Guitar as a send?

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citystate
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Guitar as a send?

Post by citystate » Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:04 pm

I want to be able to record guitar from in my control room so I wanted to know the best way to wire this. Could I use a send in my snake to go out into the live room, then plug that into the amp?

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Milkmansound
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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by Milkmansound » Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:11 pm

just build a really long guitar cable - and prepare to enjoy some noise!

Or maybe DI it into your console, then use something like a reamp to bump it back down into the amp. Converting to a balanced signal should keep the noise down.
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jca83
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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by jca83 » Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:15 pm

Milkmansound wrote:Or maybe DI it into your console, then use something like a reamp to bump it back down into the amp. Converting to a balanced signal should keep the noise down.
that's a good idea.

or, if you don't have a combo amp, plug your guitar into your head, take a really long speaker cable into your amp. that should work pretty darn well.
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brianroth
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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by brianroth » Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:21 pm

Indeed, I've seen a few studios with panels in the control room and studio that included a pair or two of banana jacks that were tied together by a pair or two of heavy speaker wire. Thus, you could set up your head in the CR and speaker cabinet in ths studio. Of course, that won't work with a combo like a Fender Twin.

One of the problems with loooong instrument cables extending from the CR to studio is the capacitance of the cable causing HF rolloff as well as possibly picking up excess noise.

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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by kingquasar » Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:26 pm

Wireless transmitter.

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brianroth
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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by brianroth » Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:54 pm

Re: DI boxes and wireless transmitters. While those might work in some or many situations, the input impedance of many DI and/or TX units can be low enough to load down some guitars compared to the very High Z of a tube guitar amp. It all depends upon the instrument itself. That's why I like the "extended speaker cable" concept if the head of the amp is separate from the speaker box.

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citystate
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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by citystate » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:04 am

Can someone explain the use of banana jacks for the long speaker cable idea. I know what these look like but not why they are a good idea.

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nacho459
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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by nacho459 » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:08 am

Little Labs makes a box intended to do this very thing. It balances the guitar signal so you can run it down a regular XLR line then it unbalances it back to guitar level. It's called the STD. http://www.littlelabs.com/std.html

When I built my studio I ran 8 tie lines that went from Neutrik XLR & 1/4" combo jacks in the studio to my 1/4" patch bay in my control room for sending whatever between the two rooms. I use this for guitar all the time. The path is fairly short so it doesn't add a bunch of noise.

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brianroth
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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by brianroth » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:53 am

Banana jacks are a quasi-standard for speaker level connections. They are designed for high current (15 Amps or more, which translates to 1800 Watts into 8 Ohms). Because of their physically large design, it's relatively easy to terminate a FAT speaker lead onto either the "user" or "under the panel" end.

In a recent studio installation, we had two "paired" banana jacks on a panel in the CR with two 12 gauge paired feeders running back to the machine room. There, you could patch bananas into one or more of the three recording spaces.

For interfacing in the CR or recording spaces, I built up some 1/4" phone to banana cables, and supplied a few banana to banana patch cords for the machine room.

Bri

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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by joeysimms » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:59 am

citystate wrote:I want to be able to record guitar from in my control room so I wanted to know the best way to wire this. Could I use a send in my snake to go out into the live room, then plug that into the amp?
How far away is your live room? I do this all the time with 2 20' cables and an adaptor. Works fine.
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Luke
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Re: Guitar as a send?

Post by Luke » Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:16 am

Just run a long 1/4" speaker cable to the cab. Leave the head in the control room. If it's a combo amp, you can get away with a pretty long high quality cable. Try it either way, I don't think you'll have a problem.
Good Luck
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