Tactics for dealing with certain amp characters

greiswig

greiswig

Power User
In re-doing some of my presets for Cygnus, I'm finding that some of my amps have very characteristic frequency issues, and that there are some common themes. For example, on many amps, either my ears are particularly sensitive to 4kHz, or those amps have a lot going on in that range.

Another example is the Matchbox D-30 EF86: it has a boxy quality to it. If I don't pull some out of the output EQ around 500Hz, it just sounds boxy. It sounds even more so on my PA mains at volume than on my studio monitors. And I've tried it with a pretty wide cross-section of IR"s, too, including the typical ones you'd use with it. Some have less of that, but it's still there.

So I guess I'm wondering a couple of things:
1. Are other people experiencing that, e.g. with the Matchbox?
2. If so, how do you cope with it...or do you? For a long time, I was of a mind that I should just have that output EQ turned off and adjust the basic amp parameters and select an IR that got me what I wanted. Now I'm starting to think I need to just plan on using it on most of my amps, so I can use the IR's I want but tweak them a little bit at the amp output.
 
I must admit that every amp I have tried with Cygnus has been great - I have not come across the issues you mention.

That said, I have stopped the IR chasing. If you are already using a healthy IR, but feel like, you have too much 500 Hz - rather than search for a different IR just take out a bit of 500 Hz using either the amp output EQ or the PEQ block.
 
greiswig said:
Matchbox D-30 EF86: it has a boxy quality to it
Click to expand...

my go-to knob every time is either turn down speaker impedance until it scoops the way you like, or drop LF Resonance Freq on the speaker page down until the boxines goes away.

You could take out ~3dB of mids in the cab block preamp to scoop the same area, that takes out the woof while leaving the amp completely alone feel wise, it will keep the distortion breakup in that woof area but it just won't be as loud. I like to eq with speaker impedance cause if it's not distorting in that middle part anymore, it gives you extra headroom up top and down low, everything gets all extra sparkly up top. Some guys probably like the midrange breakup feel but just want to take out the woofiness
 
Amp Block; Go into "Speaker" page and into the section under the EQ graph labeled "Speaker Imp. Curve"

You'll get a menu of all the curves. You can set the pin in the upper right corner of the menu, and cycle through them one at a time.
Also handy to record a DI riff into the Looper and let it playback while you tweak. Keeps the ears and mind focused on what you're hearing.

I haven't tried Cygnus, but in 15.01 I got along well with the Matchless models. I use York Audio MTCH212 IRs, and they sound fantastic.
I also tend to put a Timothy in front of the Matchless'.
 
A very handy tool is the passive 5 band EQ in the amp block. If you find a few IR files are giving you the same boxy sound issues with your pickups, that EQ post power amp is a very powerful tool to bend the amp to your artistic will.
 
I like to use a PEQ block, post cab, with a narrow Q, to tame the frequencies that my ear finds offensive. Though you might not dig this style of music, this video has an excellent demonstration on how to do it.

 
Don't get me wrong: I do know how to use the output EQ in the amp block, and how to use a parametric EQ block for this. I guess I'm just surprised that I have to. I don't know whether the real DC-30 sounds boxy through the cab equivalent to the York Audio Matchless cab I'm using, but there seems to be a pretty significant bump around 450-500Hz in that amp with almost any IR I throw it at.

So I'm just trying to find out how other people are dealing with it if they notice it, not trying to get a tutorial. More of a poll.
 
Especially for the DC30, I seem to remember that both tone control and hi-cut were wonky beta 10. Try both knobs at extreme settings and listen to what they do.

@FractalAudio was this corrected for beta 11?
 
DC30 input 2 and Morgan are as boxy as the normal channel AC30, which since you're asking is very boxy. This is why the Lord invented the graphic eq pedal through a willing vessel.
 
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