Recto Pre Sounds Terrible?

[rlcramer]

I just picked up a recto recording preamp primarily for direct recording into my DAW. I plugged in, connected to the recording outputs to my audio interface, did some tweaking, and went to town. The sounds that I was able to get were terrible. I am primarily a metal player (some would say REALLY heavy metal, but...). Anyway, even with the gain cranked all the way up, I simply couldn't get a really brutal metal sound out of this thing. I tried plugging the live outs into my Palmer PGA-05, and it sounded the same. It was like AC/DC – Angus Young type tone at best. Is it possible that my pre is defective? I used to own a rect-o-verb, and it was one of the most crunchy, brutal sounding amps I've ever used. Is it possible that all of the brutal gain came from the power amp and the recto-pre simply isn't going to give me the same level of distortion in my tone?

Thanks in advance for the help. I'm scheduled to return the pre to the shop tomorrow, but I figured I'd make a final plea to see if anyone might be able to tell me if I'm doing something wrong, before I rashly send it back.

Bobby

 

[CoG]

Um, are you on channel 2? If you're hearing Angus you're on Channel 1.

Put the little Mode switch on Modern, set the gain to like 1 or 2 o'clock, the Master at 3 o'clock, and the rest of the knobs at noon.

Go to the Mesa site and check out the manual...

 

[123thefirst]

A Recto Pre *is* a dual Rectifier. The preamp circuit is the same. My Recto Pre (with a speaker simulator) is a dead ringer for the general sounds I get in channel 3 and 4 of a miked Road King II.

Possibly your tubes are weak. You might try putting a Tung Sol reissue 12Ax7 into V1 or other slots. Possibly your pickups are weak or you have something in the signal chain that is sapping the energy out...

I do notice in general in the clips posted here on whatever amplifier that tone tends to sound a bit feeble. So maybe you're not alone.

By the way, don't use the live outs going into a console. Use the recording outs going into a speaker simulator. And be sure the voicing switch is set to Warm/Record.

 

[rlcramer]

123 - I tried the Recto pre into my Palmer cab emulator and the results were the same - flubby, no gain, etc. Really sounded awful. But I ran the live outs into the palmer. Are you suggesting to run the recording outs into the Palmer? I figured that would be redundant - to run the emulated outputs into an emulator, ya know? I also plugged the recording outs into my console, and had the same results.

I thought about bad tubes, or maybe a power issue, but I hoped that the tubes would be good straight from the factory and that Mesa did some QC before it went out the door? Maybe I'm wrong? I'm going to rip it out of the box one more time this morning, before I make the trip to return it.

Bobby

 

[CoG]

can you post the settings you're trying?

 

[rlcramer]

I just packed the unit up again to return it so I don't have the exact settings, but the settings that I was using were the last 2 in the manual (sorry I don't have that handy either). It was a pretty simple setup as I recall - eq was close to 12 across the board, modern mode, and gain at about 1 o'clock?

Bobby

 

[CoG]

Yeah, if you weren't getting a pretty heavy Recto sound out of that there's something wrong with the unit.

(or again, sorry, I hate to keep bringing it up, but are you absolutely sure that you had the right channel engaged? For the footswitch to work, the channel switch has to be in the middle position... Also, did you have the fx loop turned down if you had nothing plugged into it?)

You shouldn't be lacking gain compared to a ROV. If anything, the Rec Pre should have a little more gain at the front end...

FYI, the recording outs aren't really very emulated. I use the recording outs into a cab sim when I do DI, but I usually leave it on "Live/Bright" all the time.

 

[123thefirst]

123 - I tried the Recto pre into my Palmer cab emulator and the results were the same - flubby, no gain, etc. Really sounded awful. But I ran the live outs into the palmer. Are you suggesting to run the recording outs into the Palmer? I figured that would be redundant - to run the emulated outputs into an emulator, ya know? I also plugged the recording outs into my console, and had the same results.

No, it's absolutely not redundant to use the recording outs with a cabinet simulator. I don't think you'll get a very acceptable tone using the live outs into a console even with a simulator. You must also have the warm switch engaged.

IMO the recording circuit isn't a cabinet emulator at all. But it does emulate (extremely well) the power amp interaction with a cabinet. That, plus having THE Recto preamp circuit is what puts the magic into the unit.

 

[rlcramer]

I didn't try to the recording outs into my emulator (only the live outs, with all of the switches and knobs in pretty much every combination of positions possible), but now it's too late since I took the unit back last night. (I didn't feel like messing around as the place I bought from only had a 7 day return policy). Maybe this was one of my issues, but Palmer documentation states to only connect a preamps "live" outs to the unit that I had, and the Mesa recording outputs sounded really terrible into my console. I don't know why they would call them recording outputs if you can't plug them into a console and go?

Anyway - I picked up an ENGL e530 preamp to replace the Boogie, and the moment I plugged it's recording outputs into my audio interface, it was instant nirvana. No tweaking necessary.

So maybe I did have a defective Recto pre? Who knows.

Thanks to everyone for their help though.

Bobby