Any thoughts on tube amps?

[mmplisskin]

running my sub bass through one....I know there is a difference...I just cant seem to figure out if its better or worse....

Any ideas?
I am using one of these

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... D=41699112

[narcissus]

tubes sound good to me.. more than that, i can't say

[compact71]

i Use Tubes all the Time?

[nowaysj]

I just cant seem to figure out if its better or worse....

This is some tricky shit, figuring out if an effect is adding more to the sound or taking away.

A/B'ing is the way to go, just make sure that the A's and B's are volume matched, so they're both equally loud. I'd also recommend A/B'ing the sub in the mix with the full track. Sometimes fx make stuff better by themselves, but it just doesn't work with the mix.

Ultimately u gotta decide if you like the sound. There is no better sound, like there is no better color, you just have to figure out what you like.

[tripaddict]

i took apart an old vinyl player just for the valve amp inside sounds beautiful but rinses the power

havnt got a clue tbh dude just do what sounds best lol

[dreadheaded]

love 'em

[deadly_habit]

prefer tube compressors or eqs than amps

[Sharmaji]

that art jammy's fine for distortion and grit-- actually, really good at bringing things "forward". I wouldn't expect it to make anything 'pretty' tho. The circuitry in cheap tube stuff isn't anything like what's going on in, say, a manley tube pre or the UA610.

[nowaysj]

gotta admit, it'll put some hair on it though

[fiziks]

I happen to have that same preamp, which I bought from Musicians Friend! Go Figure!! For $30, I thought, what the fuck, I'll give it a go.

I use it for house/techno to tunes to run the kick/sub through to try and warm up my kicks as they were coming off a little cold. I a/b'd the two and there was definitely a nice warm overdrive to the kick/sub. It didn't work so well with more mid range leads, but that's not why I bought it. Also, you can't overdrive the piss out of it. It sounds bad if you try to. It's not really set up for that though. A few db's past 0 is where this shines. For the money, I'm happy with it. Definitely more than the tube emulators I tried out. Plus, if you wanted, you could replace the tube in there with a better one. I think anyways. Might wanna research it before you take that leap.