TMM
Member
After picking up my Torpedo CAB (http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-e ... raris.html), which I was absolutely thrilled with, I quickly became interested in everything else Two-Notes had to offer. Then, while browsing their website, I noticed they were offering a Musikmesse bundle of the Torpedo CAB bundled with the PI-101 'Wall of Sound' (WoS) plugin, at which point I immediately contacted Two-Notes to see if I could get in on that deal since I'd only just recently bought the CAB. They graciously put me in contact with a stateside representative at Diffusion Audio, who hooked me up. A big thank you to both companies!
(As a side note, I should also point out that Two-Notes' customer service is incredible. I was initially having some trouble hooking the CAB up to Torpedo Remote, and they were incredibly responsive and helpful)
Before I get too much further, let me present you with:
>>> http://soundcloud.com/themammonmachine/20130508-two-notes-pi-101 <<<
Details
Guitar signal path:
KxK Sii8 --> ISP Decimator --> TC Nova Drive --> AMT SS30 Bulava --> Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP --> PI-101 WoS --> Stillwell Audio Rocket Compressor --> Valhalla Room (on the leads only)
PI-101 guitar info:
PP 6L6 triode poweramp | Kerozen 4x12 (Diezel V30) | Dynamic 421 mic
PP 6L6 pentode poweramp | AnglC (ENGL V30) | Dynamic 57 mic
Bass signal path:
Starr Labs Mini-Z --> Signals Audio Zombass 3 --> Ignite Amps SHB-1 --> PI-101 WoS --> ReaEQ (high/low pass) --> Stillwell Audio Rocket Compressor
PI-101 bass info:
PP KT88 pentode poweramp | Fridge 8x10 (Ampeg) | Dynamic Bass 52 mic
PP 6L6 pentode poweramp | Alu XL 4x10 (Hartke) | Dynamic 57 mic
Master has some compression / limiting being performed with a few different plugins
In 3 words - I love it. WoS uses all the same algorithms that are contained in the CAB, but with the ability to run multiple, completely separate signal chains at the same time, mixed / panned however you like (Two-Notes' site says up to 100! I've only tried running 2 at a time so far
). Having everything up on-screen at once makes tweaking a breeze. As with the CAB, I found myself again being amazed with how much changing the 'distance' and 'center' controls actually sounds like moving a mic around in front of a cab. In addition to all the features of the CAB, WoS has an on-board exciter, which is useful for fine-tuning the 'air' in your tone, and a built-in, fully tweakable compressor to adjust your attack. I used the WoS compressor minimally, leaving most of the compression work to Stillwell Rocket, because I like that it has parallel compression.
I did notice a slight, minimally audible difference in the tone I was getting from the CAB vs the same settings on WoS. Not better or worse, just a little different, and I attribute this to differences in actual hardware (converters / etc on the CAB vs preamps in my Focusrite Saffire). Also, moving from hardware (the CAB) to a plugin, I was curious how the latency and CPU usage would compare, and I'm very pleased to say that WoS has extremely low latency (< 0.3ms according to their site). It's very playable in real time, so much so that I'll admit I found myself more than once just jamming through it and enjoying the tone when I had intended to just be getting the clip down and posted. This was one of the key benefits I found with the CAB, because in my previous setup, which included an IR loader, the latency was great enough that I couldn't monitor my recorded tone in real time, and I'm happy to say that I'm getting the same benefit from WoS. What this means for me is that when I want to quickly get an idea down, I can just plug my guitar directly into my interface to play on virtual amps, and still have the benefit of Two-Notes' tone and minimal latency for real time monitoring (already tried this - it sounds awesome with LePou's Le456 and Legion).
I'll note that, unlike any other cab sim I've worked with that sounded great on guitars, PI-101 sounds equally awesome and is equally well-equipped for bass. I'm loving my current bass tone (virtual signal path listed above) so much that I've actually decided to leave the bass totally exposed (even solo!) in some sections of the song. I never thought the bass playing in my recordings would be anything worth showing off, but with the Mini-Z, Zombass, SHB-1, and PI-101, bass 'playing' has become near effortless. Seriously, sweeping on my 'bass' is roughly twice as fast and clean as it is on my guitar. I'm simultaneously very happy and maybe a little sad to say that I think the bass playing on my album is going to end up being more impressive than the guitar playing.
In sum, with WoS, Two-Notes has earned it's place in the very small, very exclusive club of gear (virtual or otherwise) that I deem indispensable, and it will certainly be heard throughout the EP I've working on (maybe I ought to get back to working on that more instead of writing up gear reviews :nod
.
Thanks for reading!
(As a side note, I should also point out that Two-Notes' customer service is incredible. I was initially having some trouble hooking the CAB up to Torpedo Remote, and they were incredibly responsive and helpful)
Before I get too much further, let me present you with:
>>> http://soundcloud.com/themammonmachine/20130508-two-notes-pi-101 <<<
Details
Guitar signal path:
KxK Sii8 --> ISP Decimator --> TC Nova Drive --> AMT SS30 Bulava --> Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP --> PI-101 WoS --> Stillwell Audio Rocket Compressor --> Valhalla Room (on the leads only)
PI-101 guitar info:
PP 6L6 triode poweramp | Kerozen 4x12 (Diezel V30) | Dynamic 421 mic
PP 6L6 pentode poweramp | AnglC (ENGL V30) | Dynamic 57 mic
Bass signal path:
Starr Labs Mini-Z --> Signals Audio Zombass 3 --> Ignite Amps SHB-1 --> PI-101 WoS --> ReaEQ (high/low pass) --> Stillwell Audio Rocket Compressor
PI-101 bass info:
PP KT88 pentode poweramp | Fridge 8x10 (Ampeg) | Dynamic Bass 52 mic
PP 6L6 pentode poweramp | Alu XL 4x10 (Hartke) | Dynamic 57 mic
Master has some compression / limiting being performed with a few different plugins
In 3 words - I love it. WoS uses all the same algorithms that are contained in the CAB, but with the ability to run multiple, completely separate signal chains at the same time, mixed / panned however you like (Two-Notes' site says up to 100! I've only tried running 2 at a time so far
). Having everything up on-screen at once makes tweaking a breeze. As with the CAB, I found myself again being amazed with how much changing the 'distance' and 'center' controls actually sounds like moving a mic around in front of a cab. In addition to all the features of the CAB, WoS has an on-board exciter, which is useful for fine-tuning the 'air' in your tone, and a built-in, fully tweakable compressor to adjust your attack. I used the WoS compressor minimally, leaving most of the compression work to Stillwell Rocket, because I like that it has parallel compression.I did notice a slight, minimally audible difference in the tone I was getting from the CAB vs the same settings on WoS. Not better or worse, just a little different, and I attribute this to differences in actual hardware (converters / etc on the CAB vs preamps in my Focusrite Saffire). Also, moving from hardware (the CAB) to a plugin, I was curious how the latency and CPU usage would compare, and I'm very pleased to say that WoS has extremely low latency (< 0.3ms according to their site). It's very playable in real time, so much so that I'll admit I found myself more than once just jamming through it and enjoying the tone when I had intended to just be getting the clip down and posted. This was one of the key benefits I found with the CAB, because in my previous setup, which included an IR loader, the latency was great enough that I couldn't monitor my recorded tone in real time, and I'm happy to say that I'm getting the same benefit from WoS. What this means for me is that when I want to quickly get an idea down, I can just plug my guitar directly into my interface to play on virtual amps, and still have the benefit of Two-Notes' tone and minimal latency for real time monitoring (already tried this - it sounds awesome with LePou's Le456 and Legion).
I'll note that, unlike any other cab sim I've worked with that sounded great on guitars, PI-101 sounds equally awesome and is equally well-equipped for bass. I'm loving my current bass tone (virtual signal path listed above) so much that I've actually decided to leave the bass totally exposed (even solo!) in some sections of the song. I never thought the bass playing in my recordings would be anything worth showing off, but with the Mini-Z, Zombass, SHB-1, and PI-101, bass 'playing' has become near effortless. Seriously, sweeping on my 'bass' is roughly twice as fast and clean as it is on my guitar. I'm simultaneously very happy and maybe a little sad to say that I think the bass playing on my album is going to end up being more impressive than the guitar playing.
In sum, with WoS, Two-Notes has earned it's place in the very small, very exclusive club of gear (virtual or otherwise) that I deem indispensable, and it will certainly be heard throughout the EP I've working on (maybe I ought to get back to working on that more instead of writing up gear reviews :nod
.Thanks for reading!
