A potentially awesome idea for silent DI guitar recordings

[Vigilante]

Most of you have probably heard of Palmers or the Tube Amp Doctor F.A.N.T.A.

 

(Palmer - http://www.palmergear.com/recording_studio.shtml)

 

(F.A.N.T.A. - http://www.tubeampdoctor.com/product_info.php?products_id=666)

 

If you haven't, they're "speaker simulators." Basically, you plug your tube amp (or whatever amp you have) into them, and they run your signal into a digital cabinet simulator. To hear what one sounds like, check out a couple of Bogner's demo clips (they apparently recorded these with a Shiva 6L6 and a model-unidentified Palmer):

 

http://www.bogneramplification.com/ShiMarkG1.mp3

http://www.bogneramplification.com/ShiMarkG2.mp3

 

 

I like the sound of the technology, but both Palmer and the F.A.N.T.A. are a little limited, I think, in terms of options. Here's where my idea comes in.

 

What about Fractal Audio's Axe-Fx? Most who've played it or heard it have been hailing it as the greatest digital amp/cab/effect sim so far. I thought maybe there's a way to plug a tube amp into the Axe-Fx, bypassing its amp sims, and go straight to the cabinet sims. This would allow you to use a tube amp PLUS have lots of cabinet options (as opposed to the Palmer and F.A.N.T.A., which only have 1 cabinet option each), as well as be in control of mic placement (which is another feature of the Axe-Fx that the Palmer and F.A.N.T.A. lack).

 

Also, from what I've been hearing about the audio quality of the Axe-Fx in general, I'm inclined to think that the cabinet sims would just plain sound better, as well.

 

What do you think? I suppose I'd need a "loadbox"--whatever that is. Is this idea workable?

[Phil O'Keefe]

I've never heard of the Axe-Fx (got a link? ), but if I'm understanding what you're describing correctly, I don't see why it wouldn't work, as long as the Axe-Fx has the ability to bypass everything except the mic and cab sims.

 

Yes, you would need a "load box"... specifically, something that:

 

1. Provided the proper load impedance to the amp. Without a load, you'll fry the amp. Not good.

 

2. Something with an instrument / line output - variable if at all possible.

 

IOW, something like a THD Hotplate or similar would work. But remember - like a Palmer, H&K Red Box or similar product, you MUST connect the speaker to the output of the Hotplate too, even when you only want to use the Line Output. That load is important! If you have a fairly low wattage amp, you can build a 20 W 8 ohm dummy load with a resistor, project box and a 1/4" jack - all available from Radio Shack - and use that instead, but for best results, especially with a high wattage amp, stick with a real speaker and attenuate the output with the Hotplate while sending the line out to the cab and mic sim of your choice.

[Vigilante]

Thanks so much for the help!

 

First, here's the link to Fractal Audio:

 

http://www.fractalaudio.com/index.html (simple enough!)

 

There's a page on there for sounds. And here's the link to Fractal's forum (which includes a subforum for recordings done with the Axe-Fx, so you can get an idea for how user patches sound):

 

http://www.setbb.com/axefx/index.php?mforum=axefx

 

 

Regarding the THD Hotplate, how would I want to set the variable line-out if I was using it to drive the amp signal into the Axe-Fx? I've never used an attenuator before and I definitely don't want to blow anything up.

[MrKnobs]

Regarding the THD Hotplate, how would I want to set the variable line-out if I was using it to drive the amp signal into the Axe-Fx? I've never used an attenuator before and I definitely don't want to blow anything up.

 

The line out is just that, at line level. You're not going to burn anything out. If you have the line out adjusted too high, you'll overdrive the input of the Axe-FX and you'll hear unpleasant distortion, but you won't damage anything.

 

Terry D.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Thanks for clearing that up Terry! I don't have a separate Hotplate - just the one built into my Univalve amp (which does have the dummy load), but for some reason, I was thinking that the stand-alone Hotplates didn't have that. My bad.

 

OT side note: One cool use of the Univalve is daisy-chaining amps. That Univalve, running into another amp (via the line output) is one of the coolest sounding "dirt boxes" I have. It's a cool and flexible amp on its own, but I really like how it can do nasty sounding things with / to other amps.

 

With a Hotplate, you can do similar things. Run the output of one amp (via the Hotplate's line out) into a second amp, then mic that second amp's speaker.

 

Terry, which model Hotplate (IOW impedance) do you have?

[MrKnobs]

Thanks for clearing that up Terry! I don't have a separate Hotplate - just the one built into my Univalve amp (which does have the dummy load), but for some reason, I was thinking that the stand-alone Hotplates didn't have that. My bad. OT side note: One cool use of the Univalve is daisy-chaining amps. That Univalve, running into another amp (via the line output) is one of the coolest sounding "dirt boxes" I have. It's a cool and flexible amp on its own, but I really like how it can do nasty sounding things with / to other amps. With a Hotplate, you can do similar things. Run the output of one amp (via the Hotplate's line out) into a second amp, then mic that second amp's speaker. Terry, which model Hotplate (IOW impedance) do you have?

 

8 ohm. $200 and it's yours - or anyone else's.

 

Terry D.

 

P.S. I pay shipping to anywhere in the US.