Roland Blues Cube for home headphones practice

BintyTwanger77

I will be moving house soon, so there is a  possibility of having flatmates who wouldn't welcome hearing my playing at even reasonable volumes, so...

I WASN'T thinking of ditching my beloved 65 DRRI, but I was seriously considering getting one of the Blues Cube range of amps along with decent headphones as well for home practice. I'd be putting my pedalboard into the front of it.

How is the Blues Cube for that? I tried one without headphones, guitar straight in, no effects, and it sounded bloody marvellous.

@Wazmeister I know that you're a huge fan, can you shed any light on this? 

Cheers. 

monquixote

I'd be interested in this as if I had one I'd want to use the DI for live.

stratman3142

I haven't used the Headphone out on my Blues Cube Artist, but I used the separate speaker emulated line out to record my entry for this month's  Raw Riff Of The Month entry. I expect Sheldon will be putting them up soon, then you'll be able to hear it.

At first I was disappointed because the speaker emulated line out sounded dull to me. However, that was easily fixed within my DAW by adding about 8dB boost at around 3K with a Q of about 2. So for live DI I'd just make sure to have the option of adding some EQ. Maybe something similar might apply to the headphones but I'd need to experiment a bit more before I can offer a valid opinion.

The good thing about the line out is that it's not affected by the master volume control so it will be possible to tweak the onstage volume, without affecting what's coming out of the PA. Also, for recording, the master can be set to zero, so the amp is silent and you only hear what's coming out of the monitor speakers.

My RRotm entry is heavily processed. I could post some recorded clips from the line out if there's anything specific either of you want to check.

BintyTwanger77

Thought about one of these as well, though this clip is somewhat skewed by the fact this bloke's tone is unbelievable and could probably make a 20 year old Park practice amp and a Bullet Strat sound good.

monquixote

stratman3142 said:

I haven't used the Headphone out on my Blues Cube Artist, but I used the separate speaker emulated line out to record my entry for this month's  Raw Riff Of The Month entry. I expect Sheldon will be putting them up soon, then you'll be able to hear it.

At first I was disappointed because the speaker emulated line out sounded dull to me. However, that was easily fixed within my DAW by adding about 8dB boost at around 3K with a Q of about 2. So for live DI I'd just make sure to have the option of adding some EQ. Maybe something similar might apply to the headphones but I'd need to experiment a bit more before I can offer a valid opinion.

The good thing about the line out is that it's not affected by the master volume control so it will be possible to tweak the onstage volume, without affecting what's coming out of the PA. Also, for recording, the master can be set to zero, so the amp is silent and you only hear what's coming out of the monitor speakers.

My RRotm entry is heavily processed. I could post some recorded clips from the line out if there's anything specific either of you want to check.

Hmm that doesn't sound good to me though the independent volume level on the line out is a huge plus for a gigging musician. Nearly every brand gets this wrong.

stratman3142

Although I still really like the amp, after spending some time with the so called speaker emulated line out I have to say it needs quite a bit of EQ'ing to sound acceptable.  So for live I wouldn't risk using it and I would slap a mic on the speaker.

I think Roland has dropped off on that aspect. Also, for recording they'd have been better off not making the line out speaker emulated so I could use my IRs. 

Maybe others have had different experiences. At first I thought it might be my audio interface but my Joyo American sounds good into the same interface.

simonk

stratman3142 said:

Although I still really like the amp, after spending some time with the so called speaker emulated line out I have to say it needs quite a bit of EQ'ing to sound acceptable.  So for live I wouldn't risk using it and I would slap a mic on the speaker.

I think Roland has dropped off on that aspect. Also, for recording they'd have been better off not making the line out speaker emulated so I could use my IRs. 

Maybe others have had different experiences. At first I thought it might be my audio interface but my Joyo American sounds good into the same interface.

I couldn't find anything anywhere to suggest the DI out was speaker emulated. I've not tried DI'ing my Stage but your findings come as something of a disappointment.

BintyTwanger77

A minor bump for this thread.

I'm guessing that no tone you get on headphones from an amp is going to be perfect, but can you get an acceptable tone with one of these and headphones? It would just be for twatting around with my pedals, noodling, composing, without disturbing housemates.

stratman3142

BintyTwanger77 said:

A minor bump for this thread.

I'm guessing that no tone you get on headphones from an amp is going to be perfect, but can you get an acceptable tone with one of these and headphones? It would just be for twatting around with my pedals, noodling, composing, without disturbing housemates.

I think it's OK for that purpose. Perhaps you should get other opinions because maybe I'm perhaps a bit over fussy.

Below is a very raw DI clip I recorded using various settings on my Strat, switching between the clean and crunch channel on the amp.

The tone controls were all at about 12 o'clock. I had the tone switch engaged on both channels whereas for the sound coming out of the amp speakers I don't need to do that. The reverb is from the amp. There's no post processing. It's just a DI from the headphone output of the amp. I can't hear a noticeable difference between the line out and the headphone out.

https://app.box.com/s/678gsx9zo7fy0rkc2pl0jehhtbxc3htw

What comes out of the amp speakers sounds better and has more cut.

paulk

BintyTwanger77 said:

A minor bump for this thread.

I'm guessing that no tone you get on headphones from an amp is going to be perfect, but can you get an acceptable tone with one of these and headphones? It would just be for twatting around with my pedals, noodling, composing, without disturbing housemates.

Yes, perfectly acceptable. I have the Stage and use it like that late at night when the wife and kids are sleeping.