Home recording gear

"Wahhh! Wassat Chili??" Amps, recording. Right.

Hi Dan. Have to say I am a teensey bit in agreement with the notion that you are trying to cheap out on this? Still, here's my 2p's worth FWIIW..

There are thousands, maybe several tens to the six videos on the Tube of guitar amps. Most are shit, some are quite well done and a few are very well done. But, IMHO they are all pretty ****g useless at telling people what any particular amp sounds like. Even the later videos of my old employers vids, nice though they are simple do not conform to any "process" whereby people can really compare products.

You have been told to get an SM57. Good advice IF you wanted to make a "nice recording" but if you want to show people what the AMP sounds like you should probably use a B&K measurement mic! The obverse of this concept is. How would you feel if people heard your amp through laptop speakers and pronounced it sounded like a bee in a tin?

Of course, if the intention is to simply make a pleasant video that shows the features of the amplifier(s) fine but to show the "glorious toob sound"? Not going to happen methinks.

There is a whole school of thought as to best record an amp (google sound on sound Aug 07) and just sticking any kind of mic in front of it is just one of a whole gammut of possible techniques. Put another way, you could spend until the Spring tryng to get the sound YOU hear coming out of your monitors. But yes, SM57, UR22 interface. Bish-bash-bosh and if you really don't want to keep the kit* you would get 1//2 of the money back on the Bay I expect.

*They are "tools". Tax deductable? (pity you are so far away I would gladly lend you a rig)

Dave.
 
Probably a bit late, but can I suggest that you ditch the D3500 and go for something like the D7000, D7100, D7200 as these have a input socket for an external mic.

I have a D7000 that I use for recording demo type video clips of our own artists and I have made up a small "black box" that allows me to take a professional +4db signal from a professional recorder, CD player, DAT, MD player, etc and then drop it down to -50db mic level to input into the camera.

There is also a split of the output signal that can be connected to an external amp, wireless monitor headphones, etc.

This way our artists can mime to their original recording via the secondary output and at the same time broadcast quality sound is being recorded straight to the camera in perfect sync with the video. AND the recorded camera sound is broadcast quality.

Thus I get broadcast quality sound on the camera and post editing the video is a breeze as the sound is always in sync with the picture.

Obviously you must have excellent electronics knowledge so building a similar type of "Black Box" should be quite easy for you. If not I could possibly have my arm twisted to provide a suitable circuit diagram.

By the way, I agree fully with your manufacturing valve amps, I use one of my own designed valve amps for all monitoring in the studio -- when I designed it (many years ago !!!) the very big transformer manufacturing company (no longer in existence unfortunately) said that the output transformer/s that I had designed (yes I designed my own transformers) probably had the best specs that they had ever seen --- output stage is parallel push pull KT88s --- all built on 4 x 19" 3RU units (2 x Pwr supplies and 2 x +4db inputs and output stages) that needs a fork lift truck to carry !!!!! --- it does keep the Control Room nice and warm in the winter !!!!!!!!

Just some thoughts that might help you achieve your goal and re your initial mic question I have a range of excellent Chinese mics that are very cheap, but with excellent quality --- fully designed and R&Ded by the company and not pinched from other manufacturers as are many Asian mics.

David
 
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Love to see a schematic of that '88 amp* David.

Note however that OP designs guitar valve amps? Very different design criteria from "hi fi" amplifiers, for one thing they have to withstand constant driving into clipping. Transformer actually must not be TOO good! The amps rarely have NFB but even if they do it is but a whiff, 10dB at most, often to impliment a "presence" control.

We had a 200W 4XKT88 amp on the stocks at my last employer. The design was very solid but unfortunately getting reliable "GEC" specc' 88s proved near impossible so HT had to be de-rated a bit (dreaded Purple Death!).

*I had D. Self's 6th ed Power Amp Design for Christmas. Devoured a good bit of it. WTGR valves cannot get close to the phenominal designs in that.

Dave.
 
The D3500 has an external mic socket, top left side there should be a 3.5mm stereo socket there.
A Rode VideoMic, or any of the better quality shotgun mics will do the job. Depends on your budget and how much you have to spend. The Rode will set you back around $130 AUD, a good quality shotgun, $300+

As for the video side, I do videos - don't let the technical aspects bog you down. On a nice sunny day (preferably mid-afternoon) you can get good like, you can make yourself some knock-together reflections from large sheets of stiff cardboard or plywood covered in Aluminium foil glued on, or buy commercially made reflectors on eBay very cheaply. As for lighting, if you need additional lighting you can buy LED video lights cheaply as well.
 
Dave (ecc83),

The amplifier itself was nothing out of the ordinary, it was more the design of the transformers (output and power) and the power choke, coupled with the fact that I used the "CORRECT" valves right through and very high quality resistors and capacitors. Also making the system two completely separate amplifiers with the power supply/rectification section of each mounted in a completely separate 3RU unit to that amplifier's audio section, greatly helped reduce hum/noise and lowered the temperature.

What was far more interesting that this amplifier was the "complimentary symmetry" amplifier that I designed (invented !!!) that used valves rather than the later designed amplifiers that used transistors. The output power was only about 15watts per channel (extremely loud for a domestic amplifier in the late 1950's), but the frequency response was flat from virtually 0Hz to well over 200KHz, with any noise level being that of the component's electron noise. The interesting part was the completely unorthodox valves I used (definitely not audio related) and the loudspeakers that I had designed for me to be part of the overall system (12 inch co-axial 800 ohm --- that is correct 800 ohm).

Being VERY young at the time I had no knowledge of copyright and did not copyright its design nor did I take out any form of patient --- a shame because at least one VERY large domestic amplifier/home audio system manufacturer somehow got hold of my design and manufactured something like 10K units as well as taking out an international patient --- I got nothing (apart from some praise for the amazing sound quality from four people I manufactured units for), while the other company would have made hundreds of thousands plus, as well (I believe) they also took out a patient on what was to become a standard design for all transistor amplifiers for many years --- transistor amplifiers could use standard 4/8 ohm speakers. By the way, my design apart from the power transformer (that was quite small) used no transformers in the audio section, hence the 800 ohm speakers.

Just a bit of history and completely off Dan's original posting --- sorry Dan3460

David
 
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