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Darkglass Cab Sim Noise
- Thread starter AndrewJamess
- Start date
I'm not sure, but what do you mean by saturation? Are you saying that when you turn down the Master Volume on the outside of the pedal with these new IRs that there is added distortion? Or are you not turning down the Master to compensate and overdriving your interface? You'll probably want to mess around with each IR to figure out the ideal blend of internal Gain level and Master Volume to get the highest signal to noise ratio without added digital distortion at the output. With my Rickenbackers (which are pretty low output) I can crank the internal Gain most of the way without overdriving the digital signal, but also must lower the Master because this raises the entire signal at the XLR output quite a bit.
You're right, that was a bit imprecise from my part. I'm using a high-output Spector with active pickups, which don't produce a whole lot of noise. For some reason, when messing around with the Suite I've ended up with the gain set to 0 which is way higher than the initial -9db. The result was a very muddy and distorted sound, with almost no contour and attack. By lowering the Master slider I've managed to lower the volume, but it still sounded like there's too much gain. After resetting the pedal to factory settings, which also set the cabsim gain at -9db the signal became "healthy" again.
Hi Doug,
I just bought a Dark Glass B7K Ultra V2, and I am experiencing the noise everyone is talking about. I followed your recommendations, brought the cab sim level (in the DG Suite) all the way up, and raised the master volume (since it seems to sit pre-cab sim in the signal chain) to get a good SNR, however it now seems an inline PAD is necessary on the XLR output otherwise this thing is way too loud and clips the mixing board inputs. It seems the cab sim level in the DG Suite is simply a sensitivity input for the cab sim, and the output of the cab sim is at a fixed volume.
Is there an update coming soon to allow us to tweak the output level of the cab sim? Right now i have my DGB7KV2 hooked into a Behringer DI (just so I can use the pad) before it hits my mixing board, and while it works, this is less than ideal. It seems this entire issue could be fixed through software and would make alot of people happy.
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- Dec 10, 2008
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- Disclosures
- Douglas Castro, Founder: darkglass.com
Hi! Did you try the latest firmware update? We have corrected some things along the way software-wise but it will depend on what version you're currently running.
If this does not help you can contact [email protected], my team can probably suggest other tricks to help optimize noise performance.
Kind regards,
D.
Interesting- you found that you needed to raise the Master after raising the software volume? With my AOU I found raising the software volume was sufficient, and I was able to lower the Master as necessary (raising the Master after boosting the input in the software seemed to cause some other internal clipping from my experience).
I have the master at 12 noon, and it is perfect with the cab sim at 0, for me the best signal to noise ratio. The level is great if i run the xlr output into a line input in the mixer board.
I'm currently using firmware 1.2, if i run the xlr output to my mixers trs input using an adapter cable the signal is fine. It seems to work well this way. Live at band practice i would be using the trs output without the cab sim into my power amp, so i guess i've sorted it all out.
Also, in the manual it states both direct outputs xlr and 1/4" are balanced, is this correct? Also is the DG vst plugin free with the purchase of the pedal?
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- Dec 10, 2008
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- 5,803
- 4,571
- Disclosures
- Douglas Castro, Founder: darkglass.com
You actually found a typing error on the manual, where the DI Output is listed twice, sorry about that.
The 1/4" output is not-balanced.
And the Darkglass Ultra Plugin is a product sold separately by Neural DSP.
Kind regards,
D.
The 1/4" output is not-balanced.
And the Darkglass Ultra Plugin is a product sold separately by Neural DSP.
Kind regards,
D.
Ah ok that makes sense, thanks! Loving the pedal btw, without a doubt the best bass tones ever.
The DG Suite said I was up to date with 1.2.
- Dec 10, 2008
- 2,341
- 5,803
- 4,571
- Disclosures
- Douglas Castro, Founder: darkglass.com
Great! I'm using MD421 IR, -12db and master volume at noon and it's work great for me. There is a little noise, but nothing out of the expected. On headphones and on PA, no annoying noise.
Hi,
so after owning the pedal for quite some time, I'm still finding quite annoying the amount of hiss coming from the cab sim. I did what was proposed here by @Darkglass and even though it reduces the hiss, or improves the SNR so that you can reduce the hiss by tweaking your settings somewhere else, the noise is still quite audible coming from the PA, particularly in moments when you or the band are not playing, which has made me turn the cab sim off all together. As I posted before, I wouldn't have expected these sort of problems in a device in the price point of this pedal, so I guess my question is if there is any solution for this problems in the works in the form of firmware updates, or if this is just something that you have to live with, which would make me seriously reconsider if I want to keep this in my board.
Thanks again,
LEo
so after owning the pedal for quite some time, I'm still finding quite annoying the amount of hiss coming from the cab sim. I did what was proposed here by @Darkglass and even though it reduces the hiss, or improves the SNR so that you can reduce the hiss by tweaking your settings somewhere else, the noise is still quite audible coming from the PA, particularly in moments when you or the band are not playing, which has made me turn the cab sim off all together. As I posted before, I wouldn't have expected these sort of problems in a device in the price point of this pedal, so I guess my question is if there is any solution for this problems in the works in the form of firmware updates, or if this is just something that you have to live with, which would make me seriously reconsider if I want to keep this in my board.
Thanks again,
LEo
How (un)cool is that you never see these things happening or being mentioned in those damn video demos and reviews we all rely upon...my AOU suffers the same issue: with Cabsim on, noise is like a river flowing
I assume you have tried raising the internal gain via the Darkglass Suite then lowering the Master Volume to compensate? I found my old AOU quite noisy through the CabSim as well until I did this adjustment. The EQ on the AOU is definitely inherently noisier than any of the other DG pedals anyway though, even with the distortion channel turned off- I didn't find the EQ noise on its own to be a big issue for me except when combined with the CabSim noise until I adjusted the Gain on the computer, which put it pretty much on par with the Drive/ CabSim plugins I have in Logic (which you also have to adjust for optimum Input/Output gain, though the meters make this much easier!). I recorded a few records with the AOU DI'ed with CabSim without issue. I find the X-Ultra significantly quieter than that even (as in barely perceptible noise through headphones with CabSim engaged), so its interesting to hear of people having big issues with the B7KU and VU which should be along the lines of the X-Ultra noise-wise (the AOU apparently used a noisier EQ topology).How (un)cool is that you never see these things happening or being mentioned in those damn video demos and reviews we all rely upon...my AOU suffers the same issue: with Cabsim on, noise is like a river flowing
How (un)cool is that you never see these things happening or being mentioned in those damn video demos and reviews we all rely upon...my AOU suffers the same issue: with Cabsim on, noise is like a river flowing
Exactly! And specially for the price point of these things, you would expect for an issue like this to be mentioned and quickly solved by darkglass, but they don’t really seem to care.
Hello guys, I'm from Chile and a few months back I bought an Alpha Omega Ultra from OverdriveCL which is the official dealer here in my country.
I can tell you I'm having the same problem with my AOU. I managed to reduce the hiss using the software suite, and apparently the MD421 Impulse Response has less noise than the others, so I decided to leave that one on the pedal. I wanted to use the Nolly Mega Meld IR, but the other one has less noise. This is for the balanced XLR output.
But the issue is not only that. The hiss is persistant through the 1/4' output as well.
I noticed this because I recently got a Microtubes 900V2 head, and it's really clean, even with the B3K or Vintage distortions at high level. But when I engage my Alpha Omega Ultra pedal I get a hiss that is really annoiying, specially for recordings.
I can tell you I'm having the same problem with my AOU. I managed to reduce the hiss using the software suite, and apparently the MD421 Impulse Response has less noise than the others, so I decided to leave that one on the pedal. I wanted to use the Nolly Mega Meld IR, but the other one has less noise. This is for the balanced XLR output.
But the issue is not only that. The hiss is persistant through the 1/4' output as well.
I noticed this because I recently got a Microtubes 900V2 head, and it's really clean, even with the B3K or Vintage distortions at high level. But when I engage my Alpha Omega Ultra pedal I get a hiss that is really annoiying, specially for recordings.
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