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New Trace Elliot 1200 amp !

#181
Merton said:
@jdwinva and @tombowlus - have either of you tried the USB recording output yet?
I had a very brief whirl this evening and it seems to be very quiet, but I literally had 1 minute of playing before the boss got home and I had to go cook dinner o_O
Will have more of a play this weekend I hope.
Either way it certainly seems better than my Ashdown B-Social in terms of background noise from the USB…
Click to expand...

I have not tried this function yet. Definitely need to give it a whirl, though!
 
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#187
Merton said:
@jdwinva and @tombowlus - have either of you tried the USB recording output yet?
I had a very brief whirl this evening and it seems to be very quiet, but I literally had 1 minute of playing before the boss got home and I had to go cook dinner o_O
Will have more of a play this weekend I hope.
Either way it certainly seems better than my Ashdown B-Social in terms of background noise from the USB…
Click to expand...

I have not tried the USB out on the amp. Sorry.
 
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#188
I’ve had the amp a week now, and whilst I’ve not yet managed to play it outside of my house, I have a few observations:

1. The USB recording output is very quiet. So quiet that I have to max the input gain and master volume to get a suitable signal level. Speaking to a guy at Peavey about this, it may be down to a compromise in the chipset they had to use (supply chain issues) but it’s no real biggie as I have my Ashdown B-Social still.

2. Not sure I’m a fan of the compressor as an always on feature. Even with the controls fully off the sound noticeably thins and loses a bit of fatness. It’s great as an effect though, and I can see it being useful for a couple of songs in my function band.

3. The flat (i.e. EQ centred at noon) tone is lovely. Funnily enough it sounds like an Elf but with much more headroom and power in the low end. I actually found that the Trace nearly flat sounded very similar indeed to the way I have EQ’d my Glockenklang. The Glock is more hifi/transparent with its EQ so I have felt I have to work it to get a bit of character in the basic tone; the Trace has it there already. This of course is a personal preference thing but it works for me.

4. The fan is probably the second quietest fan I’ve ever had in a bass amp. The quietest being in the Glock - even after a long loud gig you can’t hear it at all. With the Trace there is a whisper of one but that’s nothing compared to the Elf, any Ashdown I’ve ever owned or countless other amps.

5. The preshape really is the old Trace preshape.

6. The foot switch is excellent. Sturdy, solid switches and silent switching within the amplifier.

Jury’s out still whether it can replace the Glock in my affections as the big gig amp of choice (I need a few gigs under my belt before that, and the Glock has more versatility vs the Trace with the drive control and voice feature for example) but I’m liking what I’m getting so far.
 
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#189
Thinking more about the compressor, I have the gain set very high following the USB experiments… I am sure that I need more time to experiment with the way the input gain and compressor interact. I also need more time playing with setting the comp pre- and post-EQ. So hold judgement on point 2 above ;)
 
#190
Ok got a much better grasp of the interaction between the gain and comp settings now and can see a few different settings being very useful in places, plus found a more sensible “set it and forget it” scenario too.

Also used the headphone output today - superb quality. Not a peep of hiss or background noise at all, much like the Glock Blue Rock but absolutely nothing at all like my old Ashdown RM head where I was told “it’s a class D head so there will be noise, use less good headphones”. Does kinda make me wonder …
wink.png
 
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#191
Traditionally, Trace has always intended their pre-amps to have the input set just below clipping, for optimal s/n (the metering is measured at several places: the input, post EQ, and the f/x return, and post compressor for amps that include one).

This is important to remember, as the noise reduction circuit has a fixed threshold, and if input gain is set too low the n/r will have a noticeable effect on input signals high frequencies, acting like a low pass filter / gate.

Furthermore, the output of any pre/post EQ sockets, such as the effects send, and pre/post EQ DI (and presumably the USB output) will be at a low signal level.

The slave output could be boosted up to a more sensible level, using the stage output / master volume control, but the s/n ratio won't be so great.

That's not to say you can't use a Trace solid state amp as if it were a tube amp, maxing the master volume, and using the gain control to set the stage volume of the loudspeakers (it's a noticeably different sound, and pretty tasty), but forget taking a direct feed from it, and bypass the n/r.
 
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#192
Waiting for a preampdi pedal without the comp and tuner like the transit B

And no power (not the elf)

just a high quality Preamp/di
I actually msged a builder about a copy of the Sm7 I had
But with higher quality parts but
Price is out of the question

The graphic EQ pedal is cool but not many options out there
 
#193
Wood and Wire said:
Traditionally, Trace has always intended their pre-amps to have the input set just below clipping, for optimal s/n (the metering is measured at several places: the input, post EQ, and the f/x return, and post compressor for amps that include one).

This is important to remember, as the noise reduction circuit has a fixed threshold, and if input gain is set too low the n/r will have a noticeable effect on input signals high frequencies, acting like a low pass filter / gate.

Furthermore, the output of any pre/post EQ sockets, such as the effects send, and pre/post EQ DI (and presumably the USB output) will be at a low signal level.

The slave output could be boosted up to a more sensible level, using the stage output / master volume control, but the s/n ratio won't be so great.

That's not to say you can't use a Trace solid state amp as if it were a tube amp, maxing the master volume, and using the gain control to set the stage volume of the loudspeakers (it's a noticeably different sound, and pretty tasty), but forget taking a direct feed from it, and bypass the n/r.
Click to expand...
Yep, traditional Trace worked like this.
The TE-1200 doesn’t have any clip lights, noise reduction etc so think it’s handling the signal in a different way :)
 
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#194
Finally got the chance to use the TE-1200 on a loud pub gig last night; no bass in the PA so onstage rig was doing it all. Cabs were a pair of Barefaced Two10s.

To say the rig delivered would be an understatement. Whatever I fed it from my HX Effects - clean, slightly driven, all out fuzz, octaves, choruses - the rig was always there, full blooded and present. I was very happy with the way it handled everything, it absolutely nailed the tone I have in my head without any additional EQ after whatever the HX was doing (which was sometimes absolutely nothing!).
Wonderful :hyper:
 
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#195
I did an A/B with my Glockenklang Blue Rock last night. They’re obviously amps with different design goals but they have very similar formats and power outputs so I thought it would be fun.
The Glock is clearly much more transparent and “flat” with everything at noon, the Trace has a baked in EQ curve which is very musical and pleasing to my ears. Once I’d tweaked EQs (mainly on the Glock) there wasn’t a huge amount of difference at all. The Glock had a crisper top end but that was about it. In a rock band setting I think the Trace wins out. It was a fun experiment :)

C6272735-131C-4532-A4C0-B4B4EC0697AB.jpeg
 
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#196
Had some fun last night revisiting my Trace amp comparison that I did in my ELF review, but adding in the TE-1200.

52444533079_cce4eb8eb0_b.jpg


I was blown away by how similar the TE-1200 set flat (no Pre-Shape) sounded compared to my AH1200SM, with EQ out, EQ Balance at noon (I know it's set towards Low in that photo, though) but Pre-Shape 1 engaged. Yes, you could tell them apart, but it was really close!
 
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#197
tombowlus said:
I was blown away by how similar the TE-1200 set flat (no Pre-Shape) sounded compared to my AH1200SM, with EQ out, EQ Balance at noon (I know it's set towards Low in that photo, though) but Pre-Shape 1 engaged. Yes, you could tell them apart, but it was really close!
Click to expand...

It sounds like they met their design goals, then.
 
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#198
tombowlus said:
Had some fun last night revisiting my Trace amp comparison that I did in my ELF review, but adding in the TE-1200.

52444533079_cce4eb8eb0_b.jpg


I was blown away by how similar the TE-1200 set flat (no Pre-Shape) sounded compared to my AH1200SM, with EQ out, EQ Balance at noon (I know it's set towards Low in that photo, though) but Pre-Shape 1 engaged. Yes, you could tell them apart, but it was really close!
Click to expand...

That does seem a little strange though, as the TE-1200 includes a dedicated pre-shape engage switch.

The ELF doesn't feature the switchable circuit, so it made sense that the EQ had that curve baked in (set flat / 12 o'clock equated to 50% of the pre-shape 1 curve).
 
#199
Wood and Wire said:
That does seem a little strange though, as the TE-1200 includes a dedicated pre-shape engage switch.

The ELF doesn't feature the switchable circuit, so it made sense that the EQ had that curve baked in (set flat / 12 o'clock equated to 50% of the pre-shape 1 curve).
Click to expand...

True, but part of that is the native voicing of the AH1200SM prior to engaging the Pre-Shape (which is more mid-forward than the native voicing of the TE-1200).
 

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