ADA Depot - A Forum To Support Users of ADA Amplification Gear
ADA Preamps => MP-2 => Topic started by: rnolan on February 10, 2024, 07:30:13 PM
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So I'm staring this post in response to where Gregg now finds himself after fixing up his bothers MP-2. So all the tech work is done, noise mod, R913 1.41 EPROM etc. But as Gregg doesn't play guitar:
"BTW, I have done all the mods to 1 of my brother's MP-2s and upgraded the firmware. It seems to work fine with HV at 190 VDC. Have only been able to test it with me just feeding it a tone from a tone generator, but am picking up a loaner guitar from a friend today to test it further. I have no idea how to play guitar which probably makes me an outlier here. I'm just the tech guy. My brother is on the east coast so he can't just come over and test it without a cross country flight."
So I was thinking some of us could make some test files loops etc. of just the direct guitar output for testing and also useful for trouble shooting. Obviously, how you play is in response to the patch you are using e.g. Clean, rhythm, high gain lead etc. So label them as such? Moreover, maybe some members have some already from using IRs.
Anyway, if you have time and inclination, make some and attach them to this thread :thumb-up:
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Good morning All,
I tried a direct recording of clean guitar into Cubase just to see if it will work, while having my coffee this morning. If it works, just make a loop out of it and run it through the inputs of the MP-2, and try a few different voicings and gain settings. Maybe even try out the chorus and trem effects in it to see if everything is doing what it should be.
Harley 8)
P.S. If I attached it correctly, it should be a WAV file.
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Richard,
I don't believe it's a good idea to make a high gain test track to put in the front of the MP-2. That's why I just plugged the guitar direct into the interface.
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Hey Harley, I wasn't suggesting making a high gain file, I was suggesting that when you play and record the raw guitar signal, how you play the notes and what you play is different for clean, rhythm, high gain.
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Thanks for starting this thread @rnolan. I have a borrowed guitar at the moment, a 1994 Fender Telecaster. But it is clear I don't know how to play at all. So any efforts that you all make here will be greatly appreciated.
Gregg
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Good morning All,
I tried a direct recording of clean guitar into Cubase just to see if it will work, while having my coffee this morning. If it works, just make a loop out of it and run it through the inputs of the MP-2, and try a few different voicings and gain settings. Maybe even try out the chorus and trem effects in it to see if everything is doing what it should be.
Harley 8)
P.S. If I attached it correctly, it should be a WAV file.
Unfortunately the attachment is empty...
Gregg
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That's very odd. I'll do it again in the morning, and try to post another one.
I got it to play on the desktop before I attached it, so I don't know what happened there. Regardless, I'll have time in the morning to have another go at it.
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Hey Harley, very strange, the attachment shows as 0kb and when I open it it is indeed empty :dunno: :crazy: .
@Gregg, no worries, the idea made sense to me for testing. Ideally, it would be good to play through the MP-2 with various patches but split off the raw guitar at the same time so the raw signal is how one is responding to the patch, that was my initial idea so the raw guitar corresponds. I'll do a couple soon when I get time. I'll dig out my old 2 button Peavey switch which I modified to be A/B/A+B. On A+B I can send A to MP-2 for me to listen to and B to a track to record raw guitar signal for you to futz with, though the recoding (albeit raw guitar) will need to be backed off for testing (i.e. +4 ish recording > guitar level).
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I know Richard and I'm getting miffed at this whole thing.
I've been recording guitar direct into Cubase and I see the tracks recorded, but now, there's no playback on anything like there was the other day. This is something Cubase has been doing since I got it. Support for it sucks pharts out of bus seats, and I'm ready to trash it. Just cut my losses and move on.
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Hey Harley, that really sucks big time :facepalm: . I know a couple of people who've used Cuebase and they like it, although, one guy was having issues that took him ages to solve but IIRC he was doing something more complicated that just record, play back, bounce to disk. Maybe start a thread about it and some other's may chime in with some help?
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Richard,
I should probably go look and see if there is anything already up in any old threads on the subject first.
No point is starting a topic that might already be there. I just don't have that much familiarity with Cubase is what it comes down to.
I might go dig up some of my old recording software and see if I can make that stuff work in Windows 10. Something like Sonic Foundry, or Sound Forge.
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Hey Harley, obviously worth doing a search, then again, a new thread wouldn't hurt :dunno: . I was discussing digital recording S/W with a friend recently and he was recommending Cakewalk (https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk?lang=en (https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk?lang=en)), he reckons that's free and he finds it very good. Also, as I said before, doesn't your Focusrite Scarlett come with a cut back version of Pro Tools? I know they do here. Another friend likes Reaper, but, while not super expensive, does cost. In the end they all do much the same thing, albeit call different functions different names (as I'm discovering with Studio One).
One of my favourite programs is GoldWave (https://www.goldwave.com/ (https://www.goldwave.com/)) You get heaps of free uses to try it out, I liked it so much I paid $50 AUD 25+ years ago for a license (long before I'd run out of free uses). I use it to play back songs as it sounds better than VLC or Media Player. I also use it for file conversion (you can do one or point at a directory (folder) and batch process a whole bunch e.g. create MP3s from .wav etc.), volume equalisation/normalising, and trimming the crap off the start and end of files etc. It does heaps more stuff which I don't use. You can also use it to record, albeit only 2 tracks. It's perfect to make files for this thread.
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Hey Gregg, ok here's the first test files I made for you. Clean patch:
Patch 110 = V: crystal clean, drive 37, master 73, comp in 10:1 thhd 52 gain 50, Lo +4 / Mid -2 / Hi +4 / P +2, 100hz +4/ 0/0/0/0/ 3.8khz +2/ 6.3khz +6, wah out, trm out, NR out, St Chorus in Depth 60 rate 0.3 hz, loop out.
Attachment is flac (to keep it smaller) raw guitar signal. You'll need to attenuate for the MP-2 input as it had to be boosted to record.
This file is mono to use as the MP-2 input.
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So this file is the MP-2 in stereo with the clean patch settings, so how it should sound coming out of the MP-2 cab sim outputs IIRC set to 4x12 but you can toggle 2x12 (will sound brighter).
Again flac but stereo
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I recorded the raw, MP-2 cab sim outs and TC MOne fx on separate tracks but at the same time (so they properly relate to each other).
This one is the MP-2 stereo cab sim outs + TC MOne (short stereo delay and Room Reverb). Again flac to save size and in stereo.
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Hey Gregg, let me know how you go with these. If this format works for your testing, then I'll do the same for a Warm Vintage patch, and finally a High Gain patch.
Cheers R
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In case anyone is interested, this is the setup I used to make the test files:
Not my greatest playing but that wasn't the point. I used my TLA Ivory 5001 quad valve preamp. This let me have inst in and 2 outputs. One output was raw guitar signal but it got some gain added to record. The other output I sent to the MP-2 input and attenuated to not blow out the MP-2. The raw input in 1 desk channel, the MP-2 into 2 desk channels and I fed the TC MOne fx of the desks 2 fx buses and returned into 2 channels. So 5 channels recorded. Then I mixed off the 3 files (just muting what I didn't need), converted to flac and posted. While the TLA says it's quad tube, that's not strictly correct, it's actually high quality SS and you can wind in some tube (one triode of its 2 12AU7s) if you want to warm up the signal. I didn't wind in any tube as I wanted the raw guitar signal to be as raw as possible. Obviously I couldn't keep it at inst level when it got recorded. But this enabled me to turn the TLA output down to go into the MP-2 input and not overload it while adjusting the desk direct out for the raw channel to be suitable for the recording input.
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Thanks for these. I will start playing around with them this weekend.
Gregg