Monson
Sonic Automatist
After years of using software amp sims for recording I decided it was time I should try something different, something analogue. Enter the Carl Martin Ampster:
At first I wasn't sure if I should post this here, in the amp or in the studio sub forum, but since you can stomp on it I've decided it's a pedal. Feature-wise it's a bit of several things though. It's a tube preamp with analogue speaker sim, that you can bypass so you only have the preamp active and use third party IRs. That means you can use it for DI recording or straight to the PA in a live situation. I don't see much point in using it in front of a guitar amp, unless maybe it's a solid state affair and you crave a bit of choob goodness. It does not have a phones output and no room/reverb, so on its own it's not at all suited for silent practice.
You can switch between a 2x12 open back and a 4x12 closed back type of voicing using the footswitch, and on the back there's a three way switch for adjusting the low end response. I'm not quite sure what that does, but it feels a bit like fine-tuning mic placement with a real amp.
The preamp layout is dead simple, as you can see. The Gain control works a bit like the volume knob on a non-master volume type of amp. As you turn it up, the tone gets a bit darker, and you may need to adjust the Bass to get rid of excessive rumble. The Master does just that but does not alter the tone in any way to my ears. Maybe it should have been labelled 'Level' or 'Output' instead.
So what does it sound like? Well, first of all, it doesn't have a lot of gain, so if it's the cranked Marshall tone you're after, you need to either augment it with your fave Plexi pedal or look elsewhere. It just does not have that upper mid cut and presence. The good people at Carl Martin don't claim to model any particular brand, but I'd say in the 2x12 mode it's a Blackface or equivalent type of sound, and with the 4x12 you get a Hiwatt kind of vibe, I guess, but with even less gain than a 103. And no, it does not feel like having an amp in the room, but I'd say it feels a lot like recording with a real amp using real mics, and way better than with software.
In the 4x12 mode it definitely sounds like a rather solid piece of bedroom furniture. It's big, a bit darker, and with a solid low end. For fun I fooled around with my TS-9 and RAT2, and I was able to get credible arena rock tones, from 1970 The Who, to classic AC/DC, and even Appetite-era Slash types of sounds.
That was all good fun, but I mainly bought it to get good clean or just on the verge of breakup kind of tones, using the 2x12 setting, like you might achieve with not too large Blackface or Silverface amps. The tone controls are not as interactive as on a Vox AC type of amp but do much more than on a vintage Marshall. Yes, you can dial in too much and take too much away. You can absolutely make it sound terrible if you so desire. I've found it's quite easy to get a basic tone that works well with either of my guitars, and at any gain level, with any pedal, and then use the Presence to tame the top end.
Compared with all the big brand software models, and some of the good free ones too, I find it a lot easier to handle the low end response. Plugins tend to have a massive and often completely non-transparent bass that I've always struggled with and used external filters and EQs to control. Not with this one. In fact I don't need a high pass/low pass or post EQ at all since the basic tone is about right and I feel I can easily dial in what I need and remove what I don't on the pedal itself. The final test was plugging in my Les Paul and using the neck pickup only, and much to my surprise it sounded really, really good, using the same settings as with my Strat.
After a few days of getting familiar with the Ampster I decided to use it for re-recording and older track I was never really happy with. I just wasn't able to get the types of cleans I needed in order to record it as the guitar instrumental I had in mind, so I had made a sort of vibraphone/guitar duet that I though was a bit meh really. Anyway, I gave it a shot, and here it is, the post effects (all plugins) used on the guitars are a tiny bit of comp, trem, delay and reverb, and that's it:
At first I wasn't sure if I should post this here, in the amp or in the studio sub forum, but since you can stomp on it I've decided it's a pedal. Feature-wise it's a bit of several things though. It's a tube preamp with analogue speaker sim, that you can bypass so you only have the preamp active and use third party IRs. That means you can use it for DI recording or straight to the PA in a live situation. I don't see much point in using it in front of a guitar amp, unless maybe it's a solid state affair and you crave a bit of choob goodness. It does not have a phones output and no room/reverb, so on its own it's not at all suited for silent practice.
You can switch between a 2x12 open back and a 4x12 closed back type of voicing using the footswitch, and on the back there's a three way switch for adjusting the low end response. I'm not quite sure what that does, but it feels a bit like fine-tuning mic placement with a real amp.
The preamp layout is dead simple, as you can see. The Gain control works a bit like the volume knob on a non-master volume type of amp. As you turn it up, the tone gets a bit darker, and you may need to adjust the Bass to get rid of excessive rumble. The Master does just that but does not alter the tone in any way to my ears. Maybe it should have been labelled 'Level' or 'Output' instead.
So what does it sound like? Well, first of all, it doesn't have a lot of gain, so if it's the cranked Marshall tone you're after, you need to either augment it with your fave Plexi pedal or look elsewhere. It just does not have that upper mid cut and presence. The good people at Carl Martin don't claim to model any particular brand, but I'd say in the 2x12 mode it's a Blackface or equivalent type of sound, and with the 4x12 you get a Hiwatt kind of vibe, I guess, but with even less gain than a 103. And no, it does not feel like having an amp in the room, but I'd say it feels a lot like recording with a real amp using real mics, and way better than with software.
In the 4x12 mode it definitely sounds like a rather solid piece of bedroom furniture. It's big, a bit darker, and with a solid low end. For fun I fooled around with my TS-9 and RAT2, and I was able to get credible arena rock tones, from 1970 The Who, to classic AC/DC, and even Appetite-era Slash types of sounds.
That was all good fun, but I mainly bought it to get good clean or just on the verge of breakup kind of tones, using the 2x12 setting, like you might achieve with not too large Blackface or Silverface amps. The tone controls are not as interactive as on a Vox AC type of amp but do much more than on a vintage Marshall. Yes, you can dial in too much and take too much away. You can absolutely make it sound terrible if you so desire. I've found it's quite easy to get a basic tone that works well with either of my guitars, and at any gain level, with any pedal, and then use the Presence to tame the top end.
Compared with all the big brand software models, and some of the good free ones too, I find it a lot easier to handle the low end response. Plugins tend to have a massive and often completely non-transparent bass that I've always struggled with and used external filters and EQs to control. Not with this one. In fact I don't need a high pass/low pass or post EQ at all since the basic tone is about right and I feel I can easily dial in what I need and remove what I don't on the pedal itself. The final test was plugging in my Les Paul and using the neck pickup only, and much to my surprise it sounded really, really good, using the same settings as with my Strat.
After a few days of getting familiar with the Ampster I decided to use it for re-recording and older track I was never really happy with. I just wasn't able to get the types of cleans I needed in order to record it as the guitar instrumental I had in mind, so I had made a sort of vibraphone/guitar duet that I though was a bit meh really. Anyway, I gave it a shot, and here it is, the post effects (all plugins) used on the guitars are a tiny bit of comp, trem, delay and reverb, and that's it:
