Thinking about moving to a 2 amp live setup…

[spawnofthesith]

I’ve kind of tossed the concept around in the back of my head for a while, but now with two marks it’s almost starting to make sense…. Maybe lol

I do a ton of live looping with my band, sometimes things can get a little mushy with multiple loops and me playing at the same time. my idea is to reroute one of the outputs on my RC500 to go to the FX return of the other amp. I’m thinking mark V for what I’m playing and mark IV power section for the loops. Seems like this might provide a bit more clarity in sound, and while the concept of bringing two amps might be irritating to a sound guy, seems like giving them more control over the layers might actually be a plus in their eyes for mixing.

The only unfortunate thing is that the irc500 is currently routed to send our click track out. That would have to be sacrificed to make this work. That said, the band has already been tossing around the idea of getting a midronome to function as the master clock/click, so not too big of a deal

Am I being crazy or missing something here or does this sound like a reasonable concept?

Aside from being a pain in the ass bringing double the gear

 

[Whizzinby]

In a world filled with silent stages, modelers, and people weighing their gear like they are going on an expedition to climb K2, you sir are a…



f**king legend.

 

[DrewJD82]

It's certainly worth setting up and trying!

 

[sleewell]

Do it!! More is more.


I was down on using 2 amp setups live for the stereo purposes but in your case for looping it makes sense.

 

[James Freeman]

@spawnofthesith loading his Mesa rig to a pub gig.

 

[Whizzinby]

 

[spawnofthesith]

 

[Baba]

In a world filled with silent stages, modelers, and people weighing their gear like they are going on an expedition to climb K2, you sir are a…



f**king legend.

As someone who is CONSTANTLY trying to find ways to shrink his gear size and weight down, I feel personally attacked

 

[AFKAEjay]

I play 2 amp set up whenever I can, and very happy with it.
But I use smaller/lighter amps then you do, and…straight forward stereo setup with a preamp/modeler loaded board.

I like the “bath of sound”, better spread on stage and in the audience (small clubs),

If you play those amps within their headroom, I’m not sure sending the loop to 1 amp is gonna help much tbh…but who knows
If stereo works…you could consider using a smaller amp next to a mark. The low end can be handled by the mark, so the smaller amp can be dialed a little tighter, allowing it to give you plenty of volume to give you a nice stereo sound.

 

[spawnofthesith]

If you play those amps within their headroom, I’m not sure sending the loop to 1 amp is gonna help much tbh…but who knows

It's been a long week and I'm also a bit stupid, could you clarify what you mean by that?

 

[AFKAEjay]

It's been a long week and I'm also a bit stupid, could you clarify what you mean by that?

It’s just a gut feeling…so take it with a grain of salt
I figure that when an amp overdrives…2 sound sources (loop+live) create a big mess. If it’s 100% clean, it shouldn’t matter much if they come from dedicated speakers or not.

 

[spawnofthesith]

It’s just a gut feeling…so take it with a grain of salt
I figure that when an amp overdrives…2 sound sources (loop+live) create a big mess. If it’s 100% clean, it shouldn’t matter much if they come from dedicated speakers or not.

Gotcha., maybe lol

Loops are both clean and gained up, sometimes both at the same time. I've already been running everything through the same amp/speaker for a a couple years, and its not bad sounding by any means. But I don't have any GAS right now so I'm bored and looking for problems that don't really need solving I guess

I would still think that separating them would have an improvement of clarity in any case though, even if small.

I was trying to brainstorm a way to do this so I could split things fully so that the full preamp of the second amp would be independent and in full use, but I can't think of a way to do that that wouldn't involve purchasing a bunch of patchbay/switcher/possibly even a midi brain type gear to pull off

 

[AFKAEjay]

Gotcha., maybe lol

Loops are both clean and gained up, sometimes both at the same time. I've already been running everything through the same amp/speaker for a a couple years, and its not bad sounding by any means. But I don't have any GAS right now so I'm bored and looking for problems that don't really need solving I guess

I would still think that separating them would have an improvement of clarity in any case though, even if small.

I was trying to brainstorm a way to do this so I could split things fully so that the full preamp of the second amp would be independent and in full use, but I can't think of a way to do that that wouldn't involve purchasing a bunch of patchbay/switcher/possibly even a midi brain type gear to pull off

Quad cortex?

 

[spawnofthesith]

Quad cortex?

Never but out of curiosity, how would that help?


An alternative solution that was proposed on another forum to split the loop and live guitar without bringing two amps/cabs was to use my captor and IR loader. Run my "live" signal path amp into captor and thru to cab. Then, pull my rc500 out of the amp fx loop entirely, and instead place it after the dry line out and into the IR loader (has a balanced output) direct to the board (loops only obviously)

That sounds less fun and sexy than two amps, but certainly easier. I can test this out in a fairly low effort manner at my next practice to see what I think. My IV is in the shop right now but I'll test out my other thought too once its out

 

[JiveTurkey]

Never but out of curiosity, how would that help?


An alternative solution that was proposed on another forum to split the loop and live guitar without bringing two amps/cabs was to use my captor and IR loader. Run my "live" signal path amp into captor and thru to cab. Then, pull my rc500 out of the amp fx loop entirely, and instead place it after the dry line out and into the IR loader (has a balanced output) direct to the board (loops only obviously)

That sounds less fun and sexy than two amps, but certainly easier. I can test this out in a fairly low effort manner at my next practice to see what I think. My IV is in the shop right now but I'll test out my other thought too once its out

Just read that thread and had flashbacks to my own shenanigans That way seems to be the least amount of insane gear hauling best solution to the task at hand, imo.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Just read that thread and had flashbacks to my own shenanigans That way seems to be the least amount of insane gear hauling best solution to the task at hand, imo.

Everyone seems to be missing the point that deep down I crave to haul an insane amount of gear

 

[sleewell]

ive been trying to run 2 amps and 2 cabs live but i refuse to bring 2 cabs so ive been trying to approach the other guitar players playing that night with us and asking if i could use their cab for our set and they could use mine for their set. i even offer up my quilter and lehle aby box if they need it.

hardcore bands are like fuck yea that sounds awesome. metalcore, deathcore dudes are generally not interested or make some excuses for not wanting to which is fine.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Gotcha., maybe lol

Loops are both clean and gained up, sometimes both at the same time. I've already been running everything through the same amp/speaker for a a couple years, and its not bad sounding by any means. But I don't have any GAS right now so I'm bored and looking for problems that don't really need solving I guess

I would still think that separating them would have an improvement of clarity in any case though, even if small.

I was trying to brainstorm a way to do this so I could split things fully so that the full preamp of the second amp would be independent and in full use, but I can't think of a way to do that that wouldn't involve purchasing a bunch of patchbay/switcher/possibly even a midi brain type gear to pull off

C'mon, be honest at least. You just wanna find a reason to use both those amps, since you just got the V.

 

[spawnofthesith]

C'mon, be honest at least. You just wanna find a reason to use both those amps, since you just got the V.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I would be too!