Digital Larry
Friend of Leo's
Almost a year ago I decided I needed to see what these tubes were all about. I thought I'd never owned a tube amp, then I found a photo proving that I did. I must not have used it very much, too bad.
So I got a Mesa/Boogie and a Captor-X so I can record it and attenuate it and also an HX Effects so's I can have effects too!
The idea was to see whether this was somehow "better" than the Avid Eleven Rack (10+ year old modeler that I'd been using).
In some ways it was better.
a) Given the smaller number of basic tonal options available on the Boogie, I developed some anticipation of how the various preamp channels and options sounded. I don't consciously feel the need for MORE guitar sounds.
b) It made me feel cool, somewhat tempered by the fact that nobody else ever saw it who would care. Which is why I brought it up every other time I said something here.
c) I didn't have to worry about whether it was as good as tubes because it obviously was!
In some ways it was not better.
a) Given that I attached it to a couple of too-many-features digital products, I did not make life any simpler than it had been before. In fact, due to a few issues of level matching I'd say it was actually more complicated to use than the 11R.
b) Even though I sometimes played the head through a real speaker in the room, again just to make sure I wasn't missing anything, most of the time I listened to it on headphones or through my mixing speakers. So I wasn't getting the benefit that most people who talk about such things mention.
c) I didn't see much point in using the graphic EQ sliders or preset knobs (mostly duplicated by the Captor-X's "Voicing" knob).
d) 2 preamp channels is fine, with two modes for each now makes it more complicated because you tend to switch back and forth between just two settings using the footswitch, so now I have to decide. Also, there are 3 power stage settings for each preamp channel! I can't turn things up loud enough to witness the glory of power amp distortion, and even using the attenuator, I couldn't really sense much tonal difference between the three modes. Maybe the 5 watt setting is more compressed?
e) More room taken up. My recording space is very small. Now anticipating being able to open up another 6 square feet of floor space has incredible ramifications, like having a space for another person or a mic "booth".
f) I only ever used a few settings/features on the Captor-X and HX Effects. The Captor-X especially struck me as way too much attention spent on something that should just have a few simple answers. 30,000 mic positions! I have to try each one! What if there's ONE in the middle which is just AWESOME????? That kind of stuff. However, simpler cab sim/attenuators such as Mesa/Boogie's offerings are even more expensive!
g) I really DON'T like the master volume on the Boogie's clean channel. For some reason this is a linear control and you hardly get any change for the last 50% of rotation.
As far as sounds go,
1) My hearing is pretty bad, so maybe there's something going on that I can't perceive.
2) I can get great sounds IMO either way
3) It seems easier to get nice sounds, especially clean sounds, with the modeler.
4) I can't decide whether managing the core amp sound separately from the effects is a good thing or not. One of the things about modeler-land that I don't like is the tendency to save a preset every time I come up with a good sound, and then not being able to weed through them or organize them properly. Maybe some modeler company will offer a "feature" which is to LIMIT you to only x-many presets.... 4 or 8 or whatever.
Yesterday I put the Captor-X and HX Effects up on Reverb and sold both of them within a couple hours. With the proceeds, I've already purchased a Headrush MX-5 (I was already used to the 11R and it is very similar) and a MIDI footpedal thing for controlling the DAW.
I'm going to take the Boogie down to the local shop and see about putting it up on consignment. That should help offset that Jazz Bass I'm GAS'ing for.
TL;DR conclusion.
This process of discovery has been going on for awhile, so this was no surprise. I actually cannot take advantage of all the bells and whistles available to the recording guitarist today. It's not really a matter of being intimidated by technology, but realizing that BECAUSE I DO MY OWN ENGINEERING WHILE TRYING TO RECORD SONGS, that I get bogged down in all the technical issues and the songs and creative part suffers. It's as simple as that.
I do like being able to fine tune sounds but there's always some tradeoff here and it's hard to know where the right point is. When I actually get down to recording things I use fewer effects than when I'm just goofing around and I haven't really done much "composing with effects". I usually start with more straightforward guitar and bass sounds.
Fortunately, the things we have today are so much better than what I was using 25 years ago! In the 90s I had a Johnson J-Station.
I'm still keeping my Laney L5 Studio which is the heart of my bedroom setup at the moment.
I halfway want to get a Nextone Stage (the smaller 40 watt model), just to have another small guitar amp here with a couple decent sounds, which I can plug into and works, don't have to worry about changing tubes, etc. GC used has 'em all day for around $350. I like that they are more basic. Even though many people mention using the editor, I did not like that aspect of the Katana and I don't think I would like it any better on the Nextone.
So I got a Mesa/Boogie and a Captor-X so I can record it and attenuate it and also an HX Effects so's I can have effects too!
The idea was to see whether this was somehow "better" than the Avid Eleven Rack (10+ year old modeler that I'd been using).
In some ways it was better.
a) Given the smaller number of basic tonal options available on the Boogie, I developed some anticipation of how the various preamp channels and options sounded. I don't consciously feel the need for MORE guitar sounds.
b) It made me feel cool, somewhat tempered by the fact that nobody else ever saw it who would care. Which is why I brought it up every other time I said something here.
c) I didn't have to worry about whether it was as good as tubes because it obviously was!
In some ways it was not better.
a) Given that I attached it to a couple of too-many-features digital products, I did not make life any simpler than it had been before. In fact, due to a few issues of level matching I'd say it was actually more complicated to use than the 11R.
b) Even though I sometimes played the head through a real speaker in the room, again just to make sure I wasn't missing anything, most of the time I listened to it on headphones or through my mixing speakers. So I wasn't getting the benefit that most people who talk about such things mention.
c) I didn't see much point in using the graphic EQ sliders or preset knobs (mostly duplicated by the Captor-X's "Voicing" knob).
d) 2 preamp channels is fine, with two modes for each now makes it more complicated because you tend to switch back and forth between just two settings using the footswitch, so now I have to decide. Also, there are 3 power stage settings for each preamp channel! I can't turn things up loud enough to witness the glory of power amp distortion, and even using the attenuator, I couldn't really sense much tonal difference between the three modes. Maybe the 5 watt setting is more compressed?
e) More room taken up. My recording space is very small. Now anticipating being able to open up another 6 square feet of floor space has incredible ramifications, like having a space for another person or a mic "booth".
f) I only ever used a few settings/features on the Captor-X and HX Effects. The Captor-X especially struck me as way too much attention spent on something that should just have a few simple answers. 30,000 mic positions! I have to try each one! What if there's ONE in the middle which is just AWESOME????? That kind of stuff. However, simpler cab sim/attenuators such as Mesa/Boogie's offerings are even more expensive!
g) I really DON'T like the master volume on the Boogie's clean channel. For some reason this is a linear control and you hardly get any change for the last 50% of rotation.
As far as sounds go,
1) My hearing is pretty bad, so maybe there's something going on that I can't perceive.
2) I can get great sounds IMO either way
3) It seems easier to get nice sounds, especially clean sounds, with the modeler.
4) I can't decide whether managing the core amp sound separately from the effects is a good thing or not. One of the things about modeler-land that I don't like is the tendency to save a preset every time I come up with a good sound, and then not being able to weed through them or organize them properly. Maybe some modeler company will offer a "feature" which is to LIMIT you to only x-many presets.... 4 or 8 or whatever.
Yesterday I put the Captor-X and HX Effects up on Reverb and sold both of them within a couple hours. With the proceeds, I've already purchased a Headrush MX-5 (I was already used to the 11R and it is very similar) and a MIDI footpedal thing for controlling the DAW.
I'm going to take the Boogie down to the local shop and see about putting it up on consignment. That should help offset that Jazz Bass I'm GAS'ing for.
TL;DR conclusion.
This process of discovery has been going on for awhile, so this was no surprise. I actually cannot take advantage of all the bells and whistles available to the recording guitarist today. It's not really a matter of being intimidated by technology, but realizing that BECAUSE I DO MY OWN ENGINEERING WHILE TRYING TO RECORD SONGS, that I get bogged down in all the technical issues and the songs and creative part suffers. It's as simple as that.
I do like being able to fine tune sounds but there's always some tradeoff here and it's hard to know where the right point is. When I actually get down to recording things I use fewer effects than when I'm just goofing around and I haven't really done much "composing with effects". I usually start with more straightforward guitar and bass sounds.
Fortunately, the things we have today are so much better than what I was using 25 years ago! In the 90s I had a Johnson J-Station.
I'm still keeping my Laney L5 Studio which is the heart of my bedroom setup at the moment.
I halfway want to get a Nextone Stage (the smaller 40 watt model), just to have another small guitar amp here with a couple decent sounds, which I can plug into and works, don't have to worry about changing tubes, etc. GC used has 'em all day for around $350. I like that they are more basic. Even though many people mention using the editor, I did not like that aspect of the Katana and I don't think I would like it any better on the Nextone.
Last edited: