Recording a tube amp line out -> cab impulse

Freak Of Metal

Freak Of Metal

Student Of Sound
Jun 15, 2009
56
0
6
Leeds
Hey guys. I was wondering if anyone has acheived any good results by running a line out from a guitar head into your audio interface and then into some cab impulse program like Voxengo Boogex? I can't mic my cab in my apartment but have a tube head and want to see if this might sound better than just an amp sim.

Cheers.
 
I haven't done this so I can't say, but as a side note - do not run a tube amp without a cab or speaker load attached, or you can fry your output transformer. That is all.
 
I was wondering something similar: I have a Crate GFX-212 combo (I know its a shitty solid-state but I've had it for years). I normally use PODFarm for guitar tones but I was wondering if it'd be more likely for me to get a better tone by A) micing the combo with an SM57
Or
B) doing as the OP suggests by line out into a cab-sim
Any thoughts?
 
Look up the Palmer speaker simulator if you mussssstt have simulated speakers from your amp. Its a dedicated piece of hardware that you connect instead of a cab (to speaker outs) and works with the power of the amp in conjunction with speaker simulation to provide a line level output.
 
I do this all the time, you can do this with the line out or the effects loop.

I discovered this one time when I had to record a half stack and acoustic drums in the same room. I had the amp at a very minimal volume compared to the drums so it wouldn't bleed into the overhead mics, with a 57 on the guitar cab for the drummer's headphone monitors. The only problem was that the amp was so low in volume, we were getting as much drums in the 57 as we were guitar, so took away the 57 and just did the effects out into an impulse, and it worked fantastic!

I usually only use this for a scratch track purposes, but i do end up with pretty good sounding scratch tracks.
 
ive had great results with a diezel vh4, recto, and a mark V by going straight out of the poweramp into the spl transducer into pristine space.

http://www.myspace.com/dratmusic

i produced their latest album with a vh4 and recto (quad tracked) into impulses (i think it was recabinet 2.0)
its pretty cool, i actually like that better than micing a cab because of a clearer high end (but thats just personal preference)
 
dcb said:
ive had great results with a diezel vh4, recto, and a mark V by going straight out of the poweramp into the spl transducer into pristine space.

http://www.myspace.com/dratmusic

i produced their latest album with a vh4 and recto (quad tracked) into impulses (i think it was recabinet 2.0)
its pretty cool, i actually like that better than micing a cab because of a clearer high end (but thats just personal preference)
Click to expand...

Did you use the Mesa cab impulses? I'm still not very happy with my Recabinet tone
 
muckypup1 said:
Did you use the Mesa cab impulses? I'm still not very happy with my Recabinet tone
Click to expand...

i just went back to the project and i must correct what i just wrote :
i used guitarhacks between and center irs.
but now i mainly only use redwirez. its so great to combine 5 different irs
all phase coherent ! if you havent tried those out, go get em!
they are cheap!
i recently bought the bogner übercab, so hugeeee. gonna post clips
with my axefx soon.
 
Originally this seemed like an awesome idea to me until I found out about dummy loads. So what are the benefits of doing this? You still need your amp making noise, you may as well mic it up, why go for a line out and speaker sim when the real deal is already making noise?

Not trying to be rude, I really wanna know what I'm missing here?
 
Like others have mentioned, you need a "load" on the amp's speaker output at all times. This means you could record with a cab plugged in and then run a line from the "line-out" or effects loop send to a line-in on your DAW's interface. This method can actually be helpful because you will not be experiencing any latency that might occur when monitoring through the DAW (although most interfaces these days have zero-latency monitoring).

You could also run the speaker output to a dummy load and then run the line out from the amp to the DAW. This way you wouldn't have to hear sound from the cab at all.

One thing to note though is that some amps have a line-out that takes the signal right after the pre-amp stage but before the power-stage so you won't get any of the power saturation and signal influence. Also some amps have a "compensated" line out which means it modifies the signal a bit so that it sounds more like a mic'd cab.
 
Star Ark said:
Originally this seemed like an awesome idea to me until I found out about dummy loads. So what are the benefits of doing this? You still need your amp making noise, you may as well mic it up, why go for a line out and speaker sim when the real deal is already making noise?

Not trying to be rude, I really wanna know what I'm missing here?
Click to expand...

read my post above and you'll see one benefit :)
 
SimonSez said:
You could also run the speaker output to a dummy load and then run the line out from the amp to the DAW. This way you wouldn't have to hear sound from the cab at all.
Click to expand...

Right. Can someone please explain what a dummy load is and how I can use it? Could be pretty helpful.
 
If you have a cab connected you can turn on the amp and turn down the master volume on it until it's weak enough or probably until it's completely silent and then use the direct out/fx loop out signal :) You don't need to buy a dummy load if you already have a cab but want to record silently at night.
 
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