Countryman 85 vs. Red eye

[pakos69]

Hello guys!

This is my first post on this forum & propably I'm gonna be boring since the reamping issue has being discussed too much and if I'm not wrong theres a thread that is similar.

Anyway, up untill now I connect my guitar---->POD X3 Pro--(unprosessed out)-->M-audio profire 610 inst. input. That has an input impedance of 1 Mohm if I'm not wrong. For recordind DI tracks and monitoring through POD. Then I give the tracks to a studio who reamp them through various amps. My mainly concern as you see is on DI tracking. From what I' ve read the method I use is not good so I would like to buy a DI so I can do my work correctly.

I am between Countryman type 85 (I've seen here is very famous) and Little Labs Red eye (that is booth DI/reamp device). The extra function is cool since I could use it at home for reamping with my amps in the future (not sure though about the result). However, if I buy countryman, next I go for the reamp box, cause right now I' m not for spending much.

My mainly "+" for countryman is the impedance so I can have a good signal both active and passive picks. (I mainly use Active EMGs)
But "-" is the cost, cause I' ll have to buy the reamp then.
The "+" for red eye is that it is both reamp device and cheaper on the long road.

My question is firstly, whether I will see improvement in my recordings by buying a DI and second, with witch of the two I will get better results and if the difference will be audibly as much as the money difference...

Thank you for your time & sorry for the bad english!

edit* The title should be "Countryman type 85 vs. Little Labs red eye vs. M-audio profire 610"

 

[pakos69]

Another thing I though, is maybe I could just buy for now the little labs redeye for both tracking/reamping and then buy a new DI or the J.C. reamp (it depends on where the redeye lacks) and then sell redeye and buy what i'm missing. Not sure though if you understand what I mean...

So we have Redeye vs. Redeye + J.C. Reamp vs. Countryman + Redeye vs. Countryman + J.C. Reamp (vs. M-audio profire)

 

[BLUElightCory]

The Redeye is a 100% professional piece of gear and is probably something you'd never need to replace. I'd go for the Redeye just based on pure bang-for-the-buck; no need to buy separate pieces.

 

[pakos69]

Well its great to know that I won't have to replace it
Also, glad to know that it is reffered to as profesional cause its not gonna be used only for home/project studio recordings.

 

[pakos69]

Hello again!
As I was searching on the internet for more info, I came up to the booklet of countryman type 85, here's the link:

http://www.countryman.com/download/Type 85 DI Box booklet.pdf

My question is, if someone knows, if I can connect the output of my amp to the DI and then to my soundcard to record the signal and then use impulses for amp sim. Or if it is possible to connect directly the output of the amp to the soundcard?

 

[BLUElightCory]

Hello again!
As I was searching on the internet for more info, I came up to the booklet of countryman type 85, here's the link:

http://www.countryman.com/download/Type 85 DI Box booklet.pdf

My question is, if someone knows, if I can connect the output of my amp to the DI and then to my soundcard to record the signal and then use impulses for amp sim. Or if it is possible to connect directly the output of the amp to the soundcard?

According to the PDF, you can plug your speaker output into the Countryman, but if you have a tube amp make sure to hook up your speaker as shown so you don't blow up your amp.

Don't plug your speaker output straight into your interface, you could fry both your amp (if it's a tube amp) and your interface.

 

[pakos69]

Well I thought so.
However, if I want to record the amp directly and use an amp sim for cab simulation, instead of micing the cabinet, does it make a difference in sound whether I connect the amp from the speaker output or the fx send? (i.e. take the sound from the preamp section)

 

[Metaltastic]

Well of course, because the sound coming from the speaker output has the coloration from the power amp on it, whereas from the FX send it's just the preamp signal However, since impulses already have power amp coloration in them, it might not necessarily be better to record the speaker output signal, best to try both if you can! (though if you were trying to decide whether the Countryman would be worth buying so you could record from the speaker output, I can't help ya unfortunately, as I personally haven't tried it nor really heard too many clips)

 

[pakos69]

Thnx for all your replies!
Another question I have is, if I connect my interface with the amp via the fx send, so I get only the preamp section of the amp, I have to have both the amp connected to a cabinet/speaker so not to blow the amp?
Sorry for my noob questions, but if it is to be blown up, I would like to know it before I try it

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah, with a tube amp, if it's gonna be off of Standby (meaning, in "play" mode), then some sort of load (either a cab or a dummy load) needs to be connected so the output transformer doesn't burn out. However, Engl's apparently send signal through the FX send even with the amp on Standby, which is pretty cool, but if your amp has a master volume (meaning, not a 5150 ), then you can control the FX send volume with the channel volume, and turn the master all the way down, so little to no sound comes out of the cab

 

[pakos69]

Well there I was heading. When on standby I can use the amp without it being connected to a speaker. But you say that this is possible only with ENGLs, because they are the only ones that send signal to the preamp section even when they are on standby, am I right?

*edit: the other option I guess is to use a rack preamp so no need for speaker/load box/atunuator/etc....just plug the output to the interface. With that way you get the "same" result as when using an amp head only for its preamp section(with the fx send). Correct?

 

[Metaltastic]

Yup!

 

[pakos69]

Thnx for your help mate!

 

[Wolfeman]

Well there I was heading. When on standby I can use the amp without it being connected to a speaker. But you say that this is possible only with ENGLs, because they are the only ones that send signal to the preamp section even when they are on standby, am I right?

*edit: the other option I guess is to use a rack preamp so no need for speaker/load box/atunuator/etc....just plug the output to the interface. With that way you get the "same" result as when using an amp head only for its preamp section(with the fx send). Correct?

There are a lot of amps other than engl that will do this. It all depends on how the manufacturer wired up the standby.

 

[Metaltastic]

Such as? (I genuinely am curious)

 

[pakos69]

Wolfeman, if you know some please tell! I am interested in knowing that too

 

[greyskull]

BTW does anyone else have a problem with earth loops when wiring up guitar->redeye->Amp
-> Pre amp

Hitting the earth lift doesnt help???
removing the di DOES.