Music - Cab Clone part 2

Well, I got my speaker cable and fired up the Cab Clone. First impressions "well this doesn't sound terrible". I didn't have high expectations, I expected it to sound like a wet fart under a blanket due to all the negativity the Cab Clone has received. It's not that bad.

It is bad tho. But I will make it usable, I promise. For the first section here I am using my new Telecaster American Professional through my Orange Rockerverb 50 mk1, to the Cab Clone, to a Presonus USBbox into Cubase 5.

First things first, lets go through the Cab Clone itself. There are three modes and a volume dial. I left the dial at 12:00 for my initial tests here. Starting in "closed back" mode which is supposed to replicate a Mesa Boogie 4x12 cabinet. Spoiler alert... it fucking doesn't. My Telecaster had very little top end resonance and the bottom end was there..but it was confused and didn't know if it should be tight or loose. A very compressed and closed sounding signal. Had no body to it. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good. It was what I expected.

The second setting is "open" and this was a bit better, seems to boost the mid range frequencies a bit. But there are strange harmonic overtones going on here when using my Telecaster that I found the tone offensive. It was odd sounding more than anything... for sure it wasn't good.

Disappointment started to set in. I switched to the Vintage Cabinet mode, and this was okay. The frequency response was the most open sounding of the three. My Tele could breathe a bit more, but still sounded kinda fat, almost like humbuckers with tele twang. THIS I can work with. I adjusted the EQ a bit, cranked the power amp stage to get a more oomph and it helped thicken the bottom and get some more tele twang. It still felt very closed off, kind of like a blanket over a speaker cabinet but the mic behind the cab and not under said blanket... usable... or so I thought.

I started putting together some riffs for a new song. I got a lot of tweaking on said song still, but it's coming together. I laid down my primary guitar tracks, programmed some drums and then swapped over to my POD HD500 to do some bass work and a secondary guitar track.

The bass part went down nicely using the modeler and an octaver to fake a bass using my Telecaster. Then I moved onto second guitar territory. I booted up my AC30 tone I built as a base tone earlier and plugged in my ES-335. Blah. It sounded so gainy and brutal compared to what I got from the Orange which was rounder and thicker...but it was also more open sounding and more responsive feeling... how strange.

I tweaked the tone and recorded my parts. Still too much gain, but this song is far from final, so whatever. I then listened back and the difference between the Cab Clone and the Pod was criminal. The difference is so drastic that it's almost hard to believe. I promise I'll update with some audio clips soon.

The POD track was more dynamic sounding in a lot of ways. It felt more open, it felt more like a real amp in a room than the Rockerverb through the Cab Clone...which is not what I expected at all. I expected the REAL amp to sound more real than the POD. Granted I was using an AC30 on the POD, but still, very strange to me. I plugged in my original AC30 at this point in time and put it at as low a volume as possible to compare to the POD, it's off, quite a bit, but I tweaked it to match and it's
pretty damn close...

So now I have this fully digital tone from a POD that is 8 years old technology wise (which is eons in the digital world) and it's out performing a real, professional grade, amazing guitar amp and a cab clone... So now I'm wondering if I should just return the cab clone and get me a Helix (I wont, it's too expensive right now!)

I brooded over this all day. I was recommended by a forum user on the Orange Amps page to try "Wall of Sound" by Two-Notes. It comes as a 30 day trial with a 412 box and 212 box. I just took the default 412 setting and put it over my Cab Clone track in Cubase... wow. just wow.

Suddenly the amp opened up, the tone was bigger, fatter, more open sounding, with all the dynamic range that I remember from plugging this amp and letting it rip! I am impressed. I will have to do more digging into this software. The cabs are pretty cheap too and you just need to buy what you want to use. Sounds like we got a winner.

I'm going to burn through this over the week and then possibly return the Mesa Cab Clone and get a 16ohm version so I can use it with my AC30 as well.


check out: Elise Trouw 

Music - CLONE IT! part 1

Well I did it. I went to the place where the majority of my gear was stored and took my Marshall 412 box, a few pedals I got no use for, and an old bass to L&M for trades. I was treated with almost double of what I was expecting to get...which grabbed me some nice toys... two in fact.

So I brought home that American Pro Telecaster I mentioned in my last post, and I'm going to focus on that primarily here for reasons I'll explain later.

The factory strings, or I am sure they are factory because they were a bit rusty and gross feeling came off right away and I tossed on some D'Addario NYXL 11-49 gauge on. After letting it settle overnight I came back to it and just had some minor adjustments to make for intonation and returning. It's plays beautifully, no height adjustment needed as I got very little if any buzz, even when really digging in. It's a just a joy to play.

I booted up my POD 500HD and built something as close as I could to my optimum stage rig. Unfortunately Line 6 does not have a Emma Reezafratzitz distortion, Crowther Hot Cake, or Xotic BB/RC/AC preamps in their modeling lineup, so I had to figure something else out. I took a standard AC30, tweaked the EQ for taste and started adding pedals. I took a Proco Rat Distortion model and cranked the output and lowered the gain just to get a feel of tube drive from the amp model which was mostly successful. I actually really liked it for a low gain tone with some crunch. Then I took the tube driver model and made a big fat high gain tone out of it. Distortion done.

I hate Line 6's delays. I don't know why, I just haven't enjoyed them much if at all. I did put an analog delay together as a generic delay. I'm not happy with it currently, but will tweak. A script Phaser was added, easy done. MXR Flanger, easy done. A seek trem, and an opto trem we're also easily added. Finally a '63 Spring reverb for taste.

With the Telecaster I got some very versatile tones and some inspiration flowing right away. I need to actually finish a song, but I'm going to figure out which one of all the different riffs I've been jamming on will come together first. The Tele will probably be featured a lot in this rejuvenation of song writing for me as it will contrast nicely with my other guitars. Right now I'm feeling my ES-335 and the Telecaster will be my primaries for most of this project.

Speaking of the project, I'm finding a lot of inspiration from different sources... but not really feeling like I'm getting out of my "box". I'm wanting to push my musical envelope here. A lot of what I've been writing has been very generic for what I've done in the past, not really coming up with anything "new". I'm on the hunt for a few of my old theory books (Guitar Grimoire) to see if I can find anything tasty.

My other purchase was a Mesa Boogie Cab Clone 8ohm. It was a floor model so half price off retail, and only 8ohm which is kind of sad because it means I won't be able to use it with my AC30 at this time. But I can use it with my Orange Rockerverb 50! If I like it I may exchange it for a 16ohm in the near future. Alas, I forgot to grab a speaker cable, and while I have a few extra power cables kicking around, there is no point in firing up until I can do so safely. I do love this amp tho, very much. I've heard mixed things about the cab clone... some are saying it's awful, others are saying it's more than serviceable. Rob Chapman did a video with Andertons here and while the cab clone makes a much tighter and sterile sounding recording, I still found it pretty serviceable. It was kind of unfair too because the boys at Andertons were using a dual mic setup with an SM57 and a ribbon mic which really makes a very open and engaging sounding capture.

Devices like the Cab Clone, which is a speaker simulator that gives you a direct in to your PA or recording system without having to use a speaker cabinet safely. Normally running a guitar amp without a speaker cabinet is not healthy for the amp. This is perfect for me as I'm doing most of my writing and playing late at night. However, it does have limitations that I am very well aware of going into this phase of my creative journey.

The Cab Clone specifically is a passive box that has a bunch of circuitry in it to simulate the sound of micing up your guitar cabinet. The problem is, it's just a bunch of resistors that are putting a load on the amp head and changing the output signal into something safe that can be run into your computer. This is very much like a passive DI for bass, which has been a standard way of running bass live for years. so what's the problem?

First off, you loose the sound of the room. Even if you are close micing the cabinet you will find that if you move the cab/mic around the room it will change the tones. A live mic will always sound more open compared to a DI. Then there is the fact that all those analog resistors will suck the top end out of your tone. I am expecting a major drop in thump, top end response, and mid range openness from my amp. I am not expecting to be overwhelmed here, in fact I plan on "fixing" as much as possible in post with EQ.


Anyways, I mentioned my music inspirations as of late... here is where I'm drawing ideas from:

Thrice - The Weight 
Mary Spender - Melancholy Parade
Dinosaur Pile-Up - 11:11
Closure in Moscow - Sweet#hart
Protest the Hero - Drumhead Trial
Rx Bandits - Wide Open