skullservant wrote:I (somehow) run a 50w Verellen and a 100w Fender PA100 in my one bedroom apartment. Luckily the PA100 has a Master volume, and the Verellen is sensible enough that I can keep it on 3. It's mildly problematic with recording (sometimes you can hear picking in the background while recording tracks) but I really just need to play farther away from my amps when they are mic'd for recording. I haven't gotten any complaints from the neighbors upstairs or next to us about any of the amps that I've had in the house. This Verellen actually has a line out that I haven't utilized yet, but I really want to.
That Lumbar record rules! Thanks for reminding me to actually buy it instead of listening to it on Bandcamp.
I used to (and still do, often) DI record when it's super late.
Huge'd for emphasis. This is how I used a 100W Quad Reverb in a building with paper-thin walls.
During the daytime it could go well into 5 on the MV with pre-gain 8-9, before hearing the people upstairs start heavy stepping around. At night I kept MV at 2 or even 1 w/fuzz, which was usually a Harmonic Percolator set 95% Input 33% Output.
Now that a non-master 50W amp is the platform, I still maintain the HP settings for the most part while adding the Shape EQ to roll off a little treble and emphasize the lows & lower mids. Then it hits the amp set up to 6 during the day and much lower at night...come to think of it, similar settings. So a MV isn't necessary, the function of it can be substituted. In my case, now it's the parametric EQ pedal in between to act as that extra pre-amp/gain stage and attenuate the peaky, saturated signal and further compress without raising the noise floor. It sounds better when the amp's drive stacks, but even slays at the low levels. Especially with ported 15" speaker[s]. Even 12s can sound massive.
And while on the topic of speakers, an underrated way to tame bright, hot, even harsh amps is to use speakers with lower sensitivity. This can greatly increase an amp's usable gain range. And then there's the influence of running 16 vs 8ohm...
Re: recording & pick noise...I anticipate that is going to be a problem for me as well. Have you tried miking the amp on one side of the room and sitting opposite with your back to the amp/mic? What about using one of those semi-circle portable vocal booths between your picking hand and the mic? I have a bunch of solutions kicking around upstairs in anticipation of getting a practical recording setup together.
DI recording is great for bass. Not a fan of it with guitar, but sometimes something is better than nothing.
