Intel ReValver MK III manual

Doc revision 1.12[...]

T able of con tents Secon        P age Intr oducon/T echnical requir ements 2 R ecording the Guit ar 3 W orking with R eV alver® MK III 8 The Modules 10 Complete amplier s 10 Pre-amplier s 16 P ower ampliers 19 Stomp bo x es/Pedals 22 Speak ers/Cabine ts 27 Gener al E ?[...]

Intr oducon Congra tulaons on your purchase of ReV alver® MK III ! ReV alv er MKIII is a rev oluonary 64-bit amplier modeling soware that captur es the true characteris cs of vacuum tubes while allow - ing users unprecedent ed contr ol over their tonality and gain structures. ReV alver includes 65 incredible linkable sub modules [...]

Loading the VST or AU  plug-in into the DA W On a Mac, a plug-in in the VST or AU forma t is automacally located by the host and no acon needs to be tak en for the VST / AU host to nd the ReV alver® plug-in. It should be automacally list ed among the available plug-ins aer a rescan. In Windows, it is possi[...]

Connecng the Guitar to the sound card Here are three wa ys to connect your Guitar to the computer: 1) The simplest opon is to hook it up to the sound card Line-In jack using a suitable connector , usu ally a 1/4” to 1/8” adapter . The advantag e is that you don’t have to buy any addional gear (ex cept maybe the cabl[...]

3) The middle road, which probably won’t cost you anything, but could be almost as good as a DI box, is the use of an ordinary stomp box , which in fact is a sort of DI box. It could be a pedal of any kind; a distoron pedal, chorus, echo, etc., as long as: a) It is electrically power ed, and you actually use the baery or power source [...]

4) The best opon is, of course, to purchase a good quality Digital Audio Interf ace. There are sev - er al on the marke t made specically for Guitar for under $100. Look for a device with ASIO (audio stream input/output) drivers, which is an industry standar d and will work well with Re - V alver® MKIII. Aer you install the device, the Au[...]

Recor ding the Guitar with or without eects? Should you use hardwar e compressor s, distoron or other eects bef ore you recor d the signal? It is your personal pref erence. If you can’t live without “that special sound, “ then you should prob - ably recor d it that wa y . But when it comes to compression, EQ , rever[...]

W orking with ReV alver® MK III The tle module A t the top of the graphical int erface of the progr am is a module cont aining gener al setup funconal ity , including the Input volume +-16dB adjustment (with pre and post LED indica tors), Output volume -32dB adjustment (with post LED indicator). The adj[...]

Quality modes By pressing the gearwheel icon on the tle module you can select the Startup quality mode . The mix-down quality mode for ces 64-bit processing at 4x over sampling. This mode fully exposes the qualies of the progr am, whereas the normal “real me” mode may be a lile more noisy and is likely to cont ain some alia[...]

The Modules Complet e amps The modules in this category are int egrat ed preamps and power amps; thus, no module from the “preamp” or “power amp” categ ories is needed along with an “amp” in a ReV alver® MK III preset. Module name = Pea vey 6505® Descripon = Loud, mean and built f or the road, the 6505 was named in celebra on[...]

Module name = P eavey V alveKing® Descripon = A true tone monster in its own right, The V alveKing deliver s a tone ranging from bluesy clean to crunchy and classic rock. The amp has a built -in spring rev erb and separat e ton - est acks for the Clean and Lead channels. The amp’ s preamp and power secons use 12AX7 and 6L6GC tubes, respec?[...]

Module name = Pea vey JSX® Descripon = Loaded with three independent channels and comprehensiv e tonal contr ol, the Joe Satriani signature JSX puts the full spectrum of Guitar tones at your ngerps, starng with a prisne clean channel, the perf ect founda on for lay ering outboard e ects, and including the ex clusive F A T swit[...]

Module name = Basic 100 Descripon = With one channel for Guitar and one for bass, this “100 wa ” amp has a lot of bo om and is fa vor ed for it ’ s clean tones. The Guitar and bass channels have dier ent gain and tone stack s. The bass channel even has a “Deep” switch that shis the frequency response of the Bass knob. On th[...]

Module name = Fo x ACS-45 Descripon = This amp has three channels, all running at the same me; a Normal, Brilliant and T remolo channel. The T one controls (Bass & T reble) only work on the Brilliant channel. The T one Cut control remo ves some high treble (on all channels), and works lik e a rev ersed presence contr ol. Module name = Hom[...]

Module name = ‘62 BluesMaker Descripon = Loosely based on a 1962 classic, this amp has 2 channels, normal and tremolo. The original amp did not have a “Drive” contr ol, but we put one here to modu late the distoron in the power amp. Module name = ACM 900 Descripon = This amp is modeled aer a “Rock & Roll” amp built with bo[...]

Preamplier s A module from this category is pref erably placed befor e a module from the “power amp” categ o - r y. Module name = Pea vey 6505® preamp Descripon = The preamp from the 6505 amplier . All the tonal contr ol without the power amp secon. Module name = Pea vey Classic 30® preamp Descripon = The preamp secon of the[...]

Module name = Pre-HB Descripon = Simple preamp for clean and slightly over driven sounds. The preamp goes easily into over drive, but distorts gen tly and rela vely cleanly . Module name = Pre-02 Descripon = This preamp has 2 parallel channels: a triode tube path and a diode clipping path. The tube sound mix ed with diode distoron mak e[...]

Module name = Basic 100 Guitar channel preamp Descripon = This is the Guitar channel preamp from the Basic 100. It is ra ther clean due to it ’ s dual 2 triodes, neither of which typically satur ates. Module name = ACM 900 preamp Descripon = This is the preamp secon from the ACM 900. The two gain knobs contr ol the gain in two places in [...]

Po wer ampliers A module from this category is pref erably placed aer a module from the preamp categ ory . Module name = Pea vey 6505® power amp Descripon = The 4 x 6L6GC power amp secon from the Pea vey 6505 amplier . Module name = Pea vey Classic 30® power amp Descripon = The Classic 30’ s power amp secon is pure EL84 [...]

Module name = M-998 Descripon = This simple power amp, uses 2 triodes in series for extr a gain, and also uses a pair of tonal charact er lter s, that can be tweak ed in the T weak GUI. Module name = Standar d Pow er Amp #2 Descripon = This power amp has a standard push-pull end stag e, but not driven by the usual Long T ail Pair (L TP). I[...]

Module name = Basic power amp Descripon = This power amp is tak en directly out of the Basic 100. Just like the original amp, the power secon has only a master contr ol. The Negav e Feedback Loop (NFB) shapes the distoron char acter , and can be adjusted in the T weak GUI. For an explanaon of the T weak GUI, see page 35. Module name [...]

Stomp box es / pedals A module from this category is usually placed bef ore an amp module. They are designed to shape the sound bef ore it is colored by the amp. Module name = OverDriver Descripon = This stomp box is wired somewhat lik e a Guitar amp, in that it uses 3 stag es of diode distoron. The “ T urbo” acts lik e a “Mast[...]

Module name = Slow Grow SG-1 Descripon = An auto swell e ect tracks the notes you play and removes the transients to mak e the music sound lik e it ’ s being play ed backwar ds. Module name = Octapus Octa ver Descripon = Behind every grea t tone is another tone waing to come out. With Octapus you can release this sub octa ve, tak en f[...]

Module name = The Sher ’ Descripon = The Sher ’ stomp pedal is a tough but ver sale distoron e ect. Loosely modeled aer a 1980s-era cousin it ’ s perf ect for blues and rock either by itself or with a clean amp channel. Module name = Re-La y 2 delay Descripon = The Re-Lay 2 is a double delay with a lot of opons. Y o[...]

Module name = Driver Descripon = This is a very versa le stomp bo x that delivers anything from smooth overdriv e (with “Blues” turned up) to a heavily distort ed and overloaded sound (“Gain” and “Muer ” turned up high). The module uses a modied amp tone stack that allows for heavy mid scooping, grea t for blues and rock &am[...]

Module name = W ow-W ah! Descripon = A Wah pedal is a low-, high-, or band-pass lter with adjustable frequency . At the point of cut o , there is a peak with adjustable resonance, making the Guitar sound “waaaoooow - wwoooaaa” . The resonance has similaries with the human mouth, hence the name. The fre - quency can be contr olled ei[...]

Speak ers / cabinets A module from this category is usually placed aer any amp module. Module name = Conv oluon speak er simulaon Descripon = This module uses real-me convoluon to mimic actual speak er and cabinet setups. Convoluon can be very CPU-intensive so there are 2 opmiza on opons, “Resample” and “Hi[...]

Gener al eects Module name = 8Q Descripon = An eight band parametric lter with adjust able frequency , gain and Q in seven types: high shelf , low shelf , high pass, low pass, band pass, notch and peak. Each band can be either a rs t order or second order IR lter . (Please note that rst -order lter s cannot represen t EQ , b[...]

Module name = ACS R2 Stereo Rev erb Descripon = Stereo reverb designed to be placed last in the chain to give ambience or width to the sound, with adjust able pre-dela y and room siz e. Three lter s can be progr ammed to shape the character of the wet signal. This rev erb is thicker than the Rev erb R1; it also has dier ent def ault lte[...]

Module name = Ster eo widening e ect Descripon = This module with combines ambience, ster eo widening and ex citer/ enhancer e ects to give your tone a wider , fuller sound with more presence. The enhancer opera tesby the delaying the lower frequencies to allow the high frequencies to come rs t, giving the sound a touch of presence and [...]

Module name = CS3 T ube Compressor Descripon = A compressor is used to even the volume so that the lower levels do not com pletely disappear . Many music prof essionals believe that a tube compressor sounds “warmer ” than a solid-st ate variant due to the slight satura on of the tubes and because the transf ormer adds a subtle touch of ?[...]

Miscellaneous ulies Module name = Signal splier Descripon = The signal splier divides the signal into 2 streams. E ach runs in parallel using it ’ s own set of modules. In the “signal merg e” module, these two streams are mixed int o one signal again. Y ou can only use signal splier once per preset. Module name = Frequenc[...]

Module name = Ster eo Levels adjust Descripon = Same as “Leveler ” module, but with a contr ol knob for each channel. This ulity module can be inserted wherever you wish to monitor or change the volume levels. The module monitor s both the le & right channels. This module has a volume adjust and a “Learn” buon to automac [...]

Module name = Single tonestack Descripon = This module only cont ains one tone stack with Bass, Mid and T re ble knobs to adjust the lter aspects of any of the included tone st acks of ReV alver® MK III. (The Fo xy tonestack does not use the Mid knob.) Module name = Single triode Descripon = This module contains a single triode tub e with[...]

T weaking modules One of the most powerful fea tures of ReV alver® MK III is the ability to tweak each parame ter of a module other than the usual knobs and buons on the fron t of the module. In an eort to explain the T weak mode in ReV alver , we’ve wrien some short explanaons of each tweak in the tube tw eak GUI. TheT weak mode [...]

The T otal Harmonic Distoron (THD) analyzer display s the relaonship between the input sound and the distort ed output sound. The Oscilloscope view illustra tes how a module alters the sine wa ve. It is av ailable for each module as a whole, and for any tube component thereof . 36[...]

Y ou can save the Impulse Response (IR) of a module to a .w av le in 44.1 kHz stereo. The impulse response is praccally the same view as the frequency analyz er , but this tool allows you to save the response to disk. This IR can be used in the convoluon speak er module (or any other IR plug-in by third party manufacturer s) and can be [...]

The T ube Tw eak GUI One of the most powerful fea tures of ReV alver® MK III is the detail and number of parame ters that can be used to ne tune any tube circuit in a module. In the module’ s T weak GUI, click on a tube icon to bring up the tube T weak GUI. 38[...]

On the tube T weak GUI, the editable paramet ers are divided into two groups, the Phy sical and the Non-Phy sical (which has no mean ing in reality but can be used to enhance the sonic properes, anyw ay). Depending on which tube you wish to tweak, you can choose between triodes or pentodes. A power pentode is a tube type oen used to drive the[...]

The coupling capacitor remo ves the high voltag e DC oset from the output si gnal of the tube st age. This high-pass frequency is usually between 5-10 Hz, but if it is set higher then a user can change the tonal and dynamic properes of the stage. The grid resist or value is an all-in-one resist or used to calculate the eects of the s[...]

MIDI contr ol and automa on In the stand-alone ver sion, all knobs, fader s and buons can be controlled by MIDI. The VST and AU plug-in can be contr olled using nave automa on, but not all paramet ers can be automat ed. MIDI T o setup MIDI contr ol in the standalone version, please select your MIDI interf ace from the menu (Fil[...]

Plug-in automation parameters T able 1: VST name AU name Description Ped Bass Distpedal Bass Distpedal Bass control Ped Mid Distpedal Mid Distpedal Mid control Ped Treb Distpedal Treble Distpedal Treble control Ped T one Distpedal T one Distpedal T one control Ped Mix Distpedal Mix Distpedal wet/dry mix Pre Gain Preamp Gain Preamp Gain Pre 1 Gain t[...]

Plug-in automation parameters T able 1: VST name AU name Description Amp Out Power amp Output level Output adjust knob on amp or poweramp- module Pre Out Preamp Output level Output adjust knob on preamp module Finding a great sound: F AQ Q.  What can I do to improve the frequency response of a pres[...]

Q.  I have some very cool Impulse Response (IR) les. Can I use them with ReV alver MK III? A. Y es. The speaker con voluon modeler (RIR) can load les in . wav forma t, provided they are reasonably short. RIR is using a real-me engine that requir es no parcular sample chunk size, s[...]