Express 5/25+ in recording setup with HX Effects and Captor-X

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Digital Larry

Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2021
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
This is not a rant, or question. Just describing how I have this set up and some observations.

I'm using the line6 HX Effects in 4-cable method with the Express 5/25+ head.

Guitar in -> HX FX in
HX FX send -> Express input


with this you can put blocks like a compressor, distortion, boost, phase shifter before the amp's input. Generally I am only using compression and a phase shifter here.

Express FX Send -> HX FX return


The Boogie's preamp then is the main tone shaping element, whether clean/crunch/blues/burn setting. This also means that the master volumes for the two channels are used to balance the relative levels while also keeping it low enough that the FX return on the line6 is not distorting. The inputs and outputs on this line6 box have adjustable gain but I haven't gotten into that level of detail yet.

HX FX Out -> Express FX Return

Now, whatever level is coming out of the HX FX goes into the Boogie's FX return and there's no separate volume control to dial in the level. I'm more or less trying to keep the masters in the 8:00 - 2:00 range. Obviously clean would be 2:00 and burn would be more likely to be 8:00.

Next up, I set the output section mode. Here's where it gets a little strange IMO. As I'm going through a Captor-X switchable attenuator, I can select 0 dB, -20 dB, or -40dB pads prior to hitting my sealed back 1x12 (a Peavey Classic). I just use this for in-room monitoring when I am not recording and the overall level stays pretty low. At this point, to my ears anyway, I don't discern a major tonal difference between any of the amp mode settings. I would figure that those would come into play mostly when using the clean channel and having the master set pretty high. So, I can use 5 watts out into -20 or 15/25 into -40 and get reasonable in room monitoring levels. 5 watts with no attenuation has me putting the master volumes almost all the way down which makes setting levels a lot more difficult, never mind 15 or 25. So I think I'm settling in to just using 5W most of the time.

The Captor-X loadbox/speaker sim/DI thingey has a million possible settings. Now one thing that is interesting is that, regardless of which speaker/mic emulation you call up, there's a knob on the front called "voice" which seems to either boost or cut midrange, similar to the EQ preset knobs on the Boogie. Now we're getting into confusion territory. I've decided that the best thing to do here is just to leave the Boogie's EQ, whether sliders or preset OFF. I just dial up a basic sound through the preamp and then maybe twiddle with the "voice" knob to set the recorded tone.

There's also a level switch on the Captor that wants to be one way when using 5 watts and the other way for 15/25 to keep the Captor's red light from flashing.

The overall impression is that I have too many things in the chain which is why I'm trying to simplify by:
a) Keeping both power amps in 5 watt mode
b) Using -20 dB attenuation when I have the speaker connected
c) Turning the Boogie's EQ off in favor of using the Captor-X "voice" knob to control mids

You might be surprised to learn that I am not a guy to endlessly tweak little things. In fact it's taken me a month to just get down to having this setup where I'm mostly using one patch on the HX FX, or variations thereof (different delays and reverbs post-preamp, mostly), and getting the basic clean or gain tone through the Boogie.

I do have an Eleven Rack sitting just below the Boogie head, and I can use that any time I want. What I've found is that I rarely turn it on. If I am tracking bass, I use it. And if I wanted a cleaner tone than I could easily get from the Boogie, I would probably give it a try as well. I just find using the actual Boogie amp controls satisfying in a way that I don't when using the modeler, even though I can set all aspects of a tone there and save it. It's even got a couple of Boogie models but I haven't bothered to see whether they sound like my actual amp. My general experience is that all of these things sound slightly different and they can all get an acceptable sound. Nobody's paying me to try to tone match the real amp with the modeler.

I'm about ready to do some recording, and I'm sort of torn, but my tendency is to turn off all delay and reverb FX and then handle those later in the DAW because it can be more finely adjusted to work well in the mix there. Truth be told, I am not big into modulations most of the time either, but since they are there I turn them on and off and say, "hmmmmm". :lol:

I think that my final analysis on this setup is that it is too complicated, but by judiciously simplifying the way I use it, it is manageable.
 
Back
Top