Hi Muris,

I am a newbie to the GMC site and noticed by trolling through some older forum posts of yours that you have had experience in this department. I was wondering whether you could offer some advice and suggestions in this regard?

I have experienced the same problem you mentioned about hum and noise. I have tried numerous means to fix the issue. None of which have been overly successful. Of course, pumping up the gain (I can't help it!) does nothing to alleviate this. It has been a constant source of irritation to me in an otherwise awesome piece of kit.

My idea is that there is no way around it --- I need to retube the stock tubes (cheap and not of the best quality considering the purchase price) that came with the unit when I bought it brand new way back when. Many Triaxis users in various forums recommend it as they were not happy with the tone out of the box either.

I was stoked to find you have purchased a retube kit from Eurotubes. I too, was considering exactly that in the coming month or two. In particular, I had my eyes on the "Triaxis High Gain Low Output Option" in their catalog. Some time ago, I got my hands on the schematic diagram which confirmed there is a real need to tame the noise by a specific combination of tube placements in the appropriate stages.

My main question is: "did you find that the hum and noise were appreciably lowered by your action as you hoped and therefore easier to live with?". Like you, I don't use noise reduction and tend to not like the result if I do. More tends to be lost than gained. In short, I am hoping this will be the longed for 'magic bullet', so to speak.

Any and all advice is most welcome.

Many thanks,
Ken

PS GMC has provided a big boost to my desire to dust off my gear and actually start using it again!


Addendum:

Since sending this as a private message, I realise only now that there is a specific forum that is appropriate for this topic and there are at least a few other folks out there in GMC land that could potentially chime in who also are the proud owner of a Triaxis. Therefore, I am reproducing it here. That as well as it also seems Muris is on his vacation ...

I was most surprised to find there is even a fresh topic started by maharzan who even now has his hot little hands on a Triaxis himself? Geez. Talk about weird timing! The stars must be aligned or something?! Congrats, BTW! It takes a lot of work to get it to fit your needs but the effort is definitely worth it.

cool.. I will be watching this thread. The triaxis I got has JJ tubes (don't know what exactly) The seller said JJ tubes. But its been there for like 1.5 years I think.

Thanks (I saw me mentioned there at the end.. ahah). I am playing around and haven't had much sleep.. lol Its my new baby! I can't seem to get a good tone yet.. I am reading the manuals too. I need to really learn how to get THE tone, equilizing etc. But for now, I just got the triaxis and nothing more. I will play around and see what I can come up with.

Good luck to you too. BTW, do you have any clips recorded through your triaxis? Would love to listen to them.

Thanks.

JJ tubes are great for your Triaxis, I have a set from Eurotubes
and it's been working fine.

Your wish is my command, master. OK. Here goes.

Demo #1
Demo #2

Yes. A demo in more than just one sense. Me in my old band - as in seven years ago?! Geez. Not much more than a one-take recording at band rehearsal ...

I have never really used the Triaxis in a recording situation. It has been purely a live gig workhorse. More than enough juice! Well that and the Marshall 9200 power amp hooked up to it. A rare case where the guitarist actually had to "turn it up" to even hear oneself over the plenty loud kick-ass drummer dude ...

Wow, thats some heavy stuff there. The mesa sound is clearly heard. (I am not a particular fan of metal though). The first part of Punch your boss sounds great.

Haha! Listening to your own demo in the other topic, I had the impression you might like that little intro. Yep. I still got it! I can read minds. Hehe.

I am a man of many colours though and most of what I did with those guys was using but a handful of setups. I haven't played like that since ... ummm .... 2002? I try not to be so one-dimensional as ... ummm ... metal?! Although, a lot of that is more hard rock or even maybe hardcore tinged with a little metal for flavour.

Cheers dude. At least you know you can get some chunk out of that box you have right there. If you need it. Took a lot of tweaking though and still wasn't 100% happy with the result but hey I think that will always be the case ....

I am like a middle of everything.. not into pure classic rock, not into all those metal, hardcore stuff. So basically, more of Modern Rock, some hard rock, indie, alternative stuff.. but best is something that is more melodious than anything. I don't know the classifications though. For instrumentals, I like joe satriani so you know where I am. Not much into heavy stuff.

Yey, anyway, this is one of the first tube amp for me and it will definitely take more time. I have heard many people struggling to get THE TONE with triaxis at first. So, I am preparing myself on that as well. I hope once I add G-Force onto the loop, it will be more easier to get things rolling.

Yep. As versatile as the Triaxis is and was, I only started to like what I was hearing once I paired it up with the G-Major. My take on the G-Force? You don't need it! Splitting hairs difference really between the two. Save the money spent for a new cab and poweramp? Hehe. I have had a few tube amps (heads, practise amps etc.) over the years but my current setup is the only one out of those I didn't sell .... So, in my humble opinion, you are on the road to your own personal version of 'tone nirvana'. At least in this lifetime, that is!

Ummm ... Joe ain't heavy? You blaspheme!

Cool..

Heavy in the sense not so heavy heavy, you know.

You guys seem to have some great time here,
I'll leave you be.

Hehe. I am glad though that my suspicions concerning JJs for the Triaxis are confirmed ... it will be an improvement. Just need to get the cash together as I want to retube the poweramp as well

Just put in the order for a "High Gain Low Output" Retube Kit for the Triaxis (plus bias probe and a cheap multimeter) from Eurotubes ... Lo and behold! Four hours later I get a reply saying it has been shipped already! You just don't see that kind of service nowadays. Especially not two hours before close on a Friday ... Think I found my poison. 7 to 12 working days on average for shipping to the EU? Hmmmm. Not sure if I can wait that long?

Congrats and good luck.

EuroTubes are fast indeed, congrats on your purchase.

Whats the progress here?

Been waiting for delivery. I just got the arrival notice today so the plan is to pick up the package from the local Customs Office tomorrow afternoon. It has been so long since I had to pay customs duty that it completely slipped my mind. So I hope it doesn't cost too much but I believe it might even be exempt since the stated value is quite low. Here's hoping!

Good thing is it arrived much sooner than I had anticipated. They said it could take anywhere from 7-12 working days on average and in this instance it took just 7 out of those 12. So that was cool.

[EDIT] >> Actually it was 6 ... It took a day for the arrival notice to get to my mailbox ... Heh.

Thanks for the interest! Will let you know more as news comes in ....

I thought I would post a quick update in case any one was wondering where in the wilderness I am with all this?

The problem with this spot of amp maintenance has been that I have decided to give the whole studio a thorough going over. That means guitars, amps, mixer, cabs etc. I have, of course, installed the JJ's but it is only a small part of the whole signal chain. It has made a noticeable improvement in noise floor and also the recording outs are even a possibility now by sounding a lot less brittle. The likelihood is that I will still record by micing up the cab but I could record the direct outs simultaneously to maybe give a point of reference if I try to get a reasonable direct sound. I have played around with the recabbing approach on the computer but I always feel the results are more of a problem than a help. It is hard enough to get a good sound in the traditional way! I even started using the Fender with the Triaxis for the first time.

So herein lies the dilemma. I am back at square one on everything! Tweak city. I ain't too pleased to be knob fiddling as I would rather be playing guitar. So I have reserved judgment for the interim. At least until I replace the tubes in the poweramp also for I am starting to think the old tubes in there have been the culprit sonically wise as to why I have never been quite happy with my tone. That is for another day and more cash down the line.

In short, the JJ's are an improvement albeit it just moves the problem further up the signal chain In time, I hope to get where I want to be.

Congrats on the install.. would love to hear some new samples then.. direct / miced. What say?

That could well be a possibility. I am still experimenting with the direct option. So, give me some time until I get something half decent

[EDIT] >> Just been a bit difficult also since I have been using the Fender lately and I ain't used to that at all. I broke a string on the Ibanez (my main guitar) about a week ago and have to wait till pay day for a spare set. The Fender like I said above is so old for me gear-wise it hasn't even (up till recently) been played through the Triaxis. It sure wants to be played in a style I am not familiar anymore. Can we say blues and funk?!

oops.. try clean channel with the fender.. mark IIC default setting has been my favorite for lead tones. I haven't explored much on other ones though. Hoping to hear some great clips then!

I am happy to say I am making PROGRESS!! Woohoo! I have finally tracked down what that intangible "something" was that has been irritating me for years and have tried pretty much everything to cure.

It is quite simple. The G-Major. Ouch. I read on the Triaxis Yahoo Group about the less than stellar converters in the G-Major and did my own test. I am running direct into my high end sound card - no ADC/DAC problems to speak of there. Running the direct sound through SPDIF to G-major - again no ADC/DAC issues that way. In other words, as pure a signal as possible with my current setup. Then I run a wet/dry mix internally through the sound card and out through to the outboard mixer and speakers. Light and day. Clear. Punchy. My goodness. No wonder I have never been happy. It was like I had guessed some kind of technical issue. I even went to the trouble of testing all my guitar/audio cables for shorts and continuity, cleaned every single contact (that took two days) and after all that (to add further frustration) it seems the remaining working channel on the power amp seems to be dying with the signal cutting in and out. I can't afford to retube as yet and so was left with the only option - recording outs on the Triaxis. Glad it worked out that way really for I may not have connected things like this otherwise.

Maharzan. I recommend you join the Triaxis Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Triaxis if you haven't already done so. In addition, I suggest you check out this page for the only PC preset editor available on the net (that I can find) and for a great collection of presets which you can dump out to the unit: http://www.tonymckenzie.com/triaxis3.htm I meant to inform of these earlier but I have been oh so busy!

More later when I have had a chance to further explore the sonic possibilities finally opening up before me!

[EDIT] >> I have always run the G-Major in series with the Triaxis. With my recent experiences it may be beneficial to run it instead through the FX loop ... when playing as a guitar rig. Never really did an A/B comparison and I can't now really anyway given the tubes on the power amp are dying.

Hmmm. On second thought, the converters in the G-Major might not be so bad. What I am hearing may well be just the power amp getting flakey on me?? I can't isolate that out of the equation in a test at the moment so I won't completely rule it out just yet! Anyway. The search never ends ...

Cool.. I will into that immediately. I use mac though.

There is a proper connection diagram in the triaxis manual which you might have already looked. I hope its not GMajor since I am planning to buy the G-Force pretty soon. It might be how you connect these boxes.

Thanks for sharing.

Ok. Here is a quick and dirty sample of the sound I am currently working with. It has been much pain and suffering to get to this point but I feel I am almost there. Feedback much appreciated.

Click to view attachment

[EDIT] >> Looks like I should post this somewhere else. Noone is bothering with it ...

hey Neurologi!

Didn't notice you posted.. been busy with MTP and what not.

sounds cool. Can you record a song or something with that? Is this direct (without any effects?) sounds a bit rough I guess.

That would be the trials and tribulations I mentioned earlier!

Since uploading that, I noticed first that the default recording bit resolution was 16bit and should have been at 24bit which is a good compromise since no recording software that I know of records at the native resolution of my sound card/audio interface which is at 32 bit integer. No. 32 bit float is not the same thing at all!

Subsequently, I noticed that for some reason my clean-up signal chain for the recording outs from the Triaxis were reset and therefore not active i.e. DC Filter/Low Cut Filter (ca. 200kHz)/Noise Gate. Hence, the muddy sound overall.

Also too, I learnt the wonders of a little compression at low ratio and only for a threshold of about -3dB. I had never used it before but found it helps smooth the edges a bit since I tend to attack the strings quite hard.

As far as effects go I only use some time-based ones as in chorus/delay/reverb (G-Major Send/Return via SPDIF). Since I am running a stereo signal on the computer and processing each channel independently for parallel routing I trimmed the delay time on one channel a tad which helped to tighten things up a little.

This has been quite the experience. Not helped by getting my head around new software. I made the switch to Magix Samplitude 11 (Standard) only recently of which I am glad since it fits my needs better and the audio quality is a match for the capabilities of my Creamware Pulsar II (Project) sound card/audio interface. I had only just finished a complete overhaul of the guitar used in the recording but it is now unplayable since one of the hex bolts holding the saddle has been threaded and I am unable to tighten it enough to hold it in place. Not surprising since I fitted heavier gauge strings (D'Addario 10-46's -> Elixir NanoWeb 11-49's) than it had previously and in different tuning (D Standard -> Standard Tuning). Until I get new parts for it, no new recordings I am afraid. I have other guitars but that little riff is an idea for a new song I had a week or so ago where the Ibanez is best suited sound-wise.

Yeah. I just had to get some of that off my chest. There is a lot more I could go into but I will spare you the agony!

Oh! By the way, I just LOVE the heavier gauge strings and Elixir!!! Shame I can't play on them and am back to the Strat with 9's. Ouch! I am afraid to do a new setup on it just yet with 11's since I don't want to be stuck with no guitar until I get the tools I need to do the job properly. In case of problems, I could always switch to the Yamaha but I am back where I started ... with 9's!! I really don't like the sound or feel of such thin gauge at all anymore. Horrible. How time's change, eh?

Thanks Marharzan for the comments. I really do appreciate it.

Hmm.. so many setups..

I still yet to fool around with mine. haven't really explored much. I am awaiting GForce very soon. That might add some flavor to my set up.

I would feel naked without at least some flavor from the G-Major. I am sure you will feel much the same way once you get your G-Force ...

Dont forget the PC editor for the g-major, it works but i made my presets before i found out about the editor!

you should find it here: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tc+g-majo...lient=firefox-a

Which one do you use, Victor? There seem to be quite a few out there now. A lot more choice than when I first bought the G-Major.

I rather liked RealMajor though for its interface and the provided link to quite the burgeoning library of user presets. GLydian seems to be one mentioned a lot in the forums but no dice for me since I seem to recall that it requires use of firmware version 1.27. I am still stuck at 1.11 no matter how hard I try. I have tried three different MIDI interfaces to update it but TC Electronic's implementation of an update procedure seems rather flakey at best.

My next plan of attack is to just buy a simple interface that IS on the list of recommended ones on the readme just for this purpose alone. I ain't holding my breath that it will actually work though ... every time it fails it rails me so much that I am almost of a mind to send the company a nasty email or three.

Oh yeah, very very true, at least 5khz cut.

I did a bit of experimentation with a 5kHz cut today but was only half-pleased with my attempts. I always ended up with a sound that lost its liveliness somewhat but it sure tamed some of the pick noise etc. that I sometimes get irritated by when I hear it and therefore becomes quite distracting at times.

Could you elaborate on your settings? What kind of filter? A low shelf or high cut? Or do you mean a notch filter? At what Q settings and dB amount? You got me curious now, Muris!

Oh no, not talking about EQ, this cut is last in effect chain, next to output.

Ah ok. A G-Force specific thing. I just found a webpage briefly describing the inbuilt speaker filters. I am not all too familiar with the differences to the G-Major so it was news to me. Good to know but not applicable to my situation .... No wonder it didn't sound right cause I already have some speaker simulation going on in my DAW!

Ahh right, you have G Minor,
it's Maharzan who is getting G Force, I confused everyone, like I always do.

Haha. Also the fact that I actually have a G-Major ...

Crap, G Minor is a controller, I meant G Major

Btw, they should try with new models like G Dim, G Aug etc.

It's all right, Muris. The maestro is allowed a mistake or two ....

Cheers.

There is a PC editor for the G-Major called ... ummm .... GLydian!

I heard they also announced a patch for it, G Super Locrian!!

Oh well. Given the original GLydian only supports firmware version 1.27, I am out of luck since I still can't update past v1.11 ...

[EDIT] >> Glad I caught you in a good mood.

Hmm, your firmware should be 7.0 and up, it's Locrian.

What if I play the second inversion in a higher register? Will I need the members-only limited availability patch for the original patch? What if the LED screen can't handle double digits?

Fine form, Muris. Fine form.

Ok, I quit.

Hehe. I know. I am full of it at times or is that all the time? Anyway. Thanks for takin' the time out to read my silly posts ...

In case anyone is still following this thread and was interested in a further sample of my guitar sound in light of my current understanding and recording setup? It has been a while since my last upload but has taken me this long to even be comfortable making a further attempt at it. I do feel that I am better able to capture the "tone" and "sound" I am looking for now.

As such, the result can be found here which is my take of the solo in Daniel Realpe's "Dreamy Ballad Odd Time Collaboration" which was recorded just a few days ago. This was with the Strat as the Ibanez is only back in commission as of yesterday. As always, I would appreciate any comments one may have.

Cheers.

Good tone in my opinion! It really sits that spacy in this collab! Speaking of G-Major, I haven't used mine since I bought it, though when I connected it between the guitar and the Marshall I found out that it "steals" some of the tone even in by-pass mode. That is also confirmed in some forums, but I wonder if the Lydian update takes care of this or if the processor got confused by my dropped tuning? Also I heard a rumour that TC-electronics is secretely planning to invade Italy, by making a new Church-processor that goes under the name of G-sus in order to get the Catholic church as customers.

Cheers man! Means a lot to me coming from a fellow tube freak!

I think you may well be right about the G-Major. I had always run it in serial between the Triaxis and power amp in the past and I noticed a HUGE difference when running it instead in parallel with the recording outs. If I ever gig again I am gonna have to get something like a Suhr Minimixer (tranforms the serial Send/Return effects loop into parallel) but I haven't done the proper A/B comparison to confirm this. I like not having to crank the amp and just monitoring in a comfortable environment!

As far as updates are concerned I don't want to go there. Hehe. I have given up for the moment trying to update mine. Never works! I am making do with how it is now. I am still at v1.11 ... Apparently the v1.26 fixes some DRAM timing issues which may even give it a more transparent sound? Even so, like you say, if it colours the sound a parallel option might be more along the right track.

Yep. The Vatican is about as sus(picious) as an organisation could possibly be and an intervention courtesy of TC Electronic gets my full support!!!

If I ever gig again, which is believable though since Im planning for it, I will be using good ole' analog effects instead from my pedalboard and have the TC-major for something else, putting it on vocals or use for studio-effects since its real good for handling digital signals..... Their new series of stomp-boxes doesn't steal the tone though....

Btw. doesn't Cruella De Vil's brother Evenruder De Vil work as head-Engineer at TC ????