Direct recording the VT30

[stheri88]

Hi Everybody,

Recently purchased this amp and love the tone. Actually, Voxman's Youtube video was a deciding factor in getting rid of my Line 6 Spider III for the VT30. Only concern is I can't figure out how to hook the headphone out of the VT30 to my mixer since there is no other line out. I tried plugging in a mono 1/8" jack in the stereo headphone out and converting it to 1/4" and going into my mixer in mono, but the output level was very low and of poor quality even with channel and master volume cranked. Now, I am tempted to try and use the 1/8" stereo headphone out to 2 1/4" mono and connecting it the mixer that way (panned hard left and right), but don't have the cable and have concerns that this may not be correct. I would really like to know how other folks are doing direct recording of the VT30 or other Valvetronix amps with the 1/8" headphone out. Unfortunately, mic'ing the amp is not an option for me. So, I need to go the route of direct recording and don't see the sense in buying a POD or something when I have this great amp.

Your help is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Stephen

[bclarke675]

Stereo 1/8" to 2 1/4" mono plugs should work well, max your Master Volume and use your Volume to control level. Also, see if the power control on the back of the amp affects this output. If all else fails, don't go for a POD, but for a ToneLab ST, as it will give you the sounds in your VT30, plus some from older Valvetronix amps, and a few new variations! I've got the original ToneLab and love the way it works direct into our mixer/recorder!

[stheri88]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply and the suggestions. Actually, I was able to figure out how to make this work tonight with no need to really crank the master or channel faders (or gain for that matter). Basically, you need to use a stereo (or probably should be referred to as TRS) 1/8" male to mono 1/4" female convertor. Then connect a regular guitar 1/4" cable (male-to-male) into your mixer in mono. Turns out the headphone out was not sending a stereo signal. Makes sense, but was a little confusing at first. I was able to test this using a stereo 1/8" to 2 1/4" mono cables (y-cable). After looking at the meter levels on my mixer with the both mono 1/4" cables plugged in, I could see nothing was coming out of one of the two channels. So, I tried another step with hooking up a mono 1/8" male to mono 1/4" male cable and seeing if that worked. Actually, it didn't either. So, apparently the only combo that works (and does work quite well now that I figured it out) is as I stated above. You need to convert the stereo (TRS) 1/8" male to mono (TS) 1/4" male. The easiest way to accomplish this is via a 1/8" male to 1/4" female adapter and connect it to a regular guitar cable.

Thanks for mentioning Tonelab. I hadn't heard of it and will certainly check it out.

Thanks,
Stephen

[le-gaucher-bk]

Thank you so much for posting this.

I just got a VT30 for Christmas and I was livid ... incensed, even ... that it had no dedicated line-out.

My friend had an AD30VT that he let me borrow. I had it for a year. I got used to it and grew very fond of it, particularly that it had a 1/4" line-out that I could use to record on my computer.

I made the erroneous assumption that the "new-and-improved" VT30 would have the same feature. Had I known it did not, I would have looked for an AD30VT instead; I think it's a huge design / concept flaw that the VT30 has no dedicated line-out.

When I couldn't get any sound by running a cable from the headphone jack into my mixing board, I was extremely disappointed. Then, I couldn't find a solution online and I got angry... and then I tried innovating.

I plugged a cable directly from the headphone jack into my computer's line-in and at least got a semblance of usable sound, but it did not sound good at all, and the input level was pretty low.

I then ran a cable from the headphone jack -> my Korg Pandora -> my Tascam mixing board -> my computer's line-in ... and I got a usable signal with pretty good tone. I set the Pandora to bypass so I wouldn't get any of those emulated effects interfering with the VT30's own emulated effects.

Still, it bothered me that I had to chain four things together just to get a decent recordable signal. Five things, if you include the guitar.

So, thanks again for posting your solution; a variation of it worked for me. I've a 1/8" male, stereo plug in the VOX ... it's got a mono 1/8" male other end, which is plugged into a mono-to-stereo, 1/8" to 1/4" converter that is plugged into the mixing board.

I don't understand why it works, though. It seems ridiculous to me that it requires such a contrivance, but I'm grateful that the amp isn't totally useless for recording, since I don't want to mic the speaker (I don't have the luxury of making all that noise).

Anyway, much obliged.

[Bishr75]

Hi Everybody,

Recently purchased this amp and love the tone. Actually, Voxman's Youtube video was a deciding factor in getting rid of my Line 6 Spider III for the VT30. Only concern is I can't figure out how to hook the headphone out of the VT30 to my mixer since there is no other line out. I tried plugging in a mono 1/8" jack in the stereo headphone out and converting it to 1/4" and going into my mixer in mono, but the output level was very low and of poor quality even with channel and master volume cranked. Now, I am tempted to try and use the 1/8" stereo headphone out to 2 1/4" mono and connecting it the mixer that way (panned hard left and right), but don't have the cable and have concerns that this may not be correct. I would really like to know how other folks are doing direct recording of the VT30 or other Valvetronix amps with the 1/8" headphone out...

I am also experiencing the same problem as with you. I am using music studio with my AD120VTH. The problem I can see is my headphone is not compatible so I have to bring it back to the store where I bought it.