Guitar Gear Forum

Had a chance to mess with it a few minutes ago. Using the XLR output unto my Mackie Blackjack was not yielding good results no matter what I did to the levels. Which is what I think Markdude had warned me about. So I used the 1/4" output into the Blackjack and things got way way better. Still have a ton of fucking around to do with it. But yeah, I like it. Softens the hard edges and gives a kind of a "vintagey" feel to my sound. Really looking forward to getting my Fathead Mic tomorrow. Which should warm things up considerably before it gets any where near the DAW.

Quickie Chicken Picken' test with my LPC/Creme Brulee/Delay and Bassman/Creambacks into a SM57. Bridge pickup is split.

https://soundcloud.com/heezzies/creme-delay-1

It's a bit of a subtle effect. But I like it a lot.

On the flipside of all of this, I can see myself picking up a different AI in the very near future. Like when my Taxes come back.

nice! how hard were you driving the warm?

if you get the chance-- throw the pad on and run it up good'n warm on a guitar cab.. no pun intended. it starts gettin' good when you do that. theoretically it shouldn't-- but i find running 50 db of gain through it with the pad on just lets you push it to the edge of saturation and it starts gettin' real interesting ;D

if you need clean clean.. you can stay way lower.. but it's fun to saturate the transformers for this kinda stuffs.

ALSO.. did you try the tone switch yet?

With the Blackjack, it seems I have to run the Pad all the time anyway. Without it, I may as well bypass the Warm altogether. But, I was running it pretty, errr, "Warm". Right at, let me look..... Two dots before 59 on the dial.

Hope fully I'll have time to fiddle with it a bunch on Wednesday. Class tomorrow and Thursday along with gobs of overtime through the weekend will keep me too busy to fuck off. Which is fine. I need to pay for this stuff anyway.

Yes, with the XLR. No with the Line In. Will do though.

Gonna check this out when I get home.

Yeah, when you have an XLR connected, the Blackjack's preamp will be in microphone mode (quite a bit of gain). Since you're wanting to get your preamp gain from the WA-12, the extra gain from the Blackjack's preamp will screw with things. When you connect a TRS cable to the Blackjack, it's in either line mode or hi-Z mode (depending on what position the button is in) and the gain is much lower so it can accommodate an already gained-up signal. It still runs through the preamp circuit so the sound is colored by the Blackjack slightly, but TRS/line mode is definitely the way to go.

I always leave the tone switch on.

Markdude wrote:Gonna check this out when I get home.

Yeah, when you have an XLR connected, the Blackjack's preamp will be in microphone mode (quite a bit of gain). Since you're wanting to get your preamp gain from the WA-12, the extra gain from the Blackjack's preamp will screw with things. When you connect a TRS cable to the Blackjack, it's in either line mode or hi-Z mode (depending on what position the button is in) and the gain is much lower so it can accommodate an already gained-up signal. It still runs through the preamp circuit so the sound is colored by the Blackjack slightly, but TRS/line mode is definitely the way to go.

Yeah, that's what I figured out. Guess I didn't need to order that 3' XLR cable. Well, actually it will serve my Sans Amp perfectly here on the desk. So it's all good.

I'm going to wring this out as far as I can through the Blackjack. If it continues to work well, I'll leave the setup as is. If not, I'll upgrade the AI. Really looking forward to hearing things in context with drums, etc..

Yep sounds good. Like some of the peaks are cut off but not in a bad way. Should sound good in a mix.

Sounds good, man. These things keep tempting me, but I need to concentrate on what I need to finish up my EP first, dammit.

Sweet tones!

I have lots to learn still, but I definitelty like it.

Now I can't wait for my new mic.