Wet/Dry/Wet Amps | Dry Amp
The Wet/Dry/Wet Mono Dry Amp with Mono Effects
The Wet/Dry/Wet DRY Amp Overall Description
The Muse Guitarist’s studio has seven recording environment source groups designed to capture guitar performances using different collections of studio equipment.
This section will detail the Wet/Dry/Wet DRY Amp group shown below.
The seven recording environment source groups:
1. Core Guitar Pedals – Front-end pedal collection for a “Dry”, direct input, performance track from a professional recording console channel strip. This creates the “Always On” primary guitar tone for all other recording environments.
The XLR Direct Output of the JHS Colour Box feeds the MOTU 8Pre ADAT #2 input 1
2. Stage Amps – The two high wattage tube amps:
- A vintage boutique ’82 Jim Kelley F.A.C.S. 30/60 with 6V6 power tube combo amp with upgraded new power supply capacitors and tube set driving a Scumback BM75-LD large diaphragm 12” speaker
- A modern 2021 Fender '65 Wine Red Twin Reverb 85-watt 6L6 power tube combo amp, a Sweetwater exclusive, driving a Neo 2x12 Celestion Creambacks combo cabinet
3. Bedroom Amps – The two low wattage tube amps:
- A Marshal style Blackstar HT20R MK II 20/2-watt EL84 two channel tube amp with reverb driving a custom Blackstar 12” speaker
- A Tone King Gremlin 5-watt upgraded EL34 tube amp driving a custom Blackstar 12” speaker. I did not like the KT88 stock tube-sound, and it is cathode biased so I replace the KT88 with an EL34
4. Wet/Dry/Wet Amps | Dry Amp – Wet/Dry/Wet | Dry Amp – A high wattage hybrid solid state amp:
- A Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 Floor solid state, tube emulation, 200/20/2-watt four channel amp head
- Two 12” Eminence speakers, a Redcoat Wizard and a Reignmaker, are the “Dry” amp speakers inside a Bugera twin 12” Eminence speaker cabinet
- A selectable mono effects pedalboard in the Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 has onboard Reverb, Delay, and Modulation choices: Chorus Flange, Phase, and Tremolo for the Mono effects chain.
5. Wet/Dry/Wet Amps | Wet Amps – High wattage solid state and tube amps:
- A Hartke HD 150 150-watt dual purpose amp: stereo effects mix left channel or a Bass guitar reamp mic’d amp feeding a custom Hartke 15” speaker
- A Bugera T50 Infinium 50-watt upgraded tube amp driving a Hughes & Kettner TS-112 Pro 12 cabinet with an ElectroVoice EVM12L 250 watt 12” speaker
6. Acoustic and Room Microphones:
- A Nady-TCM1050 condenser tube microphone with adjustable polar patterns for Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Dialog, and Room Tone recordings
- A Lauten Audio LA-220 condenser tube microphone also for Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Dialog, and Room Tone recordings in stereo
7. DAW Direct Outputs and Reamping:
- There are ten direct outputs from various points within the pedalboard chain
- Any track can become a Reamping Source using the MOTU 8Pre-es Analog Output 3
It is possible to record 24 performance tracks simultaneously from the Reaper DAW custom new musical portrait template.
The intent is NOT to use all 24 recorded tracks.
The goal is to capture as many different tone collections as possible and choose the one, or ones, that work best for the composition.
The song tracks not selected can be archived or deleted to reduce the total number of tracks being processed and delivered.
A Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 Floorboard, Spirit Tone Generator Tube Emulation, 200/20/2-watt Four Channel Amp Head
The H & K Black Spirit is a very unique guitar amp. The Black Spirit 200 floorboard can re-create practically any iconic amplifier without ever digitizing your signal.
It’s using its patented Spirit Tone Generator and it actually re-creates famous amp topologies by switching around analog components.
Tubes get all the glory, but every component in a tube amplifier plays a huge role in the final sound, and the Black Spirit 200 floorboard's Spirit Tone Generator switches in whichever components are necessary to achieve the sound of classic amps.
The four channels on the Black Spirit 200 floorboard amp — Clean, Crunch, Lead, and Ultra — offer a sonic range from classic cleans to modern high-gain metal.
The H & K has two roles:
- A standalone amp with input loop and mono effects loop
- A dry mono amp for a Wet/Dry/Wet triple amp configuration
Guitar Pedal Loops: Pre-Effects Loops & Effects Loop
The Black Spirit 200 Floorboard offers two programmable pre-loops, the cave uses Loop #1 before the preamp section. A Mooer Preamp LIVE is configured in Loop one for amp and pedal guitar pedals on the input of the amp.
The Effects Loop uses the pedals shown above when uses as a standalone amp with mono effects. FXs are inserted after the preamp section.
If the amp is being used in a Wet/Dry/Wet configuration the Effects loop is generally bypassed.
If mono effects, such as delay and sustain with the FreqOut box, are desired, the effects loop can add effects to compliment the Strymon Stereo effects amps and its direct stereo inputs.
Red Box AE+ Speaker Ambience Emulation Direct Out & Back-end Ditto Looper Feed with Effects
The Black Spirit 200 has a built-in Red Box AE+ DI output for realistic cabinet tone (8 models) direct to the MOTU ADAT #2 8Pre mic preamp #2 DAW 17.
The Cave Dual Ditto Looping Process:
The Muse Guitarist Cave Studio integrates a dual Ditto pedal loop recording system. This design has a Dry “Front-end Ditto Looper” box and a Wet “Back-end Ditto Looper” box.
The first step is to use the Cave Metronome to identify the Beats Per Minute, the BPM, and write down the beats per minute. The BPM will be required when transferring the finished composition to the DAW in the last step.
Record the song structure reference using the metronome BPM. This will ensure that the transferred Ditto reference track can be synchronized with the Reaper DAW template reference track.
The Core guitar tone is captured for composition experimentation after the JHS Colour Box and gain-staged using the BOSS EQ-200 channel 1.
This is the dry tone shaping performance used when transferring to the Back-end Ditto with wet effects.
The Front-end Ditto is used to record the performance that feeds the Back-end Ditto. Any additional layered performances with have inspirational wet effects from the Black Spirit 200 Floor effects loop.
When a good loop has been recorded, it is transferred to the Back-end Ditto Looper box using channel 2 of the BOSS EQ-200 for gain-staging.
The Black Spirit 200 Floor is used, with its effects loop that feeds the BOSS EQ-200 channel 2, to send the 1st Dry DITTO track to the 2nd Wet DITTO, the Back-end Ditto Looper with effects.
Using the effect pedals from the effects loop configured in the Black Spirit 200 Floor amp an inspirational loop is recorded when transferred the Back-end Ditto Looper.
The composite recording from the dry front-end Ditto, combined with the wet effects from the Black Spirit 200 Floor, frees the performance for a reference melody track performance.
The composition reference can be sent to one or more Cave DAW tracks using the the direct out from any of the Direct Ins available in the architecture.
Use the BPM created with the studio metronome before the creation of the original Front-end Ditto performance.
The output of the Back-end Ditto Looper is the guitar source that feeds all five distribution destinations.