Sonic Misfit
New member
A while back, my wife bought me one of those little Marshall battery powered MS2 practice amps. I have had a lot of fun with it and since I am home on sick leave and bored out of my mind, decided today to throw together an experiment. Since so many people have been asking about DI boxes and how to mic an amp, I documented what I did and included a link to an MP3 that shows the results.
First, I threw together a drum track with my old DR660. Took about 15 minutes for that.
Second, I found an old cheap TRS 1/4" insert cable that I plugged into the headphone jack on the MS2. I tested the strength of the signal and changed to a fresh battery. That got the signal REAL hot.
Third, I tracked the drums into a Protools LE session and then set up two tracks for rhythm guitar (right and left.) I plugged the two inserts into two channels on my mixer (Alesis studio 24) and played along with the drum tracks using the MS2 as a DI box. (The mixer is running through an ADAT LX20 that I use for optical interface to my Digi 001.) After tracking, I added some delay to the right channel to thicken and give a slight flange effect.
Fourth, I used one of the channels and recorded the bass through the MS2 as a DI box into one track.
Fifth, because I couldn't get the overdrive I wanted through the headphone jack, I placed the MS2 flat on its back on the floor and placed a Sennheiser e609 mic directly over the speaker to record a lead part. I ran the e609 through the built-in mic pre on the Digi001.
I mixed down the tracks using the Bomb factory limiter on a master channel and then "sweetened" a little with Ozone.
The resulting mp3 is short and can be found here:
This whole experiment took me less than an hour, most of the time was spent learning about the signal that comes from the headphone jack. It is really hot. Also, you do need a stereo plug to make it work, but it does seem to sum both left and right equally to a mono signal.
There you go, a really versatile recording amp that you can pick up from Zzounds for $34.95. Not only can you mic it for a nice overdriven sound, but you can use it for DI for both guitar and bass.
BTW. The guitar I used was a PRS Brazil (22 fret) and the bass was a Fender Fretless Jazz. I used the bridge pickup on the guitar for both rhythm and lead.
First, I threw together a drum track with my old DR660. Took about 15 minutes for that.
Second, I found an old cheap TRS 1/4" insert cable that I plugged into the headphone jack on the MS2. I tested the strength of the signal and changed to a fresh battery. That got the signal REAL hot.
Third, I tracked the drums into a Protools LE session and then set up two tracks for rhythm guitar (right and left.) I plugged the two inserts into two channels on my mixer (Alesis studio 24) and played along with the drum tracks using the MS2 as a DI box. (The mixer is running through an ADAT LX20 that I use for optical interface to my Digi 001.) After tracking, I added some delay to the right channel to thicken and give a slight flange effect.
Fourth, I used one of the channels and recorded the bass through the MS2 as a DI box into one track.
Fifth, because I couldn't get the overdrive I wanted through the headphone jack, I placed the MS2 flat on its back on the floor and placed a Sennheiser e609 mic directly over the speaker to record a lead part. I ran the e609 through the built-in mic pre on the Digi001.
I mixed down the tracks using the Bomb factory limiter on a master channel and then "sweetened" a little with Ozone.
The resulting mp3 is short and can be found here:
This whole experiment took me less than an hour, most of the time was spent learning about the signal that comes from the headphone jack. It is really hot. Also, you do need a stereo plug to make it work, but it does seem to sum both left and right equally to a mono signal.
There you go, a really versatile recording amp that you can pick up from Zzounds for $34.95. Not only can you mic it for a nice overdriven sound, but you can use it for DI for both guitar and bass.
BTW. The guitar I used was a PRS Brazil (22 fret) and the bass was a Fender Fretless Jazz. I used the bridge pickup on the guitar for both rhythm and lead.