Roland Cube 30 1x10" 30W for recording?

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in your opinion, which is the best small recording amp?

In your opinion, what is THE best small amp for recording?


i am looking for an all-around work horse that can do anything from twangy, clean country, to heavy, high-gain distorted metal.

something small, not bigger than 30 watts.

i've had a couple people recommend the roland microcube, pignose, etc. etc.

but i'm looking for more opinions.

thanks
 
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THE BEST amp for recording is rather subjective. I do have the Roland Cube 30 and have been pleased with the way it records. If there is a gripe to be found with this amp it is due to the inability to adjust Reverb and Delay separately. Both are on the same dial which goes from short delay to long delay and then from small room to hall so you get one or the other. For $200 though it's hard to beat.
 
Lambo,

I am looking at the Roland 30 for Christmas but have also heard some good things about the small Vox...Pathfinder or somehting. What did you compare the Roland 30 with?

I plan on trying both out at GC but trying to get some additional input by owners.

Thanks
 
Scooter - I chose the Roland Cube 30 because I got a great deal ($175), I liked the tone and have several Roland products which have served me well through the years. One amp that has caught my eye and ear is the Vox AD30VT which is in the same price range ($239 at Musician's Friend) as the Cube 30. Had I not have gotten the great deal and had the Vox been available when I purchased the Cube 30 I probably would have purchased the Vox just because of the unique 'Vox' tone. Having said that though I am very pleased with the Roland Cube 30 and do not regret buying it.
Oh well, all the woulda, coulda shoulda's in life, what's a person to do?
Let us know what you end up buying. :)
 
I have a Roland Jazz Chorus 50 that's getting a bit heavy to carry around. I mainly use it for church playing and recording straight out of the headphone jack. Would I be happy with the Cube 30? The headphone output on my Chorus is noisy with a lot of hiss and, if the Cube is quieter not to mention LIGHTER, it'd be a big help.

The Chorus was the only amp I tried that sounded good with my piezo pickup guitars.
 
I've got a Cube 30 and think it's great for heavy tones and clean tones. There is some sort of internal noise gate going on however, as it can get a bit noisy at high volume/gain levels, but its only noticeable when you're not playing, and would be easy to get around when recording. I have a tip, forget about the recto model and use the metal one for heavy tones, bump up the mids and back off the bass, and use a guitar with nice pickups. Sounds great.
 
I bought a Cube 30 and really like it. I can hear the "noise gate" working too but it's not a problem at the volumes I play. Recording straight out of the headphone jack works great, no software noise processing required. The only feature I'd like to have is the ability to use the speaker while running the headphone out to a PA board. If I could use the Cube for a monitor, it'd be all I'd ever need.

Roland makes some good gear.
 
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Well, as people said before, this is a subjective topic, but I'd have to say the best small (30w) amp I have ever played is the Mesa F-30. The first time I tried one about a year ago, I wasn't too impressed, so I left the whole Mesa line alone.

But about 3 months ago, I realized I needed an amp that was small, didn't weigh as much as my carvin (XV-212), and kicked a whole lot of ass. I tried some fenders, tried some marshalls, and then, as I was about to go for the TSL60 combo, saw the Mesa sitting off to the side. I plugged in, played with the knobs for about 15 seconds, and bought it without a second thought.

It was somewhat expensive (~$900), but well worth every penny. So far I've used it with Les Pauls, Fender Strats, Ibanez speed wanker guitars, and a Gibson L130 acoustic (it actually sounds like I miked the guitar, none of that piezo quack. I mean, it is the most amazing acoustic sound I've ever heard, period.) It can do jazz, blues, rock, metal, and pretty much everything in between.

Oh, and it's loud. Loud enough to drown out a live drummer. Did I say it's only 30 watts?
 
Follow up:

I just bought a cube 60 for myself for xmas.

I am VERY impressed. It sounds most excellent in the room, on any of the various amp models, and records like a dream!!

it's 60 watts, and it works excellent when praticing by myself or with my band.

When we gig, we will just mic the amp, since all of the places that we gig at all have house PA systems.


I recommend this amp to anyone and everyone.

IT's a fairly good price as well, it's $345 list, but i got a deal for $320, which was including tax.
 
I only play using the JC clean setting at fairly low volume so the add-on modeling is not useful to me. I do use the reverb. Even if the modeling was not included, I'd still think the Cube 30 is a good buy. I bought my Jazz Chorus because it was the only amp I found that sounded good with my piezo-nylon string guitar and I'm just as happy with my Cube.
 
I bought my Cube 30 a year and a half ago and never looked back. Its got a great clean tone and I can get a pretty good light distortion from the amp modelling set on Classic with the drive around 4ish with some reverb. I also add a distortion pedal in front if i wanna distort even more. Sounds great...and to think I was gonna buy a Fender Champion 30 instead...
 
Lambo,

I am enjoying my Cube 30 and have been experimenting with reamping through the Cube 30 for micing.

Being that I am more of bass player and songwriter than a performing or recording guitarist (and very out of practice) I may often need twenty or thirty takes to really get what I want nailed to disc and I would not want to subject anyone in the house to that. Then I can play with mic and preamp selections as well as mic placement.

Since you have been fairly happy recording with the Cube what is your typical mic approach?

So far I have tried;
Senheiser 609 silver (disapointing) up close and further away.
MXL V67M much better results about 4" off the grill through an M-Audio Tampa.
I used Extreme Isolation headphones to audition the mic'd sounds.

I also have available an SM 57 and 2 Octavia Mc-012's

For Pre's I have the Tampa, Joe Meek VC6Q, an older Joe Meek 3Q, Art TubePac (works great on bass guitar running a SansAmp into it) DMP3 and a Mackie 1204 VLZ Pro (have not really used it much yet).

The thing I am wondering on the Cube 30 is - does it use some kind of acoustic channeling inside the cabinet or is it strictly a plain cabinet with digital modeling?

This cabinet is much lighter than my only other guitar amp (vintage 1980 Peavey Bandit) and the Cube has the closed back with such a huge sound I am thinking there is some kind of acoustical trickery going on hidden inside like the Bose acoustic wave thing. Somehing that kind of focusses the best impact from the cabinet out a way a little from the speaker itself.

All of this bring me to my original question regarding optimal mic placement for recording....Is keeping back at least four inches with an LDC typically going to be the better method with this amp or are you getting any good recorded tones with an upclose dynamic?


There were some suprisingly good "live" sounds out of the amp for my acoustic guitar and Washburn acoustic bass guitar.

I have a fairly cheap $200 Takamine acoustic I bought four my 4-track when I first started recording (and extremely ignorant) that did not sound as good as my first acoustic but it had the built in tranducer so I could DI it to the 4-track in my apartment (and I had no mics or preamps). This guitar while it plays nice enough is probably not going to sound real impressive even in a great room with great mics and pre's on it's own but playing it through the "acoustic" setting on the amp with a little tweaking sounded very interesting...Turning up the treble to about 2:00 and the mid up to 12:00 really emphasized the metalic string and pick sound plus seemed to add some early soft reflections making it appear to sound mic'd in a nice mildy reflective wooden room or stage.

The acoustic setting was designed to make an electric gutiar sound like an acoustic through processing but there was an interview with a group in Tape OP (Danielson Family) where the interviewer was shocked to find out they had used some of these acoustic sounds out of an electric guitar pedal "acousticizer" on the acoustics and either DI'd them and/or ran them through an amp.

It's not going to fool any golden ears into thinking I am playing a $4,000 guitar in a great room through a Neve but I think it could add some very useful tones when mixed with some mic'd acoustic. It reminded me alot of the sound of a friends Lowden when played through a Trace Elliot acoustic guitar amp and that was a beautiful thing!

My Wahsburn acoustic bass guitar sounded really amazing through this setting as well....by far the best sound I have heard with this instrument.

I am really liking this amp but a little curious about the closed back design and if close micing with a dynamic can yeild anything good. It could just be I did not spend enough time with placement but nothing was sounding even close to what the amp sounds like (or good in any other way) with a close up dynamic last weekend.

There was a similiar comment on the Microcube working much better with backed off LDC than anything up close wich is why I went with the Cube 30 thinking the 10" speaker would yeild better and more typical results with the standard close mic'd dynamic sound when needed.

No regrets here on this amp; just curious about everyone elses results here with micing it.
 
I never mic mine - only record straight out of the headphone jack into my mixer. My "studio" is just a 6x8 room in the house that I share with three other fairly noisy folks so micing isn't very practical. I guess if I wanted to dirty up the sound of a guitar that the onboard processing would do that fine too.

Roland got the cab design right - it's one of the few amps I've had that I've liked for solo late-night practice. A trace of echo makes a nylon string guitar come alive.
 
Hey Scooter,
Personally I have recorded the Cube 30 direct using the Recording Out jack and micing the amp both of which yielded good results. As for mic'ing which was your original question, I have used a Beyer M500 Ribbon Mic when I was looking for a dark sounding guitar whereas for something more 'edgy' (mid to upper frequency material) I've used the C-1 LDC. In both cases I achieved the best results with the mic's backed off as opposed to placing them up close. It seemed to add some air which is more a function of the room than anything else. I have read where people suggested having no larger than a 10" speaker in their amp for recording and now I understand why. It has been my experience that the 10'' speaker provides the full range sound but yet can tend to be 'boomy' if you're not careful whereas a 12"> may be too much to deal with. Having said that though, there are so many variables acting on the resultant sound perception (e.g., room acoustics, mic placement, etc) that renders the 10" speaker suggestion just that, a suggestion and certainly not the rule. Actually, the only thing I've come away with in my years of playing/recording that even remotely resembles a rule is that if something sounds good, it is good. That's not a cop-out, just reality being emamored. I did take the 10" speaker suggestion as being good advice and hence the Cube 30 has been a good fit for me.
Like I said earlier though, I have achieved good results recording direct thereby bypassing the speaker altogether. I am a stickler for noise and going direct is obviously the 'cleanest' path.
As for the acoustic setting, I too like the way it makes my Les Paul sound. It in no way replicates the real deal, but as you described it, it's "interesting" in a very pleasing way.
You're using good stuff to record with so I wouldn't suspect that as being the source of any diasappointing results. I am a big fan of reverb, but when mic'ing an amp in a fairly 'live' (minimally treated) room as I have, it has been my experience that less is definitely more. Turning the reverb up may sound great while you're jamming away but it doesn't translate that way through a mic. Just my $0.2.
 
Thanks for your insight Lambo,

The reasons I'm looking at some close mic options are;
1. My "studio" is in my untreated bedroom right now but there is an attached tiled bath if I want to try to get some natural early reflections in the room sound. I don't really have a good "room" sound that I want to capture so I probably wan't to keep room sound out of it as much as possible.

2. Close micing seems to be a standard technique and I want to develop my ears on mic placement for working with other amps and guitarists. I am thinking this amp is probably not going to be ideal for learning this approach but I am still very happy with the amp and if I get good sounds with the LDC backed off a few inches then it is good.

I have read so much stuff on amp micing techniques with multiple mics either front and back or combining one dynamic with one LDC or ribon mics before I had an amp to mic and picked up the 609 specifically for this but the 609 will still be usefull I'm sure.

I think the thing that steered me toward reamping was discovering a huge improvement micing a DI'd drum machine into an SWR bass amp in the bathroom and micing that in mono and mixed in just a touch with the DI'd track. It really added some "air" and seemed to simulate mixing overheads to close mic'd kit.

Just now working on my first project in two or three years since ditching the 4-track cassete but that technique was the best trick for getting usable sounds out of a drum machine on a 4-track and I was hoping I could make similiar improvements to my DI'd electric guitars.

I think I will re-record the two rhythm guitars and the lead on some virtual tracks DI'd through the Cube 30 and compare them with my other signal chain of the SansAmp > JM VC6Q or perhaps the Cube > JM VC6Q.
 
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