PLEASE HELP: Rec Pre's vintage and modern indistinguishable!

hi everyone, i just got my hands on my first preamp ever and im not too experienced with tubes yet.

Anyways, when i try to use the vintage mode in channel 2, i hear the same thing in modern mode, im not quite sure if it should sound a bit the same The Raw mode works perfectly but as soon as i flick on vintage or raw mode theyre the same sound. Help anyone?

I can't speak for the preamp, but I know on the 3 channel TR that I had a few years ago, there was a big difference between Vintage and Modern. Modern has more low end, and is a little more scooped.

Is it a new preamp, or did you buy it used? It could be a bad tube, but I'm not too sure.

I'd love to be of more help, unfortunately I don't know much about the Recto pre.

Thanks mikey383, yes its been used but VERY little. I bought this from soundpurist (nicest guy ul ever meet btw). Yeah im not too sure also, does the mode switching rely on the individual tubes connected? The thing is im not very sure about the specific use of the individual tubes ... maybe the vintage mode's "tube" is busted (if it does rely on a tube)

Ask soundpurist or COG. They both have the recto pre.


Greg

thanks anyways soundpurist will help me on this one

I have a recto preamp also- my understanding is that the vintage and modern modes sound the same until you hook up the recto preamp with the 2:100 power amp- at that point the modern mode interfaces with special circuitry in the 2:100 to give you some serious lead tones. I haven't gotten my hands on a 2:100 yet, so I have not experienced this mode yet firsthand...

That's the reason you need a cabinet simulator. How many times do I have to say this?

The Recto Pre effectively has a cabinet load simulator, not a cabinet simulator.

There are major differences between the Vintage and Modern voicings. But going direct to console, the high gain distortion harmonics aren't attenuated and sweetened in the way a speaker cabinet attenuates and sweetens them. So you're not able to hear to hear what the Recto Pre properly sounds like.

No, they definitely do sound different on the direct outs, even without a cab sim.

Make sure you don't have "Solo" mode engaged because that automatically switches Vintage mode in.

The same tubes are used in both modes, so it's not a tube problem.

myqqy: The "Modern" feature switches modes on the 2:100 via the Rec Pre, it doesn't do anything on the Rec Pre. It's basically a "Deep" switch for the 2:100 that will automatically kick in when you switch to Modern mode on the 2:100.

+1 on using a cab sim, though. Even a software one like Amplitube works perfectly well.

CoG said:

The "Modern" feature switches modes on the 2:100 via the Rec Pre, it doesn't do anything on the Rec Pre. It's basically a "Deep" switch for the 2:100 that will automatically kick in when you switch to Modern mode on the 2:100.

Click to expand...

Wrong with the "deep switch"! It is not just a deep switch enhancing the bass.

What really makes the modern mode outstanding (despite the preamp) is that in MODERN MODE, the negative feedback is eliminated in the poweramp . This is something which only happens in the 2:100, and this is why MESA states, that only with the 2:100 you'll have true recto sound. Don't underestimate the influence of the 2:100 - it's not just the "loudmaker", its negative feedback-killing modern mode makes all the difference (despite the preamps modern mode sound routing)..

CoG said:

The "Modern" feature switches modes on the 2:100 via the Rec Pre, it doesn't do anything on the Rec Pre. It's basically a "Deep" switch for the 2:100 that will automatically kick in when you switch to Modern mode on the 2:100.

Click to expand...

Wrong with the "deep switch"! It is not just a deep switch enhancing the bass.

What really makes the modern mode outstanding (despite the preamp) is that in MODERN MODE, the negative feedback is eliminated in the poweramp . This is something which only happens in the 2:100, and this is why MESA states, that only with the 2:100 you'll have true recto sound. Don't underestimate the influence of the 2:100 - it's not just the "loudmaker", its negative feedback-killing modern mode makes all the difference (despite the preamps modern mode sound routing)..

I stand corrected, I didn't know about the negative feedback cut.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't do anything in the preamp, though, the switching is one-way...