ENGL Powerball line out.. How to?

[poub]

Hi,

I have just bought an ENGL Powerball tube head. I didn't buy a cabinet since my plan is to play and record through my DIGI 002 recording device, and out trough my studio monitors.

I studied the outputs on my Powerball. I noticed that there is no output named line out, but instead it has 5 speaker outputs: 2 x 4 ohms, 2 x 8 ohms and 1 x 16 ohms.

My questions are:
1. Are any of these 5 speaker outputs suitable as a line output (for recording and playing through a DIGI 002)
2. If no: Do I need any kind of hardware device between my Powerball and my DIGI 002 recording device?
3. If no: What else can I do?

Thanks in advance...

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Dont you need some sort of load?

 

[poub]

Plz excuse my ignorance.. What do you mean by load?

 

[vanhendrix]

DO NOT USE ANY OF THOSE AS A LINE OUT. Those are to power speaker cabs and will blast whatever recording device you plug in.

Think of it this way: When a head is powered on, it "pushes" through those jacks, at varied levels of resistance (ohms). A load refers to something like a speaker cab or something that will resist the current coming out of the head. If you didn't buy a speaker cab, then you can't even turn the head on without possibly blowing something...which brings me to my next point.

DO NOT OPERATE THE HEAD WITHOUT A LOAD. It must say that 10 times in the manual...

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Van explained it nicely, I think you'd need a dummy box if you don't want a cab. I'm not too sure on this though.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

You're going to need to buy an attenuator and/or a load box to hook up to the speaker out on the amp if you wish to record with it without a cabinet and not completely fry the amp. Good ones to look into are the Weber Mass, THD Hot Plate, and Rivera RockCrusher. They aren't too cheap, but aren't too expensive.

As far what output to use, you'll want to use the Powerball's effect loop's "send" jack. That will be the line directly from it's preamp. Send that signal into the input of your interface.

 

[poub]

Thanks a bunch everybody, really helpful info!

One last question: Suppose I bought a cabinet (load up the amp), would I be able to line out record through the effect loop's send jack without further issues?

 

[vanhendrix]

Thanks a bunch everybody, really helpful info!

One last question: Suppose I bought a cabinet (load up the amp), would I be able to line out record through the effect loop's send jack without further issues?

Yes. In fact, if you set the wet/dry knob for the effects loop on the back of the amp all the way "wet", and then plugged your recording stuff into the loop send jack, you wouldn't even have anything coming through the speaker cab.

Even so, you'd really only be using the preamp part of the amp. It needs to have the signal fed back into it (effects return) to hit the powertubes and take on a life of its own. That's sortof the whole point of tube amps....to me anyways.

 

[sleepy502]

mod edit: let's tone it down a bit

If what you want to do is play through your monitors buy a POD HD or any other similar effects/amp sim unit.

 

[poub]

Thanks a lot for your advice it was really helpful!

 

[samincolour]

...Even so, you'd really only be using the preamp part of the amp. It needs to have the signal fed back into it (effects return) to hit the powertubes and take on a life of its own. That's sortof the whole point of tube amps....to me anyways.

^^ This! Just using the preamp part kinda defeats the point of buying an expensive head.

 

[samincolour]

Not trolling by the way, just saying! Happy NAD

 

[poub]

Hehe... it's ok

Well since I am now for sure going to bye a cab, I might as well start looking for a mike. Since recording is my main purpose.

 

[samincolour]

Regarding mics, I THINK that Shure SM57's are regarded as a sort of industry 'standard' to record guitars with. I'm probably wrong but I'm sure I read that somewhere!

 

[poub]

Ok.. thanks. I will instantly go and buy one, especially if it very expensive
Or i might just check it out first...

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Sm57's are like $100

 

[Ishan]

Check a few mics like : SM57, MD421, e609, e906, etc... They are all relatively non expensive.
If you want a (relatively) silent setup, you should check what Palmer does (HP sim rack with load and things like that, really good) or the few iso-cabs done by a few manufacturer (IIRC Randall and Jet City make some available in Europe, check Thomann.de)

 

[samincolour]

Ahh forgot about isocabs. Check them out!

 

[Andromalia]

Buy a loadbox with integrated cab sim, you put your power amp output in the loadbox and the loadbox into your interface. Think Palmer or ole Marshall SE 100.
It's that, or you'll have to use impulses to emulate cabs and poweramps.

 

[poub]

One last time...
Thanks a lot everybody. I sure have a lot of nice advice to reflect on..