recording guitar amps in control room - help

[d_cham]

Hello Just setting up a new studio and I need some advice on how to wire up multiple amps in the control room running speaker wire through the walls to cabs in the studio. I have seen lots of pics where people have many amp heads in the control room and run to two or three cabs in the studio.

I need to find people who have done this successfully to give me the pros and cons in setting up something like this. I would appreciate advice on the pitfalls I need to watch out for. Also how do you set up a speaker level patch bay to avoid costly accidents like blown power tubes in the guitar amp when some one mistakenly sends a signal through one of the amps that is not loaded with a speaker. This is a problem with several amps sharing one or two cabinets.

Also are there special speaker cables which work better than others? I am planning on using Evidence Siren II cable. I know the shorter the better, but it seems like a cool idea to work with the guitarist inside the control room and not have to run in and out of the studio every time you want to tweak the amp tone a bit.

Thanks and any advice would be appreciated.

Dennis

[TornadoTed]

I'm setting up something similar at my place at the moment and I am using these for the wallplates,

Neutrik - Audio - Chassis Connectors - NL2MP

I like using different connectors for differnet applications so that you physically can't accidently use the wrong cable, worth thinking about.

Sorry to hijack your thread,

What thickness cable I should use? I've got to go about 15', I thought 2.5mm should be ok yeah?

[d_cham]

Exactly what I am using as well, Ed. Hopefully someone will chime in about some advice. Wondering how to set up something like this properly.

[TornadoTed]

If it's any help I read somewhere that you should be able to run an 8 ohm load about 100' without too much trouble.

[d_cham]

Thanks Ed, I read 50ft. Surprised no one has answered yet. Maybe we should move this post to another forum. Seems simple enough to do . . . but wonder if there is a more elegant way to do it and still get great sonics.

I went to DelCosmos website and he had a whole bunch of amp heads in the control room. Also saw some of the shots from Guitar Hero III with all the amp heads in the control room.

[delcosmos]

Originally Posted by d_cham

Thanks Ed, I read 50ft. Surprised no one has answered yet. Maybe we should move this post to another forum. Seems simple enough to do . . . but wonder if there is a more elegant way to do it and still get great sonics.

I went to DelCosmos website and he had a whole bunch of amp heads in the control room. Also saw some of the shots from Guitar Hero III with all the amp heads in the control room.

Hi d_cham, I just saw this thread.

Well I have all my amp heads in the control room with a custom "Hi gain speaker" patch bay that is connected in to all the cabs on the big room, we always are really carefully to set the amp heads in "Standby" before plug a cabintet in that patch bay.

The "Pros" of this set up are that you are available to adjust every parameter on the head from the control room listening through your console or DAW or whatever, aslo since you are plugging you guitar directly in to the head without "Buffer" boxes, the sound queality is not affected by long cable runs.

The only "cons" that I have found are that you can't get that feedback that you get when your guitar is in front of a loud speaker, it's more easy to get that beautifull feedback or a nice sustain if you are in front of a loud speaker.

I use monster cable for my "Speaker patchbay" and again, we always make sure that every single head is in standby before changing any cable on that patch bay.

Hope this help.

delcosmos.

[d_cham]

Armando thanks a million for your advice. I will keep that in mind. From what you know, what cable lengths are safe before you start loosing tone? BTW thanks for the beautiful shots of your room. I will put that up on my wishing wall to hope we get a collection like yours one day.

BTW, bought some of the CDs you did by RBD and Aleks Syntek . . . very nice stuff. Do you have any recommendations of your favorite projects sound wise and engineering wise? Also which have you mixed on the Barefoots? I have a pair of MM27s on the way to me. Our studio is all Genelecs as of the moment.

Again so very thankful for the advice!

Dennis

[d_cham]

Just to add, Armando, I just downloaded the pictures of your amp cabinet. Is the patchbay those wall panels on the left with banana jacks on them? I am planning one with Speakon connectors on a middle atlantic panel. Not many amps yet ( one day ) I also have the Tone Hunter / SPL speaker simulator which I am patching in there.

Anyway thank you again for your generosity with your knowledge.

Dennis

[delcosmos]

Originally Posted by d_cham

Just to add, Armando, I just downloaded the pictures of your amp cabinet. Is the patchbay those wall panels on the left with banana jacks on them? I am planning one with Speakon connectors on a middle atlantic panel. Not many amps yet ( one day ) I also have the Tone Hunter / SPL speaker simulator which I am patching in there.

Anyway thank you again for your generosity with your knowledge.

Dennis

Yes it is, altough I think as you said, it's a better idea to do it with a Speakon connectors, that way you don't get shocked!!

Best regards.

delcosmos

[d_cham]

Thanks Delcosmos! I am glad you approve and thanks again for the advice.

[Oroz]

Originally Posted by delcosmos

The only "cons" that I have found are that you can't get that feedback that you get when your guitar is in front of a loud speaker, it's more easy to get that beautifull feedback or a nice sustain if you are in front of a loud speaker.

Hi Armando, I've heard that you can create feedback if you put the guitar's head on the monitors. I've never tried myself so I'm not sure if it works .