By Fletch Whipp

We now continue part two of our discussion on valve/tube amplifier application. You can read part One of our series by clicking here. Tube sound (or valve sound) is the characteristic sound associated with a vacuum tube-based audio amplifier. The audible significance of tube amplification on audio signals is a subject of continuing debate among audio enthusiasts. Many electric guitar, electric bass, and keyboard players in a range of popular, rock, funk, metal, blues, reggae and jazz genres also prefer the sound of tube instrument amplifiers or preamplifiers. The power amp section gives the amplifier it’s volume. Placing tubes in the amplifier section further enhance and exhibit the musical warmth to an amplifier so many enthusiasts find appealing. Below we continue our review of different types of tubes/valves.

It is the little brother to the EL-34 and is the classic European designed tube that lead the British invasion – The EL-84 is tight and aggressive, yet smooth and warm, with an amazing chiming defined mid and tight punchy low-end. Overall - Brilliant focus with a frequency response that always brings your guitar to the front of the mix – This tube is true to its classic roots and is extremely consistent and reliable. These tubes are long lasting, strong and give increased power output. This tube excels in headroom. Great rock tone, punchy, with a strong attack. 

EL34

This legendary European EL-34 is known for its unsurpassed “bell- tone” clarity and touch sensitive sustain & articulation – Premier German engineering provides unsurpassed structural quality that makes this one of the most toneful, consistent and reliable tubes you can buy. They are very smooth. It has a very urgent and aggressive tone and is an excellent choice for all styles of gain, especially classic rock, alternative rock & metal – This tube is true with focused low-end, crushing mid range crunch and crystal-like highs – This is one of our favorites for authentic British tone – Excellent structural quality provides exceptional consistency and reliability. 

Mesa Boogie Road King with a fleet of tubes!

6V6

This tube has spectacular performance capabilities! They have an amazing low-frequency extension without getting boomy and a high end much like an RCA until they get into saturation. Absolutely wonderful in Deluxe Reverbs! 6V6′s are similar in tone to 6l6′s but they have a bit more mid sparkle and breakup much sooner. It is the little brother to the 6L6 and is all about classic American tube tone from yesteryear – Extremely sweet and bubbly with a beautifully deep bass and spacious shimmering highs, this tube defines vintage “Deluxe” styled tone and is a great substitute in the Mark I, Mark IV & Lone Star when used with their “Tweed” Switch feature. I have modded my own personal Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue amplifier at RockStarzuSA with 6V6 tubes, and the sound stage is spectacular. The amp truly shines where the previous stock 6L6 tubes appeared flatter and less three-dimensional.

6L6GC

This tube is a work of art! And it sounds as good as it looks. The lows are deep, big and round. The mids are very harmonically rich and natural while the highs are thick, creamy and very detailed. This is the tube for Peavey, Fender, Mesa, Soldano, Bogner ect. This tube breaks up later than the aforementioned 6V6, which makes it popular for high volume clean players. Having said this, the 6L6 is  used in countless high gain amplifiers due to its ability to work well with such gain circuits.

KT66

The KT66 tube is an industrial strength version of the 6L6GC. another great valve, warm rich and full-bodied. This was a great valve for the Fender twin. With a Strat in the out of phase position this can be heaven. With a real vintage Strat this would be one awesome tone. 

KT88

The KT66  has a very thick and rich sound with lots of harmonic complexity and a wonderfully smooth breakup when driven into saturation. I had an incredibly satisfying experience with them in my Divided By 13 RSA-23 amplifier. This tube lends itself to taking overdrive/distortion pedals ahead of running into an amplifier. KT88′s sound robust, almost stiff clean, in stark contrast to the bubbly sound of 6L6′s however when clipped or run with a pedal they are supreme. KT88′s were popularized on vintage Marshall Major amps from the 70′s.

6550

They are very warm with a great clean tone and the breakup raw, crunchy and gritty. If you want an Angus – AC/DC type tone then these tubes really deliver! they are simply a lot of fun to play. The 6550 will not make as much power as the KT88 or the thickness of the KT88, in fact some players feel it’s too thick, so if you want a fatter sounding tube than a 6L6 that breaks up earlier than a KT88 then the 6550 may be just right.

By Fletch Whipp

Sebatron is a brand name unfamiliar to most in the consumer/prosumer Pro-audio community. Hailing from my former homeland of Australia, Sebatron do however, find themselves highly regarded in the professional/boutique community.

MIC PRE EDUCATION

Sebatron specialize in high quality mic preamps. To the uninitiated, a mic preamp is simply a preamplifier for the weak signals that come from microphones.  The preamplifier boosts the signal to a standard line level, which all recorders can capture.

Comparing a recording from the 1950′s to recordings produced today yields a giant difference in audio quality and listening pleasure. While  recording techniques, mastering and production have all aided the improvement of recorded music, a mic preamp plays a pivotal role in this area. If the recording runs through a poor quality/low level preamplifier, the end result is that the instruments/voices recorded will sound sterile, one dimensional and lifeless. Having the microphone run through a high quality preamplifier is the first step in capturing a great recording.

All of my recordings run through my Presonus StudioLive FireWire mixer. The StudioLive console offer the very acceptable Xmax pres which are certainly capable. Being a guitarist, and having spent tens of thousands of hours over the last 21 years listening critically to audio, especially in relation to the role of vacuum tubes in guitar amplifiers, caused me to immediately note that the Xmax pre’s are very clean, yet lacking in character. I also detect a metallic quality in the very high frequency range around 12Khz and above, which is unappealing.

Sebatron VMP-2000e-VU

PERSONAL APPLICATION

I have tried many stand alone mic pre’s and I believe I have found a nice balance in between the high quality-yet budget friendly price range with Sebatron. I currently use their VMP-1000e-VU single channel all tube preamp to run my guitar and vocal tracks through. For guitar I run through a Diamond Compressor into the Sebatron as a D.I to my Fractal Audio Axe-Fx preamp, which runs direct to the StudioLive line inputs fed FireWire to the computer. Vocals are captured on my sE Electronics Gemini II LDC tube microphone running direct to the Sebatron into the Presonus.

Sebatron literature will offer the following regarding the VMP series of mic pre’s

Each VMP channel consists of

• a transformer balanced microphone input for reliability, ease of use and sound quality
• individual phantom power with LED indication
• DI for direct instrument or line input
• passive switchable EQ for the extreme high and low registers – very practical when tracking
• a 12AT7 vacuum tube run at a proper high tension providing all of the active gain
• switchable PAD control which varies negative feedback around the valve, controlling colour
• solid state, discrete Class A output stage, powered by a high voltage rail for superior headroom and transient response
• switchable output phase
• XLR and TRS balanced outputs

Front View Sebatron VMP-2000e-VU

By Fletch Whipp

Regular readers may recall our prior reviews of the astounding Strymon blueSky Reverb pedal & El Capistan Digital Tape delay pedals we have reviewed here previously. Both of these pedals represent the most advanced and thorough designs of both these unique effected sounds. Dialed in correctly, they could arguably be the best reverb & Tape delay pedals currently available. Today we will review another Strymon pedal, their most recent offering called the TimeLine delay pedal.

Strymon currently have two other world-class delay pedals in their line, the aforementioned El Capistan dTape Echo & the Brigadier analog pedal-both of which are supreme digital creations of the unique tape & analog based offerings popular in music from designs of years past. With their latest offering Strymon have sought to deliver an all in one delay pedal that captures the essence of their pre-existing pedals, and add a whole new range of sound-shaping capabilities alongside a huge library of patches and connectivity options.

Strymon offer the following description: When we decided to create a studio-class stereo delay effects pedal, we knew we must go well beyond what has been done in the past—in sound quality, sonic flexibility, hardware design, and processing power. We spent months locked up in the Strymon sound design labs with an intense focus on dreaming up the most spacious, lush, creative, and tweakable delay effects ever heard. It was a monumental task—a relentless study of delays and their nuances, and a continuous pursuit of innovative and musically inspirational sounds. Utilizing a ridiculously powerful SHARC DSP, every drop of processing power is harnessed. Each algorithm is so detailed it requires the entire processor.

TimeLine provides you with twelve different delay machines, each with extensive control over sonic character and feel. Tweak to your hearts content and save up to 200 presets of your favorite sounds. Go from crisp and clear, studio-quality digital delays all the way to the saturated and fluctuating sounds of tape delay machines. Get warm and fuzzy analog style repeats all the way to shimmery, sparkling, and crystalline ice delays. Top it all off with full MIDIimplementation and a routable, 30-second stereo looper and you’re on your way to delay bliss.

TimeLine’s front panel Front Panel Controls host Time, Repeats, Mix, Filter, Grit, Mod Speed, Mod Depth. Additional parameters offer Smear, High Pass Filter, Repeats Dynamics adjustability. The pedal has stereo in/out connections, an expression pedal input, MIDI in/out ability& a feedback loop stereo mode switch. One complaint of the El Capistan & Brigadier pedals is the lack of preset capability beyond connecting the Favorite switch that allows you to store a single preset. TimeLine runs the other end of this functionality offering o instant save & recall for up to 200 used designed presets. You can Easily bank up or down through your presets using the front panel switches. Or select presets via an external MIDI controller. Internally, TimeLine offers the same very high components Strymon’s users have come to expect from their other offerings. Ultra low noise, high performance 24-bit 96kHz A/D and D/A converters performing 32-bit floating point processing.

In terms of operation, what becomes evident very quickly offers for the experienced tone shaper is the ability to easily switch between a pristine Eventide, Lexicon style delay that offers an ultra clean signal path with little to no coloration of the signal to delays that are heavily detailed with artifacts, whether that is hiss, distortion, tape flutter, warble, bucket loss, frequency shelving and roll off  or a host of other tone shaping options offered by way of it’s 12 delay modes.

At $449,  TimeLine offers similar functionality to the Eventide TimeFactor & Empress Superdelay. While both of these units also offer multiple delay types and the ability to store dozens of presets,  the Strymon in my opinion offers  a more true tone shaping ability-especially in the tape and analog modes offered. I have owned the Diamond Memory Lane pedal-considered the creme de la creme of analog delay pedals with it’s tap tempo ability and modulation shaping option, however, for myself, the TimeLine very accurately achieves this same ability with the advantage of  no noise (or hiss) depending on what sound you are after.

All in all, I tend to, yet again, offer that Strymon offers in what appears to be a running theme for them,  the greatest standalone delay pedal of its kind offered to date as of this writing in 2011.

By Fletch Whipp

I was fortunate enough to begin working in the music industry while still in High School at the beginning of the 90′s. CD sales were booming, and the concept of peer-to-peer music sharing was limited to cassette tapes. CD’s were a very expensive medium still, and copying CD’s was unheard of. iTunes didn’t exist, and the concept of a recording career in music seemed not only valid, but an extremely lucrative concept indeed. When I founded what would become RockStarzUSA in 1994, music was evolving. CD’s were common place, and a host of non CD options like Mini Disc, SACD & laser disc’s were on the move. Fast forward to 2011, and the music industry is utterly hemorrhaging.

Lets look at some frightening pictures and stats to paint the picture of  why Record label CEO’s are rapidly losing sleep. Every night.

State of the Music Industry pic courtesy RIAA

Here are the cold, hard facts.

The music industry is down 64% from its peak in 1999.

The music industry is down almost 45% from where it was in 1973.

The CD peak was only 13% better than the vinyl peak.

10 years ago the average American spent almost 3 times as much on recorded music products as they do today.

26 years ago they spent almost twice as much as they do today.

Turns out that, somewhat unsurprisingly, the recording industry makes almost all their money from full-length albums:

Music Industry #2 pic courtesy of RIAA

The verbiage above is carefully written. Can we revive the RECORDED MUSIC INDUSTRY. I wrote to a friend in our city that also operates a recording studio. ‘People inherently need to consume art, and people inherently need to create art’. Music won’t disappear anytime soon, not now, not ever. What will change is how the medium is monetized. We have both agreed, that nothing will replace seeing a favorite artist live, nor buying their merchandising. The question at this stage in 2011 is this. Has art itself become a commodity that has devalued to the point of being worthless, to the masses?

I am in the very small category of people who still believe in buying an artists musical offering. Call it karma, call it what you like, I believe in the Biblical concept of paying someone’s wage worthy of their hire. If I enjoy someone else’s talent and hard work. I believe in paying for it. This does however place me in the absolute minority.

I will not change my stance.

The reality is though, a persons right to access an artists music is considered tantamount to support, although, no money has changed hands. The concept of stealing is brushed aside & dismissed by those who illegally obtain music. I personally believe this, more than any other factor is causing the Industry to rapidly nosedive as it is.

Now some could say but Fletch, consider the downloads, iTunes sold over 10,000,000,000 downloads… that’s a WHOLE lot of money! True, but let us consider the artist, because right or wrong, as an artist myself, I will always look to the artist’s needs first and foremost because I help steer tomorrow’s artists everyday of the week.

Digital downloads Graph pic courtesy of thecynicalmusician.com

What are your thoughts? Is there hope. Is a model going to come forth that will allow artists to be steered back towards sustainability, let alone profitability? -Fletch Whipp. CEO www.RockStarzUSA.com