Recording Forum

[catscurlyear]

hi there , i`m having a bit of trouble with my creek 4140 amp i am realy happy with the sounds i get from it in my little studio ,but the left hand channal keeps cutting out for some reason ,if i turn up the volume rapidly it does eventualy come back on ,it might be just a dirty pot or something .i do have a couple more hi fi amps knocking around and was wondering if i should try them out , but is it the same for amps as it is for speakers ,are run of the mill hi fi amps coloured and bumped up in certain frequencys to make them sound appealing or do most amps perform pretty much the same ,.

[WRGKMC]

Sounds like a dirty or damaged pot to me.

Get some lubrications contact cleaner. Make sure its lubrication and not dry.

The stuff that leaves no residue can make the problem a whole lot worse.

The lubrication type has mineral oil which cleans, lubricates, protects

the pot from oxidation/moisture.

Pots are usually good for several cleanings before they need replacement.

The cans usually come with a long straw which you can stick inside the pot and give it a shot then work it back and forth for awhile. The trick is disassembling the amp to get access to the pots. Some of the circuit board mount stuff can be pretty difficult so if you're doing it yourself, just be careful. There can be washers and screws misplaced. Just place the screws in a numbered order as you remove them then reverse the order when you reassemble

[catscurlyear]

thanks for your reply i`ve got some servisol i`ll give it a go , what do you reckon a technics or jvc amp would compare to a creek as regards studio work

[WRGKMC]

Stereo amps arent generally used for studio work because they color the sound and hype highs and lows. Same goes for most HiFi speakers. If you have good passive studio monitors, what I suggest you get is a studio reference power amp. Companies like Alesis make a good reference amp that will drive the monitors. The main thing is the frequency responce is extremely flat which is critical mixing. Stereo HiFi amps will have coloration and because of the hyped loudness responce, your mixes will have compatibility issues being played back on other types of audio systems.  

[catscurlyear]

cheers wrgkmc.

[Snaporaz]

All circuits "color" the sound.

One has to find the amp, mic, console, or in general audio devices which color the sound least.

And then there are people who swear on devices which generate and add "color"

[WRGKMC]

True. Color can be good or bad depending on the application and peoples ears are different and listening condition and playback environment is a factor too. A good setup in a bad room can be worse than a bad setup in a good room.

For recording monitors the thing you want is a completely flat frequency response and a room that doesn't color what you hear. People go through great pains and expense to get both of these as ideal as possible so they get the best mixing environment. Besides buying the best gear for the job, Pro studios will actually tune the room for the proper resonance using high quality reference mics and audio test gear. Bass traps, acoustic foam, speaker placement, speaker and amp type are all chosen and tested for optimal flat response. Then you have the speaker and amplifier dynamics that are different between manufacturers. A system may sound flat playing smooth jazz music, and have unnatural/larger peaks and valleys in frequency response playing back hard rock. This is a much lesser issue than having a flat response to begin with but different amp designs can punch different frequencies better than others.

A matched system is a big deal too. If your amp and speakers are from two different manufacturers, they may not be 100% efficient working together. Speaker wattage vs. amp wattage is another. If the speaker wattage is say 300W RMS and the amp only puts out 20W RMS, then you have a mismatch. Speakers produce their best sound quality when running between 50~70% of their maximum RMS wattage. Speakers with very high wattage in comparison to the amp may not reach their minimum power levels to produce all the frequencies they should. You may be missing frequencies in the spectrum because of this, and running that amp at maximum to get the cone moving can introduce unnecessary noise and distortion from the amps itself. Of course having an amp too powerful for the speakers is a problem too. You can get speaker distortion or have to run the amps gain too low to have the amp run at its best potential.

In all, you want to mix at about 85db. Louder, you get ear fatigue and less you may not hear all the parts properly. You may want some extra power to test the mixes at louder levels and walk around the room but the studio has to be really big to accommodate anything over say 30w. Speaker size is going to make for fullness too. A mix done on 10" woofers may sound small on smaller speakers and mixes done on 4" may sound woofey on bigger speakers. If the system is balanced and flat, the mix should sound good on most playback systems which is the goal.

What I have in my studio is several monitor systems connected with a switch box where I can switch any of them on or off. I may start with my nearfields, and kick on a HiFi system with nice HiFi cabs, car speakers, Computer monitors, Boom Box, And then I can pipe it through a 2500W PA system with various cabs. If they all sound good then I'm pretty sure the mix will sound good on anything I play it back on. The final test will usually be to burn a CD and play it back in my 2013 Mustang I bought recently. I can usually hear any response flaws driving and making sure the musical content isn't being masked by the engine road noise or white noise from the wind when I open a window.