T Boog

Awesome John. Please comment back on ur experience with it. Also, I feel u on the amp tech thing. All 3 of my local music instrument stores are now shut down and the amp techs they worked with don't do repairs anymore. They seem to be somewhat of a dying breed. Btw, what year is ur Princeton John?

Ah, my bad. I never knew how the MP1's circuitry worked. I just knew they sounded amazing(and that was thru an old Peavey solid state PA). That said, I def agree with ur earlier post that the sound is all that matters. I still own a couple nice sounding tube amps but I've been using a cheap JOYO American Sound pedal(Tech 21 Blonde rip off) to record. It sounds as good as any Fender tube amp I've ever played. If it sounds good to me, I careless about name brand, tech specs, tube type, etc. Cheers!

Well, I've watched many tube comparison vids on YouTube and IMO, there is subtle differences but I agree that it's way overblown (much like tone woods). In a blind test, I doubt many people could rate tubes by their price point.

Agreed. Btw, I'm a huge EJ fan. And although Ive never owned a Tube Driver, I used to own 2 ADA MP1's and they sounded outstanding. No one could ever convince me that the tubes did nothing in there. It's still the best sound Ive ever had at really low volume... Full of harmonics & sustain. Like the Tube Driver, the MP1 has produced some killer sounding tracks.

First, I'm very jealous of ur Skylark John. Those amps sound amazing. Second, My dad told me I could have his tube tester when he died but my brother, thinking it was just some "mad scientist" gadget, threw it in the garbage. (That one still hurts ?) But yeah, although the Tube MP gets very mixed reviews, a lot of home studio guys swear by it , esp for tracking bass. I hope u do try it again. I'd be curious to know how it works out for u.

Thanks my friend. Good to learn about the high end roll off thing too. Since my DI is a super cheap passive one, I'm sure there's plenty of that going on. The good news however is that I'm a stellar musician. So no amount of sound degradation can mask my immense talent. ?

Thanks John. I was actually running it like u said... with input set high & output set low and it wasn't clipping my interface and sounded nice. I think you & Tim are right that I'm prob fine without the DI. I also didn't realize that a DI box could degrade the sound. I'll just keep using it like it is. If my interface ever dies, I'll make sure the next one is designed to accept line levels. Thanks for the wisdom guys.

Thanks bud. Yeah I've heard of voltage multipliers. I also know there's a lot of "tube" pedals where the tube does basically nothing. Snake oil aside, I find the ART smooths out the high end and fattens things up. And if I'm delusional... I'm okay with that too ?

Thanks Tim. That makes sense. Presonus is prob just wanting users to play it extra safe. I've broke that 'no line signal' rule myself a few times and the interface still works fine. So it's def not super delicate. Cheers!

Hey guys, this is what my Audiobox usb96 owners manual says... "NOTE: Active instruments are those that have an internal preamp or a line level output. Active instruments should be plugged into a line input rather than into an instrument input. Plugging a line level source into the instrument inputs on the front of the Audiobox USB not only risk damage to these inputs but also results in a very loud and often distorted audio signal. In other words, don't plug a line level source into the combo jacks of channel 1 or 2." I can attest that line signals are super loud thru my interface. That's why I bought a DI box. My interface is an older version though, maybe they've upgraded the inputs to now accept line level. But it's all good guys. I'll just try it into the DI then A/B it with & without the Tube MP. Again, if it sounds just as good without it I'll nix the Tube MP altogether. Thanks for help guys!

Thanks John, good to hear from u. Well, call it placebo effect but I think it sounds pretty smooth. Btw, I have been running it like u said... straight to interface with an unbalanced cable and it's worked fine. I just wanted to make sure I was getting the optimal gain levels and not damaging my interface However, I will do some A/B'ing with & without the Tube MP. If it sounds as good or better without it, I'll be happy to chunk it in the closet. Heck, one less thing to hook up. Cheers!

https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/210044713-AudioBox-Series-Connecting-line-level-audio-source Sorry to doubt u Byron but everything I've read on the usb96 says it's not designed for line level. Am I missing something?

Hi guys. Im wanting to run my ART Tube MP mic pre into my interface. However, I just found out I'm not supposed to run a mic pre into the interface's mic pre. My interface (Audiobox usb96) also doesn't accept line level. Couldn't I just use my DI box after the ART mic pre to lower the signal back down again, then into the interface's XLR input? Thanks!

Hi guys, I just wanted to give a last update. 1024 is still working perfectly. Also, I did find a couple of post from people having the same issue using diff DAWs. One was with Abelton: So whatever the cause, 2048 does seem to give probs for some setups. Anyway, Thanks again for the help fellows. Cheers!

Check it out Scook... I added 3 more vst tracks, incl the SI drums. Then I recorded 2 more audio tracks and added lots of plugins like comps, verbs, consoles, etc. to the existing tracks and... Everything worked fine. NO crackling! It's also responding much quicker & smoother to keyboard & mouse commands. Dude, I'm thinking u nailed it in ur first post. The two buffer extremes don't seem to be my friend. User 905133 said he had the same experience where the sweet spot was somewhere between the extremes. So my friend, I guess I'll just roll with 1024 and avoid 2048 like it's a bad neighborhood I never wanna visit again. Anyway, Thanks for the tutelage Scook. I promise I'll never bug u again. ...Unless I have another Cakewalk problem of course?. Cheers!

Thanks bud but yeah, I already tried the latency monitor test and it showed it was good for recording audio, etc. You know what? 1024 buffer size is working good so far, I'm gonna go add even more tracks & turn on more vst's to see if & when it'll start crackling too. Then I can update yall If it ends up working great on 1024, I would think I'm good to go with that huh Scook? (If it ain't broke don't fix it?)

Oh my bad man. I'm using a Dell 790 i5 2nd gen, 3.10 Ghz processor, 16 GB RAM with a single SS drive(1 TB), Windows 10 Pro, Audiobox usb96 & Rokit 5 monitors. All the VSTs & plugins are those that came with Cakewalk except the Slate Drums. Note, I've recently been told that a 2 drive minimum computer is best for DAW recording. I wonder if just having the single drive could be causing this issue(?) If so, I'll just try to work around it's limitations until I can upgrade.

Btw Scook, you mentioned the Realtek/internal sound chip. I'm using the ASIO driver with my interface. Does the internal sound chip still come into play in this case? (Forgive my ignorance. I'm still trying to learn how these things work)

I think I follow. So even if the perf tab & task manager show I have plenty of CPU & memory, it could still be my weak computer or a configuration issue at fault(?). Well, for now it's working well at 1024 but if it starts acting up again, I'll def start freezing tracks. Btw, I once read that although Cakewalk accepts outside VSTs, they can sometimes cause problems. I may try the onboard SI drums in place of the Slate kit to see if that helps too. Either way, I know ur right... It's time to start freezing some tracks. Thanks again Scook ?

Thanks Chuck. I actually had done that. FWIW, the CA-2A Leveler on the master bus seemed to be the worst for crackling at 2048 esp when combined with the SS5 drum vst. But so far, they both work fine at 1024. It seems to be more about the overall load than one specific plug though. I'm thinking Scook was right that the extremely safe buffer setting just doesn't play well with my sofware(esp outside drum VSTs) . Btw, even the visual graphics were starting to lag at the end on 2048 but so far on 1024, the graphics are working fine/fast. I think I'm just gonna keep it at 1024 for playback and pray snap, crackle & pop don't show up to join the session again. ?

Ah, Thanks Scook! That's what I was trying to get my head around was the "look ahead" concept of driver buffer size. So I guess my system is not disfuctional after all. That's awesome! I'll just stick with 1024. Thanks a lot guys!

Thanks. Well, I'm at least glad to know that this prob is not unheard of. Esp since it seems to go against common DAW understanding. And maybe ur right that, for whatever reason, 1024 is more optimal for my particular system/setup than 2048. Oh well, if I can't figure it out I'll just stick with what works. Cheers my friend!

Hi. Is there a reason why playback gives no probs at 1024 buffer size but crackles/clicks at 2048? (I have 7 audio tracks with effects and 3 VSTs with effects. Nothing is frozen yet). Anyway, I thought the safer buffer size is supposed to cause less probs on playback cause it has more time to look ahead.

I'm just glad that's never happened to you personally Glenn ?. Well, my saving grace is making lots of backup copies. Esp since I'm new to DAW recording. It's not hard for me to screw stuff up. Thanks to u guys here on the forum though, that's happening to me less & less. I can now say with confidence that I'm no longer a complete idiot ?

Awesome, it worked perfect. And I made sure to turn it off after(I see how that could cause lots of probs). Thanks Tim!