Making use of my amp head and rack preamps. Should I get a "do it all" load box/speaker sim thingy?

SquireJapan

All this IR stuff is new to me, and i've never played with it. Research so far is hard going, so asking you lovely people for some advice.

Scenario - I'd quite like to be able to use a Marshall head I have, so need a load box. It would also be handy to have a power amp simulator and IR / speaker sim. I also have some rack pre-amps i'd like to make more use of.

Things I have:

Amps

 - JCM900 master volume head

 - Mesa Mark I combo

Pre-amps

 - JMP1

 - ADA MP1

 (Mabye a mesa one too, but I don't own it yet)

Other bits:

 - USB audio interface

 - a Mac with Logic

 - a mesa cab clone (the first one everyone hated). It's a passive loadbox, with an analog "speaker sim" built in.

I can imagine cobbling together something like this:

1. Marshall - Mesa cab clone - audio interface - mac - logic  (I don't yet have anything additional software wise to do the power amp and speaker sim)

2. Pre-amp - audio interface - logic

That seems a bit messy ... would something like a twonotes studio be a good option? Overkill? Dunno ... can't find much actual advice.

Cheers in advance!

EDIT : moving to "amps", from "Studio and Recordings", as not much activity there. I also emailed twonotes, but they've not got back to me yet.

SquireJapan

Bump and update - TwoNotes said I should get a cab M. 

Any other opinions?

they’ve said to use the Mesa load box I have - it’s non-reactive and I don’t know how much I should care. 

poopot

You have logic...

download some speaker IR’s

load up “space designer” on a track.

select load IR In the space designer plug-in 

load up your IR....

done.

SquireJapan

Ah - I did look at that and it seemed like IRs were only for reverb. I’m presumably wrong then, which is a cheap mistake at this point.

Thanks!

poopot

SquireJapan said:

Ah - I did look at that and it seemed like IRs were only for reverb. I’m presumably wrong then, which is a cheap mistake at this point.

Thanks!

alternatively you could use the amp designer plugin and set the “amp” part to the “pre amp” model and just use the cabs...

but Space designer will load speaker IR’s 

play about with the dry and wet settings...

Gadget

I have the Torpedo Studio, as I wanted the option of using my amp heads or preamps. There is even a power amp simulator, if you're just using a preamp.

SquireJapan

I actually went a very different direction - I’ve picked up a Kemper. 

Not just to solve this problem, but it seems like I can:
- run the preamp through it and use power amps/speaker profiles
- use a load box (the Mesa one for now) and run that through the Kemper with speaker profiles. 

I _think_ that makes sense (?)

wellsyboy

Boss Tube amp expander or OX Box

Hugo

Or two notes captor x, if you also want a loadbo. The cab m doesn’t has the load box