ADA Depot - A Forum To Support Users of ADA Amplification Gear
ADA Preamps => Original MP-1 => Topic started by: MarshallJMP on February 26, 2016, 04:01:26 AM
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What do you guys think of the MP-1 tonesection?What can be changed,what freq's do you like?I was maybe thinking of doing some mods on the tone section.Like the bass really could use some tuning.
So let's hear it !
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How about the eq being adjustable in increments of 1, instead of 2?
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Probleem here is that the tc9170 only has 13 steps, -6 - 0 - 6 so no change possible.
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Is tc9170 à chipset ?
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Is tc9170 à chipset ?
The TC9170 is an electronic pot.There are 2 of those with 2 pots in it,so 4 bands.
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Make sense.
But I didn't get the 13 steps idea(you mean -6 to +6 is 12 and 0 is 13th step? ) and 2 by 2 changing paramètres ?
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Make sense.
But I didn't get the 13 steps idea(you mean -6 to +6 is 12 and 0 is 13th step? ) and 2 by 2 changing paramètres ?
Hey MJ, nevermind... I trust you !
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Yes zero is also a step.What do you mean by "2 by 2 changing paramètres "?
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If you have 13 steps between -6 & +6, when you increment by 2, it become 7 steps(-6/-4/-2/0/+2/+4/+6)
Am I wrong ?
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Mmmm what ADA did was going from -15,-12,-9,-6,-4,-2,0,2,4,6,9,12,15 dB so 13 steps.
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Gotcha !
So the increment by 2 cannot be changed !
And what part of the tone can you mod ?
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Well f0 or the center freq,Q factor (filter bandwith) and K factor (filter gain) on the mid and treble filters (these are VCVS type filters).Bass and presence are different,bass is a very simple first order low pass filter and presence a simple bandpass filter.
I was maybe thinking to make them all VCVS filters.Don't know if it will be possible on the mainboard.Else maybe design a small doughterboard that plugs into the quad opamp.
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Some of mods you built are based on daughter board and now as i understand, you want to go far on the motherboard ??? Interesting !!
On other idea :
-ADA mp1 is pretty well known for high gain tone (thinking of 3tm/3.666 mod). Is there any chance to get greatter cleans ???
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Well with the 3TM/3.666 you mod the tubeboard that share's the clean/distortion tube.And it's a ying yang thing,you always have to sacrifice something,and in most cases it's the clean sounds.And in the case of the 3TM there is no clean tube anymore.That has been turned into a "brown channel".
This is one of the reasons i use an MP-2 for cleans.It has better cleans,even compared to a stock mp-1.
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ok ! So let's keep it that way... mp1 for high gain that's his job
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Probleem here is that the tc9170 only has 13 steps, -6 - 0 - 6 so no change possible.
That's a shame, but it was worth asking. I kinda like the current frequency centers and filter bandwidths, it's just that extra bit of fine tuning would be really useful, hence the idea of increments of 1.
Here's a mad idea ... could 2 x tc9170's be used together, so you would get 26 steps?
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I really liked the adjustable Bass pot that the MOD3.666 came with. IMO, that's probably something that should be a part of every Tone Mod for the MP-1. A pot that can be adjusted without unracking and opening the MP-1 would be even better.
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Ah yes you can alter the freq of the bass,ranging from 320 to 160 Hz.The MP-2 has a quite different filter,how would compare them?
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Ah yes you can alter the freq of the bass,ranging from 320 to 160 Hz.The MP-2 has a quite different filter,how would compare them?
The MP-2 has the help of a Graphic EQ, which is a different thing altogether that helps the MP-2. But the MP-1 always was problematic (for me) to get the right kind of "thump" from it. The mids and higher felt right (to me) for most things but the Bass freq never seemed to sit right. Being able to alter the freq of the Bass to suit the particular cabs used allowed the user to find one of the resonance freqs in the cab and then adjust the Bass on the front panel to compliment it.
Having a Graphic EQ does help, but it's not quite the same as having user-sweepable freqs to adjust.
Just for comparison sake, here's the Parameters from the Rocktron ProGAP preamp:
Adjustable Parameters (with 64 incremented positions each)
- 1LEVEL predistortion EQ level -15dB to +15dB
- 1FREQ predistortion EQ frequency 450Hz to 3.25KHz
- GAIN gain level 0 (0dB), 0.5dB to 70dB
- BASS bass level -18dB to +18dB
- 2LEVEL postdistortion EQ level -12dB to +12dB
- 2FREQ postdistortion EQ frequency 600Hz to 8KHz
- TREBLE treble level -15dB to +15dB
- HUSH HUSH threshold level -70dB to 0dB
- OUTLEV output level -70dB to +10dB
There's 2 sweepable frequency parameters in there that overlap, one for pre Gain and one for post Gain neither of which are "bass specific" but do help find the freq you want to adjust.
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It's been a looooong time since my MP-1 days; however, I always find 4-band stacks too limiting.
What I would prefer in most processors would be a 6-band stack, placed right after the preamp section:
a lo-lo, centered at around 70 Hz or so, partly for handling dives, partly for use with 7/8/9 stringers
a bass, with programmable center and gain
a mid, likewise with center and pain, but having a higher Q / narrower bandwidth when lifting it above, say, +6, to better accentuate those defining mids
ordinary high and presence
an additional 6-7 kHz filter, to be used for 'fizz-off' on distortions, and for lifting the upper harmonics for cleans
Now, this weren't what you [MJMP] asked about. So for the MP-1, as I remember it, the tonestack worked fairly well.
Keep the presence and high filter as-is, and just see if you can add my above mid- and bass ideas.
That is, those would be my ideas, of course. YMMV, as usual..
A note on the MP-2: While the extra 1/3rd octave EQ is nice, at times I really find it somewhat annoying fiddling around with all 13 EQ frequencies.
Well-laid-out voicings combined with afore mentioned 6-band stack ought to be enough.
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The bass control has quite a big bandwith from 10 to 300Hz and after that it slopes on 6dB/octave.Maybe i'll start here and make a bandpass filter as opposed to a low pass.
A center freq of 80 Hz and smaller bandwith,maybe 20Hz above and below 80Hz.