Using an Acoustic amp for monitoring

[Steve Mac]

Hi, just starting out and whilst I really appreciate the importance of good monitoring, I have to balance this with the outlay I have made so far, especially being a pensioner. So I was wondering what the consensus here would be on using my Roland AC-60 acoustic amp hooked up to my Focusrite Scarlett interface as an acceptable alternative to purchasing specific speakers. Naturally I would turn all of the amps enhancements ie EQ , chorus, reverb etc. off to get as neutral a sound as possible and place it at an appropriate height.
Any and all advice gratefully received,
Cheers Steve

 

[ecc83]

Hi, just starting out and whilst I really appreciate the importance of good monitoring, I have to balance this with the outlay I have made so far, especially being a pensioner. So I was wondering what the consensus here would be on using my Roland AC-60 acoustic amp hooked up to my Focusrite Scarlett interface as an acceptable alternative to purchasing specific speakers. Naturally I would turn all of the amps enhancements ie EQ , chorus, reverb etc. off to get as neutral a sound as possible and place it at an appropriate height.
Any and all advice gratefully received,
Cheers Steve

Yes Steve, perfectly possible. I have downloaded the manual for the amp and am pleased to see it is stereo! That gets over a big hurdle in that you would need a means, probably external and home brewed, to mono the outputs of the AI. Naturally you are not going to get a vast stereo panorama!

I would suggest you go in via the AUX jacks and note that they have a sensitivity of -10dBu, the Scarlet might be a bit hot into those and this could cause input overload (no harm, just bad sound) increased noise and a restricted volume control travel. If any of these problems does occur come back because a very simple attenuator can be made to fix this. You might also get hum due to an earth loop, again, not harmful, just B nuisance and again, can be fixed I am sure.

Of course, the QUALITY of the monitored sound will likely not be much use for critical balance and mixing but at least you will be able to hear what you are doing!

Dave.

 

[mixsit]

I have the AC-60 and have to say I could never get used to the tone of it. Even ran it through REW to see if I could figure out what it was about it.. (fail
Anywho, yes, you do what you can and need to do

 

[Steve Mac]

Yes Steve, perfectly possible. I have downloaded the manual for the amp and am pleased to see it is stereo! That gets over a big hurdle in that you would need a means, probably external and home brewed, to mono the outputs of the AI. Naturally you are not going to get a vast stereo panorama!

I would suggest you go in via the AUX jacks and note that they have a sensitivity of -10dBu, the Scarlet might be a bit hot into those and this could cause input overload (no harm, just bad sound) increased noise and a restricted volume control travel. If any of these problems does occur come back because a very simple attenuator can be made to fix this. You might also get hum due to an earth loop, again, not harmful, just B nuisance and again, can be fixed I am sure.

Of course, the QUALITY of the monitored sound will likely not be much use for critical balance and mixing but at least you will be able to hear what you are doing!

Dave.

Many thanks
Cheers Steve

 

[bouldersoundguy]

It might be interesting to use it for a while, but I'm betting your mixes won't translate well to other systems.