Voodoo Lab Cab Tone

Connections are pretty basic.

I've owned this unit for about three years and have never gotten a good sound out of it. I don't tend to be overly harsh in my gear reviews and I don't assign a "1" rating lightly but the tone of this box is completely, totally, unbelievably horrible. Very buzzy and trashy sounding. I recently pulled it out before doing some tracking to give it another go and see if I could get some use out of it. Nope. It sounds pretty much the same whether the cab sim is engaged or not - fizzy, buzzy - horrendous. It's possible it could have been broken all this time. I can't think of any other reason why it would sound so bad.

Can I depend on it? Ha, ha. Apparently not since its tone is completely unusable.

Have not contacted them. I might send it to the manufacturer so they can check it out. Heck, they can keep it.

I've got some very nice Marshall and Fender heads that I would have liked to use this with. I tried everything to get this to produce a useable tone. Never happened. Line 6's POD sounds like heaven compared to the Cabtone. I will probably give one of the Palmer boxes a try. I take Guitar Player magazine's reviews with a grain of salt but I'm appalled at the rave review they gave this piece of crap.

It's fairly easy to use I guess. There is a small manual. I'd researched it beforehand so I knew how it worked when I got it. Options include line in, speaker in and thru, cab. simulator in/out, open(2x12) or closed(4x12) cab, phase normal or invert, ground lift, line out and XLR out.

I bought this for my apartment setup. I'm using an attenuated Marshall 3203 and I take the line out of that into the Cabtone. Without it it's buzzy. I split the line out, left & right and go into some chorus on one side and slap echo on the other which comes out of studio monitors. Plus I have a Marshall 1x12 coming out of a Powerbrake attenuator. It's sort of a mini tri-amping setup. I mix the 3 signals until it sounds good..
Anyway, dark is definitely the word to describe the Cabtone. Maybe my hearing is really good but an actual 4x12 sounds much brighter to me. The "open" selection, which is a 2x12 simulation is brighter than the "closed" but you lose some low end. Maybe they're all this way, the reviews for the Red Box seemed to indicate it was dark as well. I got the idea to dig out my Boss EH-2 "Enhancer", which I bought years ago and never used for anything, and put that after the Cabtone, from the line out. It really helped it out a lot to my ears.

It's pretty good with the Enhancer. I'll probably keep it, at least for the time being. I wouldn't by it again. I might try the Palmer "The Junction" (PDI-09?) which is the same price. I don't play out right now so it's for a home setup. Live I could see something lke this being useful. My choices were between this and the Red Box, but I thought I'd try the one no one seems to know about instead of getting the one everybody has because with equipment that seems to be how my tastes run. I never seem to like the stuff everybody raves about or are used in mass quantities. Maybe I should have this time.

The unit is extremely easy to use as you just "plug it in".

Sound quality is why I purchased the unit. It does a very good simulation of an open 2X12 or closed 4X12 cabinet. A previous poster reported the unit to be a bit "dark, but in a good way" and I have to agree with that perception.

My unit does have a very annoying 50% signal loss, to the point that I have to boost the guitar signal 2X before the CabTone to have an appreciable level of signal reach the sound board (I play in church and amps are not allowed on stage). This lack doesn't appear to affect the sound quality, it's just a pain to have another box on my pedal board to boost the signal.

I found that the XLR output was very noisy (hisssssss). I always use the 1/4" output.

I have owned the unit for almost 3 years and it has never failed. I've opened it up and there isn't much in the box that *could* fail, so I'd expect it to be very reliable.

I've contacted DMI concerning the 50% signal loss and they were not helpful; friendly, yes...possibly even somewhat concerned, but they did not offer any help save to say that I was using the unit incorrectly by applying guitar level signals rather than the 'line level' signals for which it was developed. Hmmmmm, then why doesn't the documentation state that?

I really like the tone but the lack of support has knoced down my overall rating to a 7. Make no mistake, this is a great sounding unit if you are willing to deal with some inherit buggaboos.

It is a life saver if you're in the situation as I am where no amps are allowed on stage and you're looking for a cabinet sound.

Pretty stright-up. Come out of what ever I was using (line or speaker)into in CabTone, configure for the style I was playing, plug into an input and start pounding (or put'm to sleep). Got to remember to bring the speaker patch cable for the older amps.

I have 4 Hughes & Kettner Blues Masters. One for Harp (set for open back), one for my guitar(closed back), one for the second guitar (what day is it?) and a modified H&K for the bass player (who not in jail today?). I'm not using the cab-simulator in the unit. Instead I'm using the CabTone for its fatter sound live. For Harp I have a Honer Blues Blaster Mic and a Rockman Echo/Chorus unit. For guitar I have a 50's reissued Fender Strat with a TC Chorus, Boss Blues Driver, Wah and a TubeWorks 911. This ALL goes through a Mackie 1402, Rane EQs, QSC MX amps and a BACKLine of four Klipsch KP-302 15" 2ways. Hardcore amp players who have used alot of other inline stuff are asking for a try at my setup. For every small gigs as a Harp player I take a Champ, plug THROUGH the CabTone to the speaker. Plug into the PA and I'm a happy camper. The CabTone prove to me to be a the most usable Direct box I've worked with. Sorry, 10 rates for your head up against the front of the cab.

So far no trouble and no worries. P.S. Hey whens will the battery gonna fail? I carry a spare of course.

No contact yet.

For live sound the CabTone has saved me alot of mics, hardware and heartachs. I've had Boss pre-amps, RedBoxes, Rocktrons and Line6's and so far my H&Ks with the CabTone has been hard to beat.

Simple to use, just plug in and set for either 2x12 or 4x10 cabinet simulator. If possible, use the xlr balanced out - much better signal to your board or amp.

Good repo of a cabinet, although I like the Rocktron cabinet emulation more (Voodoo Valve rackmount preamp). Still, it adds that "thump" that I was missing with cabinet simulation on any of the multi-effectors that I tried.

I am passing on this rating - have only had it about a month. However, it has worked fine for as long as I have had it.

Good customer support, no hold times for questions - just call them and you talk to a professional. I called Digital Music about a cable for the Cabtone, to use with my pedal power. They had it to me within a few days.

I use it with a Yamaha DG Stomp, playing mostly at Church, where onstage volume needs to be controlled. The Cabtone is a great addition to my board - it fills in the 'presence' and 'thump' that is missing on the Stomp's cabinet simulations. I do not use an amp at all and get lots of comments from other players about the tone. If stolen or lost, I would replace it with another. Well done, Digital Music.

very straight forward operation. you can choose either 2x12 openback or 4x12 closed back cabinet simulations. it comes with an onformative short operation manual.

i tried it with a SF Fender Champ with NFB mod and a MESA Blue Angel in a various settings (from clean to a lot of overdrive) and found the sound to be very useful. i had to add a touch of treble but other than that it retained most of what i would expect from a mic'ed guitar amp without sounding too clinical. there's a decent amount of touch sensitivity left in the sound. with that said it isn't like a well mic'ed guitar amp. if you are looking for that, mic your amp!! <G>

since this is a new purchase, i have no comment.

see above

it was a great deal at $40 in a bargain bin. would i have bought it at a higher price?? maybe not. let's just say that it was a nice surprise for the price. i remember trying a RedBox while back and being dissapointed. CabTone sounds much better than the RedBox i tried (it's been a while... and it may have been Mk II). i think i'd consider getting another one if this one was lost. i also think that other aspects of your equipment need to be adjusted in order to get desirable sounds as well. i think i'll make a loadbox and/or isolation cabinet for the Champ to experiment.

Very simple,to the point.Line in,speaker in/thru,cabinet in/out switch,open/closed back select,ground lift,line out 1/4 and XLR. ac or dc powered. Emulates a 2x12 open or 4x12 closed cabinet. Does not seem to eat batterys to bad.

VERY good repo of a cab.I compared it to a H&K Red Box.The Cab Tone sounded so much fuller.I added a little bit of highs because it's a little dark,but in a good way.I used a Boogie Studio Preamp with the main outs.I was very pleased.The only reason I don't give it a 10 is if you spend HOURS with a speaker,it will all ways sound better.But this thing is SO much easier,and sounds almost as good,if not better.

Seams to be built very well. Like a sturdy direct box.Works great.

I've talked to them one time and they were very helpful.

I play mostly clean to edgy styles.I have'nt play any metal thru it yet. If it were to get stolen,I'd get another one. I've been playing in studios for 20 years and for 120.00 this is the best cab emulater I've heard.I know there's others for alot more,and some do a great job,but this unit is hard to beat!!! GET ONE!!