Is there such a thing as Cabinet switcher?

henryrobinett

henryrobinett

Fractal Fanatic
I have a Axe Fx XL+ and a AX8. I have two XiTone wedges. Ideally I'd like to set up, for home and setting up tones, a switcher so I can have the both set up. The AFII is racked. Getting behind it is a real pain. It'd be cool, though admittedly a tiny corner market case, to hit a foot switch that selects between the two Fractals and one pair of cabs.

I suppose the best thing is to set up a patch bay.
 
You could put them both through a small mixer, and let the Ax8 control Axe. Then set the presets so that the other one is muted when you want.
 
That's the way I've always done it for my studio monitors, but not the XiTones. I have them both set to input to my interface. Axe Fx II - channels 3/4 and AX8 to channels 5/6. I have very nice studio monitors, but they're different than the live rig XiTone set up.
 
barhrecords said:
I use the Mackie Big Knob in my studio.

For the money, I bought it used, it really can't be beat.

I am upgrading soon for various reasons, but have really got my use out of the Mackie.
Click to expand...
Yea, the Big Knob is kind of purpose-built for this sort of thing.
 
I'm trying to get my tiny head around this. Monitors switchers, aren't I thinking of the opposite? I need 2 stereo inputs or 4 inputs to ONE stereo output. Yeah, I think this might work, although big knob is kind of more money than I wanted to spend. When I use studio monitors switchers it's for one studio source outputting to several outputs for external outputs pairs.
 
henryrobinett said:
I'm trying to get my tiny head around this. Monitors switchers, aren't I thinking of the opposite? I need 2 stereo inputs or 4 inputs to ONE stereo output. Yeah, I think this might work, although big knob is kind of more money than I wanted to spend. When I use studio monitors switchers it's for one studio source outputting to several outputs for external outputs pairs.
Click to expand...

On the Mackie:

- I have two stereo pairs of monitors and a sub on the A, B, C outputs. A=NS10's. B=CLR's, C=HSU sub. They can all be on or off at the same time.
- Stereo inputs: DAW=UAD Apollo USB Monitor Out L/R, 2-track A=Computer audio L/R, 2 track B=Kemper Out L/R

The Fractal is patched into the UAD inputs.

The nice thing is any source and any speaker out can be active together if you want. This is nice for inputs like jamming on the Fractal along with audio from the computer for example.
 
henryrobinett said:
I'm trying to get my tiny head around this. Monitors switchers, aren't I thinking of the opposite? I need 2 stereo inputs or 4 inputs to ONE stereo output. Yeah, I think this might work, although big knob is kind of more money than I wanted to spend. When I use studio monitors switchers it's for one studio source outputting to several outputs for external outputs pairs.
Click to expand...
The Big Knob can switch between 4 stereo pair inputs too.
 
It's a little cheaper. Big Knob is $300. Cabone is $250. I'm familiar with Radial and Big Knob. I have a couple of studio monitors I switch between, but I use my ULN-8 so I haven't needed one.
 
Simple stereo A/B switch would do the trick and would be WAY less money. You're just switching between two line level signals. A DPDT toggle switch and three TRS 1/4" jacks mounted in a small box. Most AB boxes have about $10 worth of parts in them and they sell for stupid high prices.

Active amp/cab switchers are a different creature. They are carefully designed so that tube amps connected to them always maintain a proper speaker load while the cabs are switched. Most regular toggle switches are break then make, meaning the connection to ones side is broken before the connection to the other side is made. That would leave a tube amp with no load during the switch over. No load on a tube amp is BAD.
 
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henryrobinett said:
I have a Axe Fx XL+ and a AX8. I have two XiTone wedges. Ideally I'd like to set up, for home and setting up tones, a switcher so I can have the both set up. The AFII is racked. Getting behind it is a real pain. It'd be cool, though admittedly a tiny corner market case, to hit a foot switch that selects between the two Fractals and one pair of cabs.

I suppose the best thing is to set up a patch bay.
Click to expand...

Many ways of doing what you need:

Are you using all the inputs and outputs on your ULN-8 ??
Otherwise you could input the Axe Fx 2 and AX8 to your ULN8, use 2 pair of analog inputs or 1 pair of analog and a digital stereo in (AES), and switch between the inputs in Mio and the outputs in the Mio monitor controller.

...Or get a used Big Knop (120-160 $)

...or get either a stereo A/B box or two mono A/B boxes - lots of options out there to choose from.

Avoid the Cabone as thats designed for switching between 2 mono guitar amp into one guitar cab.
 
henryrobinett said:
I'm trying to get my tiny head around this. Monitors switchers, aren't I thinking of the opposite? I need 2 stereo inputs or 4 inputs to ONE stereo output. Yeah, I think this might work, although big knob is kind of more money than I wanted to spend. When I use studio monitors switchers it's for one studio source outputting to several outputs for external outputs pairs.
Click to expand...

Every small mixer does this.
I have a Behringer UB502 on my desk with me right now that I use this exact same way (but I use it for 2 computer audio outputs).
Two sets of stereo inputs (4 inputs) and one set of stereo outputs (2 outputs).....I think I got it on Cragslist for $25.
 
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