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Tired of knobs... tehehe

T

taviswardlaw

Jan 15, 2005
194
2
39
Victoria, Australia
#1
sorry couldn't resist :smug:

I dunno... maybe I'm getting old (19) but i'm tired of amps that have preamps wih too many knobs on them. I think it's partly the backwash from the digital craze. Because (IMO!!!) digital gear can never sound as good as analog (cuts out ultra and infra sound, which affects the sound of the freq.'s we can actually hear) so they add a bunch of knobs to compensate. Give me a good sounding tube amp with a three band eq and a master volume, and a good bass with the same and I am happy. Give me a good sounding tube amp with a 12band full parametric eq, Gain, volume, compression, built in effects and watch me struggle to make it sound decent.

less knobs please!!! anyone agree, or am i just tired of having so many knobs looking at me? :hmm:
 
#4
I dunno... maybe I'm getting old (19) but i'm tired of amps that have preamps wih too many knobs on them. I think it's partly the backwash from the digital craze. Because (IMO!!!) digital gear can never sound as good as analog (cuts out ultra and infra sound, which affects the sound of the freq.'s we can actually hear) so they add a bunch of knobs to compensate. Give me a good sounding tube amp with a three band eq and a master volume, and a good bass with the same and I am happy. Give me a good sounding tube amp with a 12band full parametric eq, Gain, volume, compression, built in effects and watch me struggle to make it sound decent.
Click to expand...

My thing is not having any mystery knobs. I've played a few bass amps where you hit a switch or turn a knob and they don't really do anything. Or, the knobs have poor tapers, and do everything all at once. If there is a feature I don't want to use, I just don't use it.

All well designed audio amplifiers (even tube) cut out frequencies above and below the audio spectrum. If they didn't, your amplifier would turn into a radio station, be really noisy, or just sound bad.

If you have someone who knows what they're doing with DSP, they could make a digital preamp sound exactly like a tube preamp. New DSP technology will probably put me out of a job in a few years. Fast, 32-bit DSPs are just now getting cheap.
 
#5
BbbyBld said:
My thing is not having any mystery knobs. I've played a few bass amps where you hit a switch or turn a knob and they don't really do anything. Or, the knobs have poor tapers, and do everything all at once. If there is a feature I don't want to use, I just don't use it.

All well designed audio amplifiers (even tube) cut out frequencies above and below the audio spectrum. If they didn't, your amplifier would turn into a radio station, be really noisy, or just sound bad.

If you have someone who knows what they're doing with DSP, they could make a digital preamp sound exactly like a tube preamp. New DSP technology will probably put me out of a job in a few years. Fast, 32-bit DSPs are just now getting cheap.
Click to expand...

I agree with just about everything you've said here except that I think DSP is still a bit far away from truly reproducing the 'tube sound.' There are too many random idiosyncrasies in tube stuff to be properly modelled by DSP at this point. though it's probably not all that far off....

Properly designed digital stuff can and does sound very very good.
 
#7
I guess I'm in the minority. I love having 11 knobs, 9 push buttons, and a parametric eq.(Sunn 300T), but I also like having the ease of 3 knobs volume, bass and treble. (Sunn Sorado)

Just depends on the situation and tone I like. My gigging head needs more knobs for different rooms but the 3 knobber is a great recording head.
 
#8
i run amps flat unless soemthing needs tweeking. in that case, i like to have the ability to tweek appropriately. therefore, i prefer many well designed "knobs" (that are rarely used).

a good para eq is like a good fire extinguisher, an insurance policy,
or a microwave pizza.
 
#9
I feel your pain. I have a Peavey BAM210 with all sorts of whiz-bang patches and emulations and adjustments, and we fought for a year to get a sound I could live with. I replaced the front end with an Alembic F-1X, and was loads happier with my tone after 5 minutes!

Larry
 
#10
I run my solid-state amp (GK400) nearly flat, and it sounds great. I don't do the whole presence and contour control (search for my thread on the "enhance" circuit).

My all-tuber (Bassman 100) is nearly flat too, with a bit of bass boosted and the bass boost switch on. No unnecessary knobs here.
 
#12
I think my SWR 750 is a good compromise. It does have that aural enhancer thing that I just don't get. I set it at 2 o'clock and it seems to sound OK. My other controls are set at 12 o'clock. I would love to have an old SVT tube amp. I wouldn't want to carry it though. I think a good amp for me would be something that has about 800 watts, a bass knob, a treble knob, and a volume. My first bass amp was a Sears Silvertone. It had the 3 knob set up. Pretty cool but sounded like s***.
 
#16
Alex said:
I actually really like 12 band EQ, compression, etc. If you don't want it, you can always just not use it. :rolleyes: If you just roll off/turn off anything you don't want to deal with you'll be happy, instead of looking for something with a simple knob scheme.
Click to expand...

But still, there is all that junk that it must go through. It's like an active bass - even flat, it won't sound passive.
 

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