Royal Atlantic In Depth Video Review

[HaggertysMusic]

In our latest in depth boogie review we show you all the ins and outs of the amazing new Royal Atlantic. This amp has become one of my favorite amps ever!

In our video we show you how the gain and eq controls respond in each mode, show you a few tones in each mode, show you a cool trick to balance headroom with power amp clip using the attenuators, and also let you hear all five attenuation settings in each preamp mode.

As the attenuation settings were flipped, I normalized the audio in Pro Tools, so you won't hear much of a volume change, but only the tonal changes.

Hope you enjoy the video! As always questions and comments welcome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byibQRfiH_U

 

[ifailedshapes]

As the attenuation settings were flipped, I normalized the audio in Pro Tools, so you won't hear much of a volume change, but only the tonal changes.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byibQRfiH_U

Aha! So this is why I didn't hear any major differences. Even the tonal differences were slight at best. Would it be possible to upload another version of the power soak feature so that we can hear just how drastic the different settings are? A lot of us live in areas where dealers only stock Marks and Rectos...

 

[Birdy]

Great review Don (as always) !!

 

[HaggertysMusic]

As the attenuation settings were flipped, I normalized the audio in Pro Tools, so you won't hear much of a volume change, but only the tonal changes.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byibQRfiH_U

Aha! So this is why I didn't hear any major differences. Even the tonal differences were slight at best. Would it be possible to upload another version of the power soak feature so that we can hear just how drastic the different settings are? A lot of us live in areas where dealers only stock Marks and Rectos...

The problem is, if we just turn the attenuator down the volume drops so much that you would barely hear it on the recording. The amp gets pretty quiet. What we tried to emphasize here is that there isn't much of a change to the tone of the amp as the volume decreases.

I would be happy to send you, and anyone else who's interested, the audio files without normalization. Just hit me with a PM!

 

[HaggertysMusic]

Just another point of clarification. Normalizing the audio does not result in any signal degradation, and is NOT the same as compression. Normalizing the audio just increases gain until the highest peak hits the target level. Each attenuator settings was normalized separately so you're hearing each one relative to 0.0 dB.

 

[jeffp]

Very good job Don! How is Nate?

 

[HaggertysMusic]

Very good job Don! How is Nate?

Thanks for asking! He is moving slow with one arm and one leg still in a cast, but he is on the mend and in the end will be ok.

 

[daveg62]

Great job on the review as always.
I'm kinda surprised though that the amp didn't really leave me wanting one... I think I'll stick with my Mark III.

 

[J.J]

Great video

This thing has tons of gain and cut ! My ED is not getting dissplaced though.

I might be the only one, but the lower attenator settings loose to much crispness for my liking. The first couple however sound great.

 

[HaggertysMusic]

Great video

This thing has tons of gain and cut ! My ED is not getting dissplaced though.

I might be the only one, but the lower attenator settings loose to much crispness for my liking. The first couple however sound great.

Good ears! You can compensate by adding treble and cutting bass at the lowest multi soak settings, but you're right there is a high end cut at the lowest settings.

I have to wonder how much of that is the amp and how much is the speaker becoming less involved in the tone combined with the Fletcher effect.

 

[YellowJacket]

What a GREAT AMP! I really like the british attitude and the 'cross between a Mark V and a Recto' high gain tones. Vintage Lo is also great for those classic marshall tones. GREAT REVIEW!!!

 

[J.J]

I have to wonder how much of that is the amp and how much is the speaker becoming less involved in the tone combined with the Fletcher effect.

since you normalised the levels I thought that would pretty much negate the non linear ear/ Fletcher effect for the video. Does it make a bigger difference in the room or listening to the non normalised sound file ?

Even the best attenuators that model and compensate for the speaker load seem to do much the same. Speaker manufacturers rarely seem to publish curves for power levels over 1 watt so you can't tell what is going on. Though I have seen some home made measurements at higher power and speaker distorsion does rise rapidly with power. Distorsion will add higher frequencies in...

I still think Mesa have done a great job with the attenuator as I have not heard one that I thought sounded any better.

 

[primal]

Great demo.

If I hadn't said so before you guys do the best demos on the net IMO.

Just top notch demos and really appreciate the time you guys put into that.

Can't say for sure this amp will replace my Electra Dyne, but am pretty confident that if an amp does replace it, it will be this one.

Absolutely love the crunch tones!

 

[YellowJacket]

Great demo.

If I hadn't said so before you guys do the best demos on the net IMO.

Just top notch demos and really appreciate the time you guys put into that.

Can't say for sure this amp will replace my Electra Dyne, but am pretty confident that if an amp does replace it, it will be this one.

Absolutely love the crunch tones!

Won't be replacing my Electra Dyne

 

[primal]

Great demo.

If I hadn't said so before you guys do the best demos on the net IMO.

Just top notch demos and really appreciate the time you guys put into that.

Can't say for sure this amp will replace my Electra Dyne, but am pretty confident that if an amp does replace it, it will be this one.

Absolutely love the crunch tones!

Won't be replacing my Electra Dyne

After seeing this video from them, I think my Electra Dyne is probably safe as well

http://www.youtube.com/user/haggertysmusic#p/a/u/1/DnxF-gf0Nx0

It is often hard to get a feel for how something sounds in a video, but being that I know how my Electra Dyne sounds and getting to hear this video, it gave me a good frame of reference.

Plus what was nice was he used the same guitar in the Royal Atlantic video. Which happens to be virtually identical to my guitar, a suhr S4.

That said the Royal Atlantic still sounds like it kicks ***!

 

[YellowJacket]

After seeing this video from them, I think my Electra Dyne is probably safe as well

http://www.youtube.com/user/haggertysmusic#p/a/u/1/DnxF-gf0Nx0

It is often hard to get a feel for how something sounds in a video, but being that I know how my Electra Dyne sounds and getting to hear this video, it gave me a good frame of reference.

Plus what was nice was he used the same guitar in the Royal Atlantic video. Which happens to be virtually identical to my guitar, a suhr S4.

That said the Royal Atlantic still sounds like it kicks ***!

You'll have to ask Jon what cab they recorded the Dyne and the Royal Atlantic through. At face value, it looks like the RA is running through a 4 x 12 and the ED is the combo. If so, the ED combo is the hugest sounding combo EVER!

 

[CoG]

I'd also encourage people to check out the much-less-detailed vids posted on Teh Yootoobz by some dude named 'guitarwolfluke'. Don's vids are amazing at showing the features but (and this is totally my opinion only) aren't very "musical". That Luke guy is ripping some gorgeous stuff out of the RA and (for me) give a better idea of some of the "feel" available for a serious player. I would not probably not buy an RA based on Don's vids alone; at least not without getting my own hands on one first, but I'm plunking down my deposit this week based on the combination of the vids.

If you're watching Don's vids and thinking the RA's high-gain stuff seems a little much like a JCM800 with a DS-1 in front and the Master too low (nice crunch but oddly nutless), check out the 'guitarwolfluke' vids.