|
Picked up a Twin Tube the other day so here's some biased impressions:
This preamp is very quiet. Ubiquitous Digitech front pannel with
programming interface similar to the DSP 128/256. Accepts midi footswitch
controller. The mix knob on the front is replaced with a second mono
input jack which disables the back input jack when in use.
Nits:
I think the front input/output/mix knobs are great for fine tunning on
the spot without having to go into the programming menu, so I miss the
mix knob (I have yet to be ON THE SPOT where I might really need this).
The input gain knob turns into a subtle saturation/tone like control
when both tube gain and saturation are cranked up (10-11). In this state
the actual input gain remains just under the red. Normally I set the input
knob and forget about it, so I'm not sure how serious this is. I've tested
this on other units with same result.
The tube/w signal output gain menu is on the other side of the EQ section
to the tube gain/saturation menues. Currently I'll set an EQ I like and then
adjust tube charactistics for gradiated sound values which means sliding
across the 7 EQ adjustments to balance out overall gain. A bit of a pain if
you want to create presets from cream to crunch on a specific EQ curve.
The feedback FX adjustment value (chorus, flang, delay) seems a bit coarse
(10 step intervals to 100), but the mix and level menues allow for
compensation. I don't have a gripe about the FX sound (sounds as good as
any other digital device), just the value granularity for feedback control.
This has not been a problem so far.
Only liked a few of the 60 presets.
Pro:
Sounds Great! After finding THE EQ setting, was able to build 15 clean
tube patches in a couple of hours on that EQ curve that cry out for
tunes from various music genera. From a nice warm creamy tone ala mellow
Jimmy Page to raw and crunchy. I'm having trouble starting work on distorted
tube and solid state programming because every time I power up the Twin Tube
I just can't pass up sampling those clean tube settings. Haven't had a chance
to play with the midi interface yet but the foot switch is on the way. At
this time I've disabled the digital FX mode since I already have an FX box.
I plan to go back and create a second bank of favorites and add in
appropriate delay...should I ever be ON THE SPOT and my main FX box dies.
The Twin T also features speaker simulator mode, again haven't tried this
mode, but will get back when I do.
Haven't done an A/B comparison against boxes like the MP1, Gallien K...
but for a midi programmable preamp, the price was hard to beat.
I've played around with various dist/fuzz boxes for some years and have never
been satisfied with the results as I've been over the past few days using
this preamp.
Mark
|