2. amps-preamps
  3. 181075-135804

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
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,103 posts
 

My question is how do you manage the tubes, they slowly get bad I can't take it, I feel like they start going bad the second I put a new one in and I'm just not noticing it because the bad sound happen so slowly, very frustrating. How do I manage tubes?

@donavabdear 

It sounds to me like you're managing them quite well as you've put your finger on their biggest weakness. Its lovely when they are right and frustrating when they are not; tubes were made to much higher quality standards 60-70 years ago, which is why NOS tubes command higher prices.

femoore12's avatar
femoore12
683 posts
 

My previous SS systems never engaged me like my tube system does now. So, I know I am biased towards tube gear. I am honestly curious about the accuracy claim. How does one measure and judge accuracy of a reproduced recording?  And accuracy against what? Wouldn't it need to be compared against the actual studio recording?  

wolf_garcia
6,769 posts
 

Nelson Pass did some fancy footwork designing the XA-25 (Eliminated "degeneration" feedback...whatever that means) to make it appeal to tube heads (like me) or maybe just himself, and it seems to do just that in Class A...engaging indeed...

donavabdear's avatar
donavabdear OP
517 posts
 

@femoore12 exactly that happened to me a few years ago I worked with a singer everyone knows she and I were on a TV show so I knew her voice perfectly, when she make an album at capitol records I was able to go with her. This was so interesting for me because I knew her voice so well  I used one of the songs on that recording as my reference to test some high end speakers it was very interesting because I didn't like anything I heard until got the top of the line Paradigm beryllium speakers so I bought them. Recently I put in a Dolby Atmos mixing studio with Genelec powered "the one" speakers these speakers showed flaws in the recording I never heard before. My home setup sounds better but definitely not more accurate. The tubes have a wonderful way of covering some of the sins of recording being played back on powered studio monitors.

More to discover