Solution to silent home practice

BintyTwanger77

As I'm moving to new place, I would like the opportunity to play at all hours without possibly pissing anyone off, so a means to practice silently is a must for me.

Initially, I thought the Helix sounded good, so out a refundable deposit down on one.

Then I tried a Kemper. Incredible.

Then, I thought, "is this overkill?". I already have a 65 DRRI and a pedalboard that I love the bones of, can great amazing tones. Why not just get a small practice amp with headphone input?

So the choice at the moment is:

Helix/KPA/other digital amp modeller with incredible tone that has a headphone input. 

Small practice amp with headphone jack and an excellent speaker emulation (Blackstar 1W combo, Blues Cube). 

Discuss.

thomasross20

I'm considering getting the Fly to pair with my tonelink. So I can use it as a portable amp or speaker when I'm doing the ironing. Rock and roll!!

hubobulous

Or you could get a Two Notes cab and stick it at the end of your pedal chain. Silent playing, choice of any power valve type and load any cab IR you like.

thomasross20

That looks cool ^^^

guitarfishbay

Reactive load is going to be cheaper than Kemper or Helix assuming your rig alreadŷ does everything you need for tone. A couple of guys on the forum have been using them and getting very good results - @Drew_fx and @digitalscream ;

BintyTwanger77

@guitarfishbay Would a Tech21 Trademark 30 do the job?

BintyTwanger77

@hubobulous That looks very interesting.

Babones

If you want to keep playing your amp, get a Two Notes Torpedo Live. Silent practice & recording and it's still your amp.

BintyTwanger77

Babones said:

If you want to keep playing your amp, get a Two Notes Torpedo Live. Silent practice & recording and it's still your amp.

Does it work with a combo or just a head?

guitarfishbay

BintyTwanger77 said:

@guitarfishbay Would a Tech21 Trademark 30 do the job?

I've never used one, so can't be of much help sorry

Wazmeister

Mate, the problem is for me trying to incorporate your amp.

If it was me, Id use a computor (Mac in my case) and via Garageband or Logic. Great, fun modelling.

If you are PC based, something like Amplitube .

Cheap, simple, silent.

dindude

If you have a half decent MAC / PC then a reactive load box (such as the Suhr) and then IR's is a great option, your rig but silent. Just ask Pete Thorn.

hubobulous

Re the Torpedo Live.....as long as you can get to the cable from your amp to the speaker you are fine. It's effectively acting the same as the load that the speaker provides. 

Obviously a a combo is just a head plus speaker all in one so the physics are exactly the same as a separate head/cab.

peteri

I've gone through all options.

If you're anything like me - I like how valves compress, I like pedals with knobs and i find the gain staging on line 6 (not tried the Helix), just not right.

Kemper if you like it (not dared try one!) or

Two Notes - that's what I use, reason I like that is I use my amp and pedals - don't have to repatch, it's all just there, didn't make sense to me to have two rigs, one won't get used.

I went the cheaper way - have a Jettenuator which gives me attenuation and a line out (you could even get a simple load box from someone like Rat amps) and the Two Notes CAB, it's cheaper but exactly the same with cabs etc.

Decent IRs and you're absolutely there.

Keep using the amp and pedals you love, just on headphones

Jalapeno

Is this about practice or recording ? 

For practice I don't think you need bother too much - a Line 6 Pod, or Tech 21 Trademark via headphones ought to be sufficient. 

I like the idea of a Kemper preamp for my home setup (sounds to me like a lot less fettling than AxeFX too) , but it's still way too expensive

FX_Munkee

For practice, super cheap, Zoom G1on. In fact just pick one up whilst you're deciding on the "proper" solution

BintyTwanger77

I'm off to Andertons now, on a pilgrimage and shit, yeah?

edbolivar

I have tried all sorts to solve the headphone / late night practice issue (2 kids under 3).

Started with a THR10, okay but not for me.

Blackstar HT5R (headphone out), really didn't like that.

Kemper, this was really good and relatively straightforward but gave myself option paralysis after spending a small fortune on buying far too many profiles. The sounds were good as profiled, but hated the librarian ( I believe they launched a new way to control it on the pc soon after I sold it).

EVH 5150 combo, not everyone's cup of tea, but I found it fun for what it was, and the headphone out, whilst buzzy with gain was okay.

irig from amplitude, tried it for about 10 minutes and got bored.

Line 6 Amplifi, didn't like it.

The various Marshall 1 watts, okay and can be quiet but no headphone output (I think)

Apollo Twin duo, love this, and I think sounds better and easier to use than the Kemper. It has great plugins and lots of lots of them if thats is your thing, if not you can keep it simple too.

I love the fact that you can use it without turning on your PC as well, also looks good sat on my desk and takes up very little space.

Downsides, whilst you don't need to buy lots of plugins they are there and that makes them tempting.

However, having said all that I found myself playing unplugged as often as not, when everyone is asleep and don't enjoy it any less...

Babones

BintyTwanger77 said:

Babones said:

If you want to keep playing your amp, get a Two Notes Torpedo Live. Silent practice & recording and it's still your amp.

Does it work with a combo or just a head?

Sure it works with a combo. Just unplug the speaker and plug in, in it's place.

Jonathanthomas83

Not read through anything...but @BintyTwanger77 I sent you a  PM with the Reactive Load stuff a few months back, it's ideal for your needs. A reactive load and a cab sim is all you need! Instant gratification! :-)

Can't recommend the Suhr Rective Load and Torpedo CAB enough. Although, heard good things about the other Torpedo units, with a reactive load inside too. 

Works with a combo too. :-) Good luck

midlifecrisis

For me I use zoom g3 and headphones,, has drum machine and looper. I connect a USB lead from laptop to g3 and jam along to YouTube or mp3 tracks. And I us it as effects pedal when gigging, very versatile bit of kit, keep meaning to buy a spare one