ColonelForbin Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 I have benched my HD500x for the time being, and the majority of the time I spend playing these days is with my pedaltrain board into my DT25. I have a G70 wireless, into a Voodoo Lab pedal switcher (PX-8) going in front of the DT25, with an M9 in the DT25 FX loop. I love it! Lately, I've been spending some time configuring the standalone amp options, and getting critical about the cabs, and trying to dial in a solid 'amp' tone, that the pedals can sit nicely with. At first I went with 8 different amps, but realized that for the A/B channel switching to work properly, it's best to be toggling between two identical amp models and power configurations. So, thus far my one go-to is the Plexi bright. I picked up a generic dual-latching footswitch, which toggles the reverb on/off, and the channel to switch from A to B and back. I currently have that set that up as II-A and II-B (except I toggle the 'boost' setting OFF in both using MIDI with DtEDIT) . I make channel B with a touch more gain and channel volume, maybe a little EQ adjustment, so it acts like a nice lead boost / crunch boost thing. So, I am going to watch football tonight after work, and do my usual routine of setting everything up in the living room, and jam with the TV in the background. Anyway, going to explore at least three more standalone A/B pairs, in a similar overall volume structure to the Plexi. Alot of that actually comes down to topology; if you set everything up on topo III it's all going to be louder than the other topos. I have attempted to do the original DT set up with one topo per I-II-III-IV, but end up gravitating towards certain amp models over others, so will likely just use a couple of the topos. I was using a lot of A/B, then switched up to A instead. Might go back and explore the variations a bit more carefully, once I settle on four amps to load up. I had tried doing Plexi bright on all 8, and changing up things like the cab and the power settings; but discovered that certain configurations are just going to sound better, making the copies redundant. I am thinking Divided /13 for one of the pairs. Maybe one of the Fenders for one, and the Park or another Marshall possibly for the last. For some reason I prefer the Plexi bright to the Plexi normal. Also has a lot to do with that cab choice, and the overall amp voicing as it sounds through a 1x12. I tried to make the A-B toggle go between Plexi normal and Plexi bright, and it didn't work well.. In general, it seems there is a subtle dropout when toggling between A and B, if they are not the same amp model. Wheras, if you set both to the same model, but change the level, drive, reverb, and eq settings, the toggle was more seemless. Same seems to go for changing cabinets or any power related settings when toggling A-B Thinking also in terms of comparable EQ, channel and drive settings, and cabinets, and how the FX pedal settings translate from one amp model to the next. Ideally, be able to leave the pedal settings alone. One nice feature I've been using, is the G70 'scenes', allowing you to foot toggle between different pre-assigned channel volumes. I use this to adjust the signal hitting my compressor and first overdrive, and depending which guitar I am playing. Very cool feature! Anyway, if anyone else is using their DT 'old school' and has some favorite amp models - especially for toggling between A and B using a dual latching footswitch, chime in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stumblinman Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 I have benched my HD500x for the time being, and the majority of the time I spend playing these days is with my pedaltrain board into my DT25. I have a G70 wireless, into a Voodoo Lab pedal switcher (PX-8) going in front of the DT25, with an M9 in the DT25 FX loop. I love it! Lately, I've been spending some time configuring the standalone amp options, and getting critical about the cabs, and trying to dial in a solid 'amp' tone, that the pedals can sit nicely with. At first I went with 8 different amps, but realized that for the A/B channel switching to work properly, it's best to be toggling between two identical amp models and power configurations. So, thus far my one go-to is the Plexi bright. I picked up a generic dual-latching footswitch, which toggles the reverb on/off, and the channel to switch from A to B and back. I currently have that set that up as II-A and II-B (except I toggle the 'boost' setting OFF in both using MIDI with DtEDIT) . I make channel B with a touch more gain and channel volume, maybe a little EQ adjustment, so it acts like a nice lead boost / crunch boost thing. So, I am going to watch football tonight after work, and do my usual routine of setting everything up in the living room, and jam with the TV in the background. Anyway, going to explore at least three more standalone A/B pairs, in a similar overall volume structure to the Plexi. Alot of that actually comes down to topology; if you set everything up on topo III it's all going to be louder than the other topos. I have attempted to do the original DT set up with one topo per I-II-III-IV, but end up gravitating towards certain amp models over others, so will likely just use a couple of the topos. I was using a lot of A/B, then switched up to A instead. Might go back and explore the variations a bit more carefully, once I settle on four amps to load up. I had tried doing Plexi bright on all 8, and changing up things like the cab and the power settings; but discovered that certain configurations are just going to sound better, making the copies redundant. I am thinking Divided /13 for one of the pairs. Maybe one of the Fenders for one, and the Park or another Marshall possibly for the last. For some reason I prefer the Plexi bright to the Plexi normal. Also has a lot to do with that cab choice, and the overall amp voicing as it sounds through a 1x12. I tried to make the A-B toggle go between Plexi normal and Plexi bright, and it didn't work well.. In general, it seems there is a subtle dropout when toggling between A and B, if they are not the same amp model. Wheras, if you set both to the same model, but change the level, drive, reverb, and eq settings, the toggle was more seemless. Same seems to go for changing cabinets or any power related settings when toggling A-B Thinking also in terms of comparable EQ, channel and drive settings, and cabinets, and how the FX pedal settings translate from one amp model to the next. Ideally, be able to leave the pedal settings alone. One nice feature I've been using, is the G70 'scenes', allowing you to foot toggle between different pre-assigned channel volumes. I use this to adjust the signal hitting my compressor and first overdrive, and depending which guitar I am playing. Very cool feature! Anyway, if anyone else is using their DT 'old school' and has some favorite amp models - especially for toggling between A and B using a dual latching footswitch, chime in! I retired my Pod too. Back to pedals into DT25. I use the Twin mostly for my cleans, and the Treadplate for my heavy dirty, but I'm mostly using my Soul Food and Bogner Blue for my overdrive unless I really need that tight, heavy chunk. I have-on the A channel- Twin Normal, AC-30 Normal, Dr Z, and Plexi Normal. B channel is Bassman Bright, AC-30 Bright, Plexi Bright, and Treadplate. All amps are in class A/B, all use default cabs, all use Topology III, all use 4038 ribbon mic, and all A channel amps have the boost on. All amps set to "smooth", and the voltage switch is down, whatever that does. Apparently nothing on the 25? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColonelForbin Posted November 23, 2015 Author Share Posted November 23, 2015 Ok, here's what I came up with. These all have relatively comparable volume levels from amp to amp, and I tamed some of the overall tonal balance with a couple of the cab options. Granted, it's 1:21am, so at this point, I am not playing 'at volume'. But toggling from amp to amp, and having B set up to boost slightly over A is giving me some really nice options. Still stuck on Plexi bright, I used it twice. Ended up with the Park normal and bright for III and IV. With all EQ, drive, channel volume, master, and all pedal settings the same, these are a nice set of interchangeable amps. Fairly narrow slice. You could do something comparable with the high gain amps, or the Fender amps. For example, with the power settings on their lowest volume options, the JCM800 is still like, 10x louder than alot of the other amps. So. I steered clear of major volume shifts between amp to amp. Ideally, you could toggle between these amps between songs, and not really have to change much on the DT. Will give it a go after work tomorrow at more 'full' volumes, see how it holds up. Loving messing with DtEdit, so much fun :) I: Plexi bright / Greenback 25 / Class A / Pentode / Topo II II: Plexi bright / Brit T-75 / Class A / Pentode / Topo II III: P-75 normal / Blackback 30 / Class A/B / Triode / Topo II IV: P-75 bright / Greenback 25 / Class A/B / Triode / Topo II * boost off on all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stumblinman Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 My computer is nowhere near my music gear, so I rarely have the luxury of tweaking while they are connected. I've pondered the same thing: all Fenders or Marshalls etc with small variations. I'm a fan of the 3rd topology voicing most, so I use that almost exclusively. Seems to add those frequencies my ears enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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