Jule Amps Monique part 5

[3rdcurve]

Has anyone bench tested the Minnie? Curious as to if it holds up to the GK mb800.

 

[BurningSkies]

I'm having a hard time finding the exact input specs on that amp...

The input sensitivity is .775. The Prolites are roughly the same amp design as the Peavey IPR. They're a mid-market amp branded Crest by Peavey.

 

[mothra2]

The input sensitivity is .775. The Prolites are roughly the same amp design as the Peavey IPR. They're a mid-market amp branded Crest by Peavey.

Thanks... how's the Input Impeadance?

 

[mothra2]

15k ohms, balanced and 7.5k ohms unbalanced.

Hmmm... 7.5k is not ideal here if I understand things correctly (less than a 10/1 ratio Power to Pre).
Perhaps a tech-head could chime in on the likley result vs the 10k ohms I believe the Monique wants to see (if this level of mis-match is indeed a significant detractor).


EDIT: Also, the Monique wants to see an amp input sensitivity of .750 (slightly better than the Crests .775), so the combination of the two could even be less ideal than just one or the other being off target.

 

[Jerry Ziarko]

Post everything. The DI has a separate volume control.

Thanks Ken!

Post EQ, Jerry. Every transformer has a voice specific to it. Although Cinemag makes both products output DI transformer, they are not the same. Personal choices and voicing had much to do with what has been chosen.

Don't let that "Post" concern you as much as it might in other products. The EQ in Monique is unlike most in that it is, when all three controls are at noon, pretty much out of the circuit. So in a way you get it both ways. If that makes any sense at all.

I think your question might have gotten lost amid the move to a new thread.

I get what your saying about everything at noon being flat. The concern I have, is EQ'ing to a perfect stage sound, and then having it mess up up what is sent to FOH. I love having a consistent signal at FOH. That is one of the things that first intrigued me about the REDDI. It's a great product to be sure, but it adds nothing to the back line, which is a shame. I'm waiting on some gig reports from Ken. Maybe it's just me, but he seems to consistently nail the descriptions he uses when reviewing a piece of gear. His touting of the CN 212 made me give it a shot, and truthfully, it may be one of the best pieces of gear I've ever owned.

 

[BurningSkies]

Thanks Ken!



I get what your saying about everything at noon being flat. The concern I have, is EQ'ing to a perfect stage sound, and then having it mess up up what is sent to FOH. I love having a consistent signal at FOH. That is one of the things that first intrigued me about the REDDI. It's a great product to be sure, but it adds nothing to the back line, which is a shame. I'm waiting on some gig reports from Ken. Maybe it's just me, but he seems to consistently nail the descriptions he uses when reviewing a piece of gear. His touting of the CN 212 made me give it a shot, and truthfully, it may be one of the best pieces of gear I've ever owned.

I certainly never leave the EQ all at noon, yet I've never had a single complaint from house sound in several years of playing.

 

[KJung]

Thanks Ken!



I get what your saying about everything at noon being flat. The concern I have, is EQ'ing to a perfect stage sound, and then having it mess up up what is sent to FOH. I love having a consistent signal at FOH. That is one of the things that first intrigued me about the REDDI. It's a great product to be sure, but it adds nothing to the back line, which is a shame. I'm waiting on some gig reports from Ken. Maybe it's just me, but he seems to consistently nail the descriptions he uses when reviewing a piece of gear. His touting of the CN 212 made me give it a shot, and truthfully, it may be one of the best pieces of gear I've ever owned.

Hey Jerry. Thanks!

I unfortunately won't have a 'front of house support' gig until well after the first of the year, so won't be much help on this issue. I will say that what drives most sound guys nuts (IME) is the master volume impacting the strength of signal to the board. This is not an issue with the Monique (and most amps in post EQ mode), since there are separate level controls for stage and DI.

It has been reported by others that the DI send and line out are voiced quite differently. If I remember correctly, the DI has a 'darker' voice, which is probably a good thing, since most PA's have much more going on up top than most backline cabs.

So, if you are like me, and don't touch a knob once the gig starts, I think there would be very little problem with a front of house feed with the Monique.

I'll eventually post up about it when I can get feedback from a couple sound guys I trust

 

[maisbass]

Thanks Ken!



I get what your saying about everything at noon being flat. The concern I have, is EQ'ing to a perfect stage sound, and then having it mess up up what is sent to FOH. I love having a consistent signal at FOH. That is one of the things that first intrigued me about the REDDI. It's a great product to be sure, but it adds nothing to the back line, which is a shame. I'm waiting on some gig reports from Ken. Maybe it's just me, but he seems to consistently nail the descriptions he uses when reviewing a piece of gear. His touting of the CN 212 made me give it a shot, and truthfully, it may be one of the best pieces of gear I've ever owned.

I thought I already posted a reply to this but I think it got lost in cyber space!

I'm fortunate to have FOH support at every gig I play. I have had nothing but compliments on my tone from various Sound guys when using the DI of Monique. Responses such as, Super clean, thick, articulate, fat and warm, punchy, sits in the mix, etc. They are all extremely happy with the tone. I've also been told when I mute my strings and thump, they can feel the air being pushed out of their PA system. Huge!

FWIW, they also loved when I used my Puma 900 post DI'd as well. But they all have said that Monique takes the cake. They are literally blown away by the tone it produces from such a small package.

Im not a knob fiddler. Once I get my tone in setup, I leave it like that for the night. With that being said, with Monique, this usually means mostly leaving the eq at noon, perhaps sometimes a minor adjustment depending upon the room. I've yet to get a bad tone out of Monique. I don't think its possible! LOL!

Your sound guy will love the tone out of Mo.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

Thanks Ken!



I get what your saying about everything at noon being flat. The concern I have, is EQ'ing to a perfect stage sound, and then having it mess up up what is sent to FOH. I love having a consistent signal at FOH. That is one of the things that first intrigued me about the REDDI. It's a great product to be sure, but it adds nothing to the back line, which is a shame. I'm waiting on some gig reports from Ken. Maybe it's just me, but he seems to consistently nail the descriptions he uses when reviewing a piece of gear. His touting of the CN 212 made me give it a shot, and truthfully, it may be one of the best pieces of gear I've ever owned.

I recently played my first gig with Monique and it was in one of the worst rooms I've ever gigged. A giant old courthouse, lots of windows, tall ceiling, nothing on the walls or windows. The acoustic bass was super boomy so I backed Monique's bass EQ to 8 or 9 o'clock and boosted the treble. Also had the Fdeck Pre cut to the full 140Hz. That made the tone passable but not great. Anyway, I took a direct feed out of Monique's DI into a Zoom H6 recorder. I assumed the recording would be out of balance but it wasn't bad, not nearly as weak in the bass EQ as I thought it would be. Not perfectly balanced, actually sounded pretty good. So if the DI had been feeding a FOH system (which we did not have), I don't think there would have been any issue at all. Your comment about REDDI (which I own) was a reservation I also had about Monique's post-EQ effect on the DI. After this experience, I wouldn't worry about it for live sound. There would be an issue if you were looking to use Monique live, used extreme EQ, and wanted a studio-grade recording of the experience. In that case, you might want to slap that REDDI into the beginning of the chain for a perfectly flat recording of the live performance.

 

[chadds]

I certainly never leave the EQ all at noon, yet I've never had a single complaint from house sound in several years of playing.

I've seen soundmen smile when they solo me at soundcheck. Never a concern about eq.. Engineers too. They seem to like what they are getting.

 

[chadds]

Hey Jerry!!

 

[KJung]

I've seen soundmen smile when they solo me at soundcheck. Never a concern about eq.. Engineers too. They seem to like what they are getting.

+1 in that as long as you don't touch anything during the gig, most post EQ sends work OK. With the big, wide low end of the Monique, my guess is, some hi passing would be needed in many mixes where you have full front of house with subs, but that is usually not a problem with a decent front of house system.

I still prefer a nice, pure pre EQ clean send, and I've always gotten raves (I don't think I've used a post EQ send for decades. A sound person typically has to work a little harder to use a post EQ DI, but a good one shouldn't have any issue if you don't touch the EQ or gain once the gig starts.

 

[BurningSkies]

+1 in that as long as you don't touch anything during the gig, most post EQ sends work OK. With the big, wide low end of the Monique, my guess is, some hi passing would be needed in many mixes where you have full front of house with subs, but that is usually not a problem with a decent front of house system.

I still prefer a nice, pure pre EQ clean send, and I've always gotten raves (I don't think I've used a post EQ send for decades. A sound person typically has to work a little harder to use a post EQ DI, but a good one shouldn't have any issue if you don't touch the EQ or gain once the gig starts.

That's my only concern about using the Sensitivity live to toggle sounds, and one of the reasons I don't if I have a DI running to the FOH. There is a level change when you adjust the sweep on the sensitivity (its certainly not a linear thing, but its there), and I don't want to throw the levels at the board out of whack. When I'm my own house sound, I can certainly jockey my level to the power amp and have gotten fairly adept at keeping output levels roughly similar.

 

[Jeff Moote]

I was kinda hoping you hated it and went back to the Crest.

I may have to look into the whole Minnie/800D thing one day soon.

Welcome to the club. The Crest is a great amp (among the best for a Class D 2U poweramp for bass use) but there is certainly something to be said for a system designed to work as one from top to bottom.

 

[Jazzdogg]

I recently played my first gig with Monique and it was in one of the worst rooms I've ever gigged. A giant old courthouse, lots of windows, tall ceiling, nothing on the walls or windows. The acoustic bass was super boomy so I backed Monique's bass EQ to 8 or 9 o'clock and boosted the treble. Also had the Fdeck Pre cut to the full 140Hz. That made the tone passable but not great. Anyway, I took a direct feed out of Monique's DI into a Zoom H6 recorder. I assumed the recording would be out of balance but it wasn't bad, not nearly as weak in the bass EQ as I thought it would be. Not perfectly balanced, actually sounded pretty good. So if the DI had been feeding a FOH system (which we did not have), I don't think there would have been any issue at all. Your comment about REDDI (which I own) was a reservation I also had about Monique's post-EQ effect on the DI. After this experience, I wouldn't worry about it for live sound. There would be an issue if you were looking to use Monique live, used extreme EQ, and wanted a studio-grade recording of the experience. In that case, you might want to slap that REDDI into the beginning of the chain for a perfectly flat recording of the live performance.

I'm curious to know whether placing the FDeck HPF/Pre in front of Monique changes Monique's touch sensitivity with passive basses.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I'm curious to know whether placing the FDeck HPF/Pre in front of Monique changes Monique's touch sensitivity with passive basses.

Not sure, I've elected to keep the pre in front of the entire chain based on things that were said in earlier threads. It's a simpler configuration and is working fine for me.

 

[BurningSkies]

I started with it between my pre and my power amp, but have moved it out front. I use my Dingwall in active mode though, and don't have any experience with it run passive or using a traditional Fender style passive instrument.

 

[KJung]

I'm curious to know whether placing the FDeck HPF/Pre in front of Monique changes Monique's touch sensitivity with passive basses.

I would guess it does, at least reducing the impact of the impedance variation of the sensitivity knob. It would change a passive bass to 'active bufferend' going into the Monique, I believe.

 

[Jazzdogg]

Thanks, all!

 

[tombowlus]

I would guess it does, at least reducing the impact of the impedance variation of the sensitivity knob. It would change a passive bass to 'active bufferend' going into the Monique, I believe.

I don't think that the output impedance on the FDeck is all that hot, but yes, it is likely to be a bit different from going straight passive, so you will likely hear a difference. Who knows, it might sound better (but will likely be slightly different, either way).