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Resonance and Fizz


duncann
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I've been messing around with the new 5150 amp and find it quite fizzy if the gain is too high. Really great amp otherwise, and I think it's become my new default, at least for now.

 

One of the things I've noticed is turning the resonance way up can potentially cure some of the fizziness. Or at least I think it's fizz. To my ears, it's something like a hissing wind that's constant when trying to talk to someone, and when it stops, suddenly everything is clearer and easier to hear. I know most people tend to like the resonance at zero, but you never know. It might be something amp/cab/mic specific.

 

Here is a short clip, the first half with the resonance set to zero, and the second half to 95. See the attached patch for the details. The only thing I compensated for when changing the res from 0 to 95 was the volume difference this causes. I used the channel volume. Also, this patch might work on an hd500 as well, but I haven't tried it.

 

A couple of notes. It's more noticeable with headphones, and some of the difference is lost because of soundcloud's conversion from flac to whatever they do. It's also really easy to hear the difference in the daw because you can instantly switch from one to the other.

 

Lead5150.zip

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I can't say I hear any real difference on my crappy computer speakers. That doesn't mean there isn't any, of course. I'll have to listen with some headphones or on some decent monitors.

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Having trouble opening and getting it to play, looks like it might be a HD500X patch.

 

Click on the link in his third paragraph to hear the sample. The zip file is a patch.

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Having trouble opening and getting it to play, looks like it might be a HD500X patch.

 

It's an hd500x patch, but you could probably just drag and drop the patch file to hd500 edit. I think the hd500 should have enough dsp. Didn't try it though.

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The second part is muddier, I prefer the first one

 

Interesting. If I listen to it on soundcloud through my computer speakers, I think I prefer the first also. It's a little more open, and brighter. But through my headphones (mdr-7506), the second sounds better. What kind of speakers/headphones do you use?

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I measured what the Resonance does here and you can see all it does is add gain below 3kHz, mostly below 700 Hz. It's similar to turning up the bass and mid tone controls. So, yes, the relative hiss level, which is high frequency, will go down. Or, alternatively, it will get muddier. Plus, the overall signal level goes up so you'll have to turn the volume level back down to keep it sounding the same "loudness". Everything you've experienced makes sense to me.

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I measured what the Resonance does here and you can see all it does is add gain below 3kHz, mostly below 700 Hz. It's similar to turning up the bass and mid tone controls. So, yes, the relative hiss level, which is high frequency, will go down. Or, alternatively, it will get muddier. Plus, the overall signal level goes up so you'll have to turn the volume level back down to keep it sounding the same "loudness". Everything you've experienced makes sense to me.

 

Thanks for reminding me about this. When I started messing with the resonance, I had your data in the back of my mind, but deliberately ignored it so it wouldn't create expectations. It's nice to see measured data coincide with actual use in a mix.

 

Second Part is weaker anyway.... Never mind us, important is on the mix how it sounds and if you are lanning to make a cd of them, or post them on soundcloud.

 

Good point. Although it's nice to know what's going on with this parameter, it seems there's other variables present that can't really be quantified. So it's probably best to stick to what my ears tell me.

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I've been messing around with the new 5150 amp and find it quite fizzy if the gain is too high. Really great amp otherwise, and I think it's become my new default, at least for now.

 

One of the things I've noticed is turning the resonance way up can potentially cure some of the fizziness. Or at least I think it's fizz. To my ears, it's something like a hissing wind that's constant when trying to talk to someone, and when it stops, suddenly everything is clearer and easier to hear. I know most people tend to like the resonance at zero, but you never know. It might be something amp/cab/mic specific.

 

Here is a short clip, the first half with the resonance set to zero, and the second half to 95. See the attached patch for the details. The only thing I compensated for when changing the res from 0 to 95 was the volume difference this causes. I used the channel volume. Also, this patch might work on an hd500 as well, but I haven't tried it.

 

A couple of notes. It's more noticeable with headphones, and some of the difference is lost because of soundcloud's conversion from flac to whatever they do. It's also really easy to hear the difference in the daw because you can instantly switch from one to the other.

 I also played with the resonance control to rid of the hiss. 5150's are incredibly noisy when idling.

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The first is more forgiving the second is a little more revealing

 

I think I get what you mean by this. All the little unwanted string hits, scrapings, bridge bonks, etc. are more prominent with the resonance higher.

 

regarding your clip I prefer the second part, the attack and compactness of the tone fits better the melody that you play, which I must say is lovely and interesting

 

That's the same conclusion I keep coming back to as well. Thanks for the nice comment about the melody.

 

Not me. To me it's like dialing in a sound just the way you like it, then leaning a mattress in front of the amp and trying to cut through the mix.

 

 In this combination of amp/cab/mic, I actually found the resonance at zero producing a brighter tone. But also hiss/fizz. So maybe somewhere in between. But you're right, there are so many combinations that sound like a mattress over the cabinet. The new bass cabinets have some interesting sounds.

 

I also played with the resonance control to rid of the hiss. 5150's are incredibly noisy when idling.

When idle, and at lower drive, it's quite a bit less than the soldano overdrive with a tube drive in front.

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