Stereo for Traditional Amp

[Jim Lawrence]

I'd like run my Mesa Mark V tube amp in stereo. Guess most run two heads, but I'd like to get by with one since I own two Atomic CLRs.

I own a AX8, Mesa 2x12, Line6 HXEffects, and Two Note CaptorX.

Somehow all that has to do the job

 

[Moke]

First of all, this is the 'FM9' Discussion thread. This should be in the 'AX8' Discussion thread.

The Mesa Amp and Cab are mono. You could do a wet/dry/wet kind of thing. Lots of different configurations possible.

I would just send the left and right Outputs from the AX8 to the two CLRs and call it a day.

 

[Jim Lawrence]

I can Guitar -> AX8 -> AX Send -> Mesa -> Mesa Send -> AX8 return -> AX8 Output (left and right) -> CLR ?
Mesa output goes to CaptorX.
I'd be using just the cabinet simulator. Basically I want to just replace the amp model and use everything else Fractal.
This is deciding if I buy a FM9, sorry.

 

[strabes]

If you're comfortable monitoring the "mic'd" signal from your amp through the CLRs then you could put the entire amp+captorX in an FX loop in the AX8 (or the HX Effects). Either use the cab sim on the captor X or an IR/cab block on HX FX or AX8. Stereo wet fx after the cab block or FX loop, then straight into the CLRs in stereo. In this setup your dry would be mono (i.e. identical in the left and right speaker), but your wet fx would be stereo.

If you want a stereo dry in addition to the stereo wet, you could do the exact same setup, but hard pan the real amp + captor to one side, then add a fractal amp+cab block and hard pan that to the other side. Then add stereo wet fx after the amps and cabs. This is what I do with two fractal amp+cab blocks and it's very wide because the left and right dry are slightly different. I also use the enhancer block for extra width. This type of setup is about as close to double tracking as you can get without actually double tracking.

Here's a screenshot of the routing on the FM9 as an example:



The other benefit of doing it like this is that you can hear the accuracy of the Fractal amp modeling in real time and then replace everything with just the FM9

 

[Jim Lawrence]

Its a solution, thanks! I'm guessing Fractal cabinet simulators are better than Captors. I'd also guess level is same as if I used AX9/FM9 as effect only unit. Nice tip!

 

[strabes]

I'm guessing Fractal cabinet simulators are better than Captors

I don't have any experience with the AX8 but IMO dyna cabs are the best cab sim tech I've tried. You could certainly try both and compare, or use the Torpedo's cab sim with the real amp to offload some DSP from the Fractal unit.