Hammeron wrote: Hi lads.

The line out on my JCM is split in 2 - 1 marked 'direct' and the other marked 'recording compensated'.

What is the difference?

I believe the compensated output tries to emulate the sound of the amp connected to a speaker, the other not. You can hear the difference if you record a sample through each (into your interface, computer etc) and listen to the one and then the other. The direct out will be fizzy with lots of treble and the other one should be smoother, darker and less fizzy.

I had a JCM 900 100Watt head and 4x12 cab many moons ago. Don't bother with the Line-outs. Just mic the damn thing. You'll never get the same sound by using the line-out.

Mic it up ?

Hi Hammeron.

4. Recording Compensated Line-Out
Socket
Jack socket for direct connection to recording
equipment or PA system. The signal is specially
filtered for optimum recording performance.

5. Direct Line-Out Socket
Unfiltered pre-amp signal for connection to
external power amplifiers.

Hope this helps - Info obtained directly from the Marshall JCM 900 handbook.

Enjoy.

Amps just sound better mic'ed up. ?

It's true though. Best ignore the '90s attempt at recording convenience. Miking the amp up is not hard at all and will give you better sound any day - especially if you can do it some place where you can really turn it up. Your balanced output might be useful when you're recording in the dead of night with your grandma sleeping in the next room though.

Eldred wrote: Amps just sound better mic'ed up. ?

yes, in 1982 ?

im not sure how good this output is, but generally speaking mic'ing an amp today is (almost) not needed.

Arno and I should get together some day for the fun of it for a friendly shootout of mic'd vs software.
should be an interesting day i reckon.

I don't use an amp for "live" work anymore and for studio stuff I don't either. This is because in my old age,I have become too lazy to haul around heavy gear 4-5 nights a week. However, if I had a roadie and a JCM 900 Stack, I would always mic it when playing live. I won't use it in the studio though. (Would be to lazy to set it up.)

Arno West wrote: I don't use an amp for "live" work anymore and for studio stuff I don't either. This is because in my old age,I have become too lazy to haul around heavy gear 4-5 nights a week. However, if I had a roadie and a JCM 900 Stack, I would always mic it when playing live. I won't use it in the studio though. (Would be to lazy to set it up.)

in that case we will just have some beer ?

Now you're talking.

Personally I think the best results you can get on a budget these days would be to use the direct out (the fizzy one) and then run it into an IR cab simulator - No point mic'ing it if you don't have a good room or good mics, an IR will sound better and be less susceptible to human error.

Chad Adam Browne wrote: Personally I think the best results you can get on a budget these days would be to use the direct out (the fizzy one) and then run it into an IR cab simulator - No point mic'ing it if you don't have a good room or good mics, an IR will sound better and be less susceptible to human error.

I just reckon this is a JCM900, not a modern amp. How good is that direct out going to sound? And also, in my experience, the difficulty of mic'ing up a guitar amp is much overblown. After all the stuff I've read, I was amazed at how easy it is to get a good sound just sticking an SM57 into the grillcloth.

singemonkey wrote: After all the stuff I've read, I was amazed at how easy it is to get a good sound just sticking an SM57 into the grillcloth.

That's the beauty of the 57. ?

I think that maybe the operative word here could well be SM57.
Like Chad said, a crap mic aint gonna help no one.

singemonkey wrote: I just reckon this is a JCM900, not a modern amp. How good is that direct out going to sound? And also, in my experience, the difficulty of mic'ing up a guitar amp is much overblown. After all the stuff I've read, I was amazed at how easy it is to get a good sound just sticking an SM57 into the grillcloth.

Well an SM57 is an SM57, I stipulated not having good mics ? Also for a genre like metal the overall mixing and recording in my opinion is far more of an art in some ways than many other genres, and don't get me wrong I'm not saying they're easy to mix etc, it's just that with metal things like quad tracking are very commonplace, which can introduce phasing issues if you don't know what you're doing, and honestly if you're not at least double tracking you're not going to have what's considered big or good tone for that genre so these things and understanding them are a must ?

Also regarding the direct out, it should sound horrible and fizzy because you want the sound from before it hits the cab to use with IRs as they model cabinets ? In cases like the Kemper, Axe-FX II and Line 6 POD HD series they use them to model amplifiers as well ? But you want that horrible bodyless fizz to work with ?

singemonkey wrote:

Chad Adam Browne wrote: Personally I think the best results you can get on a budget these days would be to use the direct out (the fizzy one) and then run it into an IR cab simulator - No point mic'ing it if you don't have a good room or good mics, an IR will sound better and be less susceptible to human error.

And also, in my experience, the difficulty of mic'ing up a guitar amp is much overblown. After all the stuff I've read, I was amazed at how easy it is to get a good sound just sticking an SM57 into the grillcloth.

A good recorded sound or live sound?

Both.