Silly question about cab clone - practicing through monitors

[thewalkman]

New to the forum and man do i have some learning to do. Im hoping someone can enlighten me and dumb this process down for me. My goal is to be able to record and practice at low volume through studio monitors. About to purchase a Mark V 25 and an audio interface and would like to know about the feasibility of practicing directly through the monitors. There are many other threads on the internet about this but not dealing directly with a cab clone output such as the one on the mark V 25.

Im assuming that running the cab clone out into a decent interface, the correct drivers, a DAW, and powered studio monitors, i would be able to use the cab clone output and be able to play with negligible latency. Never done this before, anything im missing? advice?

Appreciate any info.

 

[sheehanje]

I don't run a Cab Clone, but a similar device (Two Notes Torpedo Reload). I don't think the Cab Clone will introduce any latency - that will be more about your Audio Interface and Computer. With modern devices it should be fairly low. The type of interface is important too - Firewire interfaces seem to have lower latency, but sometimes more headaches getting them to work properly (i.e. having a "real" firewire card on the computer). With that said, most USB interfaces these days offer great low latency recording - and a lot of interfaces provide zero latency monitoring. I use a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 - it's a mid level consumer grade audio interface and works better than some of the pro devices I was using 15 years ago.


So the short - you shouldn't have any problems as long as you pick your interface right and your computer is capable - the cab clone isn't going to be an issue either, Also, there are plenty of DAW's out there, but I really recommend Reaper for people just starting out - they have awesome tutorials, manuals and one of the most helpful user communities around. You can try it out for free, and for non-professional use it costs beans compared to the competition.

One other thing is the Cab Clone has a line out too - which isn't "simulated", so you can use it into an audio interface and use something like Wall of Sound to simulate different cabinets - this gives some great flexibility.

 

[thewalkman]

Thanks for the info! I'll do some more homework on a good USB interface. The Scarlett model you mentioned seems well received.

 

[pokerrules47]

I've used a ton of different interfaces and the Scarlett line is one of the better ones for the price of it. Right now I use a Behringer XR18 mixer. Make sure you have some decent horsepower on your DAW host so that you can get the most out of the experience without introducing technical issues at that end.

The one thing I should warn you about though, is you won't get the same sound as you would expect from an amp. There are a bunch of different factors that contribute to the sound coming from an amp that a device like the cab clone can't emulate. That being said, it actually works pretty good and with the right EQ settings (in your daw) you can achieve some very nice tones. There are a ton of videos on youtube complaining about the cab clone, but the posters obviously expected it to sound perfect (to their ears) as soon as they plug it in. It takes some understanding of recording as well as setting up a rig to get it to sound good.

I use the cab clone more when I am playing live. I mix it with a mic'd signal to get the best of both worlds.

 

[dlpasco]

I've played my cab clone straight into the PA of our rehearsal space with no problems, and have also driven both a 4x12 cab and the PA with it at the same time and never noticed any latency problems.

That said, and probably completely unrelated to any of this: when recording with a microphone, line in, or whatever in Logic X, ALWAYS ENABLE LOW LATENCY MODE in the app or you will lose your mind.

 

[MrSmitty]

I agree with what the others are saying. I have recorded a bunch with my Mk 25 cab clone into my Scarlett 2i2, it works very well. The clean channel sounds very good actually. The lead channel will need some tweaking though.