Ultimate Rhoads

I became a mad scientist last night and dug through a bunch of my piled up gear so I could interface my new Damage Control Demonizer preamp with my M-Audio 1010lt sound card. Well I think the early results are KILLER!!

Here is a pic of what I am using on the hardware side:

From the guitar I go into the SR&D EQ I cut everything below 62hz out push 125hz hard, cut 250hz then push the mids and cut evrything above 4Khz (this is all made up later in the signal chain) I push the output gain to the max to get the signal HOT. From the EQ it goes to the Demonizer. With the signal being so hot from the EQ the first gain stage has more than enough drive to get the signal the melting point. From the Demonizer it goes into the SR&D Stereo chorus, which as direct line lievel outs LEFT and RIGHT which I send into the M-Audio card.

I run a VST host program called Chainer which allows you to run any VST plugin or instrument in a series or parallel chain. Here I am going series with E-Phonic VST Tape delay (great free delay) to a 12 band parametric EQ into Wave Arts "Masterverb_5" for my reverb and finally into Voxengo's Pristine space for my cabinet simulation, which I am using a Marshall 1960a 4x12 impulse for both channels left and right.

Here is a clip of me noodling around with this exact rig. Note: This thing is noisy as all hell and my noise gate is at the jam space. I left the noise on to give the listener the idea of the noise floor. Enjoy

http://media.putfile.com/Noodling-29

Pretty advanced rig you have there!
Can't hear the clip here. Anyway don't worry about the noise, the best sounds usually have the most noise too.
Never had luck with 12ax7 valve preamps. But I do have luck with an certain 'EL34 tube preamp' now. That one is noisy too!

sounds great!

Thanks Rice. With the cabinet impulses I am using on this I really could care less if I was mic'd up in a sound booth trying to capture the "real deal". The tone I have even on this scratch track is more than fine with me. There is so much that can be done to improve my set up and connections to the board for an almost perfect signal why bother with trying to do it the old dinosaur way... LOL

Dutchman, I am new to tube guitar tones, this is my first tube preamp, and I don't really know about certain tube characteristics yet. Thanks for the input.

nice tones

McLowery wrote:Thanks Rice. With the cabinet impulses I am using on this I really could care less if I was mic'd up in a sound booth trying to capture the "real deal". The tone I have even on this scratch track is more than fine with me. There is so much that can be done to improve my set up and connections to the board for an almost perfect signal why bother with trying to do it the old dinosaur way... LOL

Dutchman, I am new to tube guitar tones, this is my first tube preamp, and I don't really know about certain tube characteristics yet. Thanks for the input.

at the end of the day you've just got to do whatever suits you i suppose. I dont really understand a thing you did to your gear if im honest but it sounds very good. It has something "pro" about it. Based on that short recording i could probably have believed it was recorded at some top studio somewhere.

The thing about the sound I got on this I was happy about is the fact that I didn't have to use a big amp wired to a speaker cabinet then have to put a microphone on the cabinet, run the mic to a preamp and then finally into a mixer/computer to get the sound I was looking for. All of the "sound" you hear in that clip never existed until I pressed play in Winamp! (I was listening to a monitor bus with headphones while I recorded.) In the old days it was a MAJOR chore to get a nice sounding track. Recording for us "laymen" is getting easier and better sounding all the time, I could wrap up my little "guitar rig" above, take it to any studio in the world and get the exact same tone (or better I would hope) that I have on this scratch track... I love technology.