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Tube amps and a Stradivarius

I was mixing an orchestra in a church and the conductor who was my friend wanted me to hear one of the musicians play their Stradivarius violin for me back at the mixer. The sound was so beautiful it seemed like there was already reverb on it. I was brought to tears simply because of the beauty and I'd never hear such an instrument before.

Tube amps are not technically as accurate as solid-state but they sound more musical, I would submit that they sound that way because of the ring of the tubes just like the reverb of the Stradivarius violin. I believe the vibration of the sound from the speakers excite the tubes and there is a pleasant reverb effect. In mixing vocals there is an important effect in the reverb processor called pre delay and that time delay before the reverb is actuated in the processor is like the time delay of the speakers making the tubes ring. Thoughts?

donavabdear
donavabdear's avatar
donavabdear OP
516 posts
 

The Neumann U 87 is still one of the greatest vocal microphones ever (tube). Records have a warm rich rumble that sounds great. Vocals don't have warm and rich rumble. 

Tubes are a physical effect mechanism that have nothing to do with accuracy. They are signal processing. Under Capital Records are 8 rooms, pie shaped with lacquer paint a Shure 88 microphone and a voice of the theater speaker in the corner, these are the most prestigious reverb rooms in the world but the equipment in their is not close to state of the art. 

larryi
4,183 posts
 

Whether or not it is high second order harmonic distortion that adds richness or denseness to the sound, or there is something else at work, I like the sound of some tube gear.  I suspect that, in part, it is phase shifting in transformers that is part of the secret sauce.  
I have wondered about tube microphonics too.  I took part in listening to several different Western Electric 310 tubes that were going into a custom build linestage.  All of the listeners agreed on which tubes sounded best in the linestage.  The builder noted that we had picked the most microphonic of the tubes under consideration.  Whether this was merely a coincidence and we liked some other properties of the tubes or whether we liked them because they were microphonic is something that was not resolved.

erik_squires
16,554 posts
 

 

erik_squires
16,554 posts
 

Among what I've read, Stradivarius used a secret brine to selectively dissolve some of the sap or glue in the lumber he used.  The difference of these instruments is quite real.

sandthemall
544 posts
 

You can play any instrument too loud. But sometimes this is necessary to do briefly or not so briefly when it's called for in a performance. In these cases the instrument distorts a bit, giving the sensation of increased loudness and drama. In these cases, the distortion serves the music.

Tubes do the same thing. Unlike SS, they distort a bit more at musical peaks giving a subtle sensation of liveliness. It's just the right amount of wrong. It's not accurate but it's fun. Who doesn't want to have fun...

 

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