Palmer Speaker Emulator

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amiller

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I know this has probably been hashed out before, however, I thought I'd try to get the current opinions regarding speaker emulators.

Does anybody here have experience using one? What do you think? How does it compare with mic'n?
 
Olaf and Degenaro as well as Zorren have experience as well as being owners I believe.
 
Digital Jams":1v0xqiet said:
Olaf and Degenaro as well as Zorren have experience as well as being owners I believe.
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Cool. hopefully they'll chime in.
 
I've used the PGA ADIG for long time, I do know that Alex Flouros still uses his for recording (simul with a cab, the Palmer to add bottom end punch interestingly). I needed something for silent recording and amptweaking.

Of course as a load its cool, you don't need to hook a cab to it, it can be tweaked to sound "good", although it of course still sounds "direct". I found it very useful to add (in parallel, with a mixer) a cheapo Lexicon MPX 110 set to Ambience for a bit more natural sound . . .
Compared to other products (I'm familiar with most of them) I think its esp. nice when used in combination with something like the SE-100 or even a PDI09 (no load, just sim), which are voiced a bit different to get less of that typical directness.
 
I had one, but I didn't like too much. I got better results with software cab sims like Guitar Rig.
 
Direct boxes are good for some things, just ok for others

I had the palmer PDI-03, which in direct comparison to the 04, I much prefered the 03. It will do a pretty good job of relaying the detail of your amp, and for live, it is great! no mic bleed, very clean signal to foh, that does not have any noise or hiss either, pretty amazing

for recording, it works ok, its a mono signal, most huge recordings we hear of amps have multiple mics on them, so its not really fair to compare the 2. One thing it lacks is just a little bit of room presence and moving air, that you only get with a speaker. I got great results however combining the palmer and a mic'd cab.
 
i love mine, the house sound engineer's love it too. i usually mic the cab and run a palmer line. sounds thick as shit in big rooms.
peace
A Wood
 
I've had the 04 for years. Usually wouldn't use it in my own little studio at gun point. But, I've recorded in enough big rooms where the engineer had shit for ears where the Palmer saved the tracks.

Stil have it in my rack for loading down heads and having two line-outs.
 
the palmer is a really good unit, but it depends on your amp and what style you play. its a bit on the compressed side compared to micing, but thats only when you turn the head up. if you keep it at a band practice/gigging volume you should be fine. the palmer rules live too..itd be better than most micing scenarios. overall i think its awesome bang per buck. its not perfect but its really really good.
 
I had a PGA-04 and I thought it absoutely sucked balls...killed the feel and the tone...decimated...just sounded like arse.

The concept is ultra cool...just think: have the tone of a 4x12 w/o actually having to haul the 4x12 around...pretty cool. My hope was to go cabinet-less and just use IEM's...but man, the Palmer sounded sooooooo bad.

My advice would be to buy a used one for a decent price...then if it happens to not be your cup of tea, you won't suffer depreciation loss when you flip it off. either that or see if maybe you can find a dealer that will give you a trial period with a full refund available if you arent satisfied.
 
Do you guys find the palmer's are stronger in a particular area, like maybe cleans, crunch, high gain?
 
I thought the Palmer 04 was good for cleans, because you can add in some of the direct non filtered sound. I HATED the 04 for distortion. The PDI-03 did pretty good across teh board, and a brighter amp seemed to work a little better overall.
 
In my band we use a PGA04 and a PGA05 and they both serve us well. There are a few things to consider. First of all I find they are really best if you are used to hearing that old school Marshall 4x12 tone. The other guitarist in my band and I both use Marshall 1960 cabs and it's scary how close we can get the same tone from those cabs from our PA. If you don't like the tone that comes from that type of cab, you may have a hard time getting the Palmer to work for you. The other thing to take into consideration is what is ultimately amplifying the signal from the Palmer that either you or the audience will be hearing. That is, the front of house speakers and monitoring system. If you have a poor quality front of house system it won't matter how you set the Palmer just like it wouldn't matter how carefully you set up a microphone. We have a very nice system and our own sound engineer so we have spent hours tweaking our rigs through that system. Similarly, if you have in-ears you will be at the mercy of the quality and fidelity of whatever in-ear drivers you are using. A set of $150 Shure in-ears are nothing like a $500 set of Ultimate Ears or even dual driver Westones.

There are many variables and it just so happens that we've made the Palmers work for us but I completely understand how they would not work for many others in different situations.
 
I own 2 of the PD04 ADIG's. Run one on the Mesa DR and the other on the Bogner Uber. I don't use them really for DI to bypass a cab to go direct in for recording, but use them mostly live so I can mic both amps and send the DI to the mixing board. Get some really cool stereo panned sounds in doing that. Also, I go direct from them to my 2 stage monitors so I can hear myself up front and the drummer takes me direct to his in-ear monitor mix instead of through the mics. They sound great and you can dial in most anything. With the filter volume and mains, you can run a mixture of wet and dry blend too. And, they are built like a tank, as are all things German. This particular one has the load box in it for DI if you choose. They are a little pricey at $645, but good stuff is worth it.

Hope this helps...

Steve
 
I think what they should do is put cab IR technology in a rack unit that you can load up. Does something like that exist?
 
ENDITOL":15eztu78 said:
I think what they should do is put cab IR technology in a rack unit that you can load up. Does something like that exist?
Click to expand...
Muse Receptor running Waves Q-Clone will do that. But you still need a load.
 
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