Old mid gain shoot outs featuring MTS and modded MTS

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Kapo_Polenton

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ9hP-1Oy3Q

Taken from one of the amp fests hosted a few years back.. you'll notice that the real amps standout slightly more than the MTS stuff. This is where that missing "10" percent is really noticeable in my opinion. That said, I'm wondering if the new presence/density boards address this and take care of some of that perceived fizz and "blanket" that i hear in these clips and have always noticed when compared to my amps.
 
I don't hear the missing link in these clips. Some amps sounded better and some not quite as good to me. They were also made to cover different ground than the modules represented.

I would say that the newer revisions make up for some of those things that you were hearing and that the new boards can improve on it also. That is what I have been reading anyway.

At the end of the day, it's just different flavors. Your Marshall model X with 34's is not going to sound like a RM100 with a Mashall or 1959RR with 6L6's.

The reviews say that the new boards are great. I say give them a shot.
 
I hear a bunch of good amps all with their own uniqueness. I never hear mts missing something mind you I use my rack gear more than my rm100 and only use Mesa power amps maybe that has something to do with it but I recently had my RM100 onstage next to a Joe Satch Marshall and it more than kept up with it.
 
I remember when James hosted that, pretty good comparison. The Marshall and Fender sounded wide open, then the Randall and Mesa sounded like they had a low pass filter on them.
I started running my RM50's line out into the return on my Sound City L120 and had a similar blanket lifting experience. I traded the RM50 shortly there after and now run an RM4 into the Sound City's power section, sometimes adding a Mesa 395 for a W/D/W set-up.
Even in that video you can hear MTS' ability to switch between fundamentally different tones, putting the mods through a better power section really lets them shine.
 
So he weakness we are seeing, is actually in the power amp! Interesting.. I should run my modules out to the loop in my 800 to see if i also feel that.
 
Weakness to you maybe, but I like them like that. If I didn't I would have moved on long ago. You forget how what you hear and prefer, is different for others. I don't prefer a open articulate amp. I like natural compression and speakers that aren't to bright and open sounding. So please don't assume that we all prefer the same tone that you do and call it a weakness. You should try the new boards and if it isn't what you want to hear, move on. Life's to short to stick with what you think is lacking.
 
I have never owned either the RM50 or 100. I have always used the RM4 into a great stereo tube power amp and separated speakers. all of the mods have such different characters. I use Weber's version of a JBL D120 for speakers as I do not like speaker break up. That is me though. I noticed that the two guitar players had different tones but their individual tones sounded remarkably similar no matter which amp they used, but with cool subtle differences.
I hear tones in my head and the mods make it easy to get that tone. I also hear voices in my head that tell me that I should...never mind. That is for a different community.
rick
 
Fair enough.. some of you may prefer that tone and a good point was made about some people preferring a smoother or more compressed tone. I can dig that. This is actually the reason why I haven't really grown my MTS collection. I have a few good modules that I like but overall, they don't beat out my JCM800 or the clone I just finished with all sozos. I will try a salvation board though. Then I can go head to head and see how they stand up.

As for the shootout clip, pretty sure there was one or two mic'ed cabs and all the amps went through them to keep things consistent.
 
That was me and my EL34 RM50. How funny that I don't own any of those modules any more! This event was a great idea, but there simply wasn't enough room to really do it right. Way too many amps and way too many people. You had no time to dial anything in, etc. I'm not trying to make excuses for the RM50 or anything, it just wasn't a fun event at all. And it should have been!
 
audiomidijace said:
That was me and my EL34 RM50. How funny that I don't own any of those modules any more! This event was a great idea, but there simply wasn't enough room to really do it right. Way too many amps and way too many people. You had no time to dial anything in, etc. I'm not trying to make excuses for the RM50 or anything, it just wasn't a fun event at all. And it should have been!
Click to expand...

To be honest, it did all look a little rushed and overwhelming.. not to mention the fact that you get sick of the same guys playing the same riffs over and over. (we are all guilty of that)Still though, it did allow the viewer to see somewhat how MTS stacked up
 
And that's the only reason I really went. I wanted people to take notice of the MTS amps. Once my amp had been played, I left as soon as I could. 10 people in this studio would have made it crowded, but fun. 100 people were there.
 
everyones ears are tuned to something similar, but different. guitar, hands, pick attack,and playing style dictate so much of the tone equation. even identical amps of the same range(marshalls are notorious for this) will sound different. to me, its not so much about spot on emulation of the various module offerings, rather versatility and the fact that in many cases i prefer the modules take on a tone over my perception of what a good original sounds like.
 
audiomidijace said:
And that's the only reason I really went. I wanted people to take notice of the MTS amps. Once my amp had been played, I left as soon as I could. 10 people in this studio would have made it crowded, but fun. 100 people were there.
Click to expand...

James hosted an amp shootout in 2009 at his old place on Cahuenga & Hollywood Blvd. There was only about 10 of us there, including Dave Friedman, Reinhold Bogner, the guys from Divided By 13 and a few other boutique companies.

This was before I entered the MTS world. James and I are good friends and he asked me to bring my Engl. There should be a video on YouTube somewhere.

That said, those types of events are always tough, especially if there are too many people in the room. The smaller the crowd, the better the results.
 

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