thebishopgame

thebishopgame, 11 days ago

If you’ve never read Steve Alibini’s letter to Nirvana before In Utero, you owe it to yourself to do so to see what goodness in the music industry looks like. Dude honestly just wanted to make great records and nothing else. https://imgur.com/a/p0tKn

#musodon #audioengineering #AudioProducer #musicproducer #musicproduction

thebishopgame, 1 month ago

@stvfrnzl If I’m getting a strandy, it’ll be a 7 with a trem bridge (prog nx). Been waiting for a RESQ:D drop in a color I like.

thebishopgame, 1 month ago

@stvfrnzl But also there’s the minor difference of like $1000 between those two. I get a company discount on the Guild =P

thebishopgame, 1 month ago

Alright, so first things first, we all know that the TS808 and TS9 are kinda different because of the op amp, and the TS808 is the "real" one that warrants a higher price tag. The Mini has the same op amp, so it should be closer to the OG. Right?
Here's a frequency plot of a -12dB impulse going through all three, about the level a guitar with medium-hot output would sit while hitting the string relatively frequently. All are set the usual "metal push" settings of 0 gain, 5 tone, 10 level.

thebishopgame, 1 month ago

As you can see, the TS808 and TS9 are nigh identical, while the Mini is noticeably brighter. Interesting, sure. "But wait a minute," you say, "Didn't you do a whole YouTube video on how Tubescreamers cut low end? Wtf is going on there?" Well, yes I did. Here's where things start getting interesting - that was just one input level and we're talking about about distortion, which is non-linear. Let's take a look at some more input levels. Here's -6, -24, and -36dB.

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thebishopgame, 1 month ago

Huh. So Tubescreamers DO actually cut low end, but really only when you're playing either loud or soft - your transients and extended sustains. Guitar signals are pretty dynamic overall, so the cumulative effect IS indeed a low cut, but it's not as simple as just popping a high-pass filter on the signal.
One thing to note though, is that the Mini is definitely brighter than the other two at ALL of these input levels. BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE!

thebishopgame, 1 month ago

We're talking non-linearities so it would be kinda silly to ONLY look at the frequency domain. How about the time domain? Roll that beautiful oscilloscope footage!
I couldn't map all three at once here because of Plugin Doctor limitations, so we've got four images here - The TS808 and TS9 overlapped and the TS9 and Mini overlapped, at -12dB and -3dB.

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thebishopgame, 1 month ago

Once again, the TS808 and TS9 are REALLY close, except that the TS9 seems to compress just a touuuch more at the higher input level. The Mini though - damn, that's very different behavior. Not only does it barely compress, if at all, it seems like the waveshape doesn't even change. So that means it actually distorts quite a bit less as you push harder into you, unlike the other two. For a pedal famed for "transparency", that's actually the most transparent!

thebishopgame, 1 month ago

No, I'm done yet, I took the time to make these graphs and you're gonna look at them, goddammit.
Since the waveshapes had some dynamics implications, let's look at that another way.
Yep, at -12, the TS808 and TS9 behave pretty much the same, while the Mini has a touch more range. And at -3, you see some actual differences. Keep in mind - your guitar doesn't put out signals that high very often, unless you have the hottest of hot outputs, but it's worth noting.

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thebishopgame, 1 month ago

Finally, let's take a look at the harmonics. Ahh, there's the famous brightness and harshness the TS9 is known for! Well, maybe not. The differences are only in the quieter even harmonics, which are a solid 30dB quieter than the odds. This gets exacerbated a touch as you increase gain, but even with it dimed, the difference is negligible. The Mini though, still remains a touch above the others.

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thebishopgame, 1 month ago

"Well, graphs are fine, but how do they SOUND?" Listen. Normally, I'd be tossing up sample after sample here, but when I spent some time playing them, I realized the graphs absolutely tell the whole story here. In almost every context, I couldn't tell apart the 808 and TS9, which the Mini sounded noticeably brighter and let transients through more cleanly. "What about other settings?!" Yeah, I didn't bother plotting those because the same behavior persisted across all of them when I checked.

thebishopgame, 1 month ago

Now, it's worth noting that this was a new TS808 and TS9. I don't have vintage ones to test, so MAYBE there's something difference. My gut says that other than small differences from component drift, what we see here will bear out.

thebishopgame, 1 month ago

So what's our take away here? Are there differences between the TS808 and TS9? Yes. Will you hear or feel them in a proper A/B test? Almost certainly no, but it's possible due to 1) placebo and 2) component drift. Are there tangible differences vs the Mini? Abso-fucking-lutely. Does that mean it's crap? NO! For some things, it'll likely be preferable! Particularly if you're going for more of a mid-gain spanky sound, or want more articulation on your chuggadjents.

thebishopgame, 1 month ago

Alright, that's all I got. If I fucked something up, please just tell me nicely and don't yell at me, im tiny baby and would rather just talk about it and make corrections than get into anxiety inducing online arguments that play out endlessly in my head and rob me of my already minimal sleep.

Happy chugging.

thebishopgame, 2 months ago

@revengeday Why do you assume we don’t?

thebishopgame, 2 months ago

@polarity I find Superior Drummer 3 pretty hard to beat generally. I used AD waaay back so I don’t know what it’s like currently, but SD was definitely better than my memories of it.