Cab sim problems

[deadastronaut]

check for continuity along those +  -  rails on your breadboard, you may need to jumper the middle of them + -  blocks.

[pauljdehmer]

yeah i checked for that. their definitely getting continuity all across both top and bottom rows.

still cant figure this thing out.

[J0K3RX]

yeah i checked for that. their definitely getting continuity all across both top and bottom rows.

still cant figure this thing out.

That bread board layout looks odd to me?  Where is the other transistor, I only see one? Maybe it's hidden behind another component or something? Are using pots? I have built that 4 or 5 times with no problems... Get a better shot of it from directly above so I can kinda trace it out from the picture?

[pauljdehmer]

the other transistor is there, just hidden. heres some better photos. hopefully you can make out what's goin on. i'm really new to this stuff, but i think i got everything right.





if those aren't big enough i can post even higher res versions of those photos.

thanks for takin a look. i really wanna get into building more of these and understanding the circuit's. it's just really difficult to want to stick with it when my first two tries failed miserably.

[J0K3RX]

Dude, don't let it get you down man! We all started with failures.. Well, at least I know I did, I guess I can't speak for everyone else... It's how I learn! Hell, I still have about a 25% failure rate

Anyway, those pics are too small for me to make any sense of so I drew up a bread board layout for you. I could have done it in a smaller area on the bb but I wanted to spread it out so you can get a better view of how it goes together... I threw it together real fast so I hope I didn't make any mistakes, that would be embarrassing but I think it's right!  

Anyway, pull all that sh!t out and try this... Don't forget the 2 small green jumpers!  

It's real big so just right click and save to your PC
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11178619/Bread%20Board%20ROG%20CabSim.png

~ Jim

Edit: Oh damn! I forgot!
 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  

[pauljdehmer]

welp. still not workin. i ripped all the old components out and rebuilt it with your breadboard layout. and still no filtering. also i did notice you had one mistake in your layout. one of your 10nf caps is supposed to be a 100nf cap.   i even went through after that and tried all new 1/4w instead of the 1w resistors in the circuit.

a few things i did change in the circuit since i didn't have the correct pots: i used a 2k resistor instead of the 1.5k resistor and 5k pot to simulate a low setting on the pot. then i also used a 68k resistor instead of a 33k and 50k pot to simulate a very high setting on the bass pot. also i didn't have any 100nf caps so i used 2 47n caps in parallel to get as close as i could. would any of these things i did mess anything up?

[pauljdehmer]

one other thing i'd like to ask... do i need to put this pedal in the effects loop of my preamp? or can i put it before the preamp stage? right now i'm running it straight off the guitar and then the output into my preamp then the output of the preamp into the soundcard of my computer.

my thought is maybe there's not enough voltage from the pickups that can be processed by the components if it's before the preamp stage. could that be part of the problem?

[J0K3RX]

one other thing i'd like to ask... do i need to put this pedal in the effects loop of my preamp? or can i put it before the preamp stage? right now i'm running it straight off the guitar and then the output into my preamp then the output of the preamp into the soundcard of my computer.

my thought is maybe there's not enough voltage from the pickups that can be processed by the components if it's before the preamp stage. could that be part of the problem?

The guitar sould go into the input of the preamp and the output of the preamp should go into the input of the cabsim and the output of the cabsim should go to recording interface. not in the loop.

guitar -> preamp -> cabsim -> recording interface

[pauljdehmer]

welp... that was it the whole time. i put it after my preamp and before the soundcard input and it worked perfectly. the condor that i built previously even worked great with the signal chain in the proper order. i guess i should have figured that i would want it after the preamp, because well, thats where the speaker is right? duh. i feel like an idiot. but at the same time i'm pretty stoked and i can't wait to start building more stompboxes.

thanks for sticking with me and helping me out with this. hopefully my mistake can help someone else on here.

[petey twofinger]

how do you like it ?

i play line into the board with headphones , my tone aint terrible , i use the mixer out jack on a digitech pedal to warm it up a bit , but it could be better .

i tried software cabsim and the le pou cab was fantastic , but i had a tiny lag , and it seemed like huge over kill , running a pc just for a cab sim . 

congrats on getting it working , i struggle with trusting my work , often times when debugging i waste much time , thinking it is my work when 99 times it is just not plugged in or something silly !

have fun

[pauljdehmer]

my setup is my guitar into my marshall 9001, then the condor, then an maudio delta 1010, then into my daw (cubase). the 9001 doesn't have a speaker sim built in, so i was running a software cab sim, but when recording or playing back 10 simultaneous guitar tracks, all with cab sim plugins running, it can begin to bog down the processor.

as far as sound quality and realism, i did change a few values to make it closer to the "marshall" curve, and i think it's great. i have two other preamps i use for recording, a digitech valve fx, and a marshall jmp-1, both of which have cab sims built in. their cab sims and the condor are relatively similar, and final eqing is done in the daw to make everything perfect. i'll make some recordings tonight and post them up here.

[J0K3RX]

Glad you got it worked out! I had a Marshall 9001 years ago but got rid of it  That's a nice preamp, I regret getting rid of it along with the hundreds of other amps, preamps, cabs, guitars etc that I have sold/pawned/traded over the years...! Ya gotta do what ya gotta do when yer a poor untalented white boy Man, I really had some nice stuff too! Makes me want to puke thinking about it now

I use cabsims/impulses too, I love them! Since my computer is old and outdated I usually apply the impulses to some of the guitar tracks and save the originals to empty tracks and turn them off so it doesn't kill my processor... that way you can have all those tracks without the cabsim vst lagging the sound and then if you want to change them later you can drag the originals back in and edit them if needed or whatever. Just what I do cause my pc is a pile of sh!t

Anyway, looking forward to hearing some of your stuff!

[pauljdehmer]

yeah i know how you feel. i've let too much stuff go during some "spring cleanings" of the studio. but if someone else can use something thats just collecting dust, then all is well.

anyway thats a good idea about putting the destructive edits onto a separate track while keeping the original intact. my computer (core i3) can handle a lot of vst's running, but it is nice to have less effects running when bouncing and doing multitrack work at low latencies.

anyway i put the condor into an enclosure i've been preparing for it:



it's not much to look at. i got the wrong clear and it ate my base coat up, but it'll do. also i threw down a quick recording of how it sounds... even laid down some bass and drums on part of it too.

[pauljdehmer]

now that i've finished this project i'm thinking about building some more... and i've got a few questions.

first of all, i dont play out live anymore. all i do is record stuff in my studio, so i'm really into standalone preamps that have their own speaker sim outs. except now with my condor i dont necessarily need to have a speaker sim out on any preamps. so if i build some more distortion pedals (i'm looking into building the ROG Thor pedal next) will they also need a preamp stage after the pedal? or is the signal that comes out of the pedal already at line level?

ideally what i'd like to do is build some rackmountable versions of a bunch of distortion pedals, add some tone stacks, and run them into the condor, then into my recording interface. i guess what i'm asking is, would the signal chain work as guitar-thor-condor-interface? or would the signal chain have to be guitar-thor-preamp-condor-interface?

if it's the second option, is there a schematic out there that i could use as a preamp with a flat frequency response to simulate the cleanest boost of the pedal voltages to line level?

[J0K3RX]

The clip sounds good! To answer your question about the Thor, you can just run it straight into the Condor no problem... no need for a preamp after it as it is basically a preamp or can certainly act as one.

So, I assume it's safe to say you are a Marshall man!? Might want to consider a BSIAB or Robs (deadastronaut) Spitfire if you like higher gain... Great Marshall tone with either of those!

[fretzburner]

Jok3rx, did you test the hot line2 mods posted at the russian forum? it has vintage/modern switch.I'm making a perf for it but not yet finished.

[J0K3RX]

Jok3rx, did you test the hot line2 mods posted at the russian forum? it has vintage/modern switch.I'm making a perf for it but not yet finished.

Yes, I love the Hot Line 2 and the vintage/modern switch works good!!! Best cab sim I have ever used!!! I hardly even use impulses now!

By the way - The Simple Cab Sim sounds just as good but you just don't have any control since there isn't any pots or switches...

But, the Hot Line 2 wins by far! No bugs, flaws nothin... Works 100% and you can get so many different tones, styles, cabs, speaker sounds out of it.. Amazing circuit!!!

[deadastronaut]

Jok3rx, did you test the hot line2 mods posted at the russian forum? it has vintage/modern switch.I'm making a perf for it but not yet finished.

I hardly even use impulses now!

really, that good?..

man i gotta build that then...

[fretzburner]

Thanks for the feedback Jok3rx now it's all the way a green light for the Hot Line2.I will add one opamp to make the output balanced so we have both options 1/4in jack and xlr outputs.

[Sostenuto]

I realize that this is an old topic but if anyone is still watching this..

I am seeking for clarification about the hotline 2 cab sim's "sand-cut" function.
What does this do? Is it a treble-cut? 

Also, do the cabinet switches correspond to different cabinet models like 1x12,  2x12, 4x12..?

Any feedback is appreciated.  Thanks.