DrGonzo

Was this recorded at home?

Yeah, the 2+ mix is the better for the instruments. The vocals are a little thin - bit of a trick here, get a little octaver program and run it low in the mix. Makes the low growls evil as sin! Although to be fair, the mix the other lot chose is a lot more aggressive sounding. Probably a compromise between the two would have been ideal!

Tell yer drummer to man up on the blasts! Give it some son!

Weirdness! Maybe just slap some tin foil on top of the amp?

Heh! Depends on the engineer! I always prefer a 57 on a bass cab when there's OD involved. Done plenty of shows (in the right context) when I've not even used the DI, just a mic on a cab! I take pride in being comprehensive even if I have to be quick, and I always do my best to get a great sound from a band. I think my record is two bands checked in 30 mins (including both of them setting up, packing down etc.). Damn touring bands with their w*nky three hour sound checks! Mind you, I have been known to spend four hours checking a certain band I work with regularly. There are nine of them though! Any of you guys are welcome to head through Carlisle for the best sound on the toilet circuit, courtesy of me and my partner in crime Mr Nic.

Ahhh the age old debate... valve vs. SS! Personally, I much prefer a valve amp for the band I'm in at the moment. Lotsa distortion and general "hard rocking" means that a valve amp is the only way! However, I'm sure that there are many situations where a solid state amp would be the better option - certainly in terms of sheer practicality (i.e. weight!) On the large band / festival side of things... I think you'll find that most big acts will be using their own equipment (at least some of it...). Certainly the old-skool "wall of amps" are mostly dummy cabs, and for acts that aren't fussy/important/rich enough to bother they would use a 'house' rig, but for 90% of acts they will use their touring rig. I can't really see Tim C turning up to play a gig with an amp he's never seen before! On the SVT2 front, I think you'd need to find a nice one that's around 15 years old or more to get a good example - I tried a number of amps before buying my Marshall, and the new SVT2s weren't that good. However, having since had a play with one from the 70's I can say that it was a distinct improvement........ mwah!

Hmm.... I think it all depends really on what kind of clipping is indicated by the red light... If it is a valve pre (which I think it is...) I think that you might be OK (ish) as valves "soft clip", meaning that the waveform simply won't reach the dreaded DC pattern like a solid state pre would... (apologies if that's all a load of crap. I'm sure someone that knows more about valve amp will correct me...) Certainly I've never experienced any problems with clipping my head - I run the input gain pretty hard to get a little valve compression and grit from the front end, and that's without the fx running...

Hmmm.... if the amp is 4ft away from the FM aerial I'd say it wouldn't be any EM interference from the amp / speaker itself. Most likely AC interference... does the radio have a CD player or some other playback device? If so, does the same thing happen, or is it only the radio?

If you are using effects - especially distortion / OD - then it is often best to run a DI send that is clean (i.e. no fx) and put a mic on your cab. Unless you know for sure what your OD sounds like DI'ed and like the sound, this will always give a better overall sound. Obviously, this is only really applicable if you're in a venue where you're micing guitar amps too, but useful to know!

I find that the "full" Neutriks are too fat for use on a pedal board anyway. The "budget" Neutrik connectors (I think the original looked like a Neutrik budget job - slightly square at the top) are great because they are around half the size and the square top means they fit neat and close together. Any Jack plug with a cable grip is essentially indestructible unless you do stupid things when using / coiling them. The only lead I have bought since working for a music venue was a 20ft Monster Pro Studio cable, and the only reason I bought that was it was in some guys box of stuff for sale at a guitar show, marked "£5 to clear"... The rest (three long uns and countless patch leads, as well as all leads for our PA, other band members etc., have been resurrected after being left for dead. Usually 2 minutes with a soldering iron will be enough to fix em, and with practice you can get a solder joint as solid as a machine, if not better. Incidently, the biggest cause of the signal core of a guitar lead detaching is people treating leads badly - don't loop them round your arm, or tie them in knots, or just screw them up. If you hold a lead in front of you in both hands, hands about 2/3 or a meter apart, then slowly bring your hands together you will find the coiling point of the cable. Coil it like that, every time, and your leads should last for ever!

Yeah, I've got my 8x10, head, two basses, two guitar combos (1x12") and some other stuff in a Nissan Micra. With 2 in the front! OK, so I doubt the suspention was happy about it, and there was more than a little speedboating going on, but wheree there's a will there's a way!