Question Re: Quilter Aviator Cub

[alpop]

Hoping a tech inclined person can answer a question for me.

I have the above combo amp and I am wondering about the line out. It is a 1/4", so do I need to send this to a direct box before sending it to a PA for live sound re-enforcement?

[Tal_175]

Quilter Aviator Cub's line out is 1/4 inch TRS, not the basic TS. Meaning it's balanced much like an XLR out. So you don't need a direct box to send it to a board or PA. Make sure you use the correct type of cable/jack.

[alpop]

Quilter Aviator Cub's line out is 1/4 inch TRS, not the basic TS cable. Meaning it's balanced much like an XLR out. So you don't need a direct box to send it to a board or PA. Make sure you use the correct type of cable/jack.

Thanks for responding with the info! I guess I should buy a TRS cable just to be prepared.

[Tal_175]

You can also get a TRS to XLR cable if you want to use the XLR input on the board/PA.

[alpop]

You can also get a TRS to XLR cable if you want to use the XLR input on the board/PA.

TRS male to XLR male to plug into the snake or mixer I'm guessing.

[Tal_175]

TRS male to XLR male to plug into the snake or mixer I'm guessing.

XLR inputs on amps and mixers are almost always female (for safety). So, yes the XLR side should be male.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

You do not need and should not use a true DI betwen the Cub's line out and a board. Remember that the signal from that jack is line level, not mic. It's a low impedance output (40 Ohms on each leg) that will put out 2V with the output level set to max. It could be run into a mic input with its level set very low. But it's really intended for line inputs, not mic inputs. You can also drive the line input on a powered speaker with it. Remember that there's a cab simulator in the circuit, so it should only be used to drive FRFR systems. It will sound a bit odd powering a guitar amp & speaker.

A true DI box is designed to convert high impedance unbalanced instrument level signals (like those from our guitars, which generate about 100 to 800 mV from passive pickups) to low impedance balanced mic level signals (generally about 10 to 50 mV) for direct connection to mic inputs on boards. There are "DI" boxes that also have line level inputs, but there's no reason to use one since you already have a balanced, low impedance signal source. IIRC, there's a sepaate level conrol for that output. So you can set your stage volume anywhere from zero to maximum without changing the level sent to the board.

There are balanced TRS 1/4" line inputs on most consoles these days. Carrying a TRS-to-XLR cable is prudent, but a TRS-to-TRS should be fine for almost every venue.

[John A.]

Remember that there's a cab simulator in the circuit, so it should only be used to drive FRFR systems. It will sound a bit odd powering a guitar amp & speaker.

I've run my Aviator Cub's line out into my recording interface and tried it both with and without cab simulation plugins in my DAW. It sounds way better with the the plugins and not at all weird. I suspect that the cab simulation the AC has is just a low-pass filter (and a subtle one at that) and not an IR or anything like that, and while I haven't tried it into another guitar amp I suspect that any weirdness there would stem more from plugging a line-level source into a guitar-level input than from the speaker. That said, YMMV.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I've run my Aviator Cub's line out into my recording interface and tried it both with and without cab simulation plugins in my DAW. It sounds way better with the the plugins and not at all weird. I suspect that the cab simulation the AC has is just a low-pass filter (and a subtle one at that) and not an IR or anything like that, and while I haven't tried it into another guitar amp I suspect that any weirdness there would stem more from plugging a line-level source into a guitar-level input than from the speaker. That said, YMMV.

I said that "It will sound a bit odd powering a guitar amp & speaker." By odd, I mean that it won't sound like it's supposed to sound. I suppose it could sound better in some cases, if the simulations are complementary. Maybe I should have said that it could sound odd, but when I tried it with my SBUS, it sounded odd. A guitar signal with cab sim applied has to sound at least somewhat different from that simulation if it's then run through another simulation. This defeats the purpose of cab simulation.

Sending a nonlinear signal through yet another processor often sounds odd because the nonlinearities affect and may even double or cancel each other. Take a classic scooped mid BF tone as the source signal. If you run this through a BF simulator, you'll suck out what's left of the mids and push up the lows and highs even further. If you run it through a classic simulator heavy on the mids (like a JTM), you'll flatten out the BF tone and end up with something like a Polytone.