ADA Microcab I / II

[4Eyes]

do you have any experiences with this device? pros & cons? can you compare it to the palmer devices?

 

[phaboo]

I had a II for years. Nothing special. Used it for practicing in headphones. Put it on eBay and was stunned to get $175 for it when I got it second-hand for $25.

Not so hot for recording--mic'ing sound much better.

 

[123thefirst]

I have to heartily disagree. You, Phaboo weren't doing something right when you used the ADA - probably threw in the wrong type of signal into it. They sound pretty darn convincing actually and you can choose among 7 or 8 different cabinet configurations, tailor the high end and set the low end "thump".

I generally do prefer the sound of a miked cabinet provided the equipment is top-notch and you can spend a lot of time setting up and testing. Otherwise, the cabinet simulator will give you a better sound IMO.

 

[phaboo]

I have to heartily disagree. You, Phaboo weren't doing something right when you used the ADA - probably threw in the wrong type of signal into it. They sound pretty darn convincing actually and you can choose among 7 or 8 different cabinet configurations, tailor the high end and set the low end "thump".

I generally do prefer the sound of a miked cabinet provided the equipment is top-notch and you can spend a lot of time setting up and testing. Otherwise, the cabinet simulator will give you a better sound IMO.

Convincing? Hardly. I got a MUCH better sound with even a 57. And, with the digital eq available in multitrack software any more you can do crazy eq tricks that you could never do in analog (you'd get nasty phase shifts doing this stuff in analog), so the mic position isn't anywhere near as critical as it used to be.

As to throwing the "wrong kind of signal" . . . you plug the preamp or amp into it. How is there a "wrong kind of signal"?

The different cabinet configurations eq it a bit differently, but it's not something I'd ever use for recording anything other than a scratch demo.

It's fine for clean and semi-clean stuff, but it just stinks for crunch. Most directs do. Most of the sound you get in a good crunch is because you're hitting a 12" speaker (basically a midange speaker) with a hot signal WAY outside of it's response, and it makes the paper of the cone do funny things. That's the fun of different speakers--they break up differently based on how they're made. Direct boxes just don't do that, and it's easy to hear.

I suppose it's not so bad compared to other direct boxes, but that's setting the bar pretty low.

 

[123thefirst]

I got a MUCH better sound with even a 57. And, with the digital eq available in multitrack software any more you can do crazy eq tricks that you could never do in analog (you'd get nasty phase shifts doing this stuff in analog), so the mic position isn't anywhere near as critical as it used to be.

To be reasonable you can't expect any kind of modeling to have the same level of sonic sophistication as the real thing.

As to throwing the "wrong kind of signal" . . . you plug the preamp or amp into it. How is there a "wrong kind of signal"?

I don't think it's going to work at all to feed the amp signal (to the speaker) to the unit.

Judgements about the unit's quality and usefulness are of course relative. Let me put it this way: using the MicroCab with the Recto Preamp you can get duplicate for instance the sound of Alex Lifeson's guitar work from the album Moving Pictures (or pretty much any album from the 70's) at *significantly* better quality than the original. It's actually the high gain settings that sound best through that setup. Maybe you needed to use a compressor to reign your signal into a more optimal range. The MicroCab seems a bit picky about that.

Also I find that the vintage open back 1x12 sounds far better that the other configurations though they all express an amazing characterization of each cabinet configuration.

 

[6L6C]

I use to have the first model use to use it for recording those licks 2:00AM. Over all I found it a good device definitely better than most that was out there at the time and even today come to think of it.
Would I rather a 57 or something like that in front of a cabinet, YES for sure! But I still got good sounds with the micro-cab. Sounds allot better than a POD IMHO. Problem is: you’re tapping your preamp for the micro-cab to work so you loss the flavor of your power amp completely

 

[123thefirst]

Problem is: you’re tapping your preamp for the micro-cab to work so you loss the flavor of your power amp completely

Yup. The Recto Pre contains a circuit that does model (very effectively IMO) the power amp and the coupling between the amp and speakers (but not the speakers per se) So it actually sounds very, very nice and realistic together with the MicroCab. Otherwise there are various other possibilities using some type of power soak, including the more expensive Palmer devices.