Cube street ex distorted vocals in high notes **

[narcsoul]

Distorted sound from cube ex or microphone ??

---

Hello, I am a street artist, guitar and vocals and I use a cube ex and an synheizer e945.

 

My problem is that in normal and Max mode I get distorted vocals when I make high notes and I am very near to mic.

 

I also use 2500 mah batteries but I do not know what it cause all this!! I have the volume at 12 o clock though not very high....

 

I think if the microphone is the problem and I would like to know if you have to suggest something about this.

 

I am also thinking about using another mic but which one? but also don't know if something like this will fix my problem.

 

So is the amp? It is brand new ( only six uses ) is the batteries? Is the mic ?

 

Can you help?

 

Thank in advance

[WRGKMC]

You didn't say what mic you're using now. People cant guess what you're using and make suggestions to help without details.

 

As far as what the cause is. They cant hear what you're hearing unless you post a sample. They can only guess what the cause is based on your description.

 

A reviewer in SOS magazine says...

The frequency range of those eight-inch woofers means the overall sound isn’t in any way thin. Backing tracks sound decent enough, albeit with a slightly ‘splashy’ high end and the usual lack of bass focus you get from small speakers — unless you push the volume too hard that is, in which case your ears are greeted with that familiar plastic-speaker ‘tubbiness’.

 

Can the volume level cause distortion - Yes. If you turn down and distortion decreases, turn up and it increases its pretty air tight evidence the amp sucks when its turned up too loud.

 

Can the mike cause distortion - Yes. If its some cheesy plastic $12 Karaoke mic I'll even guarantee it. Even a decent stage mic like a Shure SM58 can wind up sounding bad if it was dropped and damaged. Troubleshooting hint. If the mic is causing the distortion it will likely do so at any volume. Its always best to test the mic in a known good amp to rule it out. I have seen some mic amp combos cause oddball resonances together but if the amp and an EQ you should be able to reshape the tone.

 

Can weak batteries cause distortion - Of course they can. Transistors typically become fuzzy sounding as the voltage levels drop. The volume level you can dial up and get clean tones gets lower and lower until the sag is so bad it turns to garbage tone. Typically Brown Sound as its called, running an amp underpowered doesn't hurt anything besides your ears. Many guitarists intentionally under-power tube heads and foot pedals to get more distortion. It's not a good sound for vocals unless you intentionally want that penny arcade Megaphone speaker, McDonalds drive through speaker sound.

 

Again, people would need to know if this amp is new and its doing this, is it something that just started after having the amp awhile.

You should know an amplifier running on a battery isn't like your cell phone. A cell phone has voltage regulation and will operate at peak efficiency until the battery is down to 10% or so then shut down all at once.

 

An amplifier will start off sounding its best with batteries fully charged and decline at a steady pace getting continually worse in distortion and sound quality with only the tolerance ranges of the components to maintain fidelity. They aren't going to waste power trying to maintain steady power because every component sucks juice.

 

lastly, I'm not sure what your expectations are from a couple of 8" speakers. The two channels run the speakers independently which can help prevent the guitar from garbling the vocals when its too loud. If the batteries are shared for the two amps then a loud guitar of a synth using allot of bass can suck the power from the second vocal amp. Bass consumes the most power so beware. An acoustic guitar and mic are likely a decent match for this amp.

 

Anything else you may be expecting too much from a small amp like this. I can tell you right now there is no way in hell you can get 50W from 8 AA batteries. AA batteries produce about 2 watt hours per cell and that declines every minute the battery runs. That's about 16 Watt Hours which means that amp will run at 16 watts for one hour. Even if you use alkaline batteries and get closer to 4 watt hours from the batteries that means a maximum of 16W per amp/speaker for one hour (32 total) In order to get 50W? You are sucking the batteries dry in less then 30 minutes.

 

You'd need a wet cell battery of considerable size, like a car battery to maintain a continuous current level. Like I said, pushing the bass frequencies is going to eat the batteries up 500~700% faster then simply pushing midrange tones in battery amps like this.

 

Their energy save mode supposedly makes the batteries last 20 hours but you can bet they probably drop the power down to a few watts at most to get that. I'd suspect that's going to cause the distortion you complain about too.

[narcsoul]

You didn't say what mic you're using now. People cant guess what you're using and make suggestions to help without details.

 

As far as what the cause is. They cant hear what you're hearing unless you post a sample. They can only guess what the cause is based on your description.

 

A reviewer in SOS magazine says...

 

 

Can the volume level cause distortion - Yes. If you turn down and distortion decreases, turn up and it increases its pretty air tight evidence the amp sucks when its turned up too loud.

 

Can the mike cause distortion - Yes. If its some cheesy plastic $12 Karaoke mic I'll even guarantee it. Even a decent stage mic like a Shure SM58 can wind up sounding bad if it was dropped and damaged. Troubleshooting hint. If the mic is causing the distortion it will likely do so at any volume. Its always best to test the mic in a known good amp to rule it out. I have seen some mic amp combos cause oddball resonances together but if the amp and an EQ you should be able to reshape the tone.

 

Can weak batteries cause distortion - Of course they can. Transistors typically become fuzzy sounding as the voltage levels drop. The volume level you can dial up and get clean tones gets lower and lower until the sag is so bad it turns to garbage tone. Typically Brown Sound as its called, running an amp underpowered doesn't hurt anything besides your ears. Many guitarists intentionally under-power tube heads and foot pedals to get more distortion. It's not a good sound for vocals unless you intentionally want that penny arcade Megaphone speaker, McDonalds drive through speaker sound.

 

Again, people would need to know if this amp is new and its doing this, is it something that just started after having the amp awhile.

You should know an amplifier running on a battery isn't like your cell phone. A cell phone has voltage regulation and will operate at peak efficiency until the battery is down to 10% or so then shut down all at once.

 

An amplifier will start off sounding its best with batteries fully charged and decline at a steady pace getting continually worse in distortion and sound quality with only the tolerance ranges of the components to maintain fidelity. They aren't going to waste power trying to maintain steady power because every component sucks juice.

 

lastly, I'm not sure what your expectations are from a couple of 8" speakers. The two channels run the speakers independently which can help prevent the guitar from garbling the vocals when its too loud. If the batteries are shared for the two amps then a loud guitar of a synth using allot of bass can suck the power from the second vocal amp. Bass consumes the most power so beware. An acoustic guitar and mic are likely a decent match for this amp.

 

Anything else you may be expecting too much from a small amp like this. I can tell you right now there is no way in hell you can get 50W from 8 AA batteries. AA batteries produce about 2 watt hours per cell and that declines every minute the battery runs. That's about 16 Watt Hours which means that amp will run at 16 watts for one hour. Even if you use alkaline batteries and get closer to 4 watt hours from the batteries that means a maximum of 16W per amp/speaker for one hour (32 total) In order to get 50W? You are sucking the batteries dry in less then 30 minutes.

 

You'd need a wet cell battery of considerable size, like a car battery to maintain a continuous current level. Like I said, pushing the bass frequencies is going to eat the batteries up 500~700% faster then simply pushing midrange tones in battery amps like this.

 

Their energy save mode supposedly makes the batteries last 20 hours but you can bet they probably drop the power down to a few watts at most to get that. I'd suspect that's going to cause the distortion you complain about too.

 

Many thanx for your message i did mention that use an e945 i will try to set low bass of amp and try another new microphone. My main fear is if the amp has a problem because it is brand new as i did also mention

 

in any case every time i did hear distortion, batteries were full as i could see from the meter on the amp *

 

can you suggest a mic around 300 - 500 $ ? Thanx again

 

[1001gear]

You might be singing the high notes real loud. If that's the case you might be getting input distortion which sounds awful but doesn't indicate anything broken. Most sound gear will weather it unharmed. Most ears won't. If there is no input vol knob you have to sing quieter/further away.

[narcsoul]

Unforunatelly in normal and max mode i have a distortion even in low notes when i am too close to the mic.

 

my main fear is if this amp is faulty somehow. Do you think that all this is normal ?

[1001gear]

Nothing else distorts right? Sounds like an input trim problem.There's only 2 levels for the input? Is the distortion like a tinny raspiness? If singing further away cures it, it's the mic and/or the input. If it's both and the new mic has a hotter signal, the input might still distort. Kind of ironic that a better mic would aggravate the problem but that's audio for ya. For now stay a foot away from the mic give or take.

[narcsoul]

Nothing else distorts right? Sounds like an input trim problem.There's only 2 levels for the input? Is the distortion like a tinny raspiness? If singing further away cures it' date=' it's the mic and/or the input. If it's both and the new mic has a hotter signal, the input might still distort. Kind of ironic that a better mic would aggravate the problem but that's audio for ya. For now stay a foot away from the mic give or take.[/quote']

 

Yes nothing....but also it does not distort at all when is plugged in electricity. So you say that i may be a faulty amp? What would you suggest except from keeping distance? Thanx

 

[1001gear]

That says the batteries alone cannot or are prevented from supplying the required current. That could be a defect but I suspect it's just built into the "price point". That's just hype for "suggested retail" which is hype for "what they figure you are willing to pay". So did you buy this new or used? Are the batteries the original set? How are you actually using this amp? (genre, loudness etc...)

 

I looked through some you tubes and funny, most demos sidestepped vocals altogether and those that had guitar with singing featured a pleasant but weak airy style. Haven't found any with loud singing for sure.

 

Here's a cool one although it's not clear what the mic is running through.

 

[video=youtube;O2pZ34TmRw4]

[DeepEnd]

First, it's not your mike, at least not directly. The reviews say the E945 is a fairly "hot" mike so when you get too close to it or sing really loud there's a lot of output that could potentially overload the input. Second, the fact that the problem goes away when the amp is running on regular electricity tells me it's the amp, in the sense that batteries just aren't providing enough juice. As WRGKMC says, that amp is only good for 16 Watts or less running on batteries. There's supposed to be a power saving mode that lets it run at 25 or 10 Watts and I suspect you're running closer to one of those. That's not a whole lot of power and there's really nothing you can do about it. Find a way to run the amp on AC and you'll be fine. Maybe buy or rent a portable generator.

[1001gear]

I was going to bring up the possibility that the amp was plugged in indoors and therefore maybe set lower but seems it is the design after all.

[WRGKMC]

Must have missed that. A Sennheiser E945 is a good enough mic where it shouldn't be distorting unless the mics been dropped or damaged. Spending more on a mic probably isn't going to fix or improve your problem

 

You can try plugging the mic into a decent PA to be sure, but given the type of mic it is it doesn't seem to be a the cause.

 

Given the fact the distortion occurs at higher pitches, its linked to resonance. The mic is decent so you have the speakers or the circuit causing a resonant distortion. Since this is a new amp, I'd suspect it's either a dud or its simply a crappy design. I can tell you this, If I were spending $400 on an amp and it didn't sound excellent It would be mailed back for a refund the next day.

[narcsoul]

Thanx! My main fear is the possibility i bought a faulty amp. But if you think all this is normal i will find the best solution either with better vocal /mic technique either try another mic like Shure SM58. Hope i will get better results

[1001gear]

You might spend some money on a small mic preamp. This will give you a trim knob (the new mic might be even hotter than the one you're using now ) and make a nice line level signal for the Roland.

[Mr.Grumpy]

I think the OP is expecting too much from a fairly small, underpowered portable amplifier.

[DeepEnd]

Thanx! My main fear is the possibility i bought a faulty amp. But if you think all this is normal i will find the best solution either with better vocal /mic technique either try another mic like Shure SM58. Hope i will get better results

Your E945 is an excellent mike and I seriously doubt it's the problem. Your best bet is to work on technique/mike position and adjust your expectations for your amp.

[DeepEnd]

I think the OP is expecting too much from a fairly small' date=' underpowered portable amplifier.[/quote']

As usual, I believe your analysis is spot on. He's just going to have to learn to live with the limitations of his amp or find something else.

[Mr.Grumpy]

Yeah, I hate to be a 'negative nancy' but this topic - portable amplification for buskers - comes up again and again on music forums. I'm a member at a bass guitar only forum and there's a post every month about someone wanting a portable amp thingy for busking with BASS GUITAR. Those darn laws of physics get in the way. Buskers wants something small, light and self-contained, but also want something reproduces their playing loudly and clearly.

 

Something with a big block of lithium batteries, an efficient class-D power amp, and maybe some kind of lightweight composite cabinet and some decent size drivers 12"/30 cm woofers, would be better. But of course all that cool stuff - especially lithium batteries - costs money.

 

Roland should make a 'Super Street Cube' version of this amp with 100 watts and 12" drivers.

 

Crate used to make the "Taxi" portable amp/PA thingy that was fairly decent, but Crate is gone now.

 

 

[DeepEnd]

. . . Roland should make a 'Super Street Cube' version of this amp with 100 watts and 12" drivers. . . .

That'd be cool for sure but how would they power it? You could probably run an amp off a car battery, maybe sit it in the back of a pickup, but regular batteries wouldn't cut it.

[Voltan]

i run a street cube ex and find the frequency response to be quite workable... volume is more than enough for my purposes and i find myself running on half power most of the time with volume set at about 6 to 7 on the dial. i have no trouble being heard over dun duns, multiple djembes and other percussion at outdoor drum circles, festival and solo performances... that said, im running a fujara in conjunction with a shruti box. shure 57 on the shruti, modified sm10 on the fujara or sennheiser wireless flute mic, depending... through a baggs para acoustic di by means of line matching transformer... clean sound, no distortion even at higher volume levels on battery power. that said, we still arent comparing the same thing. contrabass flutes generate low frequencies that will NOT be properly transmitted by the 8 inch speakers... its just physics... but since what im primarily working with the overtones produced, this combination works... for this application.

[Mikeo]

First' date=' it's not your mike, at least not directly. The reviews say the E945 is a fairly "hot" mike so when you get too close to it or sing really loud there's a lot of output that could potentially overload the input. Second, the fact that the problem goes away when the amp is running on regular electricity tells me it's the amp, in the sense that batteries just aren't providing enough juice. As WRGKMC says, that amp is only good for 16 Watts or less running on batteries. There's supposed to be a power saving mode that lets it run at 25 or 10 Watts and I suspect you're running closer to one of those. That's not a whole lot of power and there's really nothing you can do about it. Find a way to run the amp on AC and you'll be fine. Maybe buy or rent a portable generator.[/quote']

 

This.

 

Plug in your mic, leave the guitar down and see if you like the volume of the Street cube. Then bring in your guitar as needed. That's about all you're gonna get out of this. It is what it is and it's not bad.

 

 

[DeepEnd]

I have to admit, I don't "get" the speakers they put in acoustic amps. There's a Trace Elliot TA35R on the local CraigsList with a pair of 5" speakers. That's maybe the cone area of a single 6.5". Sure, the speakers in an acoustic amp are basically PA speakers instead of electric guitar speakers but still...

[Mikeo]

I have to admit' date=' I don't "get" the speakers they put in acoustic amps. There's a Trace Elliot TA35R on the local CraigsList with a pair of 5" speakers. That's maybe the cone area of a single 6.5". Sure, the speakers in an acoustic amp are basically PA speakers instead of electric guitar speakers but still...

 

Before most even knew what an acoustic amp was, Trace was making some really nice one.

 

They only put 5" speakers in the TA and they sounded killer. They were not cheap either. UK made.

 

Gibson bought Trace and then sold it to Peavey. Peavey makes a few Trace Elliot Products, but not really combo acoustics.

 

The guy that owned Trace, went on to form Ashdown amps. I have an Early UK Made Ashdown that kicks some serious butt.

 

If you can and want a Trace Elliot acoustic they are nice, but so are are the Fishman stuff. The Fishman amps are made in China. I'm not sure how the Peavey era Trace amps are, but the UK ones are lovely. Spend a touch more and look at the TA 100 or TA 200.

 

Here's a newer one , which is the Peavey years I believe. 400

https://reverb.com/item/9730409-trace-elliot-acoustic-amp-ta100-2014-black-ta-100

 

One problem with older acoustic amps is, technology has gotten better, even the Fender acoustics amps are nice now. In the price range, you are looking at, you can move to 2018 and not be in 1999. The 100 and 200 with the curved wood are like furniture. Pretty.

 

 

 

[DeepEnd]

Before most even knew what an acoustic amp was, Trace was making some really nice one.

 

They only put 5" speakers in the TA and they sounded killer. They were not cheap either. UK made. . . .

Thanks but I'm not in the market for an acoustic amp. The point is, 5" speakers can only move so much air no matter how good they are. Add the fact that it's only 35 Watts SS--even if that's a fairly conservative rating--and you have what would seem to be a fairly limited amp.

[Mikeo]

Thanks but I'm not in the market for an acoustic amp. The point is, 5" speakers can only move so much air no matter how good they are. Add the fact that it's only 35 Watts SS--even if that's a fairly conservative rating--and you have what would seem to be a fairly limited amp.

 

Correct, but they can move a lot of air. Some nice car stereos have 5-6 in speakers and sound amazing. I never played through the Trace 50, but I did play through the trace TA 100 and 200, when I bought a Taylor 414ce. Amazing acoustic amp.

 

I heard the band Heart was using Trace Eliott acoustic amps on stage.

 

Neo-dymium Celestion 5" speakers

 

I like AER acoutsic amps, but you never see them around.

[DeepEnd]

Correct' date=' but they can move a lot of air. Some nice car stereos have 5-6 in speakers and sound amazing. . . .[/quote']

Not as much as you'd think. Car speakers sound good because the inside of a car is smaller than any place you're going to be playing. That's why headphones with little tiny transducers sound as good as they do because they only have to fill a couple of cubic centimeters inside your ears.

 

For simplicity's sake, let's allow 1/2" all around for the frame and surround. That leaves 4" for the cone, about 12.57 sq. in. Now take an 8" speaker. Again, let's leave 1/2" all around. that's 7", about 38.48 sq. in. To move the same amount of air, the 5" speaker needs to move about 3X as far. Which one do you think will reach the limits of its excursion first? All else being equal, the 5". Smaller speakers are fine within their limits but I'll take something with meat on its bones, thanks.

 

If I wanted to amplify my acoustic I'd use my bass amp. It's got a nice 12" speaker and 60 SS Watts. I use it as a practice amp for bass but since I don't need effects it would be fine for acoustic guitar. It wouldn't be the first time I've used a bass amp for that purpose.