Rectifier Recording Preamp - How good is it for recording?

[Supreeth]

Hey Everyone,

This is my first post here. I've been lurking here for a while reading posts. Great forum!

I am interested in buying a Rectifier Recording Preamp, and having never played through one before have a couple of questions after reading some threads on it. Most people here recommend using the Recto preamp in conjunoction with a power amp, but I haven't really seen too much info on direct recording. My questions are

1. I am looking at this purely from a direct recording perspective and not live applications. I live in an apartment and do not have the luxury of being able to mike a good Mesa half-stack How good is the emulated circuitry for the poweramp and speakers? If take the recording out into a recording interface/mixer and record straight to my hard disk via a DAW (Sonar) will I get a true reproduction of all that is advertised about this preamp, or would I have to invest in a speaker/cab emulator (I have the Line 6 TonePort UX2 which comes with a software based cab emulator)? I am looking for one good clean tone, one killer rhythm tone, and a great lead tone similar to John Petrucci's tone in Train of Thought/Awake/Glass prison. Will the Recto pre do it for me with direct recording given my setup? I will also have a G-Major or GNX3000 (with amp modeling turned off) for effects in the chain. My guitar is a Ernie Ball Music man John Petrucci 6 stringer.

2. Does a 2008 Recto Preamp have improvements over the 2003 preamp?
I can get a used 2003 model for significantly less than a new one, and I'm wondering if the extra dough is worth it. Reliability is also of importance since a new one gives me 5 years worth Mesa warranty.

Looking forward to your comments. Thank you very much for your time in advance!

 

[Supreeth]

Sorry if it seems like my questions are naive, but I really would like your opinions. Question 2 from above is now resolved.

I went ahead and bought the used Recto Pre I mentioned in the last post and so far have got some good tones out of it. What a monster! I experimented with and without cabinet modeling using the Line 6 Toneport UX2 and the gearbox software. Sure, adding cab modeling makes a difference, but in a good way? I'm not sure yet, maybe a hardware box like the Palmer/Groove tubes would make a truly good difference or maybe not. But then I'm using studio headphones without a preamp to monitor the recording and that's got to be some serious tone loss there. I do think that a 1 band parametric EQ between the preamp and recording interface should make a world of difference in a good way. As to the interface itself I think I'm going to go in for a PreSonus Fp10 instead of the toneport UX2.

In the manual of the recto pre, it is mentioned that Mesa conducted extensive tests to determine which monitors work best with the preamp but stopped short of saying what the recommended ones are. Does anyone have further info on this? Thanks again for your time!

 

[CoG]

Hey Supreeth,

You might want to skulk around ebay for an old ADA MicroCab cab simulator. They're not usually crazy expensive and they're worth trying-- if it doesn't work, sell it again

Aside from that I really liked software cab sims just because of the tweakability--Amplitube was really quite good.

I have a Palmer PGA-04 box and it's great, but it works off a power amp output, not a line-level signal.

The Rec Pre is a Recto and so if you want to get a really good lead tone out of it you WILL need to hit it with an overdrive at the front end. Everybody's got a favourite but any Tubescreamer-type three-knob OD is a good starting point. And having an EQ stage after the output is always a good thing; I used an MXR 10-band and it just gives you a lot more options so you're not trying to fix stuff with the cab model.

 

[Supreeth]

Thanks for your reply CoG. I think I will stick with cab simulation software so I don't need another box in my signal chain I'll probably get Amplitube though. I've heard great things about it.

You mentioned driving the RecPre to get a really good lead tone. Did you mean drive the clean channel or channel 2? Channel 2 already has a lot of gain on it, but I haven't tried leads on it till now to be honest. I actually got a used MXR EQ just yesterday! Ihaven't yet plugged it in though. Would you put your MXR EQ in the FX loop or between the output and the recording interface?

I'm thinking this will be my signal chain (with an OD pedal going between the Vol Pedal and the RecPre at some point) What do you think?

Guitar-->Ernie Ball Jr. Volume Pedal-->RecPre-->Time based effects in the loop-->MXR EQ(not in loop)-->Recording Interface-->Cab Simulator-->DAW.

Most recording interfaces have a regular instrument input, a padded input, and a line input. Which one of these work best in your opinion? I tried the instrument input with the Recto Pre and got bad clipping even with the Recording out set to 9:00! Maybe I need a passive DI box to attenuate further, but I'm not sure.

Thanks!

 

[CoG]

You drive channel 2. Turn the gain down to about 11 o'clock and hit it with an overdrive pedal; turn the Drive on the pedal all the way down and the Gain and Tone usually between half and 3/4 of the way up. You'll get better sustain, much smoother overdrive, and with the EQ you can get much more brutal rhythm tones if that's what you want.

However, also try overdriving Brit mode on Channel 1. There's great classic-rock and alternative-type tones there too.

The Rec Pre's output is really hot. Set the output volume at about 9'o clock. Use the line input on your I/O device and use the EQ pedal's output slider to control the volume.

Put all your effects after the Rec Pre. Pretend the loop doesn't exist. The fx loop sucks balls, unfortunately.

 

[Supreeth]

Thanks CoG. I dug out an old OD pedal of mine and tried out your suggestion. I couldn't believe the change in tone (for the better!). I'm going through the modern mode of channel 2 (Gain = 1:00, Treble = 1:00, Mid = 10:00, Bass = 11:30, Presence = 7:00, Master = 12:00) The OD pedal had the drive at 7:00, Tone at 12:00 and output at 2:00. As to the EQ, all I had to do was to cut the 200Hz frequency by about 4 db to get rid of some mud the recto was putting out, and to up the 100hz by 4 db for palm muting thumps to show up. At this point I can use the mid control on the Recto pre to dictate my lead or rhythm tone. For leads, the mid control is at 1:00. Thanks again for your suggestions. They really helped!

 

[Supreeth]

Update: After faithfully playing the Recto recording Pre for 4 weeks and trying out the various modes on channel 1 and channel 2, I thought I'd found my amp. Yesterday I played through a Mark IV and it totally blew my Recto Pre out of the water I think I am more of a Mark guy than a Recto guy sadly and am going in for a Triaxis preamp since I don't think I can go back to the Recto Pre now, and the Triaxis has the Mark IIC+ and Mark IV sounds in it. I'll probably be listing the Recto Pre on the classifieds section.

I still can't believe all it took was 5 minutes of playing the Mark IV for a 180 degree turn on the Recto Pre. Just thought I'd share. Thanks,

 

[CoG]

Same thing happened to me with Mark IIIs... but be warned that the Triaxis is not great for direct recording. At least, I have never heard of anyone who was satisfied with it for direct use.

I use my MkIIIs through a Palmer emulator when I need DI, which isn't really that often. Sounds great, plays a little funny.

 

[Supreeth]

Man, the transition sure happened fast for me. How long did you keep both the Mark III and the Recto Pre? I don't intend to use the Triaxis for direct recording but rather will put it through a Mesa 20/20 Power Amp into a 2x12 Recto cab. For silent recording I'll probably get a GrooveTubes SEII or the Palmer emulator to get a line level signal for my recording interface.

 

[kasperjensen]

Please post a quick note on how you get on with the Triaxis - 20/20 - 2x12 Recto Cab.

I have the 20/20 and the Cab, but am using the Recto Rec Pre at the moment, but I am thinking of sticking in the Triaxis just for the ease of use.

 

[Supreeth]

Hey,

I couldn't be happier with my Triaxis-20/20 setup. It's been working out great, and I'm real glad I made the switch from the Recto Rec Pre. As you say, the Triaxis makes it easier to store/restore your settings via MIDI. The sounds from the Triaxis cannot be beat unless you're using the actual amps that are represented by the pre-amp circuits in the Triaxis. As for recording, I guess I am one of those guys that actually likes the Triaxis direct out. It sounds great going straight into my Line6 Toneport UX2 (no amp models engaged of course), and is great for laying down tracks late at night.

If you're thinking about getting a Triaxis, I would recommend getting the v2.0 with no mods (which is what I have). v1.0 is pretty good too, but keep in mind that the recording outs are wired differently in v1.0 and v2.0. In v1.0, the record A is for recording cleans, and record B has the power amp emulation for recording distorted guitar. In v2.0, both recording outs are identical and can be used to record both cleans and distorted tones.

Hope this helps!
Supreeth

 

[Screamindv]

Hi. I own 2 Triaxis'. Would you like to trade your recto Recording preamp for a triaxis?
Dave

 

[ggohdin]

I have a Rectifier recording preamp I am trying to sell or swap for a triaxis, Shame I live in New Zealand though.

 

[CoG]

Man, the transition sure happened fast for me. How long did you keep both the Mark III and the Recto Pre?

Hahaha since this thread came back from the dead, I missed this the first time...

A few months, actually, I bought *two* Mark IIIs before selling my Rec Pre. I was going to use one as a head and one in a rack switching between the MKIII pre and the Rec Pre into the Mark power section, it didn't work, it sounded pretty bad and was impossible to manage playing volumes because the Mark fx loop and power section are 25-year-old designs that was not meant to be used that way, have their levels fixed to weird arbitrary points that Randall thought were a good idea, and... yeah, anyway.

The Rec Pre-20/20 rig gave me the best cleans I have EVER had. I kept the Rec Pre around trying to find some way to get those cleans into my Mark rig (unsuccessfully.) Mark series amps after the IIB can't even touch them, they're too one-dimensional. The magic there must be in that Lonestar-ish preamp section because my buddy's Roadster (with EL34s) makes both my IIIs just sound like "plink." I miss that-- I've said in other posts that if we didn't already have a Roadster in the band I'd sell one of my Marks and buy a Roadster/Road King in a second.