IMMikeMurphy Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 After watching a few of the "Helix Hype men" on YouTube, I was pretty excited to try the proxy feature to clone my 1989 Marshall JCM800... But after a couple of cracks at it, neither of the clones sounds anything like the amp at all. I'm using a brand new SM57 about a third of the way in from the outer edge of the speaker and high quality cables. The clone sounds all muffled and weird, as if there was a blanket between the speaker and the microphone. Who is having success using proxy where the output actually sounds decent? Will you share any tips and tricks? Thanks Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverhead Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 Are you using the ‘amp+cab’ option for cloning? And disconnect the USB cable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stapani Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 I made a proxy clones test from my Catalyst 100 CX(DI out gives you some cab+mic choices) and they sound just like original, very good to my old ears. Disconnected usb cable and kept my pc switched off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmlambert Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 On 4/5/2026 at 9:52 AM, IMMikeMurphy said: After watching a few of the "Helix Hype men" on YouTube, I was pretty excited to try the proxy feature to clone my 1989 Marshall JCM800... But after a couple of cracks at it, neither of the clones sounds anything like the amp at all. I'm using a brand new SM57 about a third of the way in from the outer edge of the speaker and high quality cables. The clone sounds all muffled and weird, as if there was a blanket between the speaker and the microphone. Who is having success using proxy where the output actually sounds decent? Will you share any tips and tricks? Thanks Mike did you select the capture from the drop down menu after adding the clone block? I cloned an overdrive pedal and didn't do that at first and it sounded terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirhc Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 It should Sound same or very similar to the sound, that the Microfone picks up. This is not the same as the amp in the room. Muffled however is not what I would expect. Did you accidently used another cab block in your chain? When cloning via mic in front of a guitar cab, cab is included in the profile.... Sounds logical, as it is ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MojoAxe Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 On 4/6/2026 at 11:47 AM, sirhc said: Did you accidently used another cab block in your chain? That was the first thing that came to my mind. On several occasions when swapping Agora amps which have linked cabs I have accidently ended up with two cabs in series which sounds like crap. An Amp + Cab clone should not have any cab blocks in the chain since the cab is built into the clone file. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandesy Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 Here’s what you need to do: set up the amp and mic for cloning and record it into your DAW before you clone it. Listen back. Tweak, repeat. When the recording is to your liking, then capture your clone. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMMikeMurphy Posted April 7 Author Share Posted April 7 On 4/5/2026 at 11:30 AM, silverhead said: Are you using the ‘amp+cab’ option for cloning? And disconnect the USB cable. Yes. On 4/5/2026 at 7:31 PM, tmlambert said: did you select the capture from the drop down menu after adding the clone block? I cloned an overdrive pedal and didn't do that at first and it sounded terrible. I'm not sure I follow... I opened up a brand new patch, pressed "clone", pressed "amp+cab" and let the cloning process run. When it was done, there's the option to A/B the clone against the original and the clone sounds noting like the original. On 4/6/2026 at 5:04 PM, MojoAxe said: That was the first thing that came to my mind. On several occasions when swapping Agora amps which have linked cabs I have accidently ended up with two cabs in series which sounds like crap. An Amp + Cab clone should not have any cab blocks in the chain since the cab is built into the clone file. At first I did, then I saw your reply and tried the cloning process again on a brand new patch with no amps or cabs. Still sounds like crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMMikeMurphy Posted April 7 Author Share Posted April 7 UPDATE: The PREVIEW sounds terrible...like not representative of what the clone actually sounds like at all. I saved the bad sounding clone and chose it as an amp block and it sounds "ok". Might be user error but the Stadium work flow having the preview compare against the amp is not good at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirhc Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Yes, I agree... However, its hard to solve these issues? At least I dont know how... I cloned via load box - and to compare, I would of course love to just "bypass the hole amp" and have a power amp going into my cab. But neither that power amp nor the connection exist. Thats why I can compare only via a modeled box into my FRFR... For sure, that is not the same, but showed me, that the clone captured the general asnwer/sound and feel of the amp. When cloning the whole chain íncluding Cab and mic... how would a fair/close/real comparison look like? I think, thare just is no other way than going into FRFR.. and this will sound different compared to standing next to an amp with cabinet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tele_jas Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 I had pretty decent luck with my captures. I captured my Dr. Z X-Ray and my Friedman JEL-20. I think both came out really good for the first time through.... I do notice some added noise on the "edge of breakup" clean tone though, almost a fizz as the signal is fading. It's not there all the time, just some of the time. When a dirt pedal is engaged, the fizz is a little more pronounced. Nothing that would be noticed in a band mix though. I'll roll with it for a while, it's only going to get better from here. The Friedman did not like the same IR's I used on my Quad Cortex, I had to play with different IR's for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telejas Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 On 4/6/2026 at 7:10 PM, IMMikeMurphy said: UPDATE: The PREVIEW sounds terrible...like not representative of what the clone actually sounds like at all. I saved the bad sounding clone and chose it as an amp block and it sounds "ok". Might be user error but the Stadium work flow having the preview compare against the amp is not good at all. This is actually a little better method than the Quad Cortex and Kemper (unless I'm missing a step when using those). If you captured your amp without a speaker, it had you compare the captures at the end with each other without an IR/Cab... So it was all fizzy. The Stadium compares apples to apples by letting you use the same IR to compare your captures. You can change this IR to whatever you'd like, as it's only for preview purposes only. When you capture your actual amp and speaker, or an amp with a speaker sim/IR already on it, it doesn't use an IR at the end to compare the tones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmwpsych Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 Sorry to hear you are not getting the results you were hoping for making amp clones. I suspect there is user error here so keep experimenting. The clones I have made and have download from many others sound FANTASTIC - I don't know what sorcery Line 6 has developed to capture the clones, but I almost always prefer my cloned amps to the Agora models. There is something slightly more "3d" sounding...it's hard to describe...but I love the proxy feature and the results I have been able to get from making clones. Keep at it...I suspect you'll figure it out with some trial and error. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cragginshred Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 I just ordered my Stadium floor unit so I have not tried it yet but no one has talked about the mic. A single 57 is really thin sounding to my ears. I'd use a combo or in my case I will just use my Sennheiser 906 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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