Questions on Direct in, Effects send, etc...

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jgank

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my friend and I are recording on a Tascam 2488 mkII
hes got 6 mics on the drums, and wants to record bass and guitar in as well (all live).
the guitar is being run through a Marshall amp head, and the bass is going through a B52 head.
The Marshall head has a direct output and running that into one of the inputs on the mixer sounds fine, but the line out on the B52 is very quiet. He did find out, however, that the effects send line on the B52 sounds pretty good (by his not-so-high standards).
We're turning the volume on the amps clear down and using 3 headphones as monitors so the drum mics dont pick up any bass or guitar.

Neither of us understand the electronics on the whole situation, and we're wondering if running the bass into the B52, and then a line from the effects send into an input on the 2488 will hurt anything?
 
Running the effects send into the 2488 should be fine however you might want to consider going via a DI box with a cab simulator to improve the tone (for guitar I use a H&K Red Box, not sure how it would sound for bass).

Also, the level of the direct output on some amps is controlled by the main volume settings so if this is turned down low it may explain why the signal reaching the 2488 is quieter from the B52 (this doesn't apply to any of the Marshalls I've used).
 
i don't know if this will help at all, but maybe you play along with the drummer just to help out with playing the song the right way, and record the drum tracks the way you want them first then record the guitar and bass using both the line ins into the 2488 and with mics infront of the cabs. i've tried this before and it's good to have options once you start mixing. Maybe throw out the mic tracks and keep the plugged in tracks or the opposite or mix both in. it's good to have options.
 
to shockingcandy- are you saying thats true for B52s only? Because my output level on the line out for the Marshall isnt effected by the volume.
The B52 isnt my head so i dont really know on that one...I know it has an output level setting on the back under the actualy line-out, but thats turned all the way up and still not loud enough.

to greyharmoinx- I agree that this was sound better and probably be on time better, but were doing it this way for now just to get a very rough sounding demo so we can use it to write vocals to. If/when we do something more serious, we'll most likely mic the guitar cab and record that first, then put drums over that, and bass, etc.. like you said.


thanks for all the help. I just wanted to make sure the mixer wouldnt catch fire or anything.
 
jgank said:
to shockingcandy- are you saying thats true for B52s only? Because my output level on the line out for the Marshall isnt effected by the volume.
The B52 isnt my head so i dont really know on that one...I know it has an output level setting on the back under the actualy line-out, but thats turned all the way up and still not loud enough.
Click to expand...

On all the Marshall's I have used the signal level of the line out was UNAFFECTED by the master volume setting but on other amps I have found that it sometimes is. I did try and look on the B52 website but it's really pretty useless. Usings the effects send should be fine but unlike most line outs it won't have a speaker emulator and thus probably won't sound as good. Hence I suggested a DI box with one
 
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