A VHT, an Engl and a Diezel walk into a bar...

[nightlight]

... But do they sound the same?

I've read the logic on some forums about how there's little difference between different high gain amps, so since I had some time on my hands today, I shot a video comparison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2snuJ5 ... e=youtu.be

The amps - a Sig:X, a Fireball 100 and a VH4 - were run through an Emperor 4x12 miced up with a Sennheiser E906 and a Townsend Labs Sphere set to a ribbon mic model in the same position.

Do they sound the same? Or can you hear a difference?

I also tried combining the different amps panned left and right to further test whether the amps indeed sound the same.

What do you think?

 

[maddnotez]

I do think all amps sound very similar. Like something as close as a slight EQ bump could fix in the DAW. There are subtle differences. I could only skim through your video RN. I will absolutely watch more in detail but skimming through I was surprised. Even though these amps are WAY different sounding in the room, yes they do sound similar in a mix imo.

Cool video

 

[Metal1977]

Tone of an amp is important but what's separate them for me, more often than not it's the feel when i play them. Awesome clip!

 

[Vin Diezel]

They do sound the same because the recording is not good. No offence, but this is not how it goes. Where is the high end?

 

[Exo-metal]

If all those amps walked into a bar and my Coliseum C++ was in there they would get their asses kicked and never come back.

 

[Bad.Seed]

If all those amps walked into a bar and my Coliseum C++ was in there they would get their asses kicked and never come back.

It's comments like this add nothing of substance to the thread, at all! Congrats!

 

[Bad.Seed]

Op, I've gotta say, I appreciate your effort, but that was a little rough to listen to. All 3 amps sounded like there was a blanket in between the mic and the speaker, drums were too loud and high end dominant in the mix.

Rythms were also very choppy feeling and made it hard to actually focus on just the tones. The leads also were pretty distracting as it sounded a bit sloppy and thrown together.

That said, the vht sounded the best to my ears, with the vh4 sounding pretty bad. All sounded somewhat similar in the recording, but there were pretty easy to notice differences between all 3 amps.

Do all 3 high gain amps sound the same? Recorded, mixed and produced by the same person, I imagine they would be pretty similar, yes. In my experience, all 3 of these amps sound and feel drastically different in the room.

 

[errrrrl]

In that recording they definitely sounded similar. The Diesel sounded very distant sounding almost. Maybe try a simple and short phone cam video of all three amps? Hopefully it will capture a bit more clarity.

 

[Exo-metal]

If all those amps walked into a bar and my Coliseum C++ was in there they would get their asses kicked and never come back.

It's comments like this add nothing of substance to the thread, at all! Congrats!

Glad I could help

 

[nightlight]

Thanks for the inputs, gents. Going to take that video down and try to redo the vid without the drums and bass and solos.

 

[maddnotez]

Thanks for the inputs, gents. Going to take that video down and try to redo the vid without the drums and bass and solos.

Pfft, Not everyone can be engineer gods. Your recordings sound better than mine.

TBH Bob Rock could make 2 identical amps sound different and make 2 different amps sound the same if you wanna get technical.

 

[Orvillain]

Just not very good tones full stop man, sorry to say. Please take that constructively.

Ola Englund has a good tutorial on how to mic a cab. Also don't bother with double tracking or anything like that. Just one track of the same performance through each amp without moving the microphone position. That's a fair way to compare heads.

PS: I've already owned a VHT, ENGL, and Diezel, and they don't sound the same. But you're welcome to try!

 

[xzyryabx]

Ola (England) believes that the largest part of the (live) tone comes from the cab....and I tend to agree.

 

[RaceU4her]

Ola (England) believes that the largest part of the (live) tone comes from the cab....and I tend to agree.

i agree as well, i listen back to my old clips and i honestly forgot which amps im using but i can always tell which cab

 

[Giga.Blast]

No offence, but this is not how it goes. Where is the high end?

Too, I go but where and at 53s Joaban really starts working it up good.

 

[nightlight]

Just not very good tones full stop man, sorry to say. Please take that constructively.

Ola Englund has a good tutorial on how to mic a cab. Also don't bother with double tracking or anything like that. Just one track of the same performance through each amp without moving the microphone position. That's a fair way to compare heads.

PS: I've already owned a VHT, ENGL, and Diezel, and they don't sound the same. But you're welcome to try!

None taken, I'm not too concerned about taking flak on the Internet.

I've seen Ola's video on micing up a cab, as well as others, but I have far greater volume restrictions living in an apartment that prevent me from cranking my amps beyond a point, which is probably the only way to get a single SM57 to sound good micing up a cabinet.

Think I need to invest in a guitar isolation booth to put inside the drum isolation booth I'm currently using so I can venture there

I tried some experiments this morning with the same amps into a reactive loadbox (Fryette PS-2) and then into a cab sim (ML Soundlabs Mikko).

From what I could tell, there are micing positions where you can really highlight the differences in the cabs. But there are even more positions where everything will sound similar.

Unfortunately for my efforts, a position which sounded good for two amps would sound rubbish for the third. Knowing what a tough crowd on this forum and others, I chickened out from posting my findings

 

[hopkinWFG]

Nice record there bro !! Keep it up

 

[rottingcorpse]

I tend to dial in my tone from all my amps. There are subtle nuances that differentiate the different brands. Marshall mids verses Mesa. Diezel bottom end verses ENGL. VHT tightness/dryness verses everything else. But because I know what I like,they all will wind up sounding similar. They just kinda feel different.

Note,this is all thru the same cab and speakers. Once you start matching different cabs/speakers to specific amps,things really start to change and become more easy to differentiate.

But I should also note that years of abuse have seriously damaged both my hearing and my brain. I wouldn't trust anything I say,so why should anyone else?

 

[K-Roll]

I have very similar experience to many of you - using the same cab 2-3 different amps will sound very similar. The main difference will be feel/responsiveness/tracking.. and the amount of grain in the distortion -> lets call it character (smooth vs grainy such as mesa marks vs rectos)

To me the cab is like 70% of the sound. It's like the final mastering EQ of the sound and dictates the sound to such an extent that I would have not believed it before. It was quite an eye opener when we had 2 orange PPC412 cabs and they sounded so much different that with one (a much older cab) I loved my amp and with the other I hated it because it was too sharp/piercing (appr. 3 years old).