machines). Because it's such a clean signal I can boost it before feeding it into the amp simulation. However, most preamps are designed for typical guitar signals and in those instances boosting the signal will only saturate the preamp.

^ The Variax clearly isn't suited for modern Thrash/Death metal sounds ... it's basically 100% vintage. Currently I'm quite happy using the Variax for its acoustic models, the Sitar/Banjo/12 string models and the Telecaster/Stratocaster sounds. I use the ESP for pretty much everything else. It surely would be nice to have active pickups in the ESP - that way I could further reduce the noise/humming.

BTW: My Variax 700 is actually nice looking ... the body is transparent blue, and except for the missing pickups it looks pretty much like any other nice guitar in the 1000-1500 EUR price range.


Edited by Mr ProgFreak - October 06 2009 at 08:13

^  128 samples = 2.9ms

It's not as simple as that. Depending on the sample rate, the numbers might be correct ... but on top of the ASIO latency you have the latency of the audio interface itself. ASIO only deals with the transportation of audio from one application to another.

^ What's bad is that I can't get it to work reliably on my computer with anything below 1024 samples, while I can use Asio4All with 64 samples perfectly fine. I'll definitely get another audio interface soon.

This is the one I think I'll get:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/esi_maya_44e.htm

Screw USB or Firewire ... PCI-E is fine for me!

^ I got really good results with the GR 4 Ultrasonic & Gratifier ... I'll try to record some riffs later today and experiment with the different models.

BTW: I couldn't work with 128 samples either ... especially for fast riffs the latency is annoying. For example, try playing Iron Maiden - Losfer Words, just the riff in the beginning. It's played on the A string throughout ... try to get the timing right with 128 samples, I definitely can't. I can though with 64 samples.

^ Of course you have a point - I really haven't played a real amp in years. On the other hand I'm listening to music all the time ... and from a mixing/mastering standpoint, the sound of the guitar in existing recordings should be a benchmark. I only just read an article about mixing, and the guy (he runs a successful studio in New York) said that when you're mixing you always need a point of reference - anything else is "just fiddling with knobs".

Losfer Words is a cool exercise for left/right hand coordination - and latency will simply make it harder to keep in sync to a metronome or drums, since your brain tries to sync the picking movement to the beat you hear, but since the actual sound is delayed it also tries to compensate for that at the same time. It's a certain kind of "sluggishness" ... which you would also encounter in real life if you tried to record using monitor speakers which are too far away (1 meter = 3ms latency). That's also why it's a good idea to use headphones when recording ...

Well, my new sound card arrived today ... let's hope it works better than the Line 6 interface. Yesterday I tried again and for some reason the dry signal is too faint. This might be what you meant by your complaints about Line 6 Interfaces as DI boxes ... but if that is so, I wonder why nobody mentions this in reviews or guitar forums. The ESI Maya 44 e has a special "High Z" input for guitars and operates in 24 bit by default, so hopefully it will solve all my problems. :-)