invertedtremolo
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- Feb 15, 2011
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Hi,
I'm new here, and glad I stumbled across this forum - where else to come for advice about Boogies but than a Boogie Board full of Boogie users?
I've recently picked up a Recto Pre because I want to build a rack setup. Always been a fan of Rectifiers, always lived in apartments. The 2 of them don't go together so well. I had a 3 channel Dual a couple years ago and really liked it, but couldn't use it at home. So I picked up the Pre to see if I could use the direct record outs, or use a 2:100 into a HotPlate and a cab sim into a mixer to see if I could get Rectifier sounds without making noise others could hear.
After a week and a half of testing, I'm finding a lot of difficulty getting it to sound anything like a Rectifier. I've read a lot of the posts here where people say it is a finicky beast and needs a lot of tweaking. I'd like some advice to know if it's possible to get what I want from it.
The sound I'm looking for is kind of the opposite of what a lot of people want. Lots of people want a dynamic amp that responds to rolling down the volume or cleans up when you pick softer, doesn't compress, and has great cleans. None of those really apply to me. I rarely use clean, like a lot of grind in my sound, don't care for dynamicity (it's a word!) or rolling down volume, don't mind lots of compression (although I won't use any kind of compression effect) and am pretty much gained out tight alternate pick shred all the time. My current home practice setup is a Boss Metal Core, an EQ, a delay, and a cube 30 being used only as a power amp with the recording out going into the mixer. It's worked for a couple years, but it can be pretty digital sounding, and when it's not right next to your ears in headphones, the mids are non-existent. I liked the Metal Core because it had a TON of gain, and because it had a lot of treble, too. The tone I'm after with the Recto is definitely something like John Petrucci's Road King on Train of Thought or Live at Budokan with a little more cut. Some of the reviews I've read seem to draw similarities between the Rec Pre and the Road King, and that's a big factor of why I picked it up.
Comparing this to the Dual, it seems really behind in the gain department. With the gain maxed out, it's got about as much juice as a Boss Super Overdrive at 2/3. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong in the rack setup, or if this is just the nature of the Pre. If I'm not picking as hard as I can with every stroke, it sounds like a mild overdrive at best with no trademark Recto grind. Although I can't A/B it against the Dual, that doesn't seem right! The volume is also really difficult to control. With the direct recording outs, I've gotta crank the channel and master volumes all the way to even get it to register on the mixer, and ditto with the live outs and the 2:100. I'm also finding it to have a ridiculous amount of bass, but yet have no bottom end at all like a digital overdrive, and no thunk.
On the good side though, the clean is really close. That was a welcome surprise.
The chain I'm running is this: Recto Pre > G Major 2 > dbx 15 band EQ > board, or Recto Pre > G Major 2 > dbx > 2:100 > HotPlate > Palmer PDI-09 cab sim > board
That's about it for now. It's a long post, but I wanted to be as complete and objective as possible, and not complain. I just know there's a good Recto tone in there somewhere - Mesa wouldn't write Rectifier on it if it wasn't one!
Any advice ya'll have on this is welcome and greatly appreciated. Unless you're going to tell me to stop the shred. It's just not gonna happen...
Thanks.
Craig.
I'm new here, and glad I stumbled across this forum - where else to come for advice about Boogies but than a Boogie Board full of Boogie users?
I've recently picked up a Recto Pre because I want to build a rack setup. Always been a fan of Rectifiers, always lived in apartments. The 2 of them don't go together so well. I had a 3 channel Dual a couple years ago and really liked it, but couldn't use it at home. So I picked up the Pre to see if I could use the direct record outs, or use a 2:100 into a HotPlate and a cab sim into a mixer to see if I could get Rectifier sounds without making noise others could hear.
After a week and a half of testing, I'm finding a lot of difficulty getting it to sound anything like a Rectifier. I've read a lot of the posts here where people say it is a finicky beast and needs a lot of tweaking. I'd like some advice to know if it's possible to get what I want from it.
The sound I'm looking for is kind of the opposite of what a lot of people want. Lots of people want a dynamic amp that responds to rolling down the volume or cleans up when you pick softer, doesn't compress, and has great cleans. None of those really apply to me. I rarely use clean, like a lot of grind in my sound, don't care for dynamicity (it's a word!) or rolling down volume, don't mind lots of compression (although I won't use any kind of compression effect) and am pretty much gained out tight alternate pick shred all the time. My current home practice setup is a Boss Metal Core, an EQ, a delay, and a cube 30 being used only as a power amp with the recording out going into the mixer. It's worked for a couple years, but it can be pretty digital sounding, and when it's not right next to your ears in headphones, the mids are non-existent. I liked the Metal Core because it had a TON of gain, and because it had a lot of treble, too. The tone I'm after with the Recto is definitely something like John Petrucci's Road King on Train of Thought or Live at Budokan with a little more cut. Some of the reviews I've read seem to draw similarities between the Rec Pre and the Road King, and that's a big factor of why I picked it up.
Comparing this to the Dual, it seems really behind in the gain department. With the gain maxed out, it's got about as much juice as a Boss Super Overdrive at 2/3. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong in the rack setup, or if this is just the nature of the Pre. If I'm not picking as hard as I can with every stroke, it sounds like a mild overdrive at best with no trademark Recto grind. Although I can't A/B it against the Dual, that doesn't seem right! The volume is also really difficult to control. With the direct recording outs, I've gotta crank the channel and master volumes all the way to even get it to register on the mixer, and ditto with the live outs and the 2:100. I'm also finding it to have a ridiculous amount of bass, but yet have no bottom end at all like a digital overdrive, and no thunk.
On the good side though, the clean is really close. That was a welcome surprise.
The chain I'm running is this: Recto Pre > G Major 2 > dbx 15 band EQ > board, or Recto Pre > G Major 2 > dbx > 2:100 > HotPlate > Palmer PDI-09 cab sim > board
That's about it for now. It's a long post, but I wanted to be as complete and objective as possible, and not complain. I just know there's a good Recto tone in there somewhere - Mesa wouldn't write Rectifier on it if it wasn't one!
Any advice ya'll have on this is welcome and greatly appreciated. Unless you're going to tell me to stop the shred. It's just not gonna happen...
Thanks.
Craig.
