Is there a way to record this Marshall direct without a cab?

[nedorama]

You need a load box that acts like a speaker. Do not plug a power amp into the HiZ input of your interface unless you want to see things melt/break.

Palmer and others make speaker simulators that can be hooked to power amps/heads.

[Wolf LeProducer]

Originally Posted by nedorama

You need a load box that acts like a speaker. Do not plug a power amp into the HiZ input of your interface unless you want to see things melt/break.

Palmer and others make speaker simulators that can be hooked to power amps/heads.

K!! Very important to note. I figured, "no way directly into HiZ." Thanks for confirming.

I'll get hunting for the box I need.

[chaosgow]

Check out the PDI03. Not toooo expensive and does the job well

[RiF]

Originally Posted by chaosgow

Check out the PDI03. Not toooo expensive and does the job well

Yes. Or a box from Two Notes (Torpedo).
Mind that you will blow your amp, if you run it without any load on it's speaker outputs!!!! If you don't connect a cabinet to the speaker outputs, you have to have some kind of load box, like the Palmer PDI-03 or PGA-04 or the Two Notes Torpedo (not the Torpedo CAB, though).

Another option to record direct is to skip the power amp completely and go directly out of what usually goes into your 20/20 into your audio interface. Then use some convolution plugin to do the cabinet emulation (LePou LeCab, Kefir, Recabinet, Mellowmuse IR1A, Redwirez mixIR2, ...) using cabinet IR-files. This will bypass the poweramp stage at all, so you don't get any poweramp tone here.

EDIT: I just saw that the 20/20 has attenuated line outputs, but I am not sure what those bring to the table, because if you'll use them, you will need cabinets hooked up to the amp or a load box. Hooking up a cab defeats the purpose of direct recording and the load box will give you line outs as well...

[808 Jake]

Be sure to get a speaker load "box" that can accommodate the amount of power the amp puts out. At 20 watts, that shouldn't be an issue.

Also make sure your impedance out from the amp matches what the load box takes. Else you'll have an impedance mismatch, and your output won't have great efficiency and you could potentially hurt your gear.

I own the Palmer PDI-03, and I can't say enough great things about it. It's good for outputs up to 100w and has 8 ohm impedance. JAMS Audio - Nashville, TN

[ears2thesky]

Why would someone want to record the sound of a power amp?

This is not a guitar amp head.

It is the power section of one to be used in conjunction with a preamp such as: Marshall's own JMP-1.

You might have noticed the lack of instrument input.

[Wolf LeProducer]

Originally Posted by ears2thesky

Why would someone want to record the sound of a power amp?

This is not a guitar amp head.

It is the power section of one to be used in conjunction with a preamp such as: Marshall's own JMP-1.

You might have noticed the lack of instrument input.

Well.. Frankly that is a good point. What I probably should have linked, or at least said was, "a head," you know, like the JMP-1.

That's what I would like to record direct, without a cab.

My mistake...

[skinnypete]

There have been threads about this recently. Apparently there are some DIs that work using the speaker out of the power amp.

Some Radial and Countryman, for example.

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[nedorama]

Point is, take the power amp out of the chain and you can record the preamp line outs. Not sure there's a benefit to buying an expensive Palmer when you could just omit the power amp and solve the problem.

If we are missing something please clarify.

[skinnypete]

Originally Posted by nedorama

Point is, take the power amp out of the chain and you can record the preamp line outs. Not sure there's a benefit to buying an expensive Palmer when you could just omit the power amp and solve the problem.

If we are missing something please clarify.

Well that would be generally what I would suggest as well. I'm guessing that the reason for wanting to go from the power amp is to get the sound of the saturated power tubes.

Also, not all amps have a line out.

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[nedorama]

I can't think of a guitar preamp that doesn't have a line out. Not talking about regular tube amps with power tubes built in. The Marshall Power amp the OP referenced has Line level input jacks, so some source is line level...

[skinnypete]

Originally Posted by nedorama

I can't think of a guitar preamp that doesn't have a line out. Not talking about regular tube amps with power tubes built in. The Marshall Power amp the OP referenced has Line level input jacks, so some source is line level...

Duh. Oops!

Yeah I thought he was going out of a regular head ("power amp" section of the head) and not a plain power amp. Of course any pre has a line out.

Yeah OP, I'm not sure what you're going for, but the main things that color the sound are the preamp and speakers.

But if you wanted to try that out, I guess you would need a DI that takes a "speaker" input, and then a power soak thing of some kind? I'm honestly not sure how that would work.