Line Level Input

[mick]

Hi all
I don't really play much (if at all) live nowadays, but I do have get together's with all my musician friends, since the drummers have gone electric (kit) the volume has become soo much more manageable, the thing is amps don't get to their sweeter spots so most (including myself ) have gone over to POD's and the like.
So I'm wondering about a line input that I can put into some of my homebrew amps for power, none of my build's have FX loops so I can't just go into the returns, I do have a couple of solid state amp with this facility but was quite disappointed with the sound for both guitar and bass. The one amp that does sound reasonable is a (DIY) champ that has a jack going straight in to the second stage, but I think that the POD's (xt) need a little more oomph, I just thought some of you here must have experimented with line level stuff what with stand alone pre's and the like, any idea's or experiences would be most helpful.

Thanks Mick

[selloutrr]

Atomic amps makes a tube power amp and speaker combo that your POD can plug into and become part of the amp.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Atomic-Reactor-112- ... ltDomain_0
Any tube power amp and speaker will work with your POD. you may also want to run a powerbrake or attenuator so you can blend in output tube distortion to help soften the digital tone of the POD.

as far as a line in. You would need to modify your existing amps for an FX loop and use the return jack as you pointed out.

[mick]

Thanks Selloutrr
I've just been reading reports about those very amps, verdict is quite mixed, bottom line is A: don't have any money to spend on amp's and B: I do have a few DIY's (and some still to do) and thought I could add an extra Tube, jack (socket) and pot to them for power duty. Thing is everything I build is for recording so the pods have been very handy for me as I haven't had a room to set up amps and mic them, but you hear some nice stuff through a decent pair of headphone from the pod that I've never truly got even when it's plugged into a desk. I've never messed with fx loops too many ways to skin a cat, that's why I was hopping for some ideas for a nice line level input, maybe I should look for schematics for a line input of a tube desk ?.

Thanks Mick

[selloutrr]

I guess I'm not understanding your question?

Are you asking how to get a line level signal into a recording console?
Press the mic/line switch and adjust the preamp you can run the headphone jack as the output if you want to. A direct box will also work use the PAD and run the DI at mic level into the console.

As for an amp to except your POD you can turn down the output and run it on the front end of the amp, or tap into one of your DIY's and add an FX loop.

[greekie]

He's looking for a way to implement an input for his POD in one of his current amplifiers.

What I would suggest, is to try to put it into the phase inverter and see if it goes loud enough. Be sure to have a good cap in between those two.

If not loud enough, the easiest is to have a booster in front of the POD and into the new "Power Amp In"-jack.

Jake

[selloutrr]

I wouldn't put a boost infront of the POD it'll cause the input to clip. You should have enough line level signal coming out you wont need it. If you find you need more gain you might try a line buffer (probably pre) or a preamp pedal post the POD pre the Phase inverter.

It would be a very simple modification use a mono switching jack when not using the POD it makes contact for the complete circuit when You plug in the POD it breaks the circuit. removing everything pre the phase inverter.

[mick]

Thanks for the replies
Selloutrr sorry to be confusing the issue, I'm talking about a line level into an amp, what I was trying to convey is even into a console you can still loose some of the finer details of the POD that you can hear through a decent pair of headphone's with the POD's own phones output.

Jake I remember someone trying that some years ago and the POD's output isn't strong enough to drive straight in to the PI.

I think I found the sort of input I'm talking about here:

http://www.ax84.com/static/corepoweramp ... ematic.pdf

I don't think I have any 12au tubes or else I would give this a try today.


Thanks Mick

[selloutrr]

If you loose fidelity from the POD running directly into the console. You aren't properly patching it in.. i.e. over running the gain knob or clipping the input. Make sure you have it switched to the proper output for the gear you are interfacing with -10db Consumer/+4db Pro. or.. no offense the console is crap. Any professional console should not take away any fidelity as long as the console has been properly serviced, though with digital consoles becoming more common in even small venues you might be able to the AES/EBU outputs. Which is pure what you put in you get out, no preamps, or converters to alter your signal. Another thought if you really like the headphone jack's signal make a "Y" cable that goes from stereo to mono Left and mono Right send those to Direct boxes and take the DI's as microphone level inputs at the console. Have the Engineer send your signal back to the monitor as your guitar speaker.

The other possibility is that in an isolated enviroment (headphones) you can hear things that are lost in the wash of the enviroments's own noise floor. Or your headphones have a boost that accents certain frequencys creating things that are not naturally as much of a focus. I'd find the spec sheet for your headphones and experiment with running a 31 band graphic eq post your POD and try matching the EQ shift on the Spec sheet.