Retraction and apology to LD and Vox (Re: Vox Tonelab for looping)

[msottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

Hoo boy, do I feel like a jerk.

... but I'd feel like more of a jerk if I didn't apologies.  Last night 
I got my gear back together in my studio after my gig on Monday, and I 
noticed a volume drop and kind of odd low level distortion that I 
couldn't quite place.  Sounded like it does when my Steinberger's 
battery is dying, but I just put in a fresh expensive battery a week 
ago... the day I bought the Vox Tonelab.

O' oh.  Can you see where this is going?  I took out the battery and 
low and behold, my tongue told me that it was nearly dead.  What?  Huh. 
  They usually last a lot longer that that... unless...

I went to get it's sister still in the blister pack.  Dead as well.  
Never used.  Still well within the expiration, but clearly not a good 
battery.  I ran out and got another pack of batteries (tested in the 
car to make sure) and low and behold: The volume doubled and I had a 
crisp clear output as I usually do.  I kicked off the EQ'd I'd been 
using and of course my patches sounded brittle and way bright... but 
not bright in that ugly distorted way I'd been complaining about.  A 
half an hour of tweaking and I had a few banks of great sounding 
patches... sans post EQ.

Lesson?  Lick your 9 volts before you install them I guess.  The 
Tonelab was putting out garbage because my guitar was sending it 
garbage.  I haven't had a huge amount of time to spend with it since 
the battery change, but this morning it sounded glorious to my ears.  I 
was quick to think this was an issue with the Tonelab itself because 
there were a fair amount of posts on the Tonelab list that described 
the exact same thing, even to the point where the basic EQ pattern was 
agreed on.  Oh well, lesson learned.  Check this baby out, I think 
people will be generally impressed with it as an amp/stompbox modeler 
and as a looper.

On Jun 18, 2004, at 9:11 AM, Greg House wrote:
>>
>
> I think that's part of it. I have a Yamaha DG Stomp and the best I've 
> ever heard
> it sound was when I was playing it through a loud PA. To my ear, it's 
> just ok
> when it comes to recording, but when it was pumping in a floor monitor 
> (like
> having a real amp next to me) it took on a life I'd not heard before.

You're probably experiencing a combination of your ears ability to hear 
bass better at louder volumes coupled with natural acoustic feedback.  
Hard to do when you're landlord lives below you, but I know what you 
mean.  I can kind of get there using the Sustainiac that's installed in 
my Steinberger, but it's not quite the same.

Mark