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Re: I just got a Voodu Valve (settings)?
Total thread resurrection here!!!!
I got the Pro-GAP Ultra preamp on Friday and, well, I'm not that impressed. It has a lot more clarity than the Chameleon 2000 preamp, but it is not nearly as rich sounding--very "transistor-ish", if you will. And as far as death metal 'chunk'--not so great. It EQ's up very nicely for that purpose, but it just doesn't have very much chunk to it once you've done that. Perhaps it would be better though a tube power amp and good 4x12 cab.
Today, I got a Peavey RockMaster preamp, and that is totally better for death metal chunk (and everything else) than either of the Rocktron preamps, especially for direct-recording purposes. For more gushing about my new RockMaster, see my other thread.
Interestingly, some of the muddiness I was experiencing with the Chameleon seems to have been due to the ADA Ampulator--The Peavey was really flubby through the Ampulator, and I know that wasn't the Peavey, since I played it through a power amp/cabinet at the store today and had totally tight metal sounds. So, I plugged the Peavey into the front of the Chameleon to use the Rocktron speaker sim, and it was a total improvement. Obviously, I had to set the Cham preamp section very neutrally, and the Hi-Z input on the Cham was overloading very easily (I turned the input gain almost all the way down), but I was able to get an incredibly tight, punchy, chunky sound through that combination. The Rocktron speaker sim makes their own solid state preamps sound rather boxy and flat, but it totally works with a Tube preamp.
Anyway, enough rambling. Bottom line: Pro-GAP is mediocre, Cham2000 is slightly less mediocre, Ampulator is going to be on eBay soon, and Rocktron Xpression, Replifex, or Multivalve will be coming my way soon to be the end of my signal chain.
Total thread resurrection here!!!!
I got the Pro-GAP Ultra preamp on Friday and, well, I'm not that impressed. It has a lot more clarity than the Chameleon 2000 preamp, but it is not nearly as rich sounding--very "transistor-ish", if you will. And as far as death metal 'chunk'--not so great. It EQ's up very nicely for that purpose, but it just doesn't have very much chunk to it once you've done that. Perhaps it would be better though a tube power amp and good 4x12 cab.
Today, I got a Peavey RockMaster preamp, and that is totally better for death metal chunk (and everything else) than either of the Rocktron preamps, especially for direct-recording purposes. For more gushing about my new RockMaster, see my other thread.
Interestingly, some of the muddiness I was experiencing with the Chameleon seems to have been due to the ADA Ampulator--The Peavey was really flubby through the Ampulator, and I know that wasn't the Peavey, since I played it through a power amp/cabinet at the store today and had totally tight metal sounds. So, I plugged the Peavey into the front of the Chameleon to use the Rocktron speaker sim, and it was a total improvement. Obviously, I had to set the Cham preamp section very neutrally, and the Hi-Z input on the Cham was overloading very easily (I turned the input gain almost all the way down), but I was able to get an incredibly tight, punchy, chunky sound through that combination. The Rocktron speaker sim makes their own solid state preamps sound rather boxy and flat, but it totally works with a Tube preamp.
Anyway, enough rambling. Bottom line: Pro-GAP is mediocre, Cham2000 is slightly less mediocre, Ampulator is going to be on eBay soon, and Rocktron Xpression, Replifex, or Multivalve will be coming my way soon to be the end of my signal chain.
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