I’m always slightly amused by the fact that, even though I am first and foremost a drummer, I spend far more of my hard-earned cash on guitars, amplifiers and guitar-related toys. In the last 3 months alone I have bought two tube amplifiers for the studio, and if you are saying “you just can’t help yourself can you”? Then you are probably right. It is from my guitar toy cupboard that both my items for this article reside or once did.
Avid Eleven Rack
I was one of the first people in the UK to get the Eleven Rack back in 2009. At the time I was still working for Avid and I had been asked to do an off-site presentation for one of the finance teams. In return, I would be “gifted” my own Eleven Rack. And some 10 years later I still have it, it still sits in the rack closest to my studio chair and it still gets used on almost, if not every session I do.
I soon became one of the main UK and worldwide demonstrators for the Eleven Rack and at the UK launch event at the 2009 Music Live show at the NEC in Birmingham, I met a chap called Russ Hughes, who had not long started a thing called the "Air Users Blog.” I wonder whatever became of him?
I have always believed the best way to learn a product, is to use a product and I quickly got well and truly under the hood of the Eleven Rack, and even 10 years on it is still a very powerful machine. The guitar sounds and amp emulations are fantastic, and to my ears at least, sound every bit as authentic and convincing today as they did when I first heard them. I can still navigate my way around the user interface of the Eleven rack faster than I can any other piece of equipment I own and give me a style or ask me to recreate a classic tone I can do it on the Eleven rack faster than I can with any other software, hardware or combination of the two, that is the power of the Avid Eleven Rack.
Tech 21 Sans Amp PSA-1
In 1998 I had just left university and started my first full-time job in the music industry working at TSC (The Solutions Company) part of the now long-defunct Computer Warehouse group. One of my first jobs was to build a touring recording rig for Pete Townshend of The Who and for a reason that escapes me, they let me loose in the warehouse to look for something and I came across 3 pallets full of stock that was either damaged, broken, ex-demo or so old that it had “fallen off” the system. I asked if I could have a dive through these pallets to see what could be saved, salvaged or repaired and to my amazement, my boss said yes.
One of the first things I came across was a Tech 21 Sans Amp PSA-1 guitar preamp processor. It was working but had seen better days and I asked if I could buy it. I offered £10 and I nearly fell over when they accepted my offer. I gave them £15 and took another PSA-1 that was in better condition but was not working. So you can see where this is going, I took the working insides of the sad-looking PSA-1 and transplanted them into the good looking chassis.
The PSA-1 was the backbone of my live and studio guitar rig for the next 10 years. It did a world cruise and toured with me for 3 years. Other effects and stompboxes came and went but I really loved the tone of the PSA-1.
Many people claim that it is hard to get a good tone out of and that the naming of the controls is almost meaningless, but having read the PSA-1 manual from cover to cover, I understood how to get the tone of some of the classic valve amplifiers that I loved, and considering that there are no valves, or valve emulation inside the PSA-1, mainly due to that stuff not being invented in 1993 when it launched I think I got a really good range of tones from it.
I sold my rebuilt PSA-1 a couple of years after getting my Eleven Rack as it was just sitting on top of my Marshall JCM 800 amp not doing very much, gathering dust and looking quite un-loved.
Over the years I must have sold tens of thousands of pounds worth of musical and recording gear on eBay and most of it I really don’t miss as it was sold to fund the next great project but the Tech 21 Sans Amp PSA-1 really was a one of a kind unit. Yes, it could make some quite authentic sounds but it could also make some hard, harsh and positively disturbing sounds and some of those were even great too. Maybe I should have a look on eBay, it is Christmas after all.
Eleven Rack Features
Over the years we have produced quite a bit of Eleven Rack content. Take a look….
In this video James takes a look at the NEW Avid Eleven Rack editor software application.