Magicstomp + Voxtonelab or not ?

[rockab22]

Hi !

I heard some great sounds of Shadows and Spotnicks fans using their Vox AC30 + Magicstomp.
Unfortunately i can't have an AC30. I already have the magicstomp which gives me great sounds from the past with my fender american vintage 57 but i wonder if i could improve my sound with something else.

Is the Voxtonelab ST going to give me a better sound with my Magicstomp ? (because i saw that it can creat the sound of a vox AC30)

I saw that a pod xt could create sounds of AC30/15. Is the voxtonelab better than the pod ?

Thanks in advance for your advices !

Cheers

Nico

[rogerbayliss]

I have a POD xt and Tonelab LE and out of the two I prefer the Tonelab as I find the tone is warmer but the POD too is quite good. I can use the MS with the either units anyway and on the Tonelab you have an option of using it as an inserted effect as well as going through MS into the Tonelab/POD input.

The POD does not have a builtin multitap delay the Tonelab does and can be used to generate some Shadows type delays (not exact though! but near enough) Charlie did a few settings for the Tonelabs a while back demonstrating this.

There are more models on the POD though..

[harley]

I use the ac30 model on my zoom g2.1u and my magicstomp for EFTP. i tried it both ways and both work but i prefer the EFTP of the stomp so i settled for that set up. I think any amp model is better than no none. I use this set up live, straight into a mixing desk. sounds pretty good to me and i get very favourable feedback from audiences. saves me lugging an amp around ;D

regards
Ian

[jesper]

Hi,

Where can Charlie's settings for Tonelab be found...?

Regards
Jesper

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Jesper,
It's here:
charliehall.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=saved&thread=244&page=1#687
Regards,
Charlie

[rockab22]

Thanks all for your answer. I have other questions

Will a get a sound similar of VOX AC30 + Magicstomp with EFTP with VOXTonelab ST + Magicstomp with EFTP ?

If i already use a magicstomp with eftp, will i have to use the eftp settings for the voxtonelab (even if i just want to use it only as an amp)?

And final question : Do you advise me to buy the voxtonelab ? Is it going to improve the sound of my Magicstomp ?

Thanks in advance for your answers !

Cheers

Nico

[macnik]

Hi Nico

I have both the Pod and the Tonelab, and have to say that the Tonelab gives me a sound very close to what I can remember of the '60s Vox tone.

I use the Tonelab all the time now, but the Pod gives me better Fender sounds when I want them. Both units are good so you have to listen to them both if it's possible, and then decide which one gets closer to the sound you want. I don't use an amp these days just the Tonelab.

A lot of the members here use the Magicstomp and get excellent sounds with different amps/amp simulations.

Cheers
Ian

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Nico,
I think that using the Tonelab could sound similar to using the AC30 but it will also depend on the settings in the Tonelab as there are many to choose from. You should not need to use the Tonelab when you are using a real AC30 amp. You do not need EFTP settings in the Tonelab if you use the Magicstomp with it.
Regards,
Charlie

[rockab22]

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for your answer . Unfortunately, i can't have a real AC30...

Do you advise me to buy a tonelab to play with my magicstomp ? Is it really going to improve my shadows/spotnicks sounds ?

The settings of the tonelab ac30 are going to be difficult?

Thanks in advance for your answer

Cheers

Nico

[harley]

visit a few music shops and try as many pedals as you can is my advice. if you can take your own guitar along so much the better. ive found the only way to hear how it will sound with your guitar is try it. plenty of music shops will hand you something nice and expensive to try a pedal out knowing it going to sound good. your own guitar and a nice clean sounding amp will show the pedals true colours

cheers
Ian

[garystrat]

Hi Nico

The settings on the Tonelab are not difficult if you down-load the VOX Sound Editor from their site, you will also need a midi interface, this gives a complete visual of nearly all the settings and provides two way transfer of edited files.

The midi interface I use is a M-Audio Midi Sport Uno (about £35.00). For a while I went back to computer software emulation with just a Magicstomp plus compressor (software emulation was Amplitube 3 or Logic Pro 9), but inspired by this thread decided to try my Tonelab LE once more.

I took a different approach this time by only using the AC30/AC15 Settings on the Tonelab (matching amp and cab, with no MOD, Reverb, Delay etc.), plus MagicStomp with Charlie's Patches in the send/return loop, to my ear this sounds very VOX like. The only other addition I have is a Home Brew Compressor between guitar and Tonelab.

The setting I used are:

Gain 2.9
VR Gain 10.0
Treble 5.0
Middle 5.0
Bass 2.0
Presence (Pseudo cut control) 2.8
CH Vol 5.5
NR Sens 6.8
Prog LVL 3.0

Because the MagicStomp is in the send/return loop, "Insert' is set to on, but I don't believe you have this option on a Tonelab ST.

The other option that I sometime use now is a little VOX DA 5 amp, this has line outputs which disable the internal speaker, for the price the results are very good and VOX like. Recently I updated a Zoom Q2 with Charlie's latest patches for a friend and we tried them out on this with remarkable results, but he is a professional HBM Tribute artist.

Whether one is better than another is likely to be very subjective. Personally, I am still of the view that a great deal of "that sound" is down to playing style.

Hope this helps

Gary

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Nico,
I tried a Tonelab for a few days at home and thought the amp models were quite good. I did not like the compressor effect though. I have not tried the other popular choices of the Pod models.
Regards,
Charlie

[rockab22]

Charlie, Gary, Harley

Thanks for all your advises and help !

Cheers

Nico

[martyn]

Just to add my ten pence worth, until recently I'd always used a TonelabLE, then a TonelabST, but always felt something was lacking - incidentally, Charlie's right in that theTonelabs' compressor effects aren't their best features, to put it politely . . .

I'd recently played through a friend's Behringer V-Amp and desktop speakers and thought its Vox emulation was way better than my Tonelab's. His sound was brighter, richer and punchier than mine and as he has an AC30 too, we could compare the results side by side. I liked what I heard.

Given the huge difference in tonal quality that his V-Amp/desktop speakers offered, I thought my speakers might be the culprits and when I went home and tried things again I was immediately struck by their duller tones. However I decided I wouldn't invest in new ones until I was absolutely certain they really were the culprits and a process of elimination was obviously needed.

I couldn't find anywhere locally that kept the Behringer units but after some research that invariably kept pointing me to the various Line6 Pod range instead, I was tempted by a PodXT that happened to be up for sale locally at a good price and figured if I wasn't impressed I could always flog it on the well known auction site again and try the speaker change option. I should, of course, have tried the Tonelab through my friend's speakers but we don't always think of the obvious at the time . . .

However the Gods were obviously smiling upon me because I bought the PodXT anyway and what a major difference it made to my guitars! Suddenly they came to life and, unlike the TonelabST that has no such option (the LE does), there's a software package comes with it that allows me to control its various settings on my computer screen, which I (and you may) find useful. The Pod instantly made it perfectly clear that my speakers were fine and didn't require replacing, which was another positive result. The only logical conclusion reached was that the Tonelab was the component in the chain that wasn't performing as I wished.

My view is that the various Vox and Fender (plus many other amps) settings on the Pod are extremely accurate representations of the real amps played live, which I don't feel the Tonelabs do nearly so well. They produce an acceptable studio-recorded amp sound but no matter how I'd tweaked or adjusted things, I felt they struggled to emulate the punchy live sound that's so distinctive with these amps (anyone who's played through the real amps in anger will appreciate this striking difference and the 'live' and studio sounds really do differ for a multitude of reasons, in case anyone thinks I'm potty!).

Similarly, the Pods can reproduce the studio-recorded Vox/Fender/other amp tones uncannily well - the reverb effects are silky smooth and whilst there are many features/effects I'll probably never want, as happens with many such products, those it has that I use are superb, including an array of different compressors plainly so much better than the Tonelabs'.

Many out there are playing/recording using a Tonelab and getting superb results (as does Gary, for example) and I could have just been unlucky in never somehow finding my Tonelabs' best settings but I did experiment ad nauseam for many, many months prior to buying the Pod, which for me has been one of my better purchases and has totally transformed my sound.
Gary knows I've been on this endless quest for 'that sound' for many moons and we frequently get together to discuss this (and play guitars at our monthly South West Shads Club meetings). He is absolutely right regarding the playing styles of the individuals, but I feel anything on the hardware/software side that helps me get closer in my quest is always worth investigating and I believe the PodXT was one extremely positive step in the right direction.

As far as the echoes are concerned I have a Magicstomp and an Alesis Q2, both programmed with Charlie's patches and each does a superb job. I feel the key change (sorry no pun intended!) for me was buying the PodXT but it's just my experience and you may find differently. Hope this doesn't cloud your decision making.

Cheers,
Martyn

[GAJ52]

Hi Martyn

I too am currently using a Tonelab LE which to my ears is ok but I feel I'm still missing something.

Which PodXT do you use, the desktop (kidney shaped one) or the floor unit. Do you know if they both have the sound you describe ?

Glen

[Deleted]

Hi Martyn, Glen. I can also vouch for Line 6 amp sims. I use the pod xt live for gigging and recording. I have tried all sorts of effects processors, and I know in the end it comes down to personal preference but Line 6 amp models are amazing. I may have mentioned this before somewhere but I have a couple of very talented mates who amongst other projects go out as a two man Beatles tribute. They have appeared on BBCs The One Show and also played in Liverpool during the culture year. They both use the Pod XT Live and Rickenbacker guitars and produce an extremely accurate Beatles sound. No amps, the pod straight into the p.a.
Regards
Graham

[martyn]

Oct 5, 2010 18:39:41 GMT GAJ52 said:

Which PodXT do you use, the desktop (kidney shaped one) or the floor unit. Do you know if they both have the sound you describe ?
Glen

Hi Glen,
It's the desktop kidney one but as far as I'm aware each version has the same sound quality. I think there's a newer POD3 now that has recordng software within but I believe it's still essentially an XT with a few added frills. I didn't need the added software (or cost!), which is why I opted for the XT.
Cheers,
Martyn

[GAJ52]

Graham / Martyn

Thanks for your comments, the PodXT sounds interesting.

Now do I go out and spend more money, I don't really have, chasing that sound or do I settle for what I already have

Glen