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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → Palmer Speaker Emulators
Deer in headlights when I read that..!
Sounds neat though, but personally I'd rather just use a straight up emulator. I really only play live and with what little recording I do, I just use a mic. Some folks on here might be interested in the link since a good bit of people here record on a regular basis and use computer software in the process. -S
Hey all,
I use a Palmer PDI-09 DI box/ Speaker Simulator all the time.
I play at a church and I use an AC15HW which has no master volume. So because I can crank the amp and hear the wonderfulness that is an AC15HW loud I had to take measures into my own hands. Also the sound guys are typically volunteers who know little about making a guitar sound good. Plus micing the amp leads to inconsistencies and is a pain in my ****.
So what I do is simple and totally awesome for all my gigs.
I run my guitar and pedals into the amp. Out of the power output I run into the Palmer. From there I go into a Weber Attenuator. From there I go to my Speaker.
The Palmer sends a Speaker Simulated Direct tone to the FOH. It doesnt change much no matter how loud the amp is. Makes like really nice for the sound guys. Very consistent.
Then I set my amp to the sweet spot which is really loud... and I turn down the speaker with the attenuator.
I love the tone that is coming to the FOH. It sounds better than I ever got micing it.
I played an outdoor show not long ago and we had a professional sound crew hired for the event. The sound guy came on stage and gave me a sm57 to mic the amp. I gave him back the mic and said I am just going to run direct. He went off on me saying that I was wasting a great amp by doing that and he was insistent that I mic it rather than go direct. I told him to trust me. When he asked me to sound check I could see his eyes open from across the field. It sounded as good as it does anywhere else. Palmers have made me a happy guy... and the PDI-09 is pretty cheap.
Hey all,
I use a Palmer PDI-09 DI box/ Speaker Simulator all the time.
I play at a church and I use an AC15HW which has no master volume. So because I can crank the amp and hear the wonderfulness that is an AC15HW loud I had to take measures into my own hands. Also the sound guys are typically volunteers who know little about making a guitar sound good. Plus micing the amp leads to inconsistencies and is a pain in my ****.
So what I do is simple and totally awesome for all my gigs.
I run my guitar and pedals into the amp. Out of the power output I run into the Palmer. From there I go into a Weber Attenuator. From there I go to my Speaker.
The Palmer sends a Speaker Simulated Direct tone to the FOH. It doesnt change much no matter how loud the amp is. Makes like really nice for the sound guys. Very consistent.
Then I set my amp to the sweet spot which is really loud... and I turn down the speaker with the attenuator.
I love the tone that is coming to the FOH. It sounds better than I ever got micing it.
I played an outdoor show not long ago and we had a professional sound crew hired for the event. The sound guy came on stage and gave me a sm57 to mic the amp. I gave him back the mic and said I am just going to run direct. He went off on me saying that I was wasting a great amp by doing that and he was insistent that I mic it rather than go direct. I told him to trust me. When he asked me to sound check I could see his eyes open from across the field. It sounded as good as it does anywhere else. Palmers have made me a happy guy... and the PDI-09 is pretty cheap.
Yeah Palmer makes great gear. use PDI-03's while recording in my studio
Cheers Ron
One Palmer looks like a small DI box, and the other looks like a rack effect case. Which one is better to get and why?
Hi guys.
I use a similar set up to jgalvan.
Marshall dsl 50 head, into h&k red box, into marshall powerbrake into 2x12.
I run the dsl on the green channel at around 6-7 which sound awesome especially with a boost or fuzz face infront. But it's far too loud for most gigs. So the powerbrake knocks down the volume but the redbox has already taken the amps full signal out to the p.a. It sounds much clearer than micing & 100% consistent, plus there's no audio bleed like you'd get with a mic. Even at small gigs where micing up isn't that needed I still do it as I can keep the stage volume low, which helps everyone here each other, and keeps my tinnitus to a minimum 
The red box has 2 different 'simulations' A 2x12 or a 4x12, both very similar, the 4x12 is abit more rounded. I find the 2x12 works best for me.
One Palmer looks like a small DI box, and the other looks like a rack effect case. Which one is better to get and why?
So the PDI-09 is the DI box and the PDI-03 is the Rack unit.
I am not totally experienced with this gear like others but I can speak well about the PDI-09.
I am sorry for the real basic explanation.
You have to have a speaker connected to your amp when you play it otherwise bad things happen. Its some kind of load... but I am not sure what exactly is going on.
The PDI-09 does NOT handle that load. So if you plug your amp into that and then run it direct without plugging your speaker into the out of the PDI-09 you will blow up your amp in some way.
From what I understand the PDI-03 (rack gear) has a load dump or resistance of some kind so that you dont have to plug your speaker into the unit. You could use a Head and run the power out into the PDI-03 and record direct or play a gig with no stage volume except what the board sends back to you.
This is a nice feature if you need quiet on stage. Like at church.
So I can afford the PDI-03... so I had to get creative. I run into the PDI-09 and send that to the FOH. But then go out of the PDI-09 into the attenuator so that I can turn the speaker down. Keep in mind my amp is blazing loud if I didnt do this. The Weber is my stage volume knob.
So which is better??? The PDI-09 is 100 bucks on ebay and the PDI-03 is 600 bucks. If you are made of money go get the PDI-03 as it has more options. However if you are on a budget get the PDI-09 and maybe a Weber Attenuator and see what you think.
I understand the sound mans concern with not using a mic. I had a Weber box that allowed me to send a signal out to a board and also completely turn the speaker off so the direct sound is all you get. In theory that sounds good, however the Weber box didn't emulate anything it just sent straight signal to a mixing board and for those that wonder what that sounds like... imagine listening to a Squire Side Kick turned up until it hurts!!! Ice picks all the way. It would have been ok for clean but the distortion sounds were horrible. If you ever wanna hear it I can post a sound cloud of one of the songs we did. HORRIBLE! Even drunks at bars deserve better than what I was giving at that gig. Never messed with it again. The Palmer looks good though and has a pretty good reference if you know what I mean.
i have a PDI-09 coming to add some flavor and options to my studio....should be here in a couple of days. I hope to have some sound clips shortly thereafter.
SO if I already have an attenuator, I should get the smaller one?
I was looking to get the bigger one if I could essentially get rid of my attenuator. Both in one sounds pretty sweet.
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