See how the Bad Cat compares in an overdub rhythm guitar part up against a UAD Diesel VH4 plugin. This is not a review of the amp. But you will see how it works with other parts in a track. You be the judge.
I don’t love bad cat amps. But if you dial the treble down a bunch and use the presence as your “high” control, and roll bass back quite a bit, you can get a tighter but still open sound 🤷♂️
More definition in the high and pow end on the BC. Better clarity on the BC. The Diesel seem to have more in the mid range but not as much definition through the chord. Winner is the Bad Cat. Though it could use some more in the mid range.
Christ I LOVE your online name! Wish I had thought of it. Yeah ended up using the Bad Cat on the song. And I DID add a very good amount of mids to it in the mix. Ya got good ears pal. Thanks for the comment!
The Hot Cat, to my ears sounds better. More full range, much less narrow/boxy. I have that UAD plug and it is quite good for what it is but in this scenario the Hot Cat wins.
Remember the hardware will give you a full canvass to paint on. The plug-in is designed for mixes. You can achieve that tightness will a decent drive/OD pedal in your chain. This is a big issues when comparing plug-ins with hardware. You can’t get that larger then life sound from a plug-in , but you can get a great 2D image with flares of three dimensional sound. The amp is very raw sounding, but has depth, I think a drive pedal would solve all your issues.
Thanks for the input!. Plug ins never have the depth you mention. I mean who plays a gig with a plug in? I am still getting used to the Boad Cat. I know my marshall amps very well and just need more time to see how the BC responds to different guitars, pedals and speker cabs. Cheers... Rusty
The Bad Cat seems to have a much softer midrange and is less present, esp. compared to the Diezel, which seems to push it back into the mix. I heard Santiago Alverez make a good point the other day. What he said was that in the past amps were designed to sound great in a mix, whereas now they need to design them to sound good by themselves (due to most people buying them for that purpose). What I seem to be hearing, IMO, is an amp that is designed to sound good by itself. He used the example that when you listen to isolated tracks from various artists, especially in the past, they would sound terrible... but great in the mix. Thanks for doing this demo, it solidified my decision to not buy a Hot Cat.
I love your comment. Like I said in my video, my Marshall is just so dependable with it's ability to work in a mix immediatly. The Bad Cat works some of the time but not all the time. Could be I just know what I am gonna get with the Marshall and still haven't figured out the Bad Cat. But thanks for pitching in I love it!
The problem with A/B comparisons is that one ends up judging minute things out of context and is generally a rabbit hole. At least for me. When I A/B I tend to get stressed and lose my ear. I can go back later and play an amp on its own that I had felt "lost" an A/B and hear it as great at home, and great with a band. In life we know comparing ourselves to others is a dead end. So are A/B demos, to some degree.
Got to go with your gut. I was a re-recording mixer for movies and television for 30 years. We constantly had to make decisions between multiple options and had to commit to those decisions and then move on. So comparing options is just something you gotta get used to in recording and mixing. Best not to go down the rabbit hole. Cheers. Rusty
Sounds good on my cell phone. How do you like it when you just plug straight into a amp? I seen reviews basically say this amp compared to the marshall....The Marshall was a bit more aggressive sounding.
Well it depends on what sound I m trying get. The one thing that keeps rubbing me the wrong way is the way it saturates. It sounds gritty or spitty. The Marshall always sounds smooth in the way it saturates. I know when I go for a modern aggressive higher gain sound it performs more to my liking than when going for a slightly crunchy sound. I will probably do another video of my playing live through it.
and I like the Hot Cat Better in this song. I like the way it's crunches is a bit more Bite-y. Just add a bit more upper mids to highlight that and you're there (I think). And fish for a higher frequency of the bass to pull out a little more to add separation from the Cats low end. I think the Diesel is a little cuppy...if that's a word. I'm on shitty speakers do take everything I said with a grain of salt lol. Nice studio!
Duly noted my friend. Thanks for the input...the Bad Cat has more edge no doubt and maybe some upper mids are a nice idea... I will look into it when mixing the song...cheers Rusty
Well yes you are right they are two different amps. When it comes time to add a guitar part to a song, I hear a guitar tone in my head that is required.. The trick then is to start trying out diffferent amps and effects to get the part I need. So I go to what's in my arsenal of amp choices. I try different things until I settle on the one that works. The point of the video is that I have not had a success rate I had hoped for when trying to use the Bad Cat over time. I pictured it being more versitile than it turned out to be. Hence the title, "Do I relly like my Bad Cat?". Turns out, not as much as I had hoped for. Thanks for adding your comment, that's what I was looking for in making the video. Cheers, Rusty
