AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

[Phantasmagoria]

Just got this cool little pedal & while I'm still trying to get the hang of it, here's my first go recording my Goldea Rex 3200 15 watt lunchbox with my loop pedal (Nux Loop Core)..it's a bit muddy but I can probably fix that next time..

While my AMT Stonehead's speaker simulated output brightens things a bit going out, the chameleon tends to do the opposite..



As usual it's all dry (no effects) Bass (simulation) from my Zoom G1Xon.

All in all a useful tool/decent sim & one that will hopefully up the quality of recordings to come.. :bigthumb:

Having said that I'm not sure if mine's defective lmao because it seems to drop the output volume a LOT..unless that's how it's meant to be (like a -db/attenuation of some sort)

 

[Wormhelmet]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Check out the guide on their website for getting cab sizes and different speaker sizes. Mine can get a little too trebly on smaller magnet sizes. Play around with settings as much as you can. You are using preamp out to chameleon cab and not cab sim out, right?

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Thanks I'll do that. And yeah..I did use the "Preamp out" output on my Little Goldea 15 watt head. I was'nt able to get a strong enough signal to record with my Stonehead's preamp output though..even with the volume cranked well past 12 o'clock. It was almost as bad with the Goldea. I'm finding I have to run the (amp's) volume really loud to get enough output signal from the pre-out at the back to record. Plus my knobs/controls don't really change things that drastically...it pretty subtle (?)

As an experiment, I ran some recorded guitar tracks (.wavs) I'd recorded on my digital handheld recording device through it's "headphone out" (I guess that's line level?) into my Chameleon cab's "input" and then output that to my monitors and it sounded like you describe when I turned the knobs...lots of treble on tap/really responsive to changes with the position/magnet size etc..wish I could get it to work like that from my amp's output

I'll try and find the info on their website you mentioned (cab & speaker sizes)..thanks for the heads up.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Yeah...after playing around some more, I think the solution is to pump the amp volume up a bit more than my usual bedroom levels when recording (between 9-11 o'clock seems ideal). I also run both my master volume's pretty low on the Stonehead (9-10 o'clock each).

Anyway, I pulled out my old Zoom MRS 1044 multi-track recorder and it does a way better job than the loop pedal/handheld recorder. I was hoping for more silent recording lol...but it gets the job done pretty well at that volume. I'm still scared of running the Stonehead without it's speaker load (which is apparently not a problem..I'm just hesitant to try lol) or this would be a non-issue. It does give me more options than the Stonehead's own emulated output..

 

[Wormhelmet]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

I know it seems weird to run without load, but their tech support assured me it was perfectly fine to run like that.

My Mahaffay hybrid can be run without load too, but haven't tried it without even though I was assured by Tris Mahaffay himself on that. The Mahaffay line out just utilizes the volume and tone control and the master can be kept down all the way on it with speaker hooked up for silent speakerless recording.

Feels wrong to me too running with no load. At least my Peavey tube amp has a speaker defeat switch for running direct out with cab hooked up still.

Good luck with the settings. I still haven't tried it with my Stonehead. Just the one recording I linked to here using built in cab sim out.

My focusrite recording interface also has input gain, so I don't have to turn up volume much on amp pre out. I just crank up the input gain a bit on the interface until loudest strums barely trigger yellow lights, but all the other notes and strums trigger green. It will show red lights for overload.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

I suppose the Chameleon is meant to be plugged into a computer recording interface or PA anyway. Maybe it's time I got myself one of those.. (interface ..not PA )

I've actually got an old Line 6 Toneport DI packed away that's practically new/never been used. I might try and hook that up and see if it's any use..

As for recording my Stonehead without a load...probably will give that a go eventually. Would be nice to actually be able record with a cranked amp in the middle of the night lol.

 

[DankStar]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

I kinda like the cab effect going on in the clip. Midrangey & not too bright or dark.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Thanks...yeah I do do too. It's very cool sound-wise...does'nt really sound artificial or "simulated" at all & the tone's great. The only issue is getting the volume right going into the pedal. When it's too low it's kinda weak & there's a whole lot of hiss/noise and stuff on the output track. I'm wondering if a clean boost (pedal) right before the chameleon will help..might try & give that a go...

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Wow...I just found out what was wrong

I needed to plug it into the effects loop (send) not the pre-amp out. So...no need to bring the house down cranking my amps anymore lol. It even works beautifully at whisper-soft volumes. Wormhelmet, dude try it in your FX loop.... beyond awesome!

I spent the last hour or so with it plugged into my Bugera's FX loop and output into a pair of powered 1.5" computer speakers..man it was just killer :lmao:

I had the volume so low that the amp's sound was'nt even being output from my cab...but it was just singing through those crappy little powered speakers.. :laugh2:

 

[Wormhelmet]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Thats how I used ot with my Mahaffay. I'll try it with fx send on the Stonehead. Thanks! Glad it got sorted too. Pretty awesome little cab sim pedal.

Theoretically the fx send and preamp out should be the same. Not gonna look my little Russian gift horse in the mouth though....

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Theoretically the fx send and preamp out should be the same.

Actually..that's probably right

I just hooked it up to the Stonehead's FX send & it could hardly be heard again. I think the Stonehead's speaker simulated output is the ideal thing (level-wise) to go into the chameleon cab, but obviously it's not going to sound great being 'simulated' twice. Same with my Randall (has it's own XLR speaker sim output...don't think the FX loop is buffered, just sounded super soft coming out of there as well) I suppose the Bugera has a tube buffered FX loop (it's marked 'FX boost") .. so that's probably what made it ideal level-wise going into the Chameleon pedal. Sounded amazing though..

Worth the price of the pedal just being able to record my Bugera so easily (at minus bedroom levels if need be)

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

I tried boosting the preamp output signal from my Stonehead amp with a boost pedal...then running it into the Chameleon Cab sim. It's pretty rough & I should have played around with the Chameleon settings a bit more but it's usable now. I think a decent mic preamp will do the job better (or a better boost pedal. I used my cheap Nux drive core which is a Tubescreamer type pedal with a switchable clean boost option). Anyway, the noise and hiss is much reduced.

Single mono track - no effects.

 

[Wormhelmet]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Where is the fx loop mix knob set at? I have mine panned completely over to parallel (cranked all the way to the right).

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

That was from the "preamp out" socket. I'll try it from the FX loop later tonight. Does it make a difference which way the mix knob is turned (series/parallel)?

 

[Wormhelmet]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

That was from the "preamp out" socket. I'll try it from the FX loop later tonight. Does it make a difference which way the mix knob is turned (series/parallel)?

Yes. It seems to attenuate it turning it over to serial. I leave mine cranked all the way to parallel all the time.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Damn..I could'nt get loud enough of a signal to record from the FX send ..even with the level knob on the boost pedal maxed out :scratchch

 

[Wormhelmet]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

At minimum it should have a -10dbv output. What interface are you plugging it into? Does it have any input gain ability? If it expects a +4dbu signal and you feed it -10dbv, it will be really really weak low volume.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

I'm just plugging into the line input of my handheld recorder..

I've got the input gain set to +10 db (it's got 3 input gain settings: -20db 0db & +10db) & can still barely see the green on the VU meter..

I've also tried it with my old Zoom digital multi-track recorder & the problems the same. I need to pretty much max the input gain & it's still barely enough (have'nt used the boost pedal with that yet though..)

 

[Wormhelmet]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

Where is the master volume set at during record?

One other thing - have you tried emailing their tech support? They are way different time zone than I am, but always come back with an answer for me.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: AMT Chameleon Twin lead/Harmony Solo

These are my Stonehead's settings....master's at about 10 o'clock.



I might have to try and do that (mail their support) ...either there's a problem with the pedal or I'm doing something really wrong.