Hey Cleveland

[Gilbert]

I just got a voodu valve, spent like 4 hours at my rehearsal studio tweaking it from a few guidelines you've posted before. Took out all the pre eq bass, pumped it up in the post, turned on cab sim and set it to full, etc.
Its running into a g major, then a bbe, then mesa 2:90 then a recto 4x12 cab with custom 90's.
Goin by what you said, and some experimenting i did with the eq'ing, i got it to sound pretty good, but its still a little sketchy. Its gettin to sound WAY better than the standard presets, but its still not where i want it. Do you have any more suggestions as far as eq'ing/etc?

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Hey Cleveland

First, I would personally pull the BBE out of the loop, like totally disconnect it from the rack and IMO, that would be better. I've never liked them with the Voodu. To me, they flub up the sound and makes it sound more artificial. The Voodu already has just a touch of DSP sound in it,and I don't like to add to that.

With the other stuff you have, you have serious amount potential. You have a very cool rig.

Try that and let me know. That thing should be pretty kick ass with the Gmajor and MESA amp/cab...

[Gilbert]

Re: Hey Cleveland

thnx man, i'll take out the bbe tonight and see how it goes. As far as eq'ing, what did you find was the best for pre and post mids and highs? I think i saw someone else say it was a good idea to boost the mids a bit in the pre and then cut them back in the post.

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Hey Cleveland

Oh, and pull the cab sim down... use it quite sparingly and on full range... It gets too boomy and loses low end definitition and your cabs are already nice and bottom heavy.

Use the distortion on the heavest mode, and back it off from the full 77 or whatever it is. I've got good chug at 62 or less.

That EQ is really deep, and there are a LOT of nuances. My exact setting may not not be cool with your nice MESA cab, I had Marshall cabs with Celestions. Plus, I was always changing things subtley with it. The main trick is the pre gain bass cut though, that gives edge and definition.

[Gilbert]

Re: Hey Cleveland

what do you mean about pullin the cab sim down?

[Gilbert]

Re: Hey Cleveland

one more thing, when you say "use the distortion on the heaviest mode". im not sure what you mean, i thought there was just lo gain and high gain modes...

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Hey Cleveland

Ahh oops, I reread you first post... I was half asleep and I thought you meant you were using the Cab sim on full blast and you meant full range, duh... Anyways, use the cab sim resonance sparingly and on full range (like you are), that's all.

Yeah, use the high gain mode, and pull the gain down from full (I think at full it goes to like 72 or 77). bring it down to less than that as it gets a little loose or over bearing and uncontrollable. I use it from 56-68. 62 being where I'm at now last I used it an that was pretty cool, a little more like 68 for "some" things though.

Watch out for the treble and presence in the EQ being too high. You can dial in some horrible sounds...

You can spend weeks dialing that EQ in man. I'm still playing with mine in the upper freq ranges years later!! Be patient. That preamp is very cool. I've owned so much stuff, and it's the only other preamp I still have after buying the CAE3+se. And I STILL miss it a lot for certain things. It will be back in the rig as soon as I get room, and buy a switcher.

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Hey Cleveland

Anytime! Keep me posted on it goes. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Gilbert]

Re: Hey Cleveland

right on man, thanks for yer time/advice.

[Gilbert]

Re: Hey Cleveland

ok so i spent another 3-4 hours tweaking and comparing to several other amps. and of course i have more questions [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
First, no matter what i do, i cannot get the input meter from clipping. the input knob is all the way down, ive adjusted the volumes in all the mixer settings. messed with the gain settings,etc. Its not constantly full on red, but its holding red for a second instead of just occasionally.
The next problem is i cant get the low end tight enough. Its still a bit flubby. When i lower the mid in the pre eq it gets worse, so i have the mid cranked in the pre and cut in the post.
Also i see what you and a couple others have mentioned as far as a slight "dead" aspect to the tone, dunno if i can do anything about this, but its not makin me too happy.
So far its made alot of progress compared to the stock presets. But its only slightly better overall in tone than my 2101 i also have, and not quite as good as my ampeg vh-140c. Im tryin my best not to get frustrated with this damn thing, but each time i think about gettin my money back.....im sure you know the feeling.

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Hey Cleveland

Hmm, that thing shouldn't be doing that meter input thing. Are you running something into the unit? Wireless, or onboard preamp that might be too much input?

I did have a problem with mine when I bought it with the input volume control and replaced it myself. It was shorting to input at what appeared to be a very low input volume setting. I wonder if you are having that trouble too? It was a cheap 4 dollar part, but hard to find as it is a sort of odd dual 100k circuit board mounted pot. Hmmm...

My voodu is actually quite tight (more tight than my CAE) and is quite pleasing in the quick transient and chug thing... Not sure exactly what might be the troubles... I'm VERY picky about low end tightness, the tightness trouble I had was fixed by pulling ALL bass out of the pregain bass EQ like to -15 and boosting it in the post gain EQ to +10 or so.

The mids were pretty detailed dialing as they have the shelving EQs in there and will drive you a bit nuts sometimes trying to dial it in. I felt that it's worth all the troubles though.

Every preamp, has it's limitations, or weird idiosynchrasies especially moreso on the somewhat cheaper units. Some sound dead, some sound fake or have real DSP sound, it's a toss up. I liked my old Sansamp PSA-1 as it was quite alive sounding, but didn't have the definitive brutal chunk that the Voodu has. They all have tradeoffs I guess. Until you get into the really expensive crap like CAE, Egnator, VHT, Engle etc.

I think I've owned or played throuhgh about every preamp around in the less the 1k price range. Then I broke down and bought the CAE, and I'm STILL not totally satisfied. But, it does have enough good points that I'm pleased to keep it.

For me the Voodu covered enough bases to be used for quite some time in my rack.

If you are techniaclly inclined, I'd check to see if the preamp tube is still the GE JAN 5751 tube that came stock in. If someone put a 12ax7 tube in there, it will function, but will sound really ratty and loose, definitely not cool. It is a pain in the ass to get to though. I'd look though...

[Gilbert]

Re: Hey Cleveland

All im using in front of the voodu is emg pups. Its weird though, if i turn the input knob all the way up, it will stay at peak but theres not really much noticeable crackling or sounds attributed normally to overloading an input. When i turn it all the way down, it peaks for a second (a little too long) then comes down to ideal range. When i enter the function menu's for like mixer or whatever, the input leds go down to about midway, but as soon as i recall the preset or go to the main preset page its right back up there again.
i'll continue to mess with the eq. if you could do me a favour, whenever you got time...
could you list yer eq (pre and post) settings so i have a better starting point. it would be much appreciated.

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Hey Cleveland

And just curious, what patch are you using? Like what is the series of effects in the "config"?

[Gilbert]

Re: Hey Cleveland

I started the the "metal gods" or whatever patch, i think the algorithm just has reverb delay and flange, but they are all turned off.

[ September 15, 2003, 04:09 AM: Message edited by: Gilbert ]

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Hey Cleveland

I was looking at mine to get you some EQ settings, and I remembered I did a global reset a bit ago because the thing was acting weird and now it still is.

I thing it got nailed with some bad electric or something, I tried to do some programming and everytime I hit save or try to call up a preset, it says "resetting DSP" and just sits there. Of to Rocktron I guess... bah.

I'll look at the manual and see what config it is that I was using to start with. Seems I started with Hoeys Planet for some particular reason. But, I turn everything off and just use it to generate distortion.