# EVH 5150 50W Can I use this thing for direct recording?



## neurosis (Sep 6, 2012)

After my move to the US as some of you know I am here with just my Mayones 7 and nothing to plug it into. I have a lot of stuff I had to buy for school and now I am only left with a budget I want to limit down as much as possible.

I don't think I will buy another AXE FX this time since I miss my amp and getting both would be a bit too much. 

I am thinking of getting something I can pair with a 1x12 for home-destruction, but need to be able to record as well. 

Initially I was going to go for an ENGL e530 preamp and impulses in logic. But after seeing the EVH at a friend's house I am considering it. The guy couldnt tell me what the line out on the back was and I have been looking over at google and their website but can't find specific info about it. I also have no feedback on how it works if it is doable.

So. Can the preamp of this beast be used for direct recording into a soundcard and posterior impulse combos in a DAW? 

It has a line out on the back panel, so my bet is yes. The only doubt left is how good it works.

Thanks a lot!


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## Guamskyy (Sep 6, 2012)

Yes, you can use it. I've done it with my Bugera 6260 with some good impulses and gotten pretty good results.

Here's an example:
Universiego by Guamskyy on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free


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## 155 (Sep 6, 2012)

yeah you can do it sounds good too the amp has a speaker emulation so the volume can be off while recording


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## Shor (Sep 7, 2012)

155 said:


> yeah you can do it sounds good too the amp has a speaker emulation so the volume can be off while recording



I am 99.9% sure this is false, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong, unless you mean the headphone out, which does speaker emulation but it sounds *really* crappy.

I have the 5150 III 50W, and you can indeed you use the preamp-out for direct recording, but it'll still feed your speakers, and you still need a decent volume on the master volume for you to get any signal out of it.
At the volumes you need to record from the preamp out I found it just more convenient for me to mic it up instead.


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## neurosis (Sep 7, 2012)

Shor said:


> I am 99.9% sure this is false, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong, unless you mean the headphone out, which does speaker emulation but it sounds *really* crappy.
> 
> I have the 5150 III 50W, and you can indeed you use the preamp-out for direct recording, but it'll still feed your speakers, and you still need a decent volume on the master volume for you to get any signal out of it.
> At the volumes you need to record from the preamp out I found it just more convenient for me to mic it up instead.



So you are saying the signal on the out is weak and insufficient? 

If I get a good tone with it and I can then edit and track the guitar to my liking that's enough for me. 

Micing is great but I need to make sure I will be able to play and record through the week while my roomates are sleeping and not be forced to do it only on the weekends when I can Mic.

THis amp looks like an inmense deal of fun. I'd like to know more about your experience with it.


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## neurosis (Sep 7, 2012)

guambomb832 said:


> Yes, you can use it. I've done it with my Bugera 6260 with some good impulses and gotten pretty good results.
> 
> Here's an example:
> Universiego by Guamskyy on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free




Sounds nice. I had used my Koch Twintone like that for a while. I am really curious if the EVH can deliver i this context.


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## neurosis (Sep 7, 2012)

155 said:


> yeah you can do it sounds good too the amp has a speaker emulation so the volume can be off while recording




If this is true I am curious for the results. Emulation sounds bad to me. I mean isn't that what i use the impulses for? I thought I'd get the naked sound of any channel on the amp through a soundcard into the DAW.


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## neurosis (Sep 7, 2012)

Shor said:


> I am 99.9% sure this is false, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong, unless you mean the headphone out, which does speaker emulation but it sounds *really* crappy.
> 
> I have the 5150 III 50W, and you can indeed you use the preamp-out for direct recording, but it'll still feed your speakers, and you still need a decent volume on the master volume for you to get any signal out of it.
> At the volumes you need to record from the preamp out I found it just more convenient for me to mic it up instead.



By the way. If that's how it is I still could use headphones from the sound interface out knowing that I previously set up everything else to my liking, right?


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## Shor (Sep 7, 2012)

neurosis said:


> So you are saying the signal on the out is weak and insufficient?
> 
> If I get a good tone with it and I can then edit and track the guitar to my liking that's enough for me.
> 
> ...


I'm not saying it's weak and inefficient...it's just low volume unless you turn up the amps volume, which will mean that your amp is loud enough to be miced up when you get a usable level from the pre-out...and your room mates will not sleep through that level.

It looks like it can replace a loadbox on paper, but it can't.
And again...the headphone out (which enables the speaker sim.) is REALLY bad.


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## redskyharbor (Sep 7, 2012)

*FX send *> *Input on audio interface* > *Route to impulses in DAW.* 

I just used this method recently for recording silently with a H&K Trilogy, the results were very good. Just make sure you have a cab plugged in. Channel volumes should control the amount of output to your interface.


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## Shor (Sep 7, 2012)

redskyharbor said:


> *FX send *> *Input on audio interface* > *Route to impulses in DAW.*
> 
> I just used this method recently for recording silently with a H&K Trilogy, the results were very good. Just make sure you have a cab plugged in. Channel volumes should control the amount of output to your interface.


This only works with a series FX loop.
If you have the master volume at 0 on the 5153 you'll get no sound at all from the pre-out.


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## mindwalker (Mar 5, 2013)

But isn't the 5150 III 50w FX loop serial ?
At least in the manual it seems to be the case.. they don't specifically mention if it's series or parallel but if it would be parallel I suppose there would be a mix knob ?

http://support.evhgear.com/manuals/EVH_5150III_50W_AmpHead_OwnersManual_079107b.pdf

Also according to the manual as soon as you connect a pair of cans to the headphones out the cab is silenced. I'm guessing the fx-loop still works so you should be able to extract the juice of out of the preamp silently..

but well I don't have the amp but Shor does so perhaps it's very different matter in reality..


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## petereanima (Mar 5, 2013)

Shor said:


> This only works with a series FX loop.
> If you have the master volume at 0 on the 5153 you'll get no sound at all from the pre-out.



I am confused a bit...but the 5153 I tried didn't even have a Master Volume...(which is exactly why the Vol knob needs to be turned up to get a good signal on the Loop...because its Channel Volume only, not Master)


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## Damo707 (Mar 5, 2013)

You could probably use the headphone out if your going to use impulses, it's just the pre amp section of the amp without the power tube warmth which is probably why it sounds so bad..


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## mindwalker (Mar 6, 2013)

petereanima said:


> I am confused a bit...but the 5153 I tried didn't even have a Master Volume...(which is exactly why the Vol knob needs to be turned up to get a good signal on the Loop...because its Channel Volume only, not Master)



my Blackstar HT-5R has no master volume either, just a channel volume know (actually 2.. one per channel). But still if the amp is on standby, there is sound coming out of the fx-loop send, as loud as the channel volume is set too. So you can turn that knob up but the amp is silent cause it's on standby. But well the HT-5 has a series FX-loop but so does seem to be the case with the 5153 50w.

I don't have the 5153 but I'm guessing even with the headphones out, you need to raise the channel volume to hear something... the preamp tubes must be working.. something should come out of the fx-send because otherwise you can't use fx-pedals while playing with headphones which I find rather odd. It should be possible to record the 5153 silently with impulses in one of these two ways

a) standby engaged
b) headphones connected to the headphones out and a cable running from the fx-loop into your sound interface > daw > impulse


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## petereanima (Mar 6, 2013)

mindwalker said:


> a) standby engaged
> b) headphones connected to the headphones out and a cable running from the fx-loop into your sound interface > daw > impulse



B would be the better option. I would recommend not to run the amp on standby for too long too often! (google: cathode poisoning)


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## Damo707 (Mar 7, 2013)

Or a dummy headphone plug and use the line out to daw! Ill have to try that out..


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## mindwalker (Mar 7, 2013)

Interesting.. the HT-5 manual specifically states that for headphone practice the standy switch should be put in standby position. They say nothing about how long that is recommended to be done.. a bit of an oversight on their side if cathode poisoning starts to occur after 20-30 mins of Standby time..


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