ilovefuzz.com

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.

pelliott wrote:I have a Cbread Dirty Little Secret MkII on my board that's basically always on, so it feels like I have a distorting amp at pretty much any volume. And then I slam it with fuzz. It lets me crank the volume on the Pharaoh/Quantum Mystic and play large without getting evicted.

This the next step for me as well. I really really want a DLS MkIII to slam with all kinds of gnarliness. Which means that I'll be needing to pick up another Pharaoh since I will be able to use it properly

DLS is definitely cool if you're looking for the marshall thing. Don't know if I've heard better.

But let me echo what's been said. I'm not doing straight up doom, but I am reaching for unwieldy dynamic cruelty in back room of a thin walled NYC apartment. More speakers and a good MV is THE ticket. I have better control over my volume - and all around better toanz - running a big bottle Traynor with a 4x10 & a 2x15 that I did with any of my little Champ-ish single ended jobs.

Don't make no sense, but some how works in the real world.

Some great advice in this thread.

doommeow wrote:...I am reaching for unwieldy dynamic cruelty in back room of a thin walled NYC apartment.

This has to be the coolest thing I've heard today.

Do want that little ditty of a pedal.

I hope I'm not hijacking this thread, but I'm intrigued by the concept of moderate-volume doom, for a few reasons.

First, I'm old. Second I'm moving into doom sideways from the rockier Sabbath, Fu Manchu, Melvins, Red Fang side of things (not that they don't have big amps, but with the possible exception of Sabbath, they're not about huge amps). Third, I don't want to spend a bunch of money for a bunch of stuff that I can't fit in my car. Finally I'm old enough to know that you can sound loud as hell but small if you can't hear each other and even though you can lose a lot when you back off the volume, the main things that makes you sound big are precision and swing.

Really, a metal show doesn't mean that much to me. I want to rock living rooms and small clubs.

Anyway, anyone here playing with a band on modest-sized amps at modest volumes (by which I mean regular club-band volumes, but fuzzier). Or is it just not doom anymore if it doesn't pound at your chest. I'm not talking miniature, like my crazy friend who insisted on playing everything on a champ. I'm just talking 30 watts, 2x12 amp, etc.

It's probably important to note that there's a bit of a difference between being an amp band and being a doom band. Sleep is probably the perfect middle ground between the two -- they wrote, you know, songs, but they use volume to excellent effect. If the riffs are good, the rigs will suffice, even if they're comparatively small.

What about the use of something like this for recording?
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... peaker-cab

D.o.S. wrote:It's probably important to note that there's a bit of a difference between being an amp band and being a doom band. Sleep is probably the perfect middle ground between the two -- they wrote, you know, songs, but they use volume to excellent effect. If the riffs are good, the rigs will suffice, even if they're comparatively small.

If you're an amp band it means that you sound good until the singer starts to sing or the drummer starts to play. But if you're a great band with great amps, you're golden.

I don't have room for a ton of bullshit in my life, including amps won't fit in my car (which includes all 4x12s), although some would say too-quiet amps are bullshit as well. But no one's ever complained about not hearing me!

To some extent the drummer should set the volume of the band; every drummer has a sweet spot.

The thing is, I came up during the grunge era in Portland. I can write a good doom riff, or even 10 of them, or even tons of them that I've ended up wedding to songs songs that sound garage/pop/rock whatever - anything but heavy. It's the 90s rock disease. I start out all Dragonaut, but end up Jonathan Richman. I'm trying to work on sustaining more heaviosity without sounding forced. My nerdy vocals don't help - but I gotta be me - and I don't think huge amps will help me either. Woodshedding will help, and the quieter you play, the more often you can play.

I just want to play music that makes you feel like you're in the presence of some awesome, dark riffing!

right -- you can be an amp band and not a doom group, though -- early Growing is a good example of that:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTlwl7qBkdY[/youtube]

Of course, they didn't have a drummer or a singer.

Van Muddlestein used/uses Orange Rocker 30s almost exclusively. Those hang with a lot of higher wattage amps.

D.o.S. wrote:right -- you can be an amp band and not a doom group, though -- early Growing is a good example of that:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTlwl7qBkdY[/youtube]

Of course, they didn't have a drummer or a singer.

But that's a pretty good amp band!

Amp band but not doom? Lightning Bolt
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfdWAQ2H1j4[/youtube]

Joe Gress wrote:Amp band but not doom? Lightning Bolt
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfdWAQ2H1j4[/youtube]

Too much amp, not enough band! What are you supposed to do at one of their shows to entertain yourself?

maggot wrote:

Joe Gress wrote:Amp band but not doom? Lightning Bolt
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfdWAQ2H1j4[/youtube]

Too much amp, not enough band! What are you supposed to do at one of their shows to entertain yourself?

Four squares and a dare will take away your cares.