I have a rather perplexing problem. There are times I need to practice playing along to YouTube videos, but with headphones on so I don’t disturb anyone. Here’s what I need to do - interface the audio from my PC speakers, my guitar and my amp. I’ve tried going from the headphone jack on my Logitech THX PC speakers into the aux jack on my Acoustic B300HD amp, but when I do that the tone controls on my speakers apparently are deactivated when the headphone jack is used, so the PC audio is flat. I’ve tried to connect the PC audio through a mixer using bluetooth but the results have been unsatisfying and I get a fair amount of dropouts.
Is there a better way to do what I’m trying to do? I’m about to pull my hair out, and I need to save what little I have left!
Can you not go directly from the PC audio output jack (bypass the speakers altogether) to the B300HD aux in with a 1/8 to 1/8 cable? Or am I missing something?
If the PC directly is still too flat use the EQ app that is built in to the OS or download one like Equalizer APO.
This might just be something you have to deal with in this scenario. PC speakers like you have are typically designed to “make music fun” by coloring the sound; you even said they have tone controls. I bet it disables them because Logitech has no idea what headphones you will use, and the controls are designed with the speakers in mind. Or the headphone out is simply before the EQ/tone controls. You could try something like a small Fiio headphone amp in the $25 range iirc, they have some preset EQ curves in them that might get you where you want to go. I really don’t know, though.
It could also be something on the bass amp itself doing this, designed with typical bass speakers in mind which won’t reproduce all the upper end signal. I know my Phil Jones combo’s advertising specifically mentions its full range speakers going well with plugging things into the aux input.
It could even put a level mismatch between the headphone out and the aux input. Consumer audio is tricky…
This is all rampant speculation on my part based on what I know and am trying to interpret here.
What I do is use my audio interface as both input and output - my instruments and mic are plugged in to it, and I use it as a USB audio device for output as well. I then drive two 80W 5.5" studio monitors off of it. World work even better with bigger monitors, but 160W with good response is more than enough for me.
This works perfectly. I set things up to direct monitor the instruments off the DAI and when recording, make sure track monitoring is off in the DAW. So I hear the bass with zero latency and recording works out perfectly.
Amps are dead to me, zero interest at all
(I’m serious, if I ever want to play live again, I’m going with PAs).
Audio interface was going to be my next suggestion. I did a lot of Beginner to Badass plugged straight into my computer. Handy headphone out built-in as well. That amp has a DI out that can plug into an interface’s XLR input.
But an audio interface and studio monitors can be a spendy upgrade, too.
I’m using my Yamaha THR10X for most silent practice with laptop plugged in to the amp and headphones. I use it for guitar and bass so get good value out of it.
I’ve also got the Blues and Classic rock amplug that are really handy and sound decent. You could try the bass one as a fairly cheap and definitely easy option.
Have not tried this so I am just guessing. If the logitech driver allows sound to go through a source outside your DAW simultaneously, then you may be able to play audio from youtube and your DAW at the same time by running the bass directly into the DAW using an amp plugin within the DAW. Yoe may also capture the audio from the video and record into the DAW and the playback will be part of the recording as you are playing and since it will all be processed by the DAW, the driver will not know the difference.
