Looking for: Dr Z Z-Wreck and Germino Massonette

Those are indeed awesome amps!

/Mats N

Man I'm totally with you on the Zwreck. SPECIFICALLY with the z wreck cabinet, I'm convinced that's a huge part of its sound. I'm dying
For excellent dr z profiles as there are very few micd properly in my opinion. I think it sadly could be awhile until we see this done though. Quite an expensive amp and not many floating around in the least.

Quote from VESmedic1

as there are very few mic'd properly in my opinion

Can you elaborate on this statement please?

Outside of Andy's( and even all of his I'm not crazy about, I kinda like the Carmen ghia and the jaz the most), and the ampsounds free dr z 28 pack, there has not been one Z profile that has impressed me. The majority sound tiny, extremely thin with no girth in the low end or low mids. Like there is a high lass at 200hz. I'm exaggerating but you understand what I'm saying. Some have a real honk in the midrange as well and sound harsh. All these problems are often contributed By mic placement and technique. All in my opinion though.

I've gotta agree- I've owned a few Zs and haven't heard a profile that nailed them yet. Same thing with me- either very thin & small sounding or honky. Could be just a tough amp to profile.

What are you listening to them through? The reason I ask is that I have and use my Rt 66 profiles and don't really see what you are saying. I am running them through an EV 12" powered speaker with no additions in eq. + or -. Once the eq gain comes in (anything treble or bass over 5) they are anything but thin. Listening through the FOH they are even more so. Just curious as to what exactly you were describing.

I have a pair of Adam a7xs, with an Adam sub, as well as two Yamaha Dxr 12s.... I gotta be honest I was not a fan of your rt66 profiles at all, but I definitely appreciate the effort. I don't think that orange cab is the best for the Z sound anyways, not an amp I would use v30s with... Seriously, download the ampsounds free dr z pack, attach the profile number "five " cab to your profiles, and listen to the difference, you should see exactly what I mean. And the profile is of a Z amp, so you will retain the Z quality of the amp even more so.I do this with your rt66 profiles actually. Sure, I could EQ your profiles heavily to fit what I need but I just don't really believe In doing that, I generally don't even swap cabs, you retain too much of the original profiled amp that that cab was with In my opinion.

I've got the profiles. I will try it out. To be honest after having the KPA I'm finding a lot of the similar tube style amps sound a lot alike so I stopped playing so many and concentrated on just what sound I was after. The Orange cab used was a closed back with (1) V30 and (1) H30 just like the z-best cabinet. I'm not a fan of all vintage 30 cabs. I miked both speakers. I will try the switch out you described and give it a listen.

I definitely agree with you, especially the ac30 flavored amps. Those ampsound z profiles were micd with royer 101 mic through a telefunken mic preamp, obviously this going to be a very different sound as well. I know they are expensive, but the Z and ac30 amp just sound "right" with a royer 121 or 101 mic. The smoothness in the midrange really compliments these amps I think.

Done. Definitely an improvement just changing out the cabs. I'm not sure if they eq'd the profile or not so unless that information is passed on it's difficult to get good practices established. I noticed that they were done with a single coil whereas I use a les paul with 36th ann. pu so maybe the brightness versus ribbon mic was a help. I love ribbons, but the profiles I've made with my ribbon mic have always been darker than I liked. As I mentioned I used an EV similar to an SM57 so that and the V30 will make a noticeable difference and maybe could have driven the ribbon more on the H30. Not sure how much the equipment differences make versus mic placement, type and speakers. They used a creamback as well. I basically looked at their gain values and matched up with the gain values of the Rt 66. The sound was obviously different because of the variables and the characteristics of the equipment. If you have any thoughts on the matter let me know because I'm curious on the ways to make things better.

Found my screw up. The EV Cobalt mic used in conjunction with the Ribbon mic was a vocal dynamic mic....

Fortunately the amp portion of the profile was good. I am going through and changing some cabs with the one you mentioned and an alnico or ev to see what I like better and then recheck against the amp.

Cool! Glad you dig it with that cab. Your right, there are wayyy too many variables to really pinpoint what could make your profiles " better" ( that's obviously opinion). Outboard gear definitely helps, higher quality mic preamps are going to yield better results, if they didn't, people wouldn't use them obviously. Also, just because two cabs have the same speakers does not mean the two cabs will sound the same, or even close! You will often hear of engineers who have both a recto oversized cabinet, as well as the stiletto cab in their studio for different sounds: same speakers, COMPLETELY different sounding cabs under a mic, let alone say a marshall cab with the same speakers. Micing an amp is really an art I think, and it just comes down to trial and error. The ampsound cab is my fsvorite so far with dr z amps, Because it was profiled with a dr z amp as you know, which is why I suggested it verses say another well micd cab like one of tills: just probably completely different sounding and won't really retain the Z character. As far as suggestions, I'd probably try a real 57 mic with that ribbon you have and mess around with it. I know you said it's kind of a clone of a 57 but I'd personally be pretty skeptical of that.

Where's the profile????
I can't see thet.....

I think it was on their facebook page for a short time. You might check again.

Further testing on my part indicates to me that changing cabs within the same tube type provides the clearest crossover...meaning that if I choose an (cabinet)/amp with a 6L6 tube then my KT66 or 6L6 amp character/tone doesn't appear to change other than the cabinet character. I tested this after I purchased an Audix i5 mic. I profiled the same amp in the same placement (mic) with different mics. When I changed the cab (EV) on one to the other (i5) it was almost 100% (slight...very slight eq. change) the same as the original (i5) profile.