amp out into front of amp or what?

[cristt]

Hi! I was wondering how the amp out is meant to work when set to pre-cab/IR. I understand that this way I still get the amp modelling, but if I go straight into my guitar amp front panel, I would basically get a (virtual) amp into a real amp, which is usually not good. So usually we should plug into the fx-return of the real amp (if available).

But, the manual states that amp out "is meant to send directly to the front of your guitar amp"... Which is kind of misleading...so what's the deal here?

[NBell]

Hi Cristt, 

 

When set to pre-cab/IR; this feature is beneficial when the user doesn't have an amp with an effects loop and works well when setting the amp to its cleanest setting. If you do have an 'effects loop/power-amp in' then I recommend sending the AMP OUT signal to this input. 

 

When doing either the above, you can also switch out the complete amp model in the preset to just the Pre-Amp so you don't add any 'color' of the modeled power amp to your traditional amp. 

[z3albw1rr]

On 7/28/2020 at 1:42 PM, cristt said:

Hi! I was wondering how the amp out is meant to work when set to pre-cab/IR. I understand that this way I still get the amp modelling, but if I go straight into my guitar amp front panel, I would basically get a (virtual) amp into a real amp, which is usually not good. So usually we should plug into the fx-return of the real amp (if available).

But, the manual states that amp out "is meant to send directly to the front of your guitar amp"... Which is kind of misleading...so what's the deal here?

 

Cristt - I remember the L6 manuals saying things were "bonehead simple to use" but I find L6 is notorious for doing boneheaded things when designing products too!

 

That jack should say "out to power amp in" or something of that nature! I think the primary point is that the Amp Out jack can be set to Mono and use a standard TS instrument cable rather than using the Main Outs, which you could just use the L/Mono one, but, you know, there you go.

 

So as far as I understand you can either bypass the Amp and IR block and just send out the main outs or at that point use the Amp Out in either mode - mirror the mains or pre Cab because it's the same thing.

 

Otherwise you'd have to bypass the Pre Amp, then take the Amp Out pre Cab/IR, then your main outs will have no Pre Amp/Amp, but will have Cab/IR, and your Amp Out will have neither. Which accomplishes the same as the above except that if you were recording or sending the main outs to FOH you'd have Cab/IR on them.

 

The other option a L6 guy told me about was to use the FX loop and place it before the Amp and Cab blocks and use it to send to the front of your amp. This way, a fully emulated signal goes out your mains (and assuming to recording) with BOTH Amp and Cab sims on it, while the FX send "breaks off the signal" and sends it to your amp - this is kind of like using a Two Amp rig where your traditional Pedal board with all your FX on it has an A/B box and one side goes to the front of your own amp, and the other side goes to whatever amp/cab combo you pick in the PG, which could then go on to FOH for example (and could just be a similar amp to what you use).

The only drawback there is the FX loop has to be before that PreAmp block. But if you're not using it for anything else and want this option, this seems to be your best bet (especially if you want to have both the non amp/cab sim signal and amp/cam sim signal to use simultaneously - one real, one virtual!

[cristt]

z3albw1rr, the fx send could be a nice idea but what if you have post amp fx like revs or delays? you would typically put them after the amp (if not after the cab) so if you spill the signal pre-amp you won't bring them to your real amp.