Aiken gold brick cab simulator

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jharpersj

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Hey all, recently bought the Aiken gold brick, this essentially replaces a mic, similar to the h&k redbox. Except it doesn't sound like ass, 9volt or power supply. Basically simulates a 4-12, reactive load. You do have to have a cab plugged in.

I bought one because live, micing a cab is a hassle with bleed and rumble and feedback. With everyone going direct it cleans up our foh mix and monitors.

I was pleasantly surprised at how killer this thing sounds and feels and have not used a mic with my non axefx rigs since buying this. $129 btw. I have had great results with my Carol ann, engl and friedman amp stash. Plus randall Aiken is just a great dude. I find it sounds really warm, and punchy, no scratchy high end either. Jim
 
Doesn't sound that different from the small Palmer units. Might be ok for straight to the board in a loud bar but honestly, these units are so far behind cab IRs and axe fx's. They really don't sound great at all to my ears and the low end sucks.
 
I guess you would have to hear one, low end did not suck. It sounds killer. I was in your camp before hearing it and using it.
 
Kapo_Polenton":3b2o8quu said:
Doesn't sound that different from the small Palmer units. Might be ok for straight to the board in a loud bar but honestly, these units are so far behind cab IRs and axe fx's. They really don't sound great at all to my ears and the low end sucks.
Click to expand...

We specifically designed the Gold Brick because the other units on the market sounded thin, flat, and "papery" in the midrange and lows, and we wanted a great sounding cab sim XLR out for our new line of amplifiers. We went to great lengths to design a circuit to get an amplitude and phase response that sounded and felt "real". A lot of people prefer the zero latency and convenience of analog processing and don't want to use digital IR's for live use.

We have all the top units on the market here at the shop for comparison, and several of our customers have also compared it against them as well. The universal consensus from people who have heard the Gold Brick is that it sounds better, and more importantly, feels far more natural. You can play it into a pair of flat powered monitors and it sounds like you are standing in front of a 4x12 cab. The other units sound papery and thin by comparison, into the same monitors.

I hope this doesn't come off as salesmanship or spamming. I just wanted to set the record straight that our product is not the same as the others on the market you may have heard.
 
jharpersj":t2fpl4k9 said:
Hey all, recently bought the Aiken gold brick, this essentially replaces a mic, similar to the h&k redbox. Except it doesn't sound like ass, 9volt or power supply. Basically simulates a 4-12, reactive load. You do have to have a cab plugged in.

I bought one because live, micing a cab is a hassle with bleed and rumble and feedback. With everyone going direct it cleans up our foh mix and monitors.

I was pleasantly surprised at how killer this thing sounds and feels and have not used a mic with my non axefx rigs since buying this. $129 btw. I have had great results with my Carol ann, engl and friedman amp stash. Plus randall Aiken is just a great dude. I find it sounds really warm, and punchy, no scratchy high end either. Jim
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jim! I'm glad the Gold Brick is working out for you!
 
Don't get me wrong, I am totally open to a cab sim box but the issue I find is that on a good day ( and based off the clips on your site) these boxes sound like a schools rockma. Or something off a Boston album. What I think would be of great benefit to the listening community would be to take your rig and compare it to a live sm57. That will be the great equalizer.
 
I play out every weekend, the brick sounds and feels as described by randall. If it isn't for you, it isn't for you. Was just letting folks on rt know about a great product I personally use in a real world setting.
 
Kapo_Polenton":3tch6ic5 said:
Don't get me wrong, I am totally open to a cab sim box but the issue I find is that on a good day ( and based off the clips on your site) these boxes sound like a schools rockma. Or something off a Boston album. What I think would be of great benefit to the listening community would be to take your rig and compare it to a live sm57. That will be the great equalizer.
Click to expand...

Okay, thanks for the feedback! I'll try and get some video clips up when I get some time, to compare the Gold Brick and the other units, along with some mic clips for comparison- I have an SM-57, an Audix I5, and an ADK A6 I can use.
 
I'm looking forward to hearing the clips, Mr. Aiken.
 
raiken":jrl9d61z said:
Kapo_Polenton":jrl9d61z said:
Doesn't sound that different from the small Palmer units. Might be ok for straight to the board in a loud bar but honestly, these units are so far behind cab IRs and axe fx's. They really don't sound great at all to my ears and the low end sucks.
Click to expand...

We specifically designed the Gold Brick because the other units on the market sounded thin, flat, and "papery" in the midrange and lows, and we wanted a great sounding cab sim XLR out for our new line of amplifiers. We went to great lengths to design a circuit to get an amplitude and phase response that sounded and felt "real". A lot of people prefer the zero latency and convenience of analog processing and don't want to use digital IR's for live use.

We have all the top units on the market here at the shop for comparison, and several of our customers have also compared it against them as well. The universal consensus from people who have heard the Gold Brick is that it sounds better, and more importantly, feels far more natural. You can play it into a pair of flat powered monitors and it sounds like you are standing in front of a 4x12 cab. The other units sound papery and thin by comparison, into the same monitors.

I hope this doesn't come off as salesmanship or spamming. I just wanted to set the record straight that our product is not the same as the others on the market you may have heard.
Click to expand...

It's spec'd at 100w max.
Can I run a 120watt amp with it and keep it low?
Thanks.
 
Badronald":jqvxkyoa said:
It's spec'd at 100w max.
Can I run a 120watt amp with it and keep it low?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes. It can actually handle more than 100W without damage, we just rate it conservatively, based on where the input stage starts to clip at the highest point into a reactive load impedance. The worst that would happen would be clipping of the signal and unwanted distortion, so you would have to turn it down a bit.
 
duesentrieb":1gasvj5s said:
I'm looking forward to hearing the clips, Mr. Aiken.
Click to expand...

Thanks! We have been wanting to do some video demos and some more sound clips, but we have been trying to get our new amplifiers and speaker cabinets into production, so the Gold Brick demo has been a bit of a low priority, at least until we get caught up with the main product line. Hopefully it won't be too long a wait!
 
raiken":22u5pi9a said:
Badronald":22u5pi9a said:
It's spec'd at 100w max.
Can I run a 120watt amp with it and keep it low?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes. It can actually handle more than 100W without damage, we just rate it conservatively, based on where the input stage starts to clip at the highest point into a reactive load impedance. The worst that would happen would be clipping of the signal and unwanted distortion, so you would have to turn it down a bit.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I might have to try one out.
 
Good stuff, thanks for being open to suggestions. I also think that if you do a comparison video like that and the gold brick delivers, you will see far more interest in the product. I am also interested in more clips.. i have always felt that relying on digital cab IRs or sims would be dicey knowing the amount of times computers jam up. Torpedo on the other hand I am sure is more reliable than that but the price tag, yikes.
 
I was doing some googling on this product and found some better clips .. surprised this one never made your site. Sounds pretty good here for what it is here:



I still think real mic has a tighter lezz fizzy high end but this is pretty respectable and clearly a cheaper alternative for people wanting to go straight to the board in a live situation.
 
That was a scratch clip Wesley Owens (mechanical designer here at the shop) did at a local studio with one of our prototype amps and the Gold Brick. The studio engineer liked the Gold Brick better than the mic'd cab, so he used it on all tracks.

Here is something else from Wesley that I posted over on the Gearslutz forum a while back. We had a bit of difficulty getting a good SM57 tone due to the high-ceiling room (and our lack of recording experience!), but I think the Gold Brick tone sounds more like the original song tone than the SM57. The SM57 is a bit "hollow" sounding. I probably should have added a bit more reverb to make it sound more like the room. We deliberately set the eq flat on both the Gold Brick and the SM57, and made no attempt to adjust it:


Okay, here is a comparison crunch clip of Foreigner's "Lowdown and Dirty" intro, recorded here in the shop using a Motu 8PreUSB interface and Reaper, with Wesley on guitar and bass. We would also like to thank Mr. E.Z. Drummer for playing drums with his usual machine-like precision on these tracks.

Both clips were recorded simultaneously, with no added eq on either the SM57 mic or Gold Brick.

Gold Brick:


SM57 on '72 Marshall 4x12 loaded with original "creambacks":


The original song, for comparison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRdc6xxvTnY
 
Good stuff, you are on to something here. Miles ahead of the Palmer that's for sure!
 
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