silent recording

[pvdhill]

Hi everyone
Does anybody know how I should record my guitaramp silently?
I like it best when it's way up and recording it with a mike, but at home it's obviously impossible
I do have a line out on the amp, but no "silent-recording"- switch (like mesa has), this however is a Laney vc50
I could remove the speaker-jacks, but I'm afraid to harm the amp, not being able to loose its power.
Anyone...?

 

[Track Rat]

Don't disconnect the speaker. Unloading the power amp could damage it. In my experience the line out on guitar amps sound extremely cheesy and are unusable. How about picking up some high density partical board and build an isolation box to put the amp in with a mic.

 

[GONZO-X]

IMO

the best unit to go with is the Palmer direct.........

http://www.palmerdirect.com/products.html

they have a mono, and stereo version of what you need.

 

[Clive Hugh]

I just went though the same thing and a repair man came up with this and it works.
He got an electric kettle heating element that draws in this case 32 ohms and cut it in half, trimmed and measured till he got 16 ohms which is my amps requirement. Put the whole lot in an aluminium box and it works well. I take a signal from the line out on the amp into the mixer and no one hears a thing.

 

[bdbdbuck]

I think it's the same thing we used to call a "power soak".

bd

 

[GONZO-X]

power soak sounds like crap.

i know, i used to have one....

the Palmer direct unit i pointed you to is used by a lot of pros.
Better than the rocktron juice extractor.
better than the thd hotplate, or marshall power brake.

do yourself a favor, steer clear of the "soak" type load attenuators.

 

[Clive Hugh]

Gonzo- I'm curious, do you "steer clear of Power soaks" because of the sound or potential damage to your amp. Mine was made by a Fender authorized repairman so I believe it won't harm the amp, am I missing something?
Incidentally I have not had a recording session with it yet, I have just tried it out for a couple of minutes but that's all.
Clive

 

[GONZO-X]

clive-

it's the sound.

to me, the soak does something to the way the power amp reacts, that's totally different from the way a real power section works.......

it's actually the speaker load, versus the dummy load.

these other guys, they just figured out a better way......
i believe they incorporate some pretty sophisticated eq'ing in the circuitry.........

go here for some good reviews.........
http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/Palmer/PGA_04_Speaker_Simulator-01.html