Gnarly tube preamps/Recording friendly amps

[c-level]

Looking to dirt up some of my synths, esp those with a weak signal (jx8P) i used to be a guitarist so i know all about the loveliness of tubes. i have an ART TPS atm but looking into getting another cheapish 2 channel preamp? ive been trying to find some of the old behringer tube composer/magician/tube q. what else should i look out for? ADA preamps? small VHT combo's with line outs? what tube units strike your fancy?

[silikon]

Looking to dirt up some of my synths, esp those with a weak signal (jx8P) i used to be a guitarist so i know all about the loveliness of tubes. i have an ART TPS atm but looking into getting another cheapish 2 channel preamp? ive been trying to find some of the old behringer tube composer/magician/tube q. what else should i look out for? ADA preamps? small VHT combo's with line outs? what tube units strike your fancy?

I'd stay away from the Behringer stuff myself; I never got on with any of it when I did give it a go, and you may try as an alternative to the below, putting the outs through a Radial DI and increase the gain that way...

Evol Fucifier. (not tubes, but heaps of tone mangling options)

Thermionic Culture Vulture

Orange Dark Terror (the Jim Root edition is madness in a can)

Cheaper ideas: (not tubes)

Earthquaker Talons
Iron Ether QF2

[c-level]

anyone had any experience with linear power boosters and synths? my dads building one as a project, im trying to get him to put a stereo pair in a 1u rack for me....

[meatballfulton]

Small combo amps! Used to be there zillions around under $100 (with Fender Champs taking top dollar) but today prices have jumped up just like vintage synths. Luckily lots of 15W or lower tube amps are being made again today. You can really crank them but still mike it and hey don't have so much low end so they don't turn into mud. Don't expect little speakers to handle anything below 100Hz so high pass the signal to the amp if you are using it for bass.

Old amps often had great spring reverbs and tremelos which are fun to mess with (I owned an old Ampeg with a square wave tremelo for sweet gated effects).

What to look out for: noise, noise, noise. Noise can be controlled if you're patient, but any $100 Chinese tube amp you buy today will have some noise issues. Old amps need a good cleaning of the tube sockets, pots and jacks, maybe a recap if it's not had one for 20+ years.

Preamps? I've used three:

Tom Scholz Sustainor

Hair metal in a box. Very cool tranny pre with noise gating, speaker sim, and a mode that goes from clean to shred using playing dynamics without the volume going crazy. Too bad they are now "collectible" and $200+ nowadays (I paid $50).

Hughes and Kettner Cream Machine:

Two knobs, gain and master. Half-rack space with onboard AC power. Two real tubes, one for the pre the other for the 1 watt (!) power amp, plus a built in dummy load, and speaker sim. Voiced to sound like a Marshall. Very well endowed with patching for studio work. Plus it has a speaker jack for hyper low volume recording through a speaker. I paid $100 for mine when it was a blowout in the 90s, used ones are still around in that range but not really common.

Hughes and Kettner Crunch Master (also sold as Blues Master)

Same as above but now Fender voiced 3-band EQ and bright switch. Not as metal-crazed but that Fender tone stack is a real classic. About $100 used when they turn up.

Based on my last two suggestions I would suggest that any H&K preamp (they've done many under the Tubeman name) is worth checking out.

[themilford]

EHX - LPB 2ube

Tronographic - Rusty Box (caution: shameless self promotion, sorry )

I had good luck with the Ashly SC-40 instrument preamp/EQ

Also, the Tapco/Intersound IVP is great for saturation and EQing.

[fatherferal]

if you are just looking to ad grit to a synth i would highly reccomend the tech21 sansamp classic, for a cleaner sound i have very good luck with the sansamp acoustic. i used to have 2 presonus tube pres and while i liked them for recording percussion, i never found them to do anything impressive for synths. the tubeworks real tube will make all kinds of nasty funk. i had tons of fun running a nordlead2, aro oddessey, and juno 6, and synare through it. it is not clean by any means, but it sounds amazing.

[hyphen nation]

Look for something by THD. Univalve or Bivalve. Self biasing, swap in different tubes. Has a dummy speaker load, so you can use it without connecting it to a speaker system. Love running synths through it.

[Stab Frenzy]

Personally if I want dirt I don't look to tubes for it. I do have a Sebatron Thorax which I've overdriven for some nice sounds but for dirt I'd rather look to something solid state. I really like the Sansamp Bass Driver DI, in fact all their stuff is great.

Also there's nothing quite the same as running through a really good sounding amp, putting a mic on it and running that through a good pre, particularly if it's something you can drive the input of and then turn down the output to get a lot of colour. Something like the Lindell Audio 6X-500 is amazingly cheap and word on the street is that they sound amazing, I'm planning on checking one out soon. With that you've got input drive, output level and a Pultec-based Hi and Low boost. Transformers on the way in and out as well. I'm also keen to try out the Audio Products of Illinois stuff, it looks mega cheap and high quality. If you don't want to go DIY or 500 series there's the Golden Age Project Pre 73, a friend of mine has one and we've recorded vocals and guitars through it and it does a good job. The JLM Audio Mono is a good one to look into as well.

Another thing I've used to run drums from my computer through to beef them up is the Intellijel Korgasmatron module. You can run line level sources straight into the inputs cause it has enough gain to boost them up to modular level. Put both filters into HP mode and increase the resonance to bring up the bass boost.

I've also used BBDs before to dirty things up, run the signal in and then set the output 100% wet and use the delay time control for 'dirt amount'. You have to drag the audio back in time when you're done but it works really well. I use a Yamaha E1010 for that mostly cause it sounds really amazing, but my MF-104Z works well for it too. If you have a really nice sounding digital or plugin delay you can use it for the same thing as well.

[nvbrkr]

I can definitely recommend the Tubeman over the older H&K units (I've also had the Cream Machine). The EQ's pretty good for shaping up different tones (the Cream Machine always sounded really dry and sort of hollow to me - I had it for 4-5 years and never used it on a recording).

Having said that, I think tube units like that work better on organs and electric pianos than on synths. Tube distortion on more complicated sounds tends to make the sounds a bit flat and uninteresting if squished too much. The end results with synths may not be as "fat" as you hoped for either (the sound is often just brittle or muffled).

[GuyaGuy]

I've also used BBDs before to dirty things up, run the signal in and then set the output 100% wet and use the delay time control for 'dirt amount'. You have to drag the audio back in time when you're done but it works really well. I use a Yamaha E1010 for that mostly cause it sounds really amazing, but my MF-104Z works well for it too. If you have a really nice sounding digital or plugin delay you can use it for the same thing as well.

You mentioned that trick before and I've tried and really dug it. Delays with onboard gain like the Moog or Deluxe Memory Man are especially good for that as you can control the drive.