How to blend 2 Amps correctly

  • Thread starter TheElaborateDream
  • Start date
T

TheElaborateDream

Guest
I am trying to find the best route to blend two amps together and have quite a few questions.

Do I need to pan the amps into one cab? should I use two cabs and pan the cab block to mix them? Or, do I need to pan them at all? Should I run the cab/s in Stereo? Just looking best practices. I have watched CC class and Leon's video. I am still confused on the best way to blend two amps.
 
TheElabortateDream said:
I am trying to find the best route to blend two amps together and have quite a few questions.

Do I need to pan the amps into one cab? should I use two cabs and pan the cab block to mix them? Or, do I need to pan them at all? Should I run the cab/s in Stereo? Just looking best practices. I have watched CC class and Leon's video. I am still confused on the best way to blend two amps.
Click to expand...
The best way is always the way that sounds best to you.
I prefer using two cabs and two amps and panning them 80% left and right. Awesome with an enhancer block at the end. (I prefer headphones with the enhancer)
But that’s just me.
 
I am just looking for the basic easy way to blend two amps with no weird level issues or sound quality. I also wanted to confirm if I should be using dual mono or stereo for this. I understand that there are many ways to do this, but usually there is a common way that most people use.

I guess maybe if I tell you what I am trying to do, you guys/gals can let me know if this is one way to do it.

I am running two amps in parallel. One high gain, one mid gain. One amp panned left and one panned right. This is going into one cab block with two cabs with the pan straight up the middle. From there I would use the levels to mix in each amp?
 
If I'm intending on jamming with the tone only using one speaker, I make it mono and craft a mix. If I am tracking something that should ultimately end up mono, I split it into hardpanned stereo so I can mix the two amps as I see fit in my daw. If the effect is supposed to be wide with two disparate sounds I go stereo. Case by case. Sometimes I use one cab block, sometimes two. It's all up to what the end goal is
 
TheElabortateDream said:
I am just looking for the basic easy way to blend two amps with no weird level issues or sound quality. I also wanted to confirm if I should be using dual mono or stereo for this. I understand that there are many ways to do this, but usually there is a common way that most people use.

I guess maybe if I tell you what I am trying to do, you guys/gals can let me know if this is one way to do it.

I am running two amps in parallel. One high gain, one mid gain. One amp panned left and one panned right. This is going into one cab block with two cabs with the pan straight up the middle. From there I would use the levels to mix in each amp?
Click to expand...

Are you doing this for recording purposes, or just general jamming around? If you’re just doing it to jam around/play solo, do whatever tickles your fancy. If you stumble on something that sounds good and makes ya want to keep playing, then you’ve done all ya need to do!

If you’re doing it for recording, the above still applies just the same, but you could lose out on the ability to blend the amps in a mix that you might want more control of.

I briefly tried using dual amps for recording purposes, in which I had them hard panned, so one amp/cab on each side, which gave me more control in the mixing stage.
 
RevDrucifer said:
Are you doing this for recording purposes, or just general jamming around? If you’re just doing it to jam around/play solo, do whatever tickles your fancy. If you stumble on something that sounds good and makes ya want to keep playing, then you’ve done all ya need to do!

If you’re doing it for recording, the above still applies just the same, but you could lose out on the ability to blend the amps in a mix that you might want more control of.

I briefly tried using dual amps for recording purposes, in which I had them hard panned, so one amp/cab on each side, which gave me more control in the mixing stage.
Click to expand...
Both. I like to create different templates in my DAW and presets with the Axe so I can just plug and play when I am feeling creative. For this preset, I am trying to create a dual amp blend so I can write and record with the tone down the road.
 
TheElabortateDream said:
I am just looking for the basic easy way to blend two amps with no weird level issues or sound quality. I also wanted to confirm if I should be using dual mono or stereo for this. I understand that there are many ways to do this, but usually there is a common way that most people use.

I guess maybe if I tell you what I am trying to do, you guys/gals can let me know if this is one way to do it.

I am running two amps in parallel. One high gain, one mid gain. One amp panned left and one panned right. This is going into one cab block with two cabs with the pan straight up the middle. From there I would use the levels to mix in each amp?
Click to expand...
I usually use two amps and two cabs. Both have balance right in the middle, ie default. There’s a mixer block following that, where I set panning usually at 80-85 per side. And then adjust each row’s volume for a good balance. Then towards the end, I add an IR player with room IRs mainly for headphone use.

I haven’t had much success with very different gain settings for both amps. They usually have to be in the same ballpark. Maybe panning has to be adjusted if gain is too different.
 
I have tried two approaches to create a wet/dry mix.
1) 2 amps in parallel each with it's own cab block and at the end of the chain just connect both signals. I'm controlling the overall mix with the levels on the amp blocks. The reasoning behind this approach was to remove whatever gain/level modifier stages I could (mainly the mixer) to "keep the amp tone as clear as I could".
2) Same as option 1 but both signals are added into a mixer block before going out. The reasoning for this approach is that a wet/dry setup ends up going to a mixer for FOH and there levels are adjusted for the desired mix - I'm replicating that in the signal. Plus I can also bring an external signal from say input 4 and blend it to what I need. An enhancer in the wet signal creates a space for the dry signal in the middle while the wet is perceived on the sides (to my ears).

What I've learned is that levels on the amps need to be right (strong enough) so when you modify them in the mixer (lower the level) you don't loose some of the tone. I'm still tweaking to get the sound I'm going after.

My monitoring is through headphones. If I was using separate powered monitors I would probably send each signal to separate out blocks and let my ears do the mixing in the room.

Hope it helps...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom