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Orange Micro Terror - Part 1: Improve the Headphone and how to record with it!
Introduction
The Orange Micro Terror is a cracking amp, It is affordable, pack the Orange tone and is light weight and portable. However, it does have a few draw back. In this part 1 of a two part series we are going to talk about the uses for the Tiny Terror that some people might not use it for. This article is going to be Headphone and Recording and the next is going to be gigging with it.
If you own an Orange Micro Terror chances are you have found out that getting a high gain sound from it, at Bedroom volume can be tough, This amp pack a punch! So you would have tried the headphone out, you would have quickly found out that it isn’t the best! To me it sounds like a bag of wasps! For this reasons I thought I would try something. Running it through a IR loader.
What is the Plan
I have purchased (With my own money) 3 professional IR’s from Lancaster Audio. A Marshall, A Fender Twin and an Orange. I will then be running the Headphone out of the Micro Terror into my interface and into logic then loading up the IR’s and seeing what they sound like. Will running the Orange Micro Terror through an IR make it sound better, Could it make it useable and even record with it? That is the plan for this article.
The IR’s I will be using:
- Marshall 1960 A 4X12
- Orange PPC 212 2X12
- Fender Twin Reverb 2X12
Why Even Do this?
Why not just run it through a cab? Well, as we said earlier the Micro Terror packs a punch and is very loud at high gain so using it in the bedroom with a good cabinet will result in the neighbours complaining. So i thought could we do this and get good sounding audio at a low volume?
Another reason is as the Orange Micro Terror is a Hybrid amp (Tube in the Pre Amp and the Power amp is Solid State) you don’t need to connect a cab to it, you can run it on headphones only. Meaning this little unit could be the perfect home recording amp! Get good, high gain and crystal cleans using a real amp without having to worry about Mic’ing and volume! Hopefully it works. Let us find out.
The Set Up
So what is the set up, Well, I am plugging the Micro Terror in, placing it on my desk at easy reach. I am then taking a standard Instrument cable from the Headphone out into the Input of my Audio Interface. Haven’t got a cab connected and I’m not going through a load box of any kind.
I will be loading the IR’s using Logic Space designer, Simple click on the top bar and click “Load IR”. This is a feature a lot of people don’t know about. The fact Logic (and I believe Garageband) has a built in IR loader. I won’t be adding any reverb or delay or any other pedals or effects. Simple Amp into Interface and that is it.
So How Did It Sound?
So how did it do? It sounds great, it is a huge improvement on the stock Headphone sound! I would say all three IR’s sounded great but for this amp the Marshall 4X12 works amazing! Could have messed with each IR a bit more (Each pack contains 3 files) but what I got was amazing and I was so impressed on how this amp sounded routing it this way!
If you want to hear the results for yourself, here is a video in which I run through all the samples, Running through all the IR’s I used. None of the guitars are processed or had any work done to them post production, What you are hearing is what was recorded.
I might even put together a full mix, record a short track and mix the guitars and drums and bass down to see how it holds up in a mix!
The Positives
- Fast to record and change the sound up
- More Sounds at a turn of a knob
- Could be used with other Micro Amps (Maybe an article on that?)
- Silent practise and recording
- Orange tone without the volume
The Negatives
- As good as the tone is, still not the same as running it through a cab.
- Lots of cables to set up.
- Need to find high quality IR’s.
- Lots of fiddling to find the perfect sound.
The Other Options?
You have a few other options when looking for a small mini head like this. Luckily we have reviewed a few of them! Some are cheaper and some are more expensive, Check them out below and see if that one is the one for you!
Conclusion
So can you recored using the Orange Micro Terror Headphone out? I think so, using some good quality IR’s and dialling in a good sound (Which isn’t hard with the Micro Terror) I believe you could record using this device. It is so small and portable it would be perfect if you had to travel to record or were in different locations each time.
It is also a massive time saver not having to mic up cabs or pick out microphones or anything like that, Straight into the interface and then record your sound. Plus once you have recorded the sound you can then chop and change the Cab IR’s to your liking, no need to re-record.
Is there any other amps you want us to try this with? Let us know over on our Instagram and we will try them out! I am a huge fan of recording like this so would love to try more amps in this way.
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