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Old 05-10-2021, 12:49 PM
VinceM VinceM is offline
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Default Video of Dimarzio Black Angel Mag and Piezo Dual Source System

Hello everyone! I thought there may be some interest in this recording I have recently put together of my Dimarzio Black Angel dual source system. It has taken a long time to get this put together and fine tuned, but I have to say I am happy with the results.

I've posted on this once before, but to review, this is a passive system in the guitar, then it goes to a K&K belt clip preamp, where it is followed by a DTAR Solstice which goes direct to the recorder.

I'm doing very little with the eq - I have boosted a bit of lows and scooped sime mids on the Mag (via Solstice). I tamed the high end and mids a bit on the piezo (via the K&K).

A key discovery I found was making sure the phase on the mag was right! That can be the difference between it sounding "just ok" and sounding very nice.

I put some nice transparent compression on the final track via Audacity to get it sounding more up front.

BTW I'm using a Black Mountain Thumbpick to do both fingerstyle and strumming! It's a blast! It makes things possible for me that I would not be able to to with more conventional hybrid picking.

I hope you all enjoy this old church hymn chestnut from my childhood!

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Old 05-10-2021, 01:28 PM
MrErikJ MrErikJ is offline
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Sounds wonderful, as always. It's not quite the same but I've been using a Fishman Powertap Earth into an EAE Gigmix and have been fairly happy with it as well. It's hard to beat the mag/sbt combo for fingerstyle instrumental playing.
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Old 05-10-2021, 02:00 PM
VinceM VinceM is offline
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Thanks MrErikJ! Glad you like this. The Fishman system looks awesome - it's nice they put together the whole mag/sbt package, with the ability to run either mono or stereo. The Dimarzio system isn't too bad - they give you the stereo jacks to connect both passive pickups but you need to supply the rest of the capability off board, which for me requires the K&K belt clip to grab the signal as close to the pickups as possible.
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Old 05-10-2021, 02:06 PM
MrErikJ MrErikJ is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VinceM View Post
Thanks MrErikJ! Glad you like this. The Fishman system looks awesome - it's nice they put together the whole mag/sbt package, with the ability to run either mono or stereo. The Dimarzio system isn't too bad - they give you the stereo jacks to connect both passive pickups but you need to supply the rest of the capability off board, which for me requires the K&K belt clip to grab the signal as close to the pickups as possible.
Yeah, I tried the Black Angel in an old guitar and mixed it with a Pendulum SPS-1 I found. It was a really amazing preamp but I sold the guitar and preamp as it was far too much for me to manage. I don't think I had to the skill to properly use such a powerful preamp to mix the two
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Old 05-10-2021, 05:22 PM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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It sounds nice! I hear mostly the mag in my headphones, but it's a good sound. I also ordered a package of those new picks. Looking forward to them arriving soon.
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Old 05-11-2021, 06:51 AM
VinceM VinceM is offline
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Thanks martingitdave! Glad you like the sound. I was just going for an honest un-hyped sound of the pickups. I think the SBT especially offers a more convincing strumming sound than I can get with the mag alone. That extra complexity in the upper mids really helps make it more natural.
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Old 05-11-2021, 01:14 PM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VinceM View Post
Thanks martingitdave! Glad you like the sound. I was just going for an honest un-hyped sound of the pickups. I think the SBT especially offers a more convincing strumming sound than I can get with the mag alone. That extra complexity in the upper mids really helps make it more natural.
Agreed. Your playing is nice and I think the pickup stays out of the way and doesn't detract from the music. To me that's the ultimate goal. Does it sound and feel right to the player? Does it sound pleasing to the audience? After that, if you want more realism you need a dual source mic or some sophisticated processing, etc. Both of those tend to dampen my enthusiasm for performing. I like unplugged best, and second best is a simple pickup system.
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Old 05-11-2021, 01:16 PM
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noledog noledog is offline
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That was beautifully played and a wonderful selection!! As far as tone I found it very natural sounding. I’ve always thought that mag pickups are a great choice for fingerstyle and use one myself in my D18.
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Old 05-11-2021, 05:31 PM
VinceM VinceM is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by martingitdave View Post
Agreed. Your playing is nice and I think the pickup stays out of the way and doesn't detract from the music. To me that's the ultimate goal. Does it sound and feel right to the player? Does it sound pleasing to the audience? After that, if you want more realism you need a dual source mic or some sophisticated processing, etc. Both of those tend to dampen my enthusiasm for performing. I like unplugged best, and second best is a simple pickup system.
Yes there's a point where good enough is good enough! You said it - I'm just looking to get a tone that doesn't detract/distract from what I'm doing. Of course I'm happy to go down a rathole if I find some tonal "sauce" that truly enhances. I've been playing around with multiband compression that does some of that, but I didn't want to put that variable in for this video.
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Old 05-11-2021, 05:36 PM
VinceM VinceM is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noledog View Post
That was beautifully played and a wonderful selection!! As far as tone I found it very natural sounding. I’ve always thought that mag pickups are a great choice for fingerstyle and use one myself in my D18.
Thank you noledog! That is a great hymn. So simple but effective. Except playing it as a solo piece isn't so simple - especially the strummed verse with the melody. That drove me crazy.

Yes the mag is great for fingerstyle, and the SBT really helps with the strumming. I've heard livestreamed recordings of myself strumming with the mag only and I didn't like it at all!! I also think the combination mag/sbt reduces the need for fancy eq, because the SBT has the more sparking upper mids that the mag lacks. Each kind of covers up the other's weaknesses.
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