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Big E Speakers Part 4 - Quadraphenia
- Thread starter kesslari
- Start date
Got a call from "The Temple of Tone" yesterday. As Mike previously informed me, the demand for the new 8" models is keeping him in 'busy beaver mode'. I went with the optional Ciare tweeter for my 1,8 and this is why it hasn't shown up at my door as yet. It turns out that 18Sound purchased the company that produces these fantastic tweeters and Mike had been semi-patiently awaiting delivery of the latest batch which arrived yesterday. Production is full-on for Ciare-equipped cabs once again. 
Eagerly anticipating interacting with the latest, greatest vortex-manipulating acoustic interface!
Eagerly anticipating interacting with the latest, greatest vortex-manipulating acoustic interface!
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You will have all the best praise tools available! Gee Maybe my no tweet 28 was finished early because Mike had to hold off on the other cabs?Got a call from "The Temple of Tone" yesterday. As Mike previously informed me, the demand for the new 8" models is keeping him in 'busy beaver mode'. I went with the optional Ciare tweeter for my 1,8 and this is why it hasn't shown up at my door as yet. It turns out that 18Sound purchased the company that produces these fantastic tweeters and Mike had been semi-patiently awaiting delivery of the latest batch which arrived yesterday. Production is full-on for Ciare-equipped cabs once again.
Also posted the below in the Reiner Amplification thread -- some noodling recorded today with the 6SL7 pre and my MAS-112, which I think matches up particularly well with it. I could have done better with the (hurried) mic placement, but you can still hear (at least I think so) how the cab faithfully reproduces the note envelope of the preamp's DI signal (though you can all make up your own minds about that!).
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Hola! Hope everyone is well.
Nothing too profound to share today, but I did record some noodling with the 6SL7 pre. (Had a bit more, but I cut out some redundant stuff for the sake of time -- also had to cut out the slap part as I'd set the levels too high on the interface and clipped it.)
0:00 to 0:33 - bridge pickup chords, harmonics, noodles
0:33 to 0:52 - both pickups, mostly fingerstyle
0:52 to 1:17 - still both pickups, some palm-muting and chords
1:17 to end - neck pickup: about 10 seconds of palm muting followed by some fingerstyle.
First track is the pre recorded direct, second is miced through my MAS 112 cab (the two seem to have an affinity for each other).
Mic is an AT-2035, about a foot back from the cab. I could have taken more time with the mic placement -- just eyeballed it and rough-checked the levels. Thought I had it about halfway between the woofer and the mids/tweet, but parallax error deceived me and it was pretty much inline with the woofer vertically, maybe 2-3" off-center horizontally. Could maybe have set it back another half-foot or so, too. The tonal balance is thus a little off from what I hear live (mids and highs a little underrepresented, among other things), but I think it's close enough to convey the basic character -- and I like to hear how an amp (6SL7 pre + QSC PLX1804, in this case) drives a cab. (Since I have the direct signal, I could theoretically re-amp it, but that's not happening now.)
Bass is my trusty, modded Fender Power Jazz Bass Special. Passive, Wilde pickups, Les Paul 50s wiring, set with bridge pickup volume up full, neck up ~95%. Tone control on neck is fully open, on bridge, 90-95% open. Didn't touch the tone controls thereafter and just used the 3-way switch to go between pickups.
Took a photo of the front panel/settings, but am having trouble attaching it at the moment. Settings used were:
Re. the settings above, I've gravitated toward using a little lower gain (sometimes as low as 10:30) most of the time... the pre does get some lovely and subtly increasing harmonic grind going as you dial it up past noon but, today, this (above) was the sweet spot for me in balancing tone and articulation. EQ-wise, I was shooting for some presence in the upper mids/treble while staying balanced and full through the register of the bass. I like the result pretty well, but you all can judge for yourselves!
---
Hola! Hope everyone is well.
Nothing too profound to share today, but I did record some noodling with the 6SL7 pre. (Had a bit more, but I cut out some redundant stuff for the sake of time -- also had to cut out the slap part as I'd set the levels too high on the interface and clipped it.)
0:00 to 0:33 - bridge pickup chords, harmonics, noodles
0:33 to 0:52 - both pickups, mostly fingerstyle
0:52 to 1:17 - still both pickups, some palm-muting and chords
1:17 to end - neck pickup: about 10 seconds of palm muting followed by some fingerstyle.
First track is the pre recorded direct, second is miced through my MAS 112 cab (the two seem to have an affinity for each other).
Mic is an AT-2035, about a foot back from the cab. I could have taken more time with the mic placement -- just eyeballed it and rough-checked the levels. Thought I had it about halfway between the woofer and the mids/tweet, but parallax error deceived me and it was pretty much inline with the woofer vertically, maybe 2-3" off-center horizontally. Could maybe have set it back another half-foot or so, too. The tonal balance is thus a little off from what I hear live (mids and highs a little underrepresented, among other things), but I think it's close enough to convey the basic character -- and I like to hear how an amp (6SL7 pre + QSC PLX1804, in this case) drives a cab. (Since I have the direct signal, I could theoretically re-amp it, but that's not happening now.)
Bass is my trusty, modded Fender Power Jazz Bass Special. Passive, Wilde pickups, Les Paul 50s wiring, set with bridge pickup volume up full, neck up ~95%. Tone control on neck is fully open, on bridge, 90-95% open. Didn't touch the tone controls thereafter and just used the 3-way switch to go between pickups.
Took a photo of the front panel/settings, but am having trouble attaching it at the moment. Settings used were:
- Gain @ ~ 11:30
- Normal/Boost switch set to "normal"
- Bass @ ~ 12:15
- Low Mid @ ~ 12:10
- High Mid @ ~ 12:45
- Treble @ ~ 1:45
Re. the settings above, I've gravitated toward using a little lower gain (sometimes as low as 10:30) most of the time... the pre does get some lovely and subtly increasing harmonic grind going as you dial it up past noon but, today, this (above) was the sweet spot for me in balancing tone and articulation. EQ-wise, I was shooting for some presence in the upper mids/treble while staying balanced and full through the register of the bass. I like the result pretty well, but you all can judge for yourselves!
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MA109 stack to the left. Wow did it sound good!
Groovy. You might have to change your name to "Big Rig" if this keeps up.
Outdoor with no PA support? That's Big Rig!
Thanks for posting this. Nice playing! What is your DAW that you are using? I am assuming that you are not using any plug ins for amp simulation in these two demos? Which track do you prefer soundwise? I thought they both sounded great. I usually just record without mic the cab might try to mic in the future.
Thank you!
No plugins or sims of any kind, no pedals, no compression or EQ. DAW is just Garage Band on my Mac. Preference... let me listen again and get back to you on that!
No plugins or sims of any kind, no pedals, no compression or EQ. DAW is just Garage Band on my Mac. Preference... let me listen again and get back to you on that!
Okay, after a few listens with decent headphones, I slightly prefer the miced recording. It has a bit more "oomph" -- though, to be fair 1) some of that might be due to how I miced the cab, which yielded a bit more low-mid emphasis and a bit less, I think, of upper mids/treble than I heard from the cab "in real life" and 2) I EQed the pre to get a sound I liked through the cab, then recorded -- but, more than that, there's a sense of space (even if it's not a big space, with a mono mic a foot from the cab) and "air" (even if there's more treble in the direct recording), something a little more natural and, to me, relaxing to listen to, about a record of the vibrations moving in air vs. electronically. I realize that this is incomplete and that the headphones (or whatever system I use to listen) are themselves moving air (and I do in fact prefer the direct sound played over my desktop computer speakers, which have a decided low-mid hump -- though I prefer the miced sound over my phone and crappy laptop speakers), but whatevs. That's how I hear it now, and I think that there's more to that than the "EQ" of the cab and the mic.
All that said, I like the direct sound, too -- there are some things I prefer about it -- and when I'm recording something at home, that's how I record the vast majority of the time. If I were making a more serious recording or in a studio somewhere, I'd probably want both the miced and direct sound captured, though that potentially complicates things a little bit for later.
I think I liked the mic recording a bit more, too. They are pretty close though as they both sound great.
Couple of months later but.....
Should have some photos to contribute soon.
In theory, receipt of tracking info is imminent, so fingers and toes crossed.
Really getting stoked and ready to hear them with the Eich T-1000 and Bass Board.
Had to share. Even w/o tweets, movies and music sound great! About 40w ea out of a Stewart PA50B in stereo. Thanks Mike.
My original shipping approximation from Stephen was 5/18. Like a kid I wish I already had it. (MAS28). I will be hauling the 48 to a smallish bar gig tomorrow, just because all I have now for small footprint is the old Avatar 112.
We’re playing Campbell tomorrow night and it back to conventional designs. Probably my 400w Ashdown 1x15 which is a very nice slab cab. Playing the Poor House Bistro late June and hope to debut B28 there. Mike said he has 3 boxes build up and needs a week to load components. I’ve waited almost a year to pull one off. No problem waiting a bit more!
