Torpedo C.A.B. with Clean effects, 4 Questions ?????

Questions ????

When using the Torpedo C.A.B. with headphones for practice:

1.) Do I have to run my clean effects like delay,reverb, chorus etc. after the C.A.B. ?????

2.) Are there any clean channel settings on the C.A.B. that will allow me to just run my whole effects chain through it direct and out to my headphones or amp in the same way as I do when I run my effects pedals straight into the front of my amp ?

3.) I need a headphone practice amp that allows me to run my whole pedal chain through it so I can practice with my whole setup, both clean and distorted sounds.....will the Torpedo C.A.B. work for me ????

I ask because at $550 if I cant run my clean effects straight through the C.A.B. for practice through headphones then what good is it as a headphone practice tool ? I could always buy the Carl Martin RockBug for cab sims for only $200 and jam through my headphones with all my effects in a line.....

I only ask because I had my heart set on the Torpedo C.A.B. as the ultimate late night practice headphone amp for running my pedal board through, but I read in the manual that I should run my clean effects like delay,reverb etc. after the C.A.B. which if true completely defeats the purpose and claims that its the best headphone practice amp on the market and really sours my taste for it, especially at $550...

4.) Please explain so I dont make a $550 mistake for a headphone amp that dosnt allow me to run my clean effects through it, if that is the case I will be disappointed and have to look elswhere, If not please set the record straight, I love everything I know about it so far except that very important detail noted in the manual, Im praying that I am misunderstanding something.

Thank you all in advance.

bump

Greetings blackcat,

I'll try and answer these for you -

1) You can run the fx any way you want. Chorus is down to preference - before or after CAB - but I feel that time based fx such as delay and reverb sound much cleaner after the CAB.
2) Essentially, almost every preset is clean - so you can treat it like the clean channel on your amp. Some pedals will sound a little 'dark' tonally without using a preamp - but this is all down to YOUR ears, guitars and pickups.
3) Clean and Distortion - you can setup some presets for your clean and distortion tones - but you might need to do some tap dancing unless you have midi setup - depends on how many pedals you have.
4) I take it you have a soundcard? You can rote your pre-CAB fx before the CAB - post fx after - then use the line out to your soundcard. Monitor via headphones through that. But in terms of portability, quality, ability to load and save custom impulses etc the CAB cannot be beaten.

I don't think of the CAB as a headphone amp - it's a pro speaker sim for ease of use for silent recording, live use through PA and an amazing portable practise tool. Personally, I do all my monitoring either through my 11r with CAB in the loop or direct into my Focusrite interface.

Hope some of this helps - the best solution would be for you to take your pedal-board to a Two-Notes stockist (if easily possible) and demo it.

There are several options for clean sounds, all depend on your taste in clean sound. It is even possible to create Torpedo patches that have the cabinet simulation bypassed....for a Nile Rodgers Clean or even dirty if you were playing the solo for "Reelin' in the Years" or "Revolution" as familiar examples.

You can also re-assign the footswitch functions so that one of the footswitch functions is to bypass the cabinet/micing section.

Personally, I prefer to keep the cabinet simulation on but choose a cabinet/mic/eq combination that will be best suited for the clean tones I'm looking for. The choices are usually fairly logical, the Jazz Chorus, Twin and AC-30 cabs would be good starting points combined with brighter mics (Knightfall, Cond87, Dyn421) and a bit higher distance. These are also great choices for Rhodes and Wurli but that's another topic

Obviously, if your goal is to use the CAB as a headphone amp, all the pedals would have to be placed prior to the CAB and in mono. For the clean sounds, as above, by selecting your patches carefully, the reverb and chorus will retain the shimmer. This will sound similar to using conventional pedals either in front of, or in the f/x loop of a typical guitar amp...not entirely a bad thing. Placing the time/mod effects after the cab would emulate the typical studio or large touring rack setups. This generally gives a wider and larger sound and in the case of recording, allows the luxury of adjusting these effects post recording ie in the context of the mix.

The RockBug is a cool box however as you note, the stereo input afaik does not offer speaker/micing emulation so essentially, you'd have the same dilemma, albeit with a simpler interface and lower cost.

IMHO, the CAB pedal offers a much wider range of functionality, expandability, sound and performance which justifies its cost.

If you must go stereo, one trick is find an old cassette deck and put it in record ready mode, set the levels and one is good to go.

Andy

Thanks guys I really appreciate the input, I am very happy to have come across the Torpedo C.A.B. and will be adding it to my lineup, I just had to make sure it was going to do what I wanted, I decided I will pick up an Allen and Heath ZED-10FX mixer and run my pedals into the C.A.B. into the mixer and use the headphones there, I already have a Carl Martin 3 band parametric preamp I can use for a D.I. so I thought maybe I could run the C.A.B. after my Comp,Drive/Dist. then run my Chorus,Phaser,Strymon timeline and Eventide Space after the C.A.B. into the Carl Martin Para preamp D.I. then into the board, thus keeping my clean effects and looper out of the Torpedo C.A.B. circuit.

does this make sense or would it be better just to run the clean effects through a seperate channel and omit the C.A.B. from their circuit all together ?

please bear with me, Im knew to using a D.I. and running my gear through a P.A.

Yeap the C.A.B. seems like a hell of a pedal from what I have seen and heard, Im almost depressed to know about it, as I feel I have absolutely no choice but to drop the heafty chunk of change to pick one up, but Im starting to realise the numerous possibilities and its quite impressive.

Hi blackcatblueslucky13!

does this make sense or would it be better just to run the clean effects through a seperate channel and omit the C.A.B. from their circuit all together ?

Click to expand...

Well it is more a matter of taste. You can always bypass the C.A.B. (using a MIDI command or the programmable switches) if you prefer an ultra-clean tone.

IMHO, you wil have to do some test but apparently the Eventide Space has a line out level, so you basically just have to plug it to your mixer. So you have 2 setups to try :

The mono setup :

Guitar -> OD(s) and/or preamp(s) -> modulation/reverb/delay effects -> C.A.B -> headphones

The stereo setup :

Guitar -> OD(s) and/or preamp(s) -> C.A.B -> modulation/reverb/delay effects -> Mixer -> Headphones

You will have some level adjustment to do to make sure there is no unwanted distortion in your signal path but i see only solutions for your playing with headphones issue here.

Thanks for the info, I have decided that the Torpedo C.A.B. will be a wonderful addition and catalyst to motivate me to build that recording studio I always wanted but never made steps toward achieving.

Thus Im going to run the logical drives and dist. into the C.A.B. and run the appropriate stereo effects through the mixer with a separate D.I. if need be, making the C.A.B.'s headphone out obsolete unless I travel and then I can use it for practice if necessary.

I have always loved playing to loops and did my share of low budget recording and playing to CD's but after realizing all the C.A.B. has to offer it seems ridiculous not to use it in as full a capacity as I can afford.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in, I like to be fully informed before adding to my setup so I appreciate the input, Im very excited and have already narrowed down my mixer needs to accommodate my goals, but I do have one question for anyone willing to put in their two cents...

Question: Im looking at 2 lower priced mixers: 1. Allen and Heath ZED-10 USB mixer (without effects) and 2. Allen and Heath ZED-10FX USB mixer (with Effects).

How important are effects on a mixer will I really need them being that I have a slew of high end stomp pedals I intend to use for recording with ?

Im asking because I dont want to spend money and complicate the mixing tools if I wont be using them, my application will be primarily home recording and jamming through PA speakers or studio monitors/headphones.

again thanks to all who have time to input.

Actually I have a Zed14 for demoing The Torpedo in Europe and I can say that, for the price, it's a great product.

I don't have any effect as I prefer to have them on a dedicated processor which will have way more parameters to tweak and hopefully a better sound.

The target customer of that kind of mixer is a little band that want to equip its rehearsal place, so it may be interesting to add a little something on the vocals for example, but I don't see the point of those effects for guitar.

Thank you guillaume_pille I will go with the non-effects mixer then, I have been doing some research and have come to the same conclusion that I will get my effects elsewhere.

Thanks all for the info.

Hi there!
Check out this demo here, of a boutique Preamp based on a version of the Fender Bassman preamp. There's a variety of tones, from clean to saturated.
https://soundcloud.com/lolabox/joujou-a ... -bright-du

romain_gril":dbniikls said:

Hi there!
Check out this demo here, of a boutique Preamp based on a version of the Fender Bassman preamp. There's a variety of tones, from clean to saturated.
https://soundcloud.com/lolabox/joujou-a ... -bright-du

Click to expand...

It's nice to post my small Soundcloud demo ^^

I made a bit better today. Here's a vid of the CAB with that great bassman preamp :


I'm enjoying so much playing with the CAB and that preamp. Thank you Guillaume and Twonotes for designing such a great device !

the audio quality of senheisers hd 180 over-ear headphone is just awesome. it is portable, gives powerful sound with great bass, and of course very durable too. thanks admin for the suggestion.