Silent practice and recording with the V:25

Hi everybody ,

I am very new to this forum and this is my first post. I recently bought a brand new Mark V:25 and this is my first amp
from Mesa Boogie after much consideration and research. Boy am I glad I made that decision cos I'm blown away with the
tone and versatility coming out of that little box! It's a beast! I'm running my 6 string Ibanez straight into the amp and mostly
out into a 1x12 cab with a Eminence Governor . I'm still toying around with a lot of it's settings and I'm pretty much very
new to this so please try not to flame me for some of the obviously stupid questions I'm going to ask.

Half of the time, due to busy work schedule, I am resigned to silent practice and recording in my bedroom of my small apartment.
I have previously used the Apogee Jam into Garageband or Appkit that sort of thing and have pretty much survived.
Now... one of the factor that sealed the deal for me when I bought the V:25 was the CabClone function as I understand , it enables one to use the amp for silent practice and recording. Unfortunately, I have not gotten a satisfactory tone coming out of it. Here is how I connect my setup

Guitar --> Mark V:25 --> audio interface (Onyx Blackjack) OR Yamaha MG12XU <-- USB--> MacBook running iTunes backing track

I'm using KRK KNS8400 monitor headphones attached to the audio interface to listen in on the mix.

(I'm using the XLR out of the CabClone into the audio interface (phantom power off) . No cab load and speaker switch turned to off position)

The iTunes track sounded ok but for the amp CabClone input, volume is low and fuzzy/distorted . I can only hear significantly when I crank up the amp's master volume near 11/12 o'clock and my headphone volume output at almost max level. All this while, I'm maintaining the iTune volume to almost minimum just to volume match the amp input. I tried to increase the gain on the Blackjack past 10 o'clock but once i do that, it clips a lot and get pretty distorted so I have to pull back again. This is really quite disappointing as I really love the amp and I passed on getting big brother Mark V head for the sole reason (I know it's not too rational!) of portability and built in CabClone.

1) Any comments from the senior members on my connections. Am I missing out something or doing something wrong?
2) Can Mark V:25 owners here share how you use the amp for silent practice and how do you guys mix in or play with a backing track?
3) Is there a difference in using an audio interface e.g. like the BlackJack, Presonus or Focusrite Scarlett (u know those type) VS a table top mixer like the Yamaha MGXU or Behringer Xenyx?

I've tried searching the net for answers but there seems to be none..

Thank you very much in advance everybody and any form of advice is much appreciated !!!

Arsony

Arsony said:

1) Any comments from the senior members on my connections. Am I missing out something or doing something wrong?
2) Can Mark V:25 owners here share how you use the amp for silent practice and how do you guys mix in or play with a backing track?
3) Is there a difference in using an audio interface e.g. like the BlackJack, Presonus or Focusrite Scarlett (u know those type) VS a table top mixer like the Yamaha MGXU or Behringer Xenyx?
Arsony

Click to expand...

So I'm also a bit new to this (just got a Mark V 35 this weekend) but have played a bit with the CabClone. I would think that some additional mixing is needed here. If you just want silent practice, why not just route audio into the effects loop and then monitor with headphones directly on the amp?

Otherwise, I loaded up the guitar in Garageband and Logic and then used tracks to control the output to phones. Tried taking both the cab clone DI AND a direct stereo out from my pedalboard - the same signal that feeds the input of the amp itself (via an ABY). The CabClone signal is variously hot or cool depending on the gain settings on the amp. Redlines like mad on Crunch, hard to hear on cleans, e.g., but in my case at least amp volumes did make a huge difference, and have to adjust in the input controls on the interface to find the right levels. (One thing to check on the Onyx: do you have a 10db pad switch enabled on your mixer that might be attenuating? Used to hit that by accident on Mackies back when I had them. So if you're driving your signal against an attenuator that could also explain why there's so much distortion.)

In my case, the other signal coming in before the amp chain is, well, unamplified. So that signal gets routed to an amp plugin like Bias or the Logic amp racks. My thinking is recording both and mixing them together might produce some interesting results.

Just my thoughts...

- Noel

Oh and I guess the other item is just to check that you're taking a line level signal from the DI?

Hmmm... this sounds fairly confusing. I think it's probably best for me to take a picture of my setup and then hopefully it becomes clearer. Would appreciate if you could take a picture of your setup connections too!

Arsony

Yeah that might help. Just looked at a picture of a Blackjack. So if you start with say the XLR into one of those jacks, then set the gain knob for the channel at unity gain (12pm), phantom should be off yes, but it's that HiZ vs Line switch - how's that changing things. If I've got this right, I'd say the pushbutton should be out, at the "Line" setting. In any case, that pushbutton should make a big difference in what you're getting right? So what happens HiZ vs. Line?

Have you tried plugging your headphones into the back of your amp? I be interested to know if your signal is louder through the headphones that way. I have those same headphones and when I plug them into the Mark V25 I have to crank the volume to about 2:00 to get a good comfortable listening level through the headphones. I think it has to do with the impedance of the KRK headphones at 36 Ohms. I can get it louder at lower volumes if I use my headphone amp (Presonus HP4). Recording is not a problem because I can just set the gain level on the interface to be perfect in Logic.

Boy.... I'm finding it difficult to add pictures in!

Anyway, had some time again yesterday to toy around with the MV:25 with the mixer instead of the Blackjack and YES! Thanks to your advice, I'm beginning to get really usable tones at good volume out of the mixer. I may have accidentally pressed the PAD button and that sort of attenuated the signal (How silly of me!) .... but it's all good now. At least for the mixer...

As for the Onyx Blackjack, I have tried everything under all kinds of setting but nope.... nothing good coming out of that one!
Spoken to a friend the other day and he suggested that a possibility could be the power source.... The Yamaha mixer is independently powered via and AC adaptor whereas the Onyx Blackjack is USB powered.... hmmm possible but then again, I was watching Mesa's promo vid on the CabClone and I remembered them plugging it into a USB powered audio interface in the video. Strange...

As for plugging the headphones into the back of the amp via the jack, well that sounded very good! Not as punchy as what you will hear through cabs but very decent enough! I wouldn't know how to add in a backing track via that route though.... suggestions?

Thanks for all your help so far guys.... you guys are awesome!

Arsony

Great news. Frustrating re: the Onyx but glad to hear you've sorted it out.

Now it's time to lay down some tracks! Enjoy...

Thanks everybody!!

Arsony