Finally took the plunge...

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

Yeah..that's the only place that's stocking them here...I bought my Mooer Radar from there as well a while ago..

Europe is the place to buy gear from lol. I think stuff's mostly quite a bit cheaper there ..especially if you're buying from abroad & they waive their VAT charge. Bought both my Laboga heads & my Cicognani Brutus Live there for pretty decent prices...

Yeah. I'm getting happier and happier the more I play it (Mooer GE300) ..actually think it's pretty decent value for the variety of killer tones it produces and all the stuff it can do (and does really well) not to mention excellent build quality and stuff like that. I think the price is high for the fact that it's MIC and a Chinese company...but then they've more than delivered the goods ..no doubt about that.

I was fiddling around a bit more trying to check out how to load my own IR's (could'nt figure that out ) then as an afterthought I thought I'd give the direct USB recording a go..the driver showed up in Reaper & it was all good to go...

Could'nt fgure out how to adjust the input levels which were stuck at a hair below clipping....ie maxed out) & also I was'nt able to monitor anything (hear what I was playing) but it did work... did'nt seem to be any noticeable latency at all either ..at least from the plinky sounds I could hear when I was playing & the way the waveform corresponded to that as it was progressing..

Here's a tiny nonsensical clip with one of the lead patches (could'nt hear a thing I was playing so...:laugh2



But yeah..it was clear/no latency issues/no noise or anything..

Any idea's on how I might be able to monitor what I'm playing :laugh2:?

I tried the Mooer's 1/4 inch outputs into my powered speaker..but nothing...

Might be time to check out the manual :lmao:

 

[Hank-]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

I havent tried getting from europe yet, I stopped bothering with small parts cause the parts from aliexpress were cheap & decent enough to not spend more on taxes lol

With USB, select L/R or 1/2 input on the track input source. Select the driver in the main preferences menu as the one for mooer. That will give a fuller sound if you are using stereo effrcts on the 300.

For monitoring you could monitor with headphones from the ge300 itself, the computer audio should be passing through it if its selected as the default audio playback device. Inside the mooer system settings there should be an option to adjust the usb settimgs, will have to check the manual for it. I think they have one in pdf format but its in chinese or something, it can be translated to english somehow lol

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

Inside the mooer system settings there should be an option to adjust the usb settimgs, will have to check the manual for it. I think they have one in pdf format but its in chinese or something, it can be translated to english somehow lol

Thanks! Yeah..well luckily I found an English manual on their site lol.. & that was what I was missing. .I'd got everything right as far as connection's & Reaper preferences go but there's some setting up to be done with the Mooer's menu that I'd missed. (just plugged it in and hoped for the best haha.). I should be able to get it going the next time I try.. I've already got an interface so it's probably pretty pointless though :laugh2:

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

I havent tried getting from europe yet, I stopped bothering with small parts cause the parts from aliexpress were cheap & decent enough to not spend more on taxes lol

I bought my Randall T2 online from MF in the US about 6 years ago. But shipping was a LOT cheaper back then. Local prices have actually come down quite a bit the last year or two for amps especially & there are sometimes some sweet discounts/deals as well so it makes sense to buy locally if possible. The only problem being choices are often quite limited. Otherwise it's Thomann or Juno...they have great shipping rates..especially Thomann.

ebay and Aliexpress are the best place for parts..yeah. Reverb isn't bad either. And I did get my little 15W Goldea Rex tube head direct from the factory in from China for $150. (Best $150 I've ever spent by far..love that amp )

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

Yep ..I got the USB recording thing working...jammed a solo over my backing track ..worked well & sounds pretty cool. Had to delete my last crappy demo track 'cause my Soundcloud's full...

Then ..just for a bit of fun I decided to add some synth to it so I jammed a couple tracks with 2 patches "Rock synth" & the other was "Orchestra" I think... it's kinda messy after the start a bit (I was just jamming random **** lol) ...but does'nt sound too bad since I mixed it in pretty low



EDIT: Sorry the second patch was "Synth Chords" (not Orchestra)

 

[DankStar]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

What Kemper's do....

Plus you can also capture the tone of a guitar..like capture a Strat's tone & use that with your Les paul etc..

I think you can make your own IR's with your cabs as well..since it has a "cab capture" feature as well..

Might be worth the price of admission right there. I didn't think any other units did what kemper does.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

Yeah totally. From all the vids I've seen it does a really good job with that :bigthumb:

I spent a good bit of yesterday just messing around with all the presets & yeah, my regrets have pretty much totally disappeared lol. Really loving a lot of the tones! I mean if you're after the uber-polished Pete Thorn kinda thing ..it's there (in all it's highly processed majesty lol) ..but there's also a bunch of raw thrashy tones, juicy 80's metal (from biting Accept/Painkiller to really organic fat Slough Feg-ish) , warm bluesy stuff, modern djenty **** ..really ..everything.

It's actually shockingly amp-like both to play & feel-wise too and as I mentioned before it does'nt feel like all they did was just re-EQ the same amp 150 times, which is what it felt like with some other modelers I've tried The models have a lot of differences in thickness/gain texture/dynamics & do all feel really different under your fingers.. just like real amps. In short it's a great unit to play around with. A hell of a lot more fun than I anticipated

I will give the tone capture thing a try..I guess it's a bit intimidating right now lol. Plus all my guitar cables are different sizes/brands ..not sure if that makes a difference when using the "4 cable method" which is what I'll need to do to capture my amp's tone. But yeah I will check that out hopefully soon.

I love (!) the synth stuff...it sounds awesome & is a lot of fun to mess with for backing up chords & adding backing melody/atmosphere/dynamics. I was shocked at how touch sensitive & dynamic it was too. Punchy as hell or really subtle depending on how hard you hit your strings ..really fills out the mix too. There's a tiny bit of barely noticeable latency (more in the way it feels than anything) but no where near enough to affect playing. I'm especially keen to try it out in a creepy/DOOM context

Finally there's the 30 min looper. Can't believe I haven't given that a shot yet :lmao:

I'll have to get onto it :bigthumb:

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

I use amp plugins when I record, or an old Johnson J-Station.

Live I use a Marshall Code100. I get very good tones out of it. At this point I can’t see lugging around heavy tube amps that only get a couple of tones.


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[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

For some reason I've always had a mental block against plugins, modeler's & just recording on a computer at all. It had to be a standalone recorder (digital or otherwise) and a real amp. But I have to say ..that approach did'nt result in great results 'cause I'm just bad with recording ..have next to no studio gear & mostly, no know-how or ability lol. That's a sad fact that I've come to acknowledge.

Which is what's led me here to where I am ..recording with a modeler & IR's in Reaper on my comp lol.

In the end..'whatever gets the job done' ..that's my motto :laugh2:

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

Another clip I just recorded.. Messing around with some rhythm (& a coupe of clean/synth) presets. Just scrolling through stuff and jamming some sloppy (mostly doom) 'riffs' that I half-remember/made up on the spot ...not been doing much playing except for random leads/noodling off late ...in fact not been playing much at all :laugh2: ...just fiddling around with stuff a whole lot ..so..

This is straight from the unit into Reaper. No other processing..

Overall I think the tones are all pretty usable/realistic and there were a lot that I really liked..

Tried the tone capture last night but failed lol. I think I got the "4 cable method' wrong or maybe it was set up for capturing guitar tone not amp tone (which is what I think happened). In any case when I should have had it 'monitoring'..it was 'capturing' stuff. (twice in a row.. two guitars?) so it was'nt the amp that was being captured.. I ****ed up.

Will give that another go when I can..

 

[Coma]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

For some reason I've always had a mental block against plugins, modeler's & just recording on a computer at all. It had to be a standalone recorder (digital or otherwise) and a real amp. But I have to say ..that approach did'nt result in great results 'cause I'm just bad with recording ..have next to no studio gear & mostly, no know-how or ability lol. That's a sad fact that I've come to acknowledge.

Which is what's led me here to where I am ..recording with a modeler & IR's in Reaper on my comp lol.

In the end..'whatever gets the job done' ..that's my motto :laugh2:

That's the sane approach, yeah. At home, I've used nothing but computer-based modelers for the last 16 years or so. Really handy when you're a student living in a small apartment. Finally got sick of it this year and sprung for a Lunchbox tube amp. But I still rely on the modelers for recording. Not having to mic anything up saves a ton of time and money.

 

[Securb]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

Love that tone you are getting around 4:40. I am trying to scale back on buying gear right now. If I wasn't putting so much work into the new house I would be pulling the trigger on one.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

Yeah, there's some nice tones in this box ..I mean the thing has 140 presets or something..don't think I've got past the first 30 if that :laugh2:

I think provided I can get the hang of it it's actually really GREAT value for money.. Don't regret getting it at all now that I've spent a bit of time with it. I could think of a lot worse ways to spend my money.... but yeah, houses do come first lol.

 

[Hank-]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

You havent taken the plunge on creating a patch from scratch yet, lots of digging to do in there, should keep you occupied for days to weeks to months lol

But really instead of the factory presets, try searchimg online for some free user patches, you might find some keeper ones that won't require much effort on your side. I can't link to any now but I'm there must be a few great ones out there.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

Haha..yeah, I haven't really done much of anything yet, barely scraped the surface. I'm averaging about 20 mins to a half hour a day (sometime twice a day) with it and that's spent just fooling around with presets & jamming random **** :lmao:

I did get to play quite a bit last Sunday & that was fun, but just haven't had the opportunity to get too deeply into anything yet. I'm sure there will be a bunch of user presets around soon, if not already. I'll check those out for sure...try and get some pointers/tweak them a bit and take it from there. but for now I just want to familiarise myself a bit more with basic controls. navigation & functions. Otherwise it's areal PIA trying to get from A to B for anything.

I gave the tone capture another try. This time I did capture the amp. But it was barely audible & clean (?). Then I saw someone mention in a video that you need to use a comparable amp as the 'source' to capture your "target' (ie your own amp) amp's tone with

(ie the corresponding amp model in the Mooer or something with similar levels of gain needs to be set as the "source" & I need to set the volume/gain levels on both, "source" & "target" to sort of match too..which I did'nt do) I also used the default amp (did'nt change it) which was a clean setting for a Blackface or something..so I turned my Laboga The Beast into a clean Fender that was barely audible :laugh2: ie..it's trickier than I thought although the manual does mention it (although not super clearly)

Will keep trying though..

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

For some reason I've always had a mental block against plugins, modeler's & just recording on a computer at all. It had to be a standalone recorder (digital or otherwise) and a real amp. But I have to say ..that approach did'nt result in great results 'cause I'm just bad with recording ..have next to no studio gear & mostly, no know-how or ability lol. That's a sad fact that I've come to acknowledge.

Which is what's led me here to where I am ..recording with a modeler & IR's in Reaper on my comp lol.

In the end..'whatever gets the job done' ..that's my motto :laugh2:

I started out recording at home bouncing between two cassette recorders. This was probably around 1970. In the 80s I got a Tascam PortaStudio 4 track cassette deck.

After that I made the jump to recording on my Macintosh using DECK II software. That was the software that had become ProTools. This was around 1995. Around 1997 I started using Cubase. These days I use Logic Pro X.

But none of those had amp plugins (except more recent versions of Logic and Cubase). So I just plugged my distortion pedals into whatever I was recording in. [emoji16]

I haven’t recorded with an amp since around 1988. The great part about using plugins is you haven’t “printed” that tone, and can go back and switch to a totally different amp setup. It’s like virtual reamping.

Here’s an example of what you can do totally “in the box.”


https://soundcloud.com/jezo-and-the-element/gimmiesomthintosay


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[Coma]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

I haven’t recorded with an amp since around 1988. The great part about using plugins is you haven’t “printed” that tone, and can go back and switch to a totally different amp setup. It’s like virtual reamping.


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That's what I do. The hard part is getting the sound engineer to put away his bong long enough to actually pay attention to your preferences regarding which sim and sound to actually use.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Finally took the plunge...

That's what I do. The hard part is getting the sound engineer to put away his bong long enough to actually pay attention to your preferences regarding which sim and sound to actually use.

Back in the 80s I was recording in a studio with my band. Some of the guitar tracks used an amp, mostly on the chorus, but the main guitar riff was recorded direct. I plugged into a homemade distortion pedal, my version of Craig Anderton’s Tube Sound Fuzz, and told the engineer to run me through a pitch shifter detuned +/- 12 cents panned in stereo. This was how I did my demo at home. He argued that it was going to sound terrible! But I insisted. After he heard the guitar tone he liked it. Lol.

People get stuck doing what they know because it’s safe and it works. Like back in the 70s when studios would only record with Fender P basses. They had that tone dialed in.

But I’ve always liked experimenting with sounds.

Here’s that track. The guitar was also one I built with a clear lucite body!

https://soundcloud.com/davidravenmoon/cant-turn-back


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[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

I started out recording at home bouncing between two cassette recorders. This was probably around 1970. In the 80s I got a Tascam PortaStudio 4 track cassette deck.

After that I made the jump to recording on my Macintosh using DECK II software. That was the software that had become ProTools. This was around 1995. Around 1997 I started using Cubase. These days I use Logic Pro X.

But none of those had amp plugins (except more recent versions of Logic and Cubase). So I just plugged my distortion pedals into whatever I was recording in. [emoji16]

I haven’t recorded with an amp since around 1988. The great part about using plugins is you haven’t “printed” that tone, and can go back and switch to a totally different amp setup. It’s like virtual reamping.

Here’s an example of what you can do totally “in the box.”


https://soundcloud.com/jezo-and-the-element/gimmiesomthintosay


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah..same here I first gave recoding a go in the early 90's with a 4 track (cassette tape) recorder & we (my doom band) recorded a demo with that. Yes...The sound was atrocious..lol.

Then later around 2000 or so I got a Zoom MRS1044 digital recorder...sadly no massively different results :lmao:

Things have'nt really got a whole lot better since :laugh2:. I just don't seem to have the aptitude for recording..

Always been very comfortable gigging with my amp's that's never been a problem & I don't see myself changing that anytime soon. But as far as recording goes. I think modelers are the future & I think it's actually pretty cool that folks like you were giving that (direct to board) approach back in the 70's & 80's :bigthumb:
Nice tune you posted up too..I thought the recording/tones were very professional/great!

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Finally took the plunge...

That's what I do. The hard part is getting the sound engineer to put away his bong long enough to actually pay attention to your preferences regarding which sim and sound to actually use.

lol... but yeah, if it's done well you can't tell a sim from an amp in a mix..