ADA Microcab II!

[CoG]

Hi all,

Just got my hands on an ADA Microcab II, running my Rec Pre into it. So far it's well ahead of the cab sims in Amplitube 2, and miles ahead of the ones in in Line6 gear or Guitar Rig 2. You can immediately tell that you're playing into a real analog circuit instead of a digital modeler-- the response, subtleties, and dynamics are all there

The 1x12 and 2x12 sounds are superb all round. The clean tones are amazing.

The 4x12 sims sound terrific for single-note stuff-- I rarely just sit there and throw out random solo licks, but I was this morning because it just sounded so good.

For heavy rhythm there's goofy amounts of low-end whomp but it's a little muddy. I think I may be able to get a very good rhythm tone using the 4x12 sim, miking a single closed-back 1x12 w/a V30, and blending those.

However, you can't just plug in your current settings and go with it. You have to tweak in new tones, or at least I did. The Microcab II really favours mid-heavy tones that would sound overly honk-y through my current stereo 1x12s.

The only down side is that there's a fair bit of background noise by 2007 standards (the MicroCab II is ~10 years old.) There's a good bit more than my rig (Rec Pre->Yamaha reverb->20/20->cabs <- SM57) would normally have.

I'll try to get some clips done in the not too distant future.

 

[123thefirst]

I absolutely love my MicroCab I and have never used the Recto Pre without it. There's a trick where you can press more than one button at a time and get sort of a combination of cabinets. But I always come back to the open single 12" cabinet which has the best and most natural presence IMO.

I never noticed the noise actually and I listen at high volumes in headphones. But I might be using balanced cables going directly into the PC sound interface configured to run at pro level (+4dB?) Maybe because of the heavy resonance you get from the MicroCab you're hearing amplified noise from the guitar out and Recto Pre.

Just like the Recto (Road King) with the oversized cabinet, I find that with backing off the treble along with the bass to just the right amount while setting the MicroCab's Thump control to about 3:00 the flubbiness disappears and you're left with a very nice punch to the upper bass frequencies that produce that chugging effect.

 

[CoG]

No, ADA's been out of business for years. I got it on the 'bay.

Played it more last night and this morning and it's definitely a keeper. It sounds a bit better than Amplitube 2 (which I like otherwise) and *feels* much better. I'm pretty sure it's the quality of the compression. If I run my RP direct to the I/O device and then into Sonar, with Amplitube running a cab sim as a plugin, the profile of the track looks like a worm-- heavily compressed, no peaks/drops. With the MicroCab and no plugins running, the track's obviously more dynamic, you can tell just by looking at it

If, for whatever reason, I was absolutely restricted to silent or very low-volume recording it'd be a lifesaver, but I'm not, so I'll have to see how much I actually end up using it. I bought it more out of curiosity than anything else, because most of the people who've actually tried one swear by them.

They do show up on the 'bay and cl so I'd highly recommend going for one if it comes up. If you end up not needing it, they're ten years old so it's not like it's gonna depreciate any more.

123: Thanks for the tonal advice. On the noise, I discovered that it's a flat floor and if I hit it with a much louder signal out of the Rec Pre than I would normally run, and crank the Level on the MicroCab down, it isn't an issue. Question for ya: I find that when the In/Out switch is off, there's a lot of coloration of the tone and what even sounds like a bit of phasing-- ever noticed that?

 

[123thefirst]

123: Thanks for the tonal advice. On the noise, I discovered that it's a flat floor and if I hit it with a much louder signal out of the Rec Pre than I would normally run, and crank the Level on the MicroCab down, it isn't an issue. Question for ya: I find that when the In/Out switch is off, there's a lot of coloration of the tone and what even sounds like a bit of phasing-- ever noticed that?

I don't remember hearing that. I thought I remember it being transparent in bypass mode. But I'll check when I have a few spare minutes to power those bad boys up next time. Are you routing the raw signal separately into your mixing board/monitor somehow?