Fender Rumble 40 line out volume

Hopefully I’m not the only Rumble 40 owner here - could someone tell me whether the master volume knob affects the XLR line out volume or not? The manual says “The level and tone of the LINE OUT signal are affected by all preamp controls, including GAIN”, but that’s a bit ambiguous to me.

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I would say yes, but I will check tomorrow, haven’t used the XLR output in a while.

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I have the rumble 40 studio, but no XLR cable to check it with :crazy_face:…I would be interested to know though as well for future reference.

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Yep, just tested, it does affect the XLR output volume. Here is a quick&dirty audio sample: Share, Embed & Upload Audio with Clyp

Medium-low volume first, then max. I have changed nothing except for the master volume on the rumble. The noise though :frowning:

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Thanks a lot for checking, you saved me some money. (This confirmed that I wouldn’t be able to use line out as a recording source.)

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Does it have a pre/post switch? Some builtin DI outs allow you to toggle between before or after the preamp.

Nope. And it does not have the FX out either (that’s only Rumble 100 and above), so can’t use that either. Not the end of the world though, just means that I’ll have to do a lot of unplugging and replugging whenever I want to record myself with an audio interface.

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I am curious, why not?
For me the main problem when using the rumble for recording was that the AUX IN goes to the XLR output too. As a noob I am I didn’t expect that :grin:
I wanted to plug in a song via AUX, play along with my bass and record only the instrument with the XLR output. With the option to plug the headphones to the amp in case I don’t want to disturb.
But nope, aux and bass mixed in the output :upside_down_face:

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This is my current setup:
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It does not allow me to record, but at least I can play bass without the laptop if I want to, and I can mess around with the knobs on the amp to change the sound. The headphones are permanently plugged into the amp, because I have neighbors on all sides.

I’ve ordered an audio interface so that I can record myself, and this was my intended setup:
image
This would still allow me to record the exact sound coming from the amp, but would only work with the laptop turned on. More importantly, the headphones would no longer be plugged into the amp, which would then turn on the speakers, and this is where the master volume comes in - I’d have to turn it all the way down so that the neighbors don’t beat me up. But as you confirmed this would also mute the line out, making the entire setup useless.

So the “final” setup is going to look like this I think:
image
This is basically the same as my current setup, except the amp is replaced with the audio interface. I’ll have to unplug both the bass and the headphones from the amp, and plug them into the interface when I’m recording. Then when I’m not recording I’ll have to plug everything back into the amp. (I know that I could just leave them plugged into the interface even when I’m not recording, but then I’d have to admit that purchasing the amp was pointless, so I’m not going to do that.)

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Oh boy, I have been through that too. Solution? No idea, after the COVID thing I am living in a place where neighbors are far enough to not use headphones anymore haha.
Leaving anything connected to the headphone output on the amp will mute it though. I mean instead of turning the volume all the way down.

There is probably a better solution for this, hopefully someone with more experience will help us. How do you record only your bass as you play along some music without disturbing the neighbors?

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Haha just tried this, plugging in an 1/8" to 1/4" adapter (without a headphone) muted the speaker… I did not expect that.

Back to the drawing board…

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Which audio interface have you ordered @akos?

Focusrite Scarlett Solo

What if you kept the setup you planned above, but connected the amp to one of the line outputs on the solo? You can then choose to use headphones via the DAI, or switch on the amp fed via the DAI and use that?
Only issue would be the laptop probably would need to be on?

You mean connect the DAI line out to the amp aux in? Yes that would produce sound through the amp, but the knobs (gain, overdrive, eq, master, etc) don’t affect the aux, so the amp would just be a pass through. Basically a very expensive headphone jack.

I think I’m going to buy an XLR cable and go with my 2nd diagram, with a jack converter plugged into the amp to act as a pacifier. That would allow me to shape the sound on the amp and record it on the laptop, but the laptop would need to be on at all times, even when I’m not recording. Also as @TheBronx pointed out there was plenty of noise in his recording through XLR, so maybe this is not a very good setup. In that case I’ll probably end up switching between the amp (1st diagram) for practice and the DAI (3rd diagram) for recording.

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