Hey looking for some advice. I have two fenders (strat and a tele) and a silver faced champ. I'm taking the signal from the champ into a Behringer Ultra G speaker sim/direct box (in conjunction with a weber mini mass so I don't blow up my champ). From the Behringer (which has one xlr output) I take the signal into a Whirlwind Selector A/B box, and from there I run both outputs into two channels on my zoom R8. The signal then goes from the Zoom into a windows based pc running Cubase le.
I use the Whirlwind selector so I can put different types and amounts of reverb on each channel and pan them, one left and one right, to (very) roughly simulate the sound of dual mic'ing a cab (one close and one room sound). That trick is working pretty good, but I have two issues:
First, the channel coming out of one of the outputs of the whirlwind (but not the other) is peaking just a tiny bit, no matter how much I turn the level down on the R8. Its' not horrible, and that's the channel I'm using for the 'room sound' anyway so it's not very high up in the mix, it's just there to fill things out a little bit and bring in some room type sound. So it's definitely useable, it's just weird that one output's doing that while the other is totally fine. Thoughts?
Second, overall the sound is pretty good, though not quite as realistic as actually mic'ing a real amp. Any suggestions how I can improve the sound of running the champ direct? Admittedly I'm using cables that aren't great, and I know the Behringer is very low end. Is there a better speaker sim/direct box I could buy that wouldn't be as pricey as a Palmer or Torpedo CAB? I'm thinking something in between the Behringer and the Torpedo in price, so maybe something in the $200-$250 range?
I'd like to try this option first rather than explore direct/speaker sim pedals like the Tech 21 Character series. I might go that route if I can't improve the quality of what I'm using, but I've used those things before and I think there could be a bit more overall up side to using the champ.
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!
I use the Whirlwind selector so I can put different types and amounts of reverb on each channel and pan them, one left and one right, to (very) roughly simulate the sound of dual mic'ing a cab (one close and one room sound). That trick is working pretty good, but I have two issues:
First, the channel coming out of one of the outputs of the whirlwind (but not the other) is peaking just a tiny bit, no matter how much I turn the level down on the R8. Its' not horrible, and that's the channel I'm using for the 'room sound' anyway so it's not very high up in the mix, it's just there to fill things out a little bit and bring in some room type sound. So it's definitely useable, it's just weird that one output's doing that while the other is totally fine. Thoughts?
Second, overall the sound is pretty good, though not quite as realistic as actually mic'ing a real amp. Any suggestions how I can improve the sound of running the champ direct? Admittedly I'm using cables that aren't great, and I know the Behringer is very low end. Is there a better speaker sim/direct box I could buy that wouldn't be as pricey as a Palmer or Torpedo CAB? I'm thinking something in between the Behringer and the Torpedo in price, so maybe something in the $200-$250 range?
I'd like to try this option first rather than explore direct/speaker sim pedals like the Tech 21 Character series. I might go that route if I can't improve the quality of what I'm using, but I've used those things before and I think there could be a bit more overall up side to using the champ.
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!