I’m constantly hearing digital amp enthusiasts say using the (insert digital amp brand here) your amp will be consistent every night. We’ll no duh, not changing your amp controls will give you the same sound every night. It’s the room that changes. Bing bong! That’s why you adjust the knobs. Thoughts? Masters and geniuses only please. The way music is going it is consistent every night. Know why? It’s pre recorded. So grab your digital amp and your prerecorded music and rock it I guess 🤷♂️ yup I’m old. Also guilty of doing both and loving guitar and playing music. Just pointing out the BS.
Doesn’t make sense 2 me
- lionelframpton
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I’m constantly hearing digital amp enthusiasts say using the (insert digital amp brand here) your amp will be consistent every night. We’ll no duh, not changing your amp controls will give you the same sound every night. It’s the room that changes. Bing bong! That’s why you adjust the knobs. Thoughts? Masters and geniuses only please. The way music is going it is consistent every night. Know why? It’s pre recorded. So grab your digital amp and your prerecorded music and rock it I guess 🤷♂️ yup I’m old. Also guilty of doing both and loving guitar and playing music. Just pointing out the BS.
For me, consistancy means: I don't have to reposition mics every night. The knobs are always at the same position and I just have to make minor corrections (if any). I don't have to worry about a lot of maintaining and it's so much lighter.
It's a great starting point and very close to "turn on and just play". The rest can be done at the mixer, for example.
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Two aspects of sound consistency:
Tubes are aging causing sound changes.
Different units of the same tube amp model sound differently based on technical spread. There could be any PROFILER unit on a stage or studio anyhere. You just restore your backup from USB flash drive and the sound calculation leads to the same consistent sound results. 1+1 is always 2.
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I’m constantly hearing digital amp enthusiasts say using the (insert digital amp brand here) your amp will be consistent every night. We’ll no duh, not changing your amp controls will give you the same sound every night. It’s the room that changes. Bing bong! That’s why you adjust the knobs. Thoughts? Masters and geniuses only please. The way music is going it is consistent every night. Know why? It’s pre recorded. So grab your digital amp and your prerecorded music and rock it I guess 🤷♂️ yup I’m old. Also guilty of doing both and loving guitar and playing music. Just pointing out the BS.
Tubes heat up during the gig in my experience and get more distorted in the same room. Sound guys change on the bigger gigs and some are better than others at mic placement and monitor sends. I use IEMs pretty much now and am happy with that. No BS as far as I can see. I am also old and very much love playing guitar and making music.
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What about other instruments? Piano, brass, violin... Guitarists are the only ones who tweak their sound, no?
I see the keeper like a synth. I provide a great sound and I trust the sound guy. I always have the same sound on my Inears.
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It’s the room that changes. Bing bong! That’s why you adjust the knobs. Thoughts?
What buttons are we talking about ?
As you underline, the room changes sounds, i assume you tweak parameters on the mix table for recorded music Too ?!
Kemper only needs 1/2 XLR cables, job done.....The rest is soundguy's job....
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Don’t feed the Troll.
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I’m constantly hearing digital amp enthusiasts say using the (insert digital amp brand here) your amp will be consistent every night. We’ll no duh, not changing your amp controls will give you the same sound every night. It’s the room that changes. Bing bong! That’s why you adjust the knobs. Thoughts? Masters and geniuses only please. The way music is going it is consistent every night. Know why? It’s pre recorded. So grab your digital amp and your prerecorded music and rock it I guess 🤷♂️ yup I’m old. Also guilty of doing both and loving guitar and playing music. Just pointing out the BS.
I use my Kemper for 8 years now.
Many many gigs until now. Never changed any knobs because of the room.
I just feed the mixer of the sound guy. If he wants to change something because of the PA or the room it's his business.
My Kemper always sounds the same! -
I’m constantly hearing digital amp enthusiasts say using the (insert digital amp brand here) your amp will be consistent every night. We’ll no duh, not changing your amp controls will give you the same sound every night. It’s the room that changes. Bing bong! That’s why you adjust the knobs. Thoughts? Masters and geniuses only please. The way music is going it is consistent every night. Know why? It’s pre recorded. So grab your digital amp and your prerecorded music and rock it I guess 🤷♂️ yup I’m old. Also guilty of doing both and loving guitar and playing music. Just pointing out the BS.
In my opinion you throw everything into one simple thing here. First of all, yes the room, the stage and also the amount of people in the room have a big impact to the overall sound. But this can't be compensated by just fiddeling some knobs standing next to your amp, that's pure guesswork because you don't have any clue about how this will translate to the audience.
Also with a conventional setup of amp, cabinet and microphone the impact of what you fine tune on your knobs compared to a different mic position is close to marginal for what people here out of a PA system.
So yes, being consistent can help a lot for a fast and reliable setup and sound, so the sound guy/girl can focus on matching your sound to the room and everything else, without having the guitarist on stage doing guesswork on the amp knobs.
Also if you're on tour with an own sound tech and setup you are lightning fast if the basic setup is the same. This doesn't mean that you can't achieve this with a classic setup, but take a look how this is done on tour, you find markers everywhere, where the knobs have to be, where the mic has to be positioned and as long as there is nothing completely going wrong you also don't touch your knobs.
All said for stage setups with a PA, if you play gigs where you have to do your front sound with the cabinet, that's kinda different story.
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Another difference between an analog amp and a digital one is that the analog amp will be affected by the voltage of the house electrical, which will naturally change the behavior of the circuitry.
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I’m constantly hearing digital amp enthusiasts say using the (insert digital amp brand here) your amp will be consistent every night. We’ll no duh, not changing your amp controls will give you the same sound every night. It’s the room that changes. Bing bong! That’s why you adjust the knobs. Thoughts? Masters and geniuses only please. The way music is going it is consistent every night. Know why? It’s pre recorded. So grab your digital amp and your prerecorded music and rock it I guess 🤷♂️ yup I’m old. Also guilty of doing both and loving guitar and playing music. Just pointing out the BS.
This makes sense. Buy a helmet the kemper army is commin for ya. But yea this makes perfect sense
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This makes sense. Buy a helmet the kemper army is commin for ya. But yea this makes perfect sense
No. It doesn't. Sounds great on a forum....but in real life, doesn't work that way at all.
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For me, consistancy means: I don't have to reposition mics every night. The knobs are always at the same position and I just have to make minor corrections (if any). I don't have to worry about a lot of maintaining and it's so much lighter.
It's a great starting point and very close to "turn on and just play". The rest can be done at the mixer, for example.
^^^ THIS ^^^
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No. It doesn't. Sounds great on a forum....but in real life, doesn't work that way at all.
I refer you to your earlier post 😀
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One other aspect is that with digital units compared to analogue, a certain volume isn’t necessary to get the characteristics of the amp, with tube amps it is often higher than ideal. If a lower overall volume of your monitoring system suits the room, than you can keep the volume where it’s ideal for the sake of monitoring, the tone won’t change. This means that only the PA has to be compensated for the room, not a super loud tube amp pointed in a certain direction.
But if adjustments are desired, that’s why there’s a global eq for each output. However with digital, like others have said, you’ve decreased the number of variables. -
I am not sure that I am a Master, I am surely not a Genius but I have played a lot of gigs in my life and NONE of them were prerecorded.
For someone that plays gigs, having consistent sound is a great thing. There are times when there are power issues at some venues that can change the sound of a tube amp. Aging tubes can also cause changes throughout the night as they heat up. Nobody said that they didn't have to make tweaks on digital units for the room. The bigger the room and PA the less the room matters to some extent. The sound will be loud enough to overcome some aspects of the room. The sound engineer will adjust the FOH sound for the room so you don't have to tweak much if any to a digital unit for the room at that point.
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I refer you to your earlier post 😀
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I don't think you have to be a master or genius to work this out.
As has been pointed out above, the inconsistency comes from:
1) The variability of tubes/analogue circuits
2) Mike placement/mike type
3) Impact of power
So its consistency of input into the PA. Other things of course don't change.
Does a valve amp sound change during the night or gig to gig - I think it does but not massively. More importantly I have been fooled into thinking it changes, so I would constantly tweak my valve amp, I suspect because I going more "deaf" during a gig. I don't do that now because I know its not changing, so a variable has been taken out.
I never adjust my amp for the room because I never play off the backline and therefore the room doesn't influence my on stage sound significantly. The room, PA etc. is obviously different but that is what the sound engineer does.
If you are trying to say that consistency makes it sound pre recorded then your engagement and performance is meaningless....which I feel the opposite...a consistent sound ( apparent or real) means I can focus on performance..
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Two things I can think of right off the bat...
1. House voltage. I always noticed a certain couple venues made my tube amp sound better. At first I thought it was the room but discovered a difference in voltages. ( I don't use one of those fancy regulators, just surge protection)
2. Speaker sensitivity and humidity. I always notice when it's real humid my cab sounds worse than when it's drier.
With the kemper #1 isn't an issue and #2 only affects my monitor not the feed to the house. Of course there are P.A speakers in the same humidity...
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There are pros and cons with this comparison. The vaccum tube market has reached a point where the supply is a problem and therefore the pricing. Digital has an advantage on the supply and price side.
Is a tube any more or less reliable than a transistor? On average and when used in a proper design, a transistor is more reliable although transistors do degrade over time mainly due to heat. Transistor characteristics change with heat as well.
There are quite a lot of second order effects mentioned above. Do these have any significant effect? Not in my world.
