Review: Behringer V-Ampire LX112 combo

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are going to make another legacy review, this time of a Behringer combo which was quite popular among the beginner guitar players in the mid-2000s, because at least back then the German company was known for producing cost effective music gear, which often were inspired by products created by popular brands, but that often featured a very good technical spec sheet.

When Line6 presented the POD in the end of the '90s, this device represented a paradigm shift in terms of guitar amp simulation, finally simulators were leaving the niche of toys and were starting to be used also from professionals, and few years after Behringer launched its interpretation of this new wave of digital amp sims, the V-Amp, which had similar shape and features, but that added even more sound possibilities, and along with it they released also the V-Amp Pro (the rack version) and the V-Ampire, a combo which basically mounted a V-Amp Pro on a speaker, and this happened even before Line6 released its first combos based on the POD.

All this at a fraction of the price of the Line6 versions.

The V-Ampire LX112 is a now discontinued digital 1x12 combo with 120w RMS (there is also a 2x12 version), or 2x60 RMS stereo, which back then had features that almost no other combo had: 32 amp models, 15 cab simulations, 16 effects and so on, all controllable via MIDI, and given the price it was quite popular.

Tone wise the sounds were surprisingly good for the time, they were usable for any genre, also in a live environment (even if the power amp was weaker than the numbers tell), and held up also compared with an actual POD, except for probably generating a bit more noise.

So, where is the catch? Where were they cutting costs? Simple: build quality.
The amp was extremely poorly built: the first one I bought (new) made a lound bang the first time I turned it on, producing dense black smoke, and when I called the store they tried also the others that they had in stock and they all had the same problem, therefore I had to wait several weeks for the arrival of a new batch, and when I got mine replaced, it finally worked.

The poor build quality showed itself not only with the power amp failure, but also with the knobs: they were made of extremely thin and weak plastic, and the first time I carried the amp in a car, just because of the vibrations, FOUR knobs fell from the amp (and no, I wasn't racing the Paris Dakar rally).
After this experience, I decided to sell it and to buy something with a less shiny spec sheet but with a stronger build quality, and since then I learned my lesson.

Nevertheless, if you need a very inexpensive combo to doodle around in your room and you don't plan to move it EVER, for its street price of today (around 70/80 bucks) it could still give you some fun.

Thumbs sideways!

Specs taken from the website:

- 2 x 60-Watt guitar modeling workstation 

- 32 amp models

- 15 speaker cabinet simulations 

- 16 multi-effects

- 12'' Bugera Vintage speaker for classic sound reproduction

- 120-Watt mono or 2 x 60-Watt stereo operation with additional cabinet (optional)

- 125 memory locations, divided into 25 banks of 5 presets each

- rotary controls with dedicated LED indicators

- 15 rear panel connectors allow comprehensive routing to suit virtually any conceivable application-plus MIDI In, Out/Thru

- Full MIDI implementation including program change commands, control change commands and SysEx, allowing extensive MIDI control using our free V-AMP Design editor software for Windows operating systems

- Balanced stereo XLR DI Out with ground lift and switchable ULTRA-G speaker simulation

- Pre-DSP send/return for dry recording and wet monitoring

- Adjustable stereo aux input for line-level signals (CD, soundcard, monitoring etc.)-can be re-configured to feed headphones only, for in-ear monitoring applications

- Frequency compensated stereo headphone output with adjustable volume

- adjustable auto-chromatic tuner


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The focus of our mix part 2

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we're going to elaborate more on a topic we have already started talking about here: The Focus of our mix!

Let's start by saying that if we have applied the 5 rules of the first article we will already know what is the focus of our mix, whether it's the vocals, the drums, the guitars, the synths etc... 

Once we have a mix that satisfies us we need to make 2 more trials to check the balance of our mix:

1) Check the mix in mono: maybe the mix sounds incredibly well in your 1000 bucks monitors and headphones, but you need to imagine that roughly half of the listeners will listen to it in less than ideal conditions, like from the mono speaker of the phone, and you need to be ready to spot all the possible problems (for example something hard panned that disappears or that makes some weird interaction with the other instruments or loses balance.

2) Check the mix at minimum volume: now it's the time of the trial by fire, we need to listen to the mix with the volume at the minimum, when it's barely understandable. 

What are the instruments that stand out the most? Are they the ones that we expected? If they are not, we need to eq the things we want in spotlight better, moving them towards the most audible frequency area (2khz to 5khz) and carving space in the other instruments.
I remember in the past I have listened to some death metal song that at normal volume was sounding decent, then lowering the volume we realized that basically only the kick remained audible, so the sound guy had to rebalance things a bit, and this way he freed up a lot of headroom for the other instruments without sacrificing too much the perceived kick volume at normal levels.

3) Once the focus of your mix is established, work your way backwards: once you have clear where you want the attention of your listener to go, you need to put the chosen instrument under the spotlight, and make room both in terms of volume and eq through the other ones, according to your priority list; don't let the audience focus on a useless cowbell while in the background the singer is singing the most beautiful melody of all times!

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Review: Engl Savage 120

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are reviewing a monster of an amp, 120w of tube power, which is considered the most representative of the German brand Engl: the Savage 120!

This head came out originally in 1993, a time in which digital amps were basically useless toys, and in which if you wanted a no-compromise guitar tone you had to really go for the real thing: a super large, super heavy (22kg!) rock amplifier, with a lot of tubes (even in the fx loop) and volume, and if you wanted to reach the perfect tone you had to crank it to the point of being almost unusable.

The Engl Savage is a head that embodies well the attitude of the brand: high priced amps, hand made in Germany, which provides impressive solidity, reliability and mids capable of cutting through the most dense mix: usually if in a concert only one of the 2 guitarists has an Engl amp, the other one gets completely covered.

The Savage offered back then features that were not common (and still today are not), making it a very complete, full optional amp: 2 fx loops, 2 master volumes, 4 channels, and a ton of knobs and switches to craft your tone in a very detailed way.

How does it sound? As I was mentioning, it has a very distinctive mid range which is very cutting, but it features also a lot of flexibility; as a reference, think about a Marshall as an amp with prominent mid highs, while the Engl is an amp with its distinctive tone a bit more in the mid range, slightly more nasal and with a ton of additional gain.

Compared to other popular heads of the brand, for example the Powerball, which came out almost 10 years later, the Savage sounds more classic and in your face (more punchy, like a Marshall JM800 compared to a DSL or a TSL, which sound more modern), a bit less scratchy and slightly more nasal, while the Powerball is a little bit more modern, but both heads retain the undeniable Engl character, which I really love.

Today this amp is sold in its Mark II version, which comes in 60w and 120w and features a serie of extra optionals (noise gate, MIDI switching) and tweaks in terms of tone, which doesn't modify too much the soul of this head.

Thumbs up!

Specs for the Mark II version, the one currently sold:

- 4 Channels: Clean, Crunch I, Crunch II, Lead

- Power: 120 W

- Preamplifier tubes: 6x Engl ECC83 / 12AX7

- Power amp tubes: 2x Engl 6550

- 2 Tube-driven FX loops with separate balance controls

- Noise Gate with adjustable threshold (footswitchable)

- MIDI Channel Assignment and Controller Enable Switch - Write / Copy (for MIDI programming)

- Sound Switching options: Input Lo / Hi, Bright, Preshape, Contour (Clean, Crunch I), Mid Le./Bo., Depth Boost, Gain Lo / Hi, Contour (Crunch II, Lead), Rough / Smooth

- Controls: Gain (separate for each channel), Bass, Mid Lean, Mid Bold, Treble (Clean, Crunch I), Bass, Middle, Treble, Tone Balance (Crunch II, Lead), Volume (separate for each channel), Presence A, Presence B, Master A, Master B

- Controls (rear side): Noise Gate Threshold Level, FX Loop I Balance, FX Loop II Balance

- Outputs: 1 x 4 Ohm, 2 x 8 Ohm, 2 x 16 Ohm, 1 x 16 Ohm

- Made in Germany

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Visual references when mastering

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we're going to talk about a topic that ties together our mastering article and the one about frequency analyzers: how to use visual references to help us when mastering!

The first tool I want to talk about is Izotope Tonal Balance Control, a tool that is available for separate purchase and that is also included in other Izotope bundles, which is very simple: they have analyzed thousands of record, divided by genre, and have found the average eq curve of the tunes, so you can compare your master to this average to see where you're at: does your master need more low end? Less? Does it need more air? 

This product is as simple as brilliant, and probably is the most useful mastering tool that came out in the recent years, because sometimes your room is not treated, or your monitors or headphones are not the best, and certain areas of your mix can go unnoticed: this way you can easily find where there is too much (or too little) energy compared with the average of the other commercial recordings, and it's a great starting point also just to go back to our mix project and correct there.

The second one, for much more precise adjustments, is Voxengo Span, a free plugin (click here to download it): with this frequency analyzer not only you can see in great detail the analysis of your spectrum, but you can zoom to the extreme, and this is interesting because it's like looking at our mix with a magnifying glass: if we want we can easily go resonance hunting and with an eq lower, surgically, all the parts in which there is an accumulation of energy (for example too many instruments in the same frequency area, which produce a spike in volume), this way we can mix some of those instruments differently, or lower with an eq these spikes: in any case the aim is to free headroom without harming the mix, cleaning up the troublesome areas so that this way we will have more room to push our master, and have all the available volume in the areas we want.

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Review: Audiority Dr Drive

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are going to review a new free Vst plugin, an overdrive by Audiority: the Dr Drive!

This overdrive is modeled after the Horizon Devices Precision Drive, a modified version of the classic Tube Screamer designed by Misha Mansoor of Periphery, which includes 4 knobs (plus the gate switch, which is in a separate part of the GUI):

- Level (which is similar to the Tube Screamer one, except for the fact that the 6 in this corresponds to the 10 in the TS, so use it very carefully),

- Drive, which not too different from the TS one, very usable (I have used this plugin mainly as a booster, though)

- Attack, which determines where is set the attack when picking, from somewhere in the lower mids to the ear piercing highs area, and it's useful especially when creating modern tones,

- Bright, which is basically a tone knob, but tuned a bit more towards the high end, therefore conservative settings are suggested,

- Gate: an intelligent noise gate that basically removes the need of adding a separate gate plugin to our guitar chain, thus saving CPU

What can I say? Since I have tried this plugin, it has become my go-to overdrive for all projects, because it sounds great, it has an integrated noise gate and it gives even more tone shaping tools than the classic Tube Screamer, so I really suggest all of our readers to download this plugin and try it out, it might become your ultimate overdrive plugin for a long time.

Thumbs up!

Specs taken fromthe website: 


- Analog Modelled Overdrive

- Drive, Tone, Attack and Level controls

- Pre and Post effect gain

- Mix control

- Noise Gate

- Resizable interface

Happy new year from Guitar Nerding Blog!

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How loud should a master be in 2021 (with free VST plugin)

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we're going to integrate and expand our article about Mastering levels for streaming, cd and club play (click here to read it) updating it to the latest requirements and tools.

Levels in mastering are an evolving thing, it's something that has been changing through time with the evolution of the supports, and any mastering engineer needs to be up to date with the industry standard requirements, if he/she wants to nail the perfect levels.

Let's start by saying that times are changed from when we were talking about the Loudness war (click here for a dedicated article), a time in which everyone was competing in having the loudest (and often distorted) master, and the answer to that has been the fact that the main streaming platforms (Youtube, Spotify, Apple music and so on) apply a sort of normalization to the track to make them sound coherent, with the result that oversquashed masters gets a big penalty in terms of db.

In short: the louder (and less dynamic) your master is, the more db the platform will subtract to make it sound quieter; you can see how many db your master will be reduced by uploading it in this page: 

Loudness Penalty

The page will analyze for free your master and tell you with good approximation how many db will be reduced in all the main streaming platforms.

In order to reach the correct levels for the modern times the best approach is to check out the streaming platforms help section and read the suggested levels, in this case we are going to check out the Spotify ones:
they suggest -14db of Integrated LUFS (integrated means average, not peak) and -1db of True peak (-2db in case of a master louder than -14db of Integrated LUFS).
You can of course upload hotter masters, they will just be reduced in volume, so that they will sound at the same volume of the other songs, but more compressed and distorted.

LUFS are loudness units full scale, which is a modern value used to calculate the perceived loudness, and it's used mainly in streaming platforms, while True peak is the maximum absolute level of the signal waveform, and both values needs to be monitored after the limiter, since even if you put -1db of ceiling, the true peak can be louder, for example -0.3db in reality.

How to measure those values for free? With Youlean Loudness Meter plugin, a free Vst that does exactly that (and monitors also the dynamic range!), and based on that you can export your songs to make them sound the best they can be in every platform.

Happy holidays from Guitar Nerding Blog!! 

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Volume inconsistency: solve it with the clip gain/event gain tool

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are going to talk about an ongoing topic, the one of gain staging, and the problem we're going to tackle is the one of the volume inconsistency.

When recording an instrument with high dinamic excursion (mainly vocals, for example), the professional recording engineers usually make the signal pass through a minimum of processing to make sure it arrives in the daw in such an optimal condition that it will already sound decent and require less mixing/digital processing, and usually we're talking about a little bit of compression (just to shave off a couple of db to reduce the difference between the loudest and the quietest parts), a little bit of de-essing and a high pass filter to rolloff the unnecessary subsonics; this is usually done in hardware preamps or good mixing boards.

Unfortunately in the world of home recording a good hardware compressor is not always at hand, and the vocals are recorded directly in the input of the audio interface, and often the level of the interface is set in order not to clip, so the engineer asks to the singer "scream as loud as you can", adjusts the volume so that it doesn't clip and leave it like that for the whole recording session. 

This leads to a HUGE dynamic excursion, to the point that in the same track there will be parts inaudible (and invisible graphically) and others that will take all the headroom possible, and we will have to compress the s*** out of the track to obtain a little bit of consistency in volume, with the downside that when the compression is too strong it unavoidably will end up coloring/deteriorating our track a lot.

How to solve this problem? It's easy, with a tool called Clip Gain (in some DAW, for example in Pro Tools) or Event Gain (in Studio One):  it consists in cutting the track in sections with the same gain and adjusting them, by raising the parts that are too quiet and lowering those which are too loud in order to make them more consistent, so that when the track will hit the compressor it will do its job in a clean and pleasant way.

In order to change the event gain you need to click and hold the little square in the upper middle part of the event and drag it up or down to add or remove gain.

This operation belongs more to the Editing phase than to the mixing one, and it's somehow a bit boring and long, but believe me, if you arrive to the mixing phase with a volume that is consistent throughout the track before reaching the compressor, it will make a world of difference, also because riding the volume, which is something that was done before the existence of compression to keep the volume stable, is actually a cleaner way to set the right gain rather than compressing, and this is just a way to do it not in real time. 

I hope this was helpful!

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