You didn't mention it so I have to ask if you also have a speaker cab hooked up to the Bugera? Tube amp needs to see that load as far as I know. I have those same Bugeras on all my amps and haven't had any issues with any of them, but I never monitor them via the studio speakers, I just use the cabs.Leeplusplus wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 12:00 am I'm doing something that I fear might be damaging my tube amplifier, my preamps or both. I have a drip-edge 50w Bassman head that I run into a Bugera PS1 attenuator. I bridge the bass and normal channels and turn them both up to 10. I go out of the amp into the 4 ohm input in the attenuator. I then run out of the line level output into my interface. Even with both the attenuator control and the separate line volume control and the preamp turned to zero, I can still hear signal in my studio speakers. Nothing is hot or smoking but it seems weird that I can hear sound when I supposedly shouldn't be. I can even hear sound emanating from the attenuator itself. There isn't a manual for this device so I don't really know how any of it works. I will say I've been doing this off and on for years without incident so mostly just anxious that my luck will run out.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
2812Depending on how the Bugeras are wired they may not need a load from a speaker cab. There's an internal load (a big ass resistor) that is providing some load and sending the rest to a speaker. IF at 100% dissipation it's providing the full load then that's fine. However according to Bugera:MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 9:15 amYou didn't mention it so I have to ask if you also have a speaker cab hooked up to the Bugera? Tube amp needs to see that load as far as I know. I have those same Bugeras on all my amps and haven't had any issues with any of them, but I never monitor them via the studio speakers, I just use the cabs.Leeplusplus wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 12:00 am I'm doing something that I fear might be damaging my tube amplifier, my preamps or both. I have a drip-edge 50w Bassman head that I run into a Bugera PS1 attenuator. I bridge the bass and normal channels and turn them both up to 10. I go out of the amp into the 4 ohm input in the attenuator. I then run out of the line level output into my interface. Even with both the attenuator control and the separate line volume control and the preamp turned to zero, I can still hear signal in my studio speakers. Nothing is hot or smoking but it seems weird that I can hear sound when I supposedly shouldn't be. I can even hear sound emanating from the attenuator itself. There isn't a manual for this device so I don't really know how any of it works. I will say I've been doing this off and on for years without incident so mostly just anxious that my luck will run out.
So maybe not so much. But also:NOTE: Even with the SOAK control turned up to 100 (full clockwise) the effective power at the speaker will be about half of the amplifier output power.
That "and/or" is kinda ambiguous and given the first quote from Bugera i'd be hesitant to do this. There are other attenuators that could do this for you, or you could build a 100W 8Ω resistor and a line out for cheap.ATTENTION! To avoid damage to your amp, never use a valve amplifier without a load connected, such as PS1 and/or a loudspeaker!
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
2813Thanks for the tips, all. It turns out that the Bugera attenuator does not act as a load to the amplifier and indeed needed a speaker attached to avoid damage. Guess what I wasn't using. I got a Two Notes Captor instead since it has a line out and is designed to act as a load. So far, the Bassman has survived the mistreatment, hoping for the best!Dr Tony Balls wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 9:45 am
Depending on how the Bugeras are wired they may not need a load from a speaker cab. There's an internal load (a big ass resistor) that is providing some load and sending the rest to a speaker. IF at 100% dissipation it's providing the full load then that's fine. However according to Bugera:
So maybe not so much. But also:NOTE: Even with the SOAK control turned up to 100 (full clockwise) the effective power at the speaker will be about half of the amplifier output power.
That "and/or" is kinda ambiguous and given the first quote from Bugera i'd be hesitant to do this. There are other attenuators that could do this for you, or you could build a 100W 8Ω resistor and a line out for cheap.ATTENTION! To avoid damage to your amp, never use a valve amplifier without a load connected, such as PS1 and/or a loudspeaker!
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
2814oh whoa good call on that, Didn't look up the manual, I shouldn't have assumed it was a load!
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
2815Hey for your 2-track mixes, how loud do you get them to prepare for mastering? Peaks? LUFS?
And then how loud when you’re sending out roughs?
And then how loud when you’re sending out roughs?
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
2816To be completely honest I don't have a set LUFS level. To send to mastering I just make sure there's tons of headroom. In digital mastering, no one ever complains that it's a bit quiet. Turning stuff up is easy.llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed Jan 28, 2026 8:31 pm Hey for your 2-track mixes, how loud do you get them to prepare for mastering? Peaks? LUFS?
And then how loud when you’re sending out roughs?
For roughs, not quite the opposite, but almost. I'm usually wrapping things quickly with the limiter/maximizer whatever plugin so that the volume is approaching a regular release without radically altering the character of the mixes. Which usually leaves things a couple db below what a discerning pro ends up with after a greater number of subtler strokes.
For a specific number, maybe MoreSpaceEcho will chime in. He's a proper mastering engineer.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
2817Hello!
The short, simple answer is just keep the peaks under 0dbfs (i.e. no clipping) and it'll be fine. I'm going to adjust the levels anyway so it's hitting my chain at the right level.
When I mix, I try to keep the peaks around -6dbfs, and the average is probably around -18ish, but that's just a very loose guideline, if there's a few peaks going higher than -6 who cares.
If you save your mixes as 24 bit (or 32 bit float), you'd have to work really hard to print it too low. I did a track the other day that was peaking at something ridiculous, -20 or so. I don't know how anyone ends up that low, but I just turned it up a bunch and it sounded great, no noise at all.
So yeah just keep it under zero and it'll be no problem.
As far as sending out roughs, I'd say err on the conservative side and go for like -11 LUFS, which should be loud enough to not make the band scream but not so loud you're painting your ME into a corner. Most rock stuff I do comes out of mastering around -10 -9 LUFS, some modern pop or EDM stuff will be louder, sometimes a lot, -7 ish or so, which can sound fine if the mix is good.
Everything louder than -14LUFS is gonna get turned down on all the streaming services, so there's not really any reason to go for super duper loud unless that's the sound you want.
Hopefully this is helpful?
The short, simple answer is just keep the peaks under 0dbfs (i.e. no clipping) and it'll be fine. I'm going to adjust the levels anyway so it's hitting my chain at the right level.
When I mix, I try to keep the peaks around -6dbfs, and the average is probably around -18ish, but that's just a very loose guideline, if there's a few peaks going higher than -6 who cares.
If you save your mixes as 24 bit (or 32 bit float), you'd have to work really hard to print it too low. I did a track the other day that was peaking at something ridiculous, -20 or so. I don't know how anyone ends up that low, but I just turned it up a bunch and it sounded great, no noise at all.
So yeah just keep it under zero and it'll be no problem.
As far as sending out roughs, I'd say err on the conservative side and go for like -11 LUFS, which should be loud enough to not make the band scream but not so loud you're painting your ME into a corner. Most rock stuff I do comes out of mastering around -10 -9 LUFS, some modern pop or EDM stuff will be louder, sometimes a lot, -7 ish or so, which can sound fine if the mix is good.
Everything louder than -14LUFS is gonna get turned down on all the streaming services, so there's not really any reason to go for super duper loud unless that's the sound you want.
Hopefully this is helpful?
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
2818I do pretty mu exactly this. There are a lot of good metering plugins out there for LUFS too, I use Youlean sometimes. I ignore maximizing loudness in the Mix, just focus on it sounding cool and not peaking, then manage it in the "mastering" phase, a thing I am really not great at.MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Thu Jan 29, 2026 9:17 am Hello!
The short, simple answer is just keep the peaks under 0dbfs (i.e. no clipping) and it'll be fine. I'm going to adjust the levels anyway so it's hitting my chain at the right level.
When I mix, I try to keep the peaks around -6dbfs, and the average is probably around -18ish, but that's just a very loose guideline, if there's a few peaks going higher than -6 who cares.
If you save your mixes as 24 bit (or 32 bit float), you'd have to work really hard to print it too low. I did a track the other day that was peaking at something ridiculous, -20 or so. I don't know how anyone ends up that low, but I just turned it up a bunch and it sounded great, no noise at all.
So yeah just keep it under zero and it'll be no problem.
As far as sending out roughs, I'd say err on the conservative side and go for like -11 LUFS, which should be loud enough to not make the band scream but not so loud you're painting your ME into a corner. Most rock stuff I do comes out of mastering around -10 -9 LUFS, some modern pop or EDM stuff will be louder, sometimes a lot, -7 ish or so, which can sound fine if the mix is good.
Everything louder than -14LUFS is gonna get turned down on all the streaming services, so there's not really any reason to go for super duper loud unless that's the sound you want.
Hopefully this is helpful?
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
2819Helpful? I bookmarked it!
Small questions that don't fit anywhere and you were afraid to ask...
thank you!
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
2820Yes! Perfect. Thank youMoreSpaceEcho wrote: Thu Jan 29, 2026 9:17 am Hello!
The short, simple answer is just keep the peaks under 0dbfs (i.e. no clipping) and it'll be fine. I'm going to adjust the levels anyway so it's hitting my chain at the right level.
When I mix, I try to keep the peaks around -6dbfs, and the average is probably around -18ish, but that's just a very loose guideline, if there's a few peaks going higher than -6 who cares.
If you save your mixes as 24 bit (or 32 bit float), you'd have to work really hard to print it too low. I did a track the other day that was peaking at something ridiculous, -20 or so. I don't know how anyone ends up that low, but I just turned it up a bunch and it sounded great, no noise at all.
So yeah just keep it under zero and it'll be no problem.
As far as sending out roughs, I'd say err on the conservative side and go for like -11 LUFS, which should be loud enough to not make the band scream but not so loud you're painting your ME into a corner. Most rock stuff I do comes out of mastering around -10 -9 LUFS, some modern pop or EDM stuff will be louder, sometimes a lot, -7 ish or so, which can sound fine if the mix is good.
Everything louder than -14LUFS is gonna get turned down on all the streaming services, so there's not really any reason to go for super duper loud unless that's the sound you want.
Hopefully this is helpful?