Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
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- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
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Why do we tube lovers love tubes?
- Thread starter JimmyM
- Start date
You've made a believer out of me. Tube technology is obsolete, environmentally hazardous, bad sounding, and morally wrong. People who like tube amps are deaf, insane, and lacking in mental capacity. Eradication of tube amps will result in peace in the Middle East. We should begin by banning all tube amp users from TB. Then we will have peace.
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
i've yet to hear it, bob. no way you can plug into a vt or line 6 or even heavy duty computer plugins like guitar rig and amplitube and get that same feeling like plugging into an svt. and i say that as a big fan of the vt and guitar rig.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
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- John K Custom Basses
IMO, the Focusrite liquid channel has come the closest to modeling a vintage preamp with its convolution process, but even then, still does not duplicate it exactly. i can definitely tell the difference.
Bob, IME, they still ain't there yet, but maybe someday.
Bob, IME, they still ain't there yet, but maybe someday.
i've already submitted my resignation from the portaflex club and i'm about to go buy a behringer amp.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
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- John K Custom Basses
If modeling really impresses you you really need to find a cheap Big Muff Pi and a perimetric EQ plugin and see how far you can get with just that.... Really, I'm totally serious.
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
Maybe, but it would be a matter of qualty of a specific emulation and not whether it is possible. The "sound" of an amp is all in the signals--what comes out versus what goes in.
It would be interesting to see if people can reliably tell the difference by sound alone--in double blind testing--instead of in sighted tests.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
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- John K Custom Basses
IME, so far it works great in theory, but not in reality.
but for some people, they can't tell the difference, so it's working for them now (and IMO, that's also great, just not for me).
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
okay, maybe for you, but i think that some people got it.
Well, what I "got" was a bad analogy.
It's like in "audiophile" discussions when someone says good amplifiers should tend to sound alike, if not indistinguishable, and someone retorts that "Oh, you think all wine tastes alike then," which would be as absurd as claiming that all music sounds alike.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
It's all a matter of how well the tube amps' characteristics are analyzed and implemented in processing. That can be done as well or as poorly as the designer (or his or her employer) chooses to do.
To evaluate a specific emulation versus the real thing, you need to do a double blind test. Claiming to hear a difference in sighted testing is pretty unreliable.
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
i think that Focusrite actually did a remarkable job, and so far, quite a bit better than anyone else, since they use an analog preamp to begin with, and then use the convolution process to modify the various effects that gain, distortion and frequency response have on it, after using actual vintage units for comparison, with a ton of different gain settings, frequencies and eq curves going in. i have done double blind testing with a friend of mine's and still could tell the difference 90% of the time, but it was alot harder to tell than most, if not all of the digital modelling software that i've used. funnily enough (is funnily even a word? )the biggest difference that i could hear was in the undesireable artifacts that the actual vintage gear had that were a little lacking in the Focusrite. i liked it so much, that i'm actually saving up to get one now for myself.
i'll be the first to admit i can't tell in recordings or through the pa. but stand me in front of my rig with a bass in my hand and i'll tell every time. i don't know anyone who couldn't, to be quite honest. and that's why i lug 'em, well that and because i look so damn cool in front of them
Sweeet. Just don't get the tube one. Being "inspired" by that outdated Ampeg design, it can't possibly be up to usual level of quality Behringer solid state gear is known for.
If only more of us troglodytes would switch over to using laptops for our sound processing, it might be worth it for Behringer could make shoddy, buggy versions of tube amp emulation programs...
