EQ Magazine - June 2008 - (Page 59)

by David Royer CONTINUED FROM PAGE 56 LIST PRICE: $395 LE/RTAS, $595 TDM CONTACT: www.digidesign.com PEAVEY REVALVER MKIII Until now, any amp modeling software you installed in your Mac or PC was developed by a company more used to ones and zeros than 12AX7s and EL34s. Not so with Peavey: A company that cut its teeth on actual tube amps has taken the leap into the software realm. Like most other modeler developers, Peavey mimics the interaction among amp components. Unlike other companies, Peavey lets you get “under the hood” yourself—no screwdriver, soldering iron, or programming skills required. After you load any of the software’s brand name amps, preamps, or power amps into the virtual rack, clicking on that module’s plus (+) sign allows you to alter the specs of the plate loads, cathode resistors, bias time shift constants, power supply, transformers, negative feedback loop, and more. The speakers that load with the preset amps are modeled by a “convolution speaker simulation” module; that is to say, from recordings of the actual speaker cabinets, using a specific mic and miking location. Options of the same cabinet with a different mic choice and placement are available. Convolution is CPU-hungry, so a Resample button reduces the module’s appetite while retaining sonic detail. Unfortunately the Convolution module groups cabinet options by the sources from which they were recorded, so if you want to try out, say, different 1x12 combos, you need to jump around among multiple categories; I find this slows down workflow. The less CPU-intensive, more tweakable, “Speaker Construction Set” module allows adjusting the cabinet’s width, height, and depth (without woodworking tools!), the type and number of speakers, the mic model, its distance, radius, and angle. All the typical amp clones are available—Marshall, Fender, Vox, and Boogie, as well as six different Peavey amp models (hey, it’s their software, and some of these models are coming up on classic status themselves). The usual effect suspects are on hand as well: distortions/ overdrives, compressor/limiters, delays, reverbs, chorus, flanger, phaser, vibrato, attack decay, wah/filter, noise gate, EQs, and octave divider. ReValver also supplies some extras, like stereo widening and channel delay. A unique feature is the “VST host,” a module that can host the VST plug-ins in your collection, allowing you to load them into the ReValver rack. Some plugs work better than others; my free plugins and Cycling ’74 Pluggo effects functioned, while Native Instruments’ Reaktor and Guitar Rig crashed the software. [Editor’s note: With the latest rev of ReValver, we could load not only Reaktor and Guitar Rig, but any VST effects we threw at it—including the processing sections of software synthesizers. So it seems this bug has been fixed.] Being able to use your favorite VST plugs with ReValver in standalone mode is a great feature. In terms of sounding and feeling like a real amp, ReValver is easily the best software I’ve tried. You can always argue whether the Marshall, Vox, Fender, or Peavey model sounds exactly like the amp that you own, but in terms of just great amp tone, I will stack (no pun intended) ReValver against any other software, and more than a few boutique amps. You can really feel the “tubes” sagging when you dig in, and the depth and richness of many of the tones makes reverb superfluous. This alone makes ReValver worth getting, but all that tweak power is not just a gimmick—it really works in a musical way. ReValver doesn’t come with a Fender Deluxe model, but by swapping out the 6L6s in the “Bassic 100” for 6V6s I was able to make my own. Really! Single triode tube and tone stack modules can be racked up to build your own amps and preamps. By joining a Bluesmaker 62 tone stack with three 12AX7s and a KT66, then adding a 4x12 cabinet, I created my own personal Marshall, and it sure sounded good. On the MA-100 “How does such a small mic make such a big sound? This Ross Hogarth (Grammy winning Producer/Engineer, Ziggy Marley, Jewel, Keb Mo, Black Crowes, REM) On the MA-200 “I've tracked great sounding vocals, drums, guitars and bass through these mics, and my clients are consistently blown away by the results. From the moment I first put a pair up, they have continued to impress me with a wide open and balanced Ryan Hewitt (Engineer/Mixer: Red Hot Chili Peppers, blink-182, Alkaline Trio) Visit mojaveaudio.com for studio photos and audio samples. www.eqmag.com JUNE 2008 EQ 59 http://mojaveaudio.com http://www.digidesign.com http://mojaveaudio.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - June 2008

EQ Magazine - June 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board 3 Doors Down, Hard-Fi, Paul Manousos Tool Box Panic at the Disco Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Cakewalk Projects Apple Loops Utility SSL Duende Mini JBL LSR4326/PAK & LSR4312SP Holophone H3-D Creation Audio Labs MW1 Studio Tool Amp Modeler Roundup Eventide Timefactor, Electro-Harmonix Stereo Pedals, Korg Pandora PX5D Room with a Vu: Blues Tunes Studios, Silverlake, CA

EQ Magazine - June 2008

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