I just bought the Ultra and thought it would be a good idea to share my first impressions. After all, what I read on this forum strongly influenced my decision to buy the unit and I hope that my experience can also help others who have not made up their mind yet.
I have never been a tube purist of any sort (never owned a tube head, although I have owned a number of tube preamps...). However, in the recent years (I have been playing for 20+ years, mostly in amateur fashion) my ears have been looking for that tube warmth and "sizzle" in every gear I played, particularly ever since I owned a Mesa Recto recording preamp for almost a year (very good unit, but I sold it later on because it was far too heavy and impractical for live use...)
After the Recto, I tried a couple of hand made preamps or pedals (clones actually) based on the rectifier sound. In time, digital modellers (and solid state distortion pedals) started sounding very artificial and sterile to me. This was very frustrating, because, unlike my limited experience with tube amp sounds, I am quite familiar with digital modellers and I had used them happily for a very long time. Starting with the first POD 1.0 and Flextone Mark I amp I bought ten years ago, I tried many digital modelling devices, including POD 2.0, POD XT, Digitech Genesis 3 and more recently, Digitech RP1000, Vox ToneLab and Zoom G9.2tt.
While the latter two units sounded much better than the rest, I was still unsatisfied in comparison to the tone I once obtained with the Recto (and that tone was coming through the rather sterile sounding cab emulation of the Digitech Genesis 3). I also tried older gear with built in tubepreamps, such as the Digitech 2112, but altough it sounded good live, its speaker sim capabilities were very limited. (For recording purposes, even the old POD 1.0 sounded better 2112.)
I finally came across a Hughes and Kettner Cream Machine, which is a discontinued product. It is a tube preamp with a built in minipower amp section. It needed to be tweaked with an external EQ and cab emulation was strictly limited to one type only (the Red Box), but it still sounded better to my ears than all the digital stuff I had tried thus far.
The reason I am writing all this stuff is, I want everyone to understand that I was actually extremely reluctant to try another all-digital modeller. But I realized that I had already spent too much money already on many modellers in the past and an Ultra would probably cost less than their sum. Needless to say, the comments on this forum helped a lot in shaping my decision. So I started selling all my gear (but I kept the Cream Machine...) to buy an Ultra. In order to avoid any disappointment, I decided to limit the use of Ultra to recording purposes only, because I am not thinking of buying FRFR speakers anytime soon.
So, when the Ultra arrived, I immediately connected it to my soundcard and did not bother to try it with an amp. I have a rather modest system at home, an M-Audio Audiophile 192 soundcard and M-Audio BX5A monitors. (They get the job done for me though....) Then I started going through the presets...
It was hard not to be impressed indeed ! I knew that I had made the right choice, particularly when I reached preset 121. It was the typical recto sound I was looking for and the more I tweaked it, the more I became amazed in the number of possibilities available. What is more, I realized that all cabinet emulations sounded usable ! I NEVER experienced this in any other digital modeller. In all other previous modellers I tried, at least some of the cabs (and sometimes MOST of the cabs) sounded either extremely sterile and fuzzy, or weirdly muddy and/or unaturally thumpy. While I certainly am not going to try to use all these cabs (it makes more sense to focus on a few favorites), I became immediately convinced that Ultra has all the options and the flexibility I need. And, that was BEFORE I tried the Shiver Lead patch
)) I now know why some people out there are selling their precious tubeamps... When I started playing through that patch, I had a hard time in believing that Ultra was all digital.
And then, I tried the intelligent harmony with 2 independent voices... I will not even attempt to define the experince. It needs to be experienced, that it is all I can say
Apparently, Ultra is going to keep me busy for a very long time. But, most importantly, this thing is definitely INSPIRING.
And I have not even played it through a real amp yet
I have never been a tube purist of any sort (never owned a tube head, although I have owned a number of tube preamps...). However, in the recent years (I have been playing for 20+ years, mostly in amateur fashion) my ears have been looking for that tube warmth and "sizzle" in every gear I played, particularly ever since I owned a Mesa Recto recording preamp for almost a year (very good unit, but I sold it later on because it was far too heavy and impractical for live use...)
After the Recto, I tried a couple of hand made preamps or pedals (clones actually) based on the rectifier sound. In time, digital modellers (and solid state distortion pedals) started sounding very artificial and sterile to me. This was very frustrating, because, unlike my limited experience with tube amp sounds, I am quite familiar with digital modellers and I had used them happily for a very long time. Starting with the first POD 1.0 and Flextone Mark I amp I bought ten years ago, I tried many digital modelling devices, including POD 2.0, POD XT, Digitech Genesis 3 and more recently, Digitech RP1000, Vox ToneLab and Zoom G9.2tt.
While the latter two units sounded much better than the rest, I was still unsatisfied in comparison to the tone I once obtained with the Recto (and that tone was coming through the rather sterile sounding cab emulation of the Digitech Genesis 3). I also tried older gear with built in tubepreamps, such as the Digitech 2112, but altough it sounded good live, its speaker sim capabilities were very limited. (For recording purposes, even the old POD 1.0 sounded better 2112.)
I finally came across a Hughes and Kettner Cream Machine, which is a discontinued product. It is a tube preamp with a built in minipower amp section. It needed to be tweaked with an external EQ and cab emulation was strictly limited to one type only (the Red Box), but it still sounded better to my ears than all the digital stuff I had tried thus far.
The reason I am writing all this stuff is, I want everyone to understand that I was actually extremely reluctant to try another all-digital modeller. But I realized that I had already spent too much money already on many modellers in the past and an Ultra would probably cost less than their sum. Needless to say, the comments on this forum helped a lot in shaping my decision. So I started selling all my gear (but I kept the Cream Machine...) to buy an Ultra. In order to avoid any disappointment, I decided to limit the use of Ultra to recording purposes only, because I am not thinking of buying FRFR speakers anytime soon.
So, when the Ultra arrived, I immediately connected it to my soundcard and did not bother to try it with an amp. I have a rather modest system at home, an M-Audio Audiophile 192 soundcard and M-Audio BX5A monitors. (They get the job done for me though....) Then I started going through the presets...
It was hard not to be impressed indeed ! I knew that I had made the right choice, particularly when I reached preset 121. It was the typical recto sound I was looking for and the more I tweaked it, the more I became amazed in the number of possibilities available. What is more, I realized that all cabinet emulations sounded usable ! I NEVER experienced this in any other digital modeller. In all other previous modellers I tried, at least some of the cabs (and sometimes MOST of the cabs) sounded either extremely sterile and fuzzy, or weirdly muddy and/or unaturally thumpy. While I certainly am not going to try to use all these cabs (it makes more sense to focus on a few favorites), I became immediately convinced that Ultra has all the options and the flexibility I need. And, that was BEFORE I tried the Shiver Lead patch
)) I now know why some people out there are selling their precious tubeamps... When I started playing through that patch, I had a hard time in believing that Ultra was all digital. And then, I tried the intelligent harmony with 2 independent voices... I will not even attempt to define the experince. It needs to be experienced, that it is all I can say
Apparently, Ultra is going to keep me busy for a very long time. But, most importantly, this thing is definitely INSPIRING.
And I have not even played it through a real amp yet
