Analog Heat

Interesting finding. Glad you did it.

So then would you say the Heat suffers from “tonesuck”?

Its just when you compare it with the Active on/off button it seems to do more then it really does because its not a clean through when inactive but thinning out the sound.

Wow. That is very suprising. Well have to see it for myself.

So basically one wouldn’t want to leave it on their master unless they plan to be using it always active?

@Psilophil were you using balanced or unbalanced? Also did you ensure that levels were matched between the direct sound and heat inactive?

5 Likes

Did you invert A and B too for tests ?
(In case if Mackie’s circuits are different)

Analog Heat has unbalanced inputs & outputs which could make a difference if you’re running balanced otherwise.

Two things and and just totally curious cause this is such a suprising claim:

  • Are you guys asking because your findings are different?

  • I was under the impression that un/balanced didn’t matter except over long distances…

I feel a bit of a fool to keep giving this response repeatedly but one has to level match using the volume parameter on the second amp page to get the heat to behave the right way. This is especially important if you are trying to a/b the raw(i.e. no heat involved)and the bypassed signal.

Edit: correction note, volume in THE amp page😀

3 Likes

I recently got mine, and slapped it on the master, but it didn’t strike me as sounding much different when the AH is bypassed to how it sounded without the AH. I haven’t done any rigorous testing though.

I’m asking because I want to make sure the claims against the AH are qualified. I’m an “innocent until proven guilty” type of guy.

I matched the volumes, did not do a test the other way around in case that the mackie circuits are different (for that the thinning out was really to obvious too). Balanced/unbalanced shouldnt do the diffrence here too.

In the Heat i configured the input levels, but dont remember the settings on the second AMP page. Wondering if this does so much difference in soundcaracter of the bypassed heatsignal ? But possibly thats the point.

Maybe someone can doublecheck…

2 Likes

Does anybody have direct experience between AH and a Mutator? I normally have the Mutator strapped on the end of my monomachine which is a not so portable solution so looking for a live friendly alternative. - currently just using some drive saturation from a moogerfooger but would be good to have some stereo filter in there

I’ve found it depends on the source. Sometimes you turn it up sometimes you turn it down. I adjust it while activating/bypassing with the wet/dry all the way dry on an init patch until levels are even and proceed with heat mangling.

mine always blows the speakers up crazy if you can’t tell thats wild

Could you please clarify what you mean here? Amp only has one page :wink:

Oops, I was not by my heat when I commented. I thought it was a second page by memory but I now see it is on the only amp page. All the other parameters have two pages sorry for the confusion! :flushed:

I do mean the volume parameter in the amp page

2 Likes

Would be great if someone else can confirm or disprove: Is the sound through the bypassed (not Active) Heat thinner, then without no Heat at all?

in case it helps:

re the master bus, it took me a solid day or two of exploring the Heat to learn how to make a substantial and useful difference between active and bypassed. i figure elektron enables the effect to be subtle until you don’t want it to be.

because it’s the master bus, i’m looking for more subtle effects, so i only use the bottom three circuits. (supposedly Clean Boost only activates the filter and eq, but to my ears cranking up its Amp page parameters does make a noticeable difference.)

try drive above 50, wet above 100, w/d above 24, and vol near max. keep an eye on your input sensitivity as well, under settings. the manual says that ideally the bars should be nearly touching the max line, but other users have posted that they should only come up to about 75% for best effect. i’m still digging into this but based on my past couple of weeks i’m inclined to agree with them.

caveats: i’m running MD and MnM through my AH, and these instruments are notorious for coming across as thin and digitally clean when unprocessed. imho the Heat is exactly what they have always needed to give their sound warmth and presence. i have not tried it on other instruments, so of course ymmv.

1 Like

I’m definitely not having any issues getting the AH to sound how I want when active & when bypassed; I’m always monitoring that input sensitivity page.

Someone had issues with how it was effecting the sound when it was bypassed. I was only stating I didn’t notice any differences, but hadn’t done any real testing to verify my claim. I enjoy the AH with no complaints.

Actually Heat has balanced IN/OUT, check user manual page 27.

1 Like

Actually outputs are impedance balanced, not balanced.

Impedance balanced audio outputs
Balanced audio inputs

1 Like