What guitar preamp will.....

[Zed10R]

is quiet, will give me a great sound clean AND crunched up, and has a lot of room to play with gain and eq? AND will let me record direct?? Is a POD the best, or is there better?? A hot, thick, powerful, mean distorted sound is primary.....

I already have one, but I am looking to add another for versatility...

Thanks!!

 

[David Katauskas]

I don't own one (yet), but I've heard a lot of good things about the Tech21 Sansamp PSA-1.

 

[scottboyher]

WHich one do you own??

 

[Zed10R]

WHich one do you own??

I've got a low end Hughes and Kettner tube guitar pre....ATTAX or something. Sounds pretty mean. Lotsa gain, lotsa low end, lotsa harmonic depth, not so much punch or definition tho......

 

[scottboyher]

The V-Amp has alot of features and sounds pretty dang good.. It is a bit noisy but has decent sounds..

 

[Ben Logan]

Let me tell you something about those PODs. They sound great through headphones. I was amazed. I thought, "this is it! I don't care what my snobby friends say...I'm going to record direct from now on - wonderful!" Then I made some recordings with the newly purchased POD (which wasn't cheap on my budget). I was so disappointed: thin, chicklet sounding, cardboardy guitar. It sounded so fake!

If you're going to use the POD to record, you're going to need to run it through some preamps, or an amp, or something. This kinda defeats the purpose.

I'd check out the Electro Harmonix LPB 2ube pedal. I think you'll need to add a speaker sim. though to get this sounding "live."

Direct injection is a tough way to go if you ask me. Convenient, yes, but requires lots of processing to simulate the sound of amp pushing air.

 

[Zed10R]

Let me tell you something about those PODs. They sound great through headphones. I was amazed. I thought, "this is it! I don't care what my snobby friends say...I'm going to record direct from now on - wonderful!" Then I made some recordings with the newly purchased POD (which wasn't cheap on my budget). I was so disappointed: thin, chicklet sounding, cardboardy guitar. It sounded so fake!

If you're going to use the POD to record, you're going to need to run it through some preamps, or an amp, or something. This kinda defeats the purpose.

I'd check out the Electro Harmonix LPB 2ube pedal. I think you'll need to add a speaker sim. though to get this sounding "live."

Direct injection is a tough way to go if you ask me. Convenient, yes, but requires lots of processing to simulate the sound of amp pushing air.

Thanks - I'll check the Electro Harmonix. I would never have thought of them.

And let ME tell YOU something about those PODs, mister ....I used one too, but I had it plugged into a preamp, preamp to mixer, mixer direct to recording gear. No speaker cab. It sounded GREAT. Huge tone, great depth of sound, tight, punchy, just great. I actually had to shelve out a bit of low end. There was too much. So if used properly, PODs work very well.

I'm after something else, though. Something different, but still great in it's own way. An equal alternative.

 

[Ben Logan]

Thanks - I'll check the Electro Harmonix. I would never have thought of them.

And let ME tell YOU something about those PODs, mister ....I used one too, but I had it plugged into a preamp, preamp to mixer, mixer direct to recording gear. No speaker cab. It sounded GREAT. Huge tone, great depth of sound, tight, punchy, just great. I actually had to shelve out a bit of low end. There was too much. So if used properly, PODs work very well.

I'm after something else, though. Something different, but still great in it's own way. An equal alternative.

Ha! Consider me schooled! You're more patient than I am I guess. I was looking for a "one stop shopping" approach with the POD. It's just so much easier for me to mic up the little fender champ I have, or even the Roland MicroCube (surprisingly good sounding) if I need to record in the late evening for example.

Glad you've had success with the POD though. Keep it going!

 

[RezN8]

It's all in the path you choose to record.

I bought a Yamaha DG Stomp about 5 years ago and it sounded great when using the SPDIF output directly into the SPDIF in on the Delta 1010 soundcard.

As long as we used that path and recorded at 48K, things sounded good. However, we tried routing the stereo outputs through the board one day and it sounded like el crappo no matter what we tried.

Just FYI.

 

[earworm]

i like the sansamp psa-1 for distortion, haven't recorded much clean guitar with it, but i sure am gonna test it more this month.. it rocks for distortion, thats clear !
and i've used my Joemeek vc8 fathead alot more for guitars, actually it is a guitar preamp, look at the eq's specially made for guts i think,
there's built in opto distortion but thats a real weird distortion, clean and very sharp, not everyone likes it...

i still think that miking an amp is thé way to record !

 

[cellardweller]

I've never heard any of the others, but I'm pretty happy with my little Sans GT2.

 

[formerlyfzfile]

I've got a Tech 21 Trademark 10 that works really well for recording ..... direct out (XLR) and mic'able at the same time.

It sounds a lot better when you crank it up ...... its easier to get get clean tones than distorted, but you can coax some great crunch tone out of this little amp with some subtle tweaking ..... and level.

Its very versitale and its nice to be able have a direct AND mic'd sound to play with for the same track and IMO has much more character to all of its tones than any of the V-Amp's sounds.

You will still need a mic pre for both direct and mic(obviously) though.
The direct out is at mic level.

-mike

 

[Zed10R]

i still think that miking an amp is thé way to record !

I never found the sound I wanted by micing the amp. It ALWAYS comes out too thin and brittle. What I hear with my ears is WAY different than what is recorded. And before anyone says to play with mic placement, I did. For DAYS. I tried everything I could imagine and the sound never got any better than just ok. Then I got my H&K. Plugged it in direct, and fuck me, there it is.

Maybe I just suck at recording guitar because I know that the big boys mic the cabinets. I just cannot get the sound I want that way.

I used an SM57 BTW.....

 

[cellardweller]

I never found the sound I wanted by micing the amp. It ALWAYS comes out too thin and brittle. What I hear with my ears is WAY different than what is recorded. And before anyone says to play with mic placement, I did. For DAYS. I tried everything I could imagine and the sound never got any better than just ok. Then I got my H&K. Plugged it in direct, and fuck me, there it is.

Maybe I just suck at recording guitar because I know that the big boys mic the cabinets. I just cannot get the sound I want that way.

I used an SM57 BTW.....

Yep yep yep! I have the same results. I'm not sure if I'll abandon totally my e609s, I've had slightly better results using it, but haven't extensively played with placement. I'm pretty sure that the 57 will be permanently dedicated to snare though

 

[Sky Blue Lou]

The Pod is very dark and too noisy to go direct to PA in live situations - Jon got pissy at me at Jamfest '03.

Having said that I still like mine in phones or direct to DAW for certain sounds. Still for me nothing beats a 57 right on the cloth at the edge of the cone.


lou

 

[mattamatta]

Wait a second... why did you go from a preamp to a mixer direct to a recorder?

Unless you're using eq or mixing down multiple things to one track, sounds like the mixer is a completely useless part of that signal chain. =(

 

[earworm]

i've had better results with miking an amp than with pods,
sometimes rotten results, depends on the guitarist, amp, and volume at which you play, i prefer tube amps, most transistors i've heard are noisy and harsh, mostly i record a marshall jcm900 trough a nice hiwatt 4*12" cabinet, cranked up pretty loud.. i've only had nice results with close miking,
most of the time when i messed with "roommics" it sounded like POO

and i wonder, for live performances, does it happen real often that guitar-heads aren't miked but that they use the Direct out to the PA?
for recording it sounds thin and lifeless (in my cases) but for PA, and with a strong EQ on the channel you should get nice results, no? and no extra feedback issues from the mic onstage...?

 

[Zed10R]

Yep yep yep! I have the same results.

I'm glad I'm not the only one....

 

[wesley tanner]

most people who love pod just can't crank up their real amps enough... (can you saaay whiiiiped? )

anyways, i've heard some killer metalic tones come through, and some nice shredder sounds, but as far as real rock and rollin' kickin' sounds... hell no. sorry duuudes

 

[Zed10R]

Wait a second... why did you go from a preamp to a mixer direct to a recorder?

Unless you're using eq or mixing down multiple things to one track, sounds like the mixer is a completely useless part of that signal chain. =(

Because all of my inputs are taken up by other things. A different geetar pre, a bass pre, and a drum machine, all hook dup in stereo. So that only leaves two inputs available, a left and a right. I hooked up a 12ch mixer so I had more inputs. SOOOO......I plugged the POD into a borrowed tube pre and then into the mixer. Presto - great POD tone. If I had other inputs open, you would be correct.