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Scarlett 2i2 and low end tone suck

#41
ArtechnikA said:
Maybe. But IME cabsims tend to act like bandpass rolling off highs and lows.
I'd expect less, not more, bass with a cabsim in the loop...
I have yet to try mine. Won't happen today. Maybe tomorrow - which is another day...
Click to expand...

Bandpass? Not significantly so, most of the time. Low pass is most common, and the good cab sims are much more complex than that. How many bass cabs audibly roll off the bass as an obvious effect of playing through them? Try playing through a PA cab... you won't find it sounds any deeper than a bass cab does, probably less so. However bass cabs tend to have a strong peak or two in the mids or upper mids, at least most of the good ones do, and then taper off the highs. A good cab sim will definitely so something similar.

Your scarlet is NOT the problem. Keep experimenting. And ANY time you use a headphone out on decent gear designed for guitar or bass, you are NOT hearing teh actual pedal line output, you are hearing a modified version designed for happy listening.

IF you like the headphone out, record from the headphone output of the pedal! That's what I would do... (very experienced rec. engineer here)
 
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#42
rtav said:
I'm using AKG K240 headphones. They sound awesome through the Darkglass but not so much from the Scarlett, but it may be the headphone output on the Scarlett that's not so great.
Click to expand...

Those are 55 ohms = pretty low impedance. There's a good chance the Scarlett has capacitors on its output that are not only blocking DC, but also cutting off low end due to the relatively low impedance of the headphones.
 
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#43
LoTone said:
Recently, I bought this and I am quite fond of it: AXE I/O.
The advertised frequency response is 3Hz to 32 KHz. I am using it only with a 4-string bass though. I do not know how it would react with a 5 or 6-string bass.
Click to expand...

great product, but has no impact on the OP's issue since the scarlett is a fantastic recording interface with 100% neutral flat response over the entire audio band. Every interface out there goes below 20Hz and above 20kHz, at least if it was made in the past 2 or 3 decades.

the AXE i/o though is certainly cool :-)
 
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#44
Get an adapter and plug the headphone out from the pedal into the 2i2, and then monitor that signal. If the sound matches what you hear from the pedal’s headphone out, then the issue is with the pedal’s internal signal routing. If the sound lacks lows, then the 2i2 is more likely to be the issue.

As others said, the pedal likely has an always-on cab sim for the headphones that the 1/4 does not (probably a factory loaded default). The manual isn’t super clear about this, but other TB discussions have brought this issue up, and the pedal’s outs each behave differently.
 
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#45
dkelley said:
IF you like the headphone out, record from the headphone output of the pedal! That's what I would do... (very experienced rec. engineer here)
Click to expand...

Yep, or the provided DI out which has the ability to engage the cab sim or not, depending on the need and possible desire to use another IR after the fact than the one loaded in the pedal.

Speaking of IR, a way the OP could try if the problem is related to the cabsim not being on (which is 100% the case on the 1/4"), is to record a bass line, and add an IR to the recorded track, for instance take the Forrester’s Punch provided by Darkglass. Pretty sure the result should be quite close, if not identical, to the tone on the headphone out of the pedal.
 
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#46
micguy said:
Those are 55 ohms = pretty low impedance. There's a good chance the Scarlett has capacitors on its output that are not only blocking DC, but also cutting off low end due to the relatively low impedance of the headphones.
Click to expand...
that's an interesting idea... I'd be surprised if the scarlet wasn't designed with lower impedance headphones in mind, but ya never know.
 
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#47
ArtechnikA said:
Maybe. But IME cabsims tend to act like bandpass rolling off highs and lows.
I'd expect less, not more, bass with a cabsim in the loop...
I have yet to try mine. Won't happen today. Maybe tomorrow - which is another day...
Click to expand...

Don’t forget resonance peaks at the roll-off point. The EQ doesn’t just start to drop, but instead peaks at/near the cutoff frequency, which could be a bass boost. Additionally, if the sim is cutting mids, then bass may also appear accentuated.
 
#48
micguy said:
Those are 55 ohms = pretty low impedance. There's a good chance the Scarlett has capacitors on its output that are not only blocking DC, but also cutting off low end due to the relatively low impedance of the headphones.
Click to expand...

I had wondered about that.
Here’s a discussion on the issue.


97D23325-D3C4-4DF5-9D85-E6E88E66BEE4.jpeg
 
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#49
PJsaure said:
Yep, or the provided DI out which has the ability to engage the cab sim or not, depending on the need and possible desire to use another IR after the fact than the one loaded in the pedal.

Speaking of IR, a way the OP could try if the problem is related to the cabsim not being on (which is 100% the case on the 1/4"), is to record a bass line, and add an IR to the recorded track, for instance take the Forrester’s Punch provided by Darkglass. Pretty sure the result should be quite close, if not identical, to the tone on the headphone out of the pedal.
Click to expand...
absolutely

I don't personally use darkglass (maybe one day), but anything that does overdrive in any way (which I think most of their pedals do?) will need a cab after it at the very least to sound right.

To me though - he loves the sound with headphones, record the sound of the headphones.

OP: You should use the XLR out with the cab sim engaged, or just a cable that splits the stereo headphone out into two 1/4" mono outputs, and take only one of those outputs and record it (no need for stereo - I'm sure there's no stereo processing in the pedal, so it's pointless extra work/tracking/cpu/cabling for stereo from that pedal into two inputs of your scarlet).

XLR would be more ideal, but headphone out recording will sound just fine to line input on scarlett, as long as you can get the levels right.

Tech thoughts: Nice thing about a high input impedance (which every recording interface or mixer uses) - you won't get tone problems when recording from another device's headphone output. Also don't record in "instrument" input mode if the scarlet has one of those direct guitar in jack settings.... that's only useful if you are recording from a passive instrument. Active instruments or buffered pedal outputs don't require that setting to be on. Just a little tip.
 
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#51
micguy said:
Those are 55 ohms = pretty low impedance. There's a good chance the Scarlett has capacitors on its output that are not only blocking DC, but also cutting off low end due to the relatively low impedance of the headphones.
Click to expand...
Good point.
Also, as a bus-powered device, the 2i2 has maybe 500 mA to play with to power 2 A/D convertors, 2 D/A convertors, the USB transceiver, and the headphone amp circuit.
Your average 1-Spot has about 1500 mA on tap...
 
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#55
rtav said:
Thanks... that sounds very similar to my situation.
Click to expand...

Interesting indeed, I was not fully aware of the impact it could have. However, the 55 ohm of your AKG K240 seems to be in the range the 2i2 can drive reasonably well (if it is indeed under 80 ohm). Worth a shot though if you can borrow lower impedance headphones.
 
#57
This sounds a lot like it's cab sim-related to me.

On the Darkglass Ultra series, the headphone out always has the cab sim engaged and if the Ultra is anything like my AOU, most of the cab sims add a lot of low end to the tone. The 1/4 inch out never has the cab sim (I believe), and the XLR out is switchable by the little switch on the side.

I'm guessing you're hearing a ton of low end from the cab sim when using headphones, and then you're disappointed when it's not there in the 1/4 inch out. The only way to be sure is to get an XLR cable and run it to your Scarlett with the cab sim engaged.
 
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#58
brianrost said:
The OP should just get an XLR cable or try the phone output (a guitar cord will be fine, no adapter needed) first, before doing anything else.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Try this first. But he will need a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter as the headphone out is 1/8" on the Ultra series DG pedals.

Geddy Claypool said:
On the Darkglass Ultra series, the headphone out always has the cab sim engaged and if the Ultra is anything like my AOU, most of the cab sims add a lot of low end to the tone. The 1/4 inch out never has the cab sim (I believe), and the XLR out is switchable by the little switch on the side.
Click to expand...

+1000. The behavior seems to be the same regarding this across all Ultra pedals from DG.
 
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#59
PJsaure said:
Interesting indeed, I was not fully aware of the impact it could have. However, the 55 ohm of your AKG K240 seems to be in the range the 2i2 can drive reasonably well (if it is indeed under 80 ohm). Worth a shot though if you can borrow lower impedance headphones.
Click to expand...

You're looking at it the wrong way - higher impedance headphones are easier to drive, lower impedance ones demand more current, and will, assuming my guess of coupling caps limiting the frequency response, be worse bass wise than higher impedance headphones. What the document is trying to say is you can drive headphones that are at or above 80 ohms in impedance, but not below that.
 

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