Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Recording Pre or Triaxis?

[intini]

Hi,

I am new to the forum, but I did a search on preamps and could not find anything that would answer my question.
I am recording with ProTools LE 7.4 with Digi002. I use LiquidMix as well. I have a POD XT Pro, a Focusrite ISA430MkII with the digital expansion, and a Neumann U87 mic.
As I am starting a new project, basically instrumental guitar music, I want to get a new preamp to go with my new JEM7V WH.
I need the best possible preamp to record my guitar into ProTools. I can not use an amp with my mic, tough. Just can't do it because of the noise generated - out of question. The kind of tone I am looking for is something like Vai, Satriani, Petruti and also a nice heavily distorted sounds for rhythm.
Obviously I would want balanced outputs from such preamp to maximise signal/noise ratio.
I can still use my ISA430 as a front-end for ProTools.
I was looking at the Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Pre and the Triaxis. Looks like the Triaxis is very versatile but not so well suited for recording - has no balanced outputs and would need speaker simulation?. The Rectifier looks more suited for recording, but has a somewhat limited versatility - and also needs speaker simulation?
Budget is not an issue. The only constraint is noise, otherwise I could get Vai's rig ;-)

Thanks a lot for any input!

Cheers,

Intini

P.S: I am very happy to have found this forum! Thank you all!

[David McCarroll]

I have a TriAxis version2 - it does in fact have emulated outputs, and I believe they are balanced. Have recorded much stuff direct to disk through ProTools with this amp, and with a reasonable bit of tweaking you can pull some lovely sounds out of it. What it DOESN'T do is Rectifier like tone - but then again, that's why I chose the TriAxis in the first place!

Somewhere on the internet there is a TriAxis users forum - it's pretty good in terms of providing you with more info than you would ever want!

Cheers

David

[intini]

Thanks a lot, David!
I am also new to Mesa/Boggie amps. Is the rectifier tones the most saturated tones (distorted)? How do they compared to other Mesa tones?
Can you get pretty distorted, but still clear, tones for nice solos? And pretty distorted tones for rhythmic parts?

Do you connect your Triaxis straight into ProTools without any other preamp? Do you use ProTools LE?

Thanks a lot!

[David McCarroll]

Ummm - the TriAxis has absolutely ridiculous amounts of overdrive/distortion if you desire it - I DON'T play metal/hard rock music, so the more extreme settings I just haven't explored - but to give you a clue, for the most gritty tones I ever needed, it was a '57 reissue Les Paul on one of the lead channels with the drive and pre-amp level set to about 3.5 - this got me a sort of super tight, vintage Marshall sort of drive which just seemed to sit beautifully in any mix (particularly double tracked then panned hard right and hard left) - likewise, this sort of setting, but with the output level set a little higher was fantastic for any overdriven lead sounds I wanted. The triaxis has several different lead sounds, using different methods of driving the tubes, so you can choose between slightly spongy brown sounds, and super tight, pointy lead/rhythm tones that demand super clean playing as they really, seriously show up every nuance of your playing.

Generally when recording, we'd run an Alesis compressor before the TriAxis to smooth out the guitar signal a touch, then straight through a Mackie desk (purely for monitoring convenience) and directly into Pro-Tools - in those days a Digi001 running a beta copy of ProTools LE 5.1 (the first 32 track version). For almost all th etracks, we eventually borrowed a friend's vintage guitar shop for a weekend, and re-amped all the guitar tracks through a Mesa Stereo 2:90 and a vintage Marshall quad, and an even more vintage Orange quad box - you could hear it for miles! IN the end we simply used the re-amped tracks to add a "room" sound to the tracks, and they sat just behind the direct recorded tracks, again panned hard right and hard left - great fun!

The TriAxis just doesn't do that scooped mid Rectifier sound that well (or at least I certainly could never find a setting that caught this sound), which is why they released the Rectifier Preamp - you can probably saturate the Rectifier Pre a little more, but God only knows why you'd need this much overdrive!

If you want to read up a bit, Mesa Boogie have all the user manuals downloadable as PDF documents from their website - that should tell you a bit about what each one is capable of.

[Lefty Robb]

Originally Posted by David McCarroll

The TriAxis just doesn't do that scooped mid Rectifier sound that well (or at least I certainly could never find a setting that caught this sound), which is why they released the Rectifier Preamp - you can probably saturate the Rectifier Pre a little more, but God only knows why you'd need this much overdrive!

Will the Phat mod on a Triaxis help achieve that?

[David McCarroll]

No, I don't think it really does - I could be wrong, but I think the Phat Mod is actually a mod done to a series 1 TriAxis to change (erm) Lead 1 Red into what is called the "Recto" Mode - which is what Lead 1 Red on a series 2 TriAxis is already - if you trawl around on the TriAxis forum quite a few guys have had this mod reversed as they found they preferred the original Lead 1 Red sound anyway.

The only other change between a series 1 and series 2 TA is that Mesa rewrote the operating software to accept MIDI continuous controller info - so for example you could use an expression pedal to wind a channel from clean to super saturated while resetting all the tone settings gradually as you push the pedal to the floor - super, dooper cool, but way too much hard work for my extremely simple brain to grok!

[intini]

David,

Thanks again! That was extremely helpful.
I read the manual for the Triaxis and for the Rectifier Recorder and I found that the Rectifier has balanced outputs, but the manual for the Triaxis just didn't mention anything. Is it possible for you to check if your Triaxis has balanced outputs? If that is not too much trouble, of course.
Would you agree that the Triaxis is more flexible than the Rectifier Recorder?

Cheers,

Intini

[David McCarroll]

Um - might not be too easy as it is currently languishing in a storage facility a couple of miles from where I live currently (in the process of moving) - try emailing Mesa Boogie themselves - they apparently are very good at answering questions.

I haven't really played through a Recto Pre, so you are getting only my subjective point of view here, but the Recto Pre was basically designed to capture Recto sounds direct to disk/tape/whatever, whereas the TriAxis was designed to be as flexible as possible - at some stage or another, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, John Petrucci, Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Andy Summers and John Scofield have used them, so they are certainly flexible!

It's not a modelling pre amp in any way shape or form - that's not what it is designed to do - the TA has its own voice, which I find perfect for my needs, and is in any case a damned good voice by any standard.

[quiksilverdew]

^Don't forget Jari Maenpaa!

[David McCarroll]

Originally Posted by quiksilverdew

^Don't forget Jari Maenpaa!

I would't if I knew who he was??????

[quiksilverdew]

Hehe, not many do unfortunately. Great great tone! Jem7V + Triaxis = gold!

EDIT: Can't forget the magic in the fingers, of course!

[Anton Zedd]

You may want to try the Axetrak recorder, its a tiny iso-box for guitar. Just use your favourite 50w marshall head (hint) and speaker out to the Axetrak> chandler germanium pre-amp> audio interface> protools LE.

I've done it, it sounds killer. But I'd say 95% of it is in the fingers for sure.




Anton Zedd
www.myspace.com/antonzedd

[intini]

Thanks a lot for all your help!

[Lefty Robb]

Anyone try a Formula preamp? I seem em on the bay all the time for very reasonable prices, just wondering how they sound. Do they really have that uber mesa tone or are they as much a POS as that pedal?

[intini]

I am also trying SoftTube Vintage Amp Room plug-in. It sound really great. They have demos versions. Also, now SoftTube has this Acoustic Feedback plug-in that emulates the interation between the guitar and the speaker - now THIS plug-in is a must have if you don't actually mic your guitar, IMHO.
I am still analysing the possibilities regarding the Triaxis/Rectifer.