Record through an old P.A. Amp for effects possibly?

J

JasperJHeins

New member
Hey all! Jasper here!

I recently stumbled upon a Realistic MPA-40 35 Watt P.A. Amp. and i really want to record through it to get some effects or just to see how it would sound and what i could potentially use it for as effects on vocals, or on guitar! I have a Presonus Firestudio Project Firewire interface that i record through, and a Mac G5 2010 Tower, any suggestions??
 
No idea how you'd get your audio out from there into a line level into your interface. If it had some RCA outputs, then you could just get a cable that goes from RCA to 1/4" TRS and straight into your interface's line input, but the only outputs are for speaker wire. I'm no electrician so I have no idea if there is a way. Well I'm sure there is, but at what cost?
 
Yeah i know what you mean, but there is a Phono/Aux out on the bac of the P.A. Amp whichi are RCA ins /: Yeah this is quite the conundrum...
 
RecordingMaster is right.
In terms of putting it in the signal path somehow, it's not really a goer.


If you want to create the effect of using a PA for some reason, maybe you could have your mic running into the PA and out to loudspeakers, then have a mic plugged into your interface to capture the live room PA sound?

Since the PA unit has no built in effects like reverbs/echos/whatever, that's about the only useful thing you could do with it I think.
 
JasperJHeins said:
I wonder if there is some sort of way to re-wire it to act as a PreAmp of some sort?
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Likely will have a piss poor quality and extremely high noise/hiss even if you did re-wire it. What "effect" are you going for? I think you're best off going in clean (if you don't have any character pre's), and then fiddling with some effects on your DAW to get whatever effect you're picturing in your head, that you'll likely not get from this thing even if you rewired it. If you want a lo-fi, echoey PA sound, there's plenty of stuff you can use in your DAW, I'm sure. Reverbs, echoes, delays, lo-fi filters, saturation plugins, clippers, not to mention EQ, etc.
 
Just find a hiss/hum plug in and save your time, there's a reason that realistic gear isn't popular, it's just noisy and adds no palatable sonic coloration.
 
That PA 'amp' sold for about $49 new. And was meant to be used in a system for announcements through a store or plant, not for music use. Like others have said, not sure what possible good thing you could get from putting that in your signal chain. The phono/aux RCA is an input, not an output.
 
The Digidesign plugin, Funk Logic Mastererizer, will likely give you a pretty close representation of what the Realistic would sound like in your signal chain. Crank all the knobs and try it! You'll see!

:D

Still can't believe they actually made this as a joke and somehow found it useful to put it in Pro Tools!
 
Everything that makes noise or colors noise is useful for making music. Simply because something is cheap or wouldn't be seen in a professional's rack doesn't mean it won't yield interesting, song-fitting results. Some of the best and most creative effects have come from 'gear' that a professional sound engineer wouldn't even take the time to look at. If you want to give it a shot, go for it!
 
There's absolutely nothing useful that you could achieve by using that thing and further .... if the RCA's are inputs as mjb said, then it's mostly not even possible to use it other than as what it was intended for which is a PA.

And you mentioned getting effects but the unit has no effects.

I love old crappy stuff but not everything can be used for every purpose and some stuff simply isn't applicable to recording. I'd be far more tempted with something like that to see how a guitar sounded thru it. You might get some interesting sounds outta that..
 
JasperJHeins said:
any suggestions?
Click to expand...
I reckon you could stick a mic or a guitar in one of the two mic inputs in the back. With the controls on the front, you could possibly get some interesting colouration of your sounds. The main hassle would be what you connect it to.
It may end up being a pile of crap, but you'll never know unless you try. I'm a great believer in if it sounds good to you, then go with it.
 
This goes along the same lines as people who want to run to an outboard cassette recorder to get "analog warmth"; it just ain't gonna happen.

Sorry, using this PA for anything other than a dust collector is a bad idea. :(
 
Chili said:
This goes along the same lines as people who want to run to an outboard cassette recorder to get "analog warmth"; it just ain't gonna happen.

Sorry, using this PA for anything other than a dust collector is a bad idea. :(
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Boat anchor?
 
moresound said:
Boat anchor?
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There's a science behind boat anchors... and strangely enough, anchoring a boat. and a Radio Shack PA just wouldn't work. :(

I used to scuba dive a lot in the Central Texas lakes and do you know how many Radio Shack PA systems I found with ropes tied to them???? :eek: and no boats??? :facepalm:

:laughings:
 
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