The Torpedo Capture Software is a simple but powerful tool to make professional impulse responses compliant with the Torpedo VB-101.

Here is the gear you need to do the capture :

• A MAC or PC computer with an ASIO/Coreaudio soundcard embedding at least one line output and one line input. In an ideal case, the soundcard can go 24bits/96KHz with the best signal/noise ration and THD.
• A power amplifier that can work at 250W/8ohms with the lowest possible distortion, linear frequency response and the lowest possible output impedance. A solid state studio monitoring amplifier fits perfectly for this task. A Tube guitar amplifier could be a fun thing to try, but as they are everything but linear the result may be… fun.
• A cab you want to capture
• A microphone you want to capture
• A microphone preamplifier you want to capture
• A room were you can play loud !

There is the principle :

the Torpedo Capture Software will send a test signal through the whole cab miking setup and record the result. After a few calculus, it will create a .tur file that you will upload on your VB-101. The whole process can be done in less than 5mn.

Phase 1, the Torpedo Capture Software :

Download and install the Torpedo Capture Software

Launch Capture, choose the driver you want to use (File menu/Audio drivers/ OK to save and quit this window), the recommended frequency is 96KHz, the latency must high enough in order to avoid and overloading of your CPU. We recomand ASIO or CoreAudio drivers.

For example, we will use the line output 1 and the line input 1 of the soundcard.

Phase 2, setting up the recording :

Plug a cable from the output 1 of the soundcard to the input of the monitor amp.

Plug a cable from the output of your amp to your cab. Please take care of the amp output impedance, regarding the cab impedance.

Place your microphone the way you want in the record room. Don’t forget that the mic placement can’t be changed in the VB-101 with user impulse, so take your time to do several measurements to find the right spot.

Plug a cable from the microphone to a mic preamplifier. Please note that the response of the preamp will be captured, changing the preamp may change the overall sound.

Now plug a cable from the preamp output to the line input 1 of the soundcard.

Phase 3, levels :

It is important to note that the level of the test signal going through the cab matters. Based on our experience, we recommend to play at a “rehearsal level”, in other words at the level you are used to record/play. The purpose is to be as close as possible to the real conditions.

WARNING

Playing at very loud levels may cause permanent damages to your hearing. The test signal is very energetic, so please use the “test” function of the Torpedo Capture Software, starting from low levels, before cranking the amp.

The bargraph in Capture should be between -14dB and -12dB to match perfect gain adjustment.

Phase 4, creating the file and sending it to your VB-101 :

On the Torpedo Capture window, click on the “MEASURE” button. Choose a destination for the file, the best is to select the DATA directory of the Torpedo Remote.

The test signal is called a sinus sweep. The signal will sweep from the ultra low frequencies to the highest and even after the cabinet will cut. Please don’t make any noise before the test is finished. Please control that there is no glitch/clic/pop in the sound that could be a consequence of a latency parameter set to low. If you hear this kind of noise, please increase the latency.

The measure process takes 1 minute, a pop up message will warn you when it’s done.

Your computer will… compute the file to create a .tur file in the previously selected location. This process could take a few minutes, depending on your CPU power.

Phase 5, uploading the file into the VB-101 :

Launch the Torpedo Remote Software

Go to the menu File/Memory Management, click on the .tur tab.

On the left you should see the new created impulse, on the right the locations on the VB-101 to upload it. Right click (or CMD+click on a MAC) on the .tur file, select “move to” and the location you want the file to be uploaded. it is possible to take several .tur in the same time, select the location of the first one and the others will follow.

Once it is finished, quit the Memory Management window and enjoy your new personal cab.

It may be interesting to achieve a multi-microphone recording of a guitar or bass amplifier/preamplifier. Mixing different cabs/microphone may improve your sound and increase the creative possibilities in the recording.

Such a setup is not that simple to achieve in real condition because of phase issues and the necessary travels between the control room and the cabin to listen to the result of the mixed signals.

This said, Two Notes presents here  a simple method to use a mono plugin in a multi-microphone situation.

All the PC-based DAWs on the market can achieve complex internal routing of the signal, the process is more or less always the same, we will use Cockos Reaper (Mac version) for this example :

1. Create a new track (stereo or mono, depending on the source), call it “Guitar source” and select the right input of your soundcard

2. Create a guitar bus (Guitar Bus 1) and the tracks that are routed to this bus. We create four tracks.

3. The most important part : the source track named “Guitar source” has to be routed to the 4 new tracks (“add new send”), and we deactivate the Master/Parent send (otherwise you will hear the dry guitar sound in your master track)

Another view using a matrix representation

On each of the four tracks, select the PI-101 as an insert FX

Now setup the four tracks for recording, you can hear your guitar source through the 4 simulations and adjust the sound the way it has to be.

Please refer to the excellent WIKI article here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-amp