MP-3 What Should It Be ?

[rnolan]

Well i agree with El C,it must have midi and it has to be programmable.

Real time midi is a fundamental for me, we could borrow some ideas from the guy doing the MP1 (remember that post) revamp, also I'd like at least 3 stereo parallel loops, it would be nice to be able to place them in different parts of the circuit as BDS suggested.

[El Chiguete]

Line or instrument level input and output switches to let you use it depending on your rig???

Also cab and power amp simulation?

[potus2028]

Just mash-up a Quad Tube preamp section with an MQ1, a TFX4 and an Ampulator...

[j_weeks]

Id love to see an exact reissue of the the MP-1, and maybe some of the combo amps that they had. Most guitar players today have never heard of ADA, and unless they could market an MP-3 at a low cost i don't see it competing in todays market especially with all the buzz about the axe-fx. What do you guys think about the axe-fx? It sounds okay, but it honestly still sounds digital and fake to my ear.

[MarshallJMP]

It sounds okay, but it honestly still sounds digital and fake to my ear.

+1 A firend of mine owns one,it has nice effects but the distortion sounds really digital.

[kawai2g4b]

Id love to see an exact reissue of the the MP-1, and maybe some of the combo amps that they had. Most guitar players today have never heard of ADA, and unless they could market an MP-3 at a low cost i don't see it competing in todays market especially with all the buzz about the axe-fx. What do you guys think about the axe-fx? It sounds okay, but it honestly still sounds digital and fake to my ear.

The way I see it, every few years a very hyped. well made product makes a debut.  If you build/design it right, design it to be dead reliable, make it sound spot on and market well enough the buyers and mythical status will come.  It happened with the Axe-FX within its price range and it will happen in the future.  Now would I like to see a cheaper alternative?  Yes.  But I will have no quarrels with ADA if they get it right, regardless of price. 

[rnolan]

I think a well designed MP3 would blow the Axe-FX away particularly for live/stage use (not their forte from what my friend who owns one told me but handy for recoding and for those who like to digitise the world).  Also the Axe-FX is designed to be everything to everybody, clone every amp speaker combo, effect etc.  Personally I don't want to clone any of them, I have my own sound and the ADA MP1/2 are perfect for that.  Some more flexibility for mixing in digital effects (not chaining through them e.g. 3 parallel loops) would be nice.  Not to mention the Axe-FX is around $3.5k, I think a MP3 could come in under that.

[W.Laturno]

 my two cents - - EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLY - -   ( lol, it's all I got....) :cheers:

[rnolan]

Hey Will, MJMP will know better than me but an external power supply for a tube preamp may be a bit problematic as the power transformer has taps for tube heaters.  Not that you couldn't make one I spose but it would need to be a custom job with a custom connector and probably expensive in the end for little advantage.

[GuitarBuilder]

I also vote to keep MIDI programmability; it's just too time-consuming to recreate multiple sounds on stage otherwise.  Having said that, I would enjoy having the flexibility built into the Eventide Harmonizer and the ability to download/share presets or control the MP-3 via iPad or iPhone.

Audio-wise I feel the tube preamps are vital; nothing else sounds quite like it.  While I'm a huge fan of Lexicon's digital delays and reverb, I still have a soft spot for analog chorus and echo, and maybe even a tube reverb circuit! 

My greatest beef with the old ADA gear is the front panel and the user interface.  I'd rather see something with knobs and sliders, like the Nobels SST-19 or with better pushbuttons, like the Rockman XPR.  Both of those combine good controls with full MIDI programmability.

I would want to see a dedicated foot controller with foot pedal as well, like the Lexicon MPX-R1.  The ADA MXC was nice, but too generic. I'd like to see some dedicated foot switches for direct control of effects and modulation.

[Sparker]

Hey Will, MJMP will know better than me but an external power supply for a tube preamp may be a bit problematic as the power transformer has taps for tube heaters.  Not that you couldn't make one I spose but it would need to be a custom job with a custom connector and probably expensive in the end for little advantage.

Standard 12V AC / 1A Wall Adaptor, about £12/$15. The 12V AC could be used directly for heaters, or made into 12V DC. The HV could be generated by an additional low power internal transformer in reverse configuration. The +/-15V/Others could be generated by charge pumps. Done before. Need to consider earth path back through PSU though.

[El Chiguete]

My greatest beef with the old ADA gear is the front panel and the user interface.  I'd rather see something with knobs and sliders...

I actually like the layout of the ADA gear, but I don't like the way you can easily save a preset on the wrong bank... this has happend to me a couple of times and really pisses my off!  :facepalm:

[Chucky]

I think that cramming too much stuff in one unit is aside the point.

It is SO easy to get effects of all kinds nowadays, I would leave that stuff out.
There are loops to achieve this and I would dedicate the effort towards the core idea: Tones.

A front face with knobs is the ideal. Works faster. And MIDI storage just makes sense.
You can always decide not to use the MIDI banks if you will...

For owning all the incarnations of ADA preamps, I've been secretly wishing to have such a thing as an MP-3:

-Keeping the 3 original channels of the MP-1 and adding the Clean Tube and Brown Channel of the Classic.
I still have a soft spot for the original MP-1's Clean Tube channel which covers such a lot of ground, from clean to classic rock tones.
-Onboard noise gate
-Original MP-1 Chorus (Not a must actually, but the MP-1 Chorus is too cool)
-Recording outs with cab sims

Assuming that ADA would put the money into quality components to make the thing as quiet as possible (Unlike the MP-1 at high gain settings), I would trade off happily bells and whistles (That I can add with loops) for basic performance, great wide quality tones that can be trimmed and stored around.

By making a simpler unit, it would help it being competitive on the market.
I think we all buy tube guitar preamps to get great natural tones...and for wahs, effects, verbs and shit, there is an array of choice
out there already. No need to mess with that.

My 3 cents...   ::)

[rnolan]

Hey Chucky, couldn't agree more (although it would be nice to have some of the lovely analogue ADA effects (flanger, chorus, multitap)), which is why I'd like mixable 3 stereo parallel loops to use for outboard FX units so as to keep the analogue signal analogue...

[Satch]

Like to see larger display with ability to increase or decrease brightness.