The reason I just bought this PS-2A is to record electric guitar through my tube amps at a lower volume. In silent mode the PS-2A gives me an unusable signal in DAW. I have my twin reverb plugged into the AMP in. I have the balanced line out going to my interface. In Logic I have my guitar track going through the celestion speaker mix pro for the speaker cabinet. At very low volumes -15db on the track in Logic, if I play a single note with a little bit of aggression i get a nasty distorted sound. If I try to play a chord forget it, it sounds absolutely terrible.
I reached out to Fryette about this but no one responded. I’m very frustrated by this. I would appreciate someone from the company helping me with this situation. I’m not sure how long I’m supposed to wait to get a little bit of customer service for this $900 unit that is supposed to be the best. I’ve read the manual front to back 30 times. I’ve watched all the videos. I’ve read all the forum posts. Can someone please give me an answer on how to fix this? This is what this unit is for correct? Why does it sound so awful?
Sorry about this – I checked the email, and indeed I saw something from last year that has been missed. At that time we were making a transition to the forum, so I think regrettably your first email about this topic had been missed. Good news, you are in the right place. And you have already had two replies to your three questions, so let’s get you sorted out with this issue.
I think I get the idea, but if you have an audio clip, that would be useful. Even if the guitar signal is clean going into the PS-2A.
Can you confirm your setup is like this: the PS-2A is unpowered, and you have an XLR cable connecting the PS-2A to the DAW?
What about using an unbalanced jack cable as input to the DAW, same problem?
This will confirm your cable is correct.
Continuing:
Rotate the Line Out level control, what happens to the balanced and unbalanced signal level? What is the position of the knob?
The next thing to check is the level going into the PS-2A. Let’s go to with a standard amp-head-PS-2A combination (for the FX pedal and the XLR output here)
Connect a speaker and get a loud and clean sound. As loud as possible.
Turn your amp off
Connect it to the PS-2A
Connect your speaker to the PS-2A
Put PS-2A into Operate mode and match the volume as best you can by toggling between Operate and Bypass
Toggle the front panel level switch to make sure it is as loud as possible.
This will ensure that the signal level going from your amp is at a sensible level. If for some reason it was very hard for you to get an equivalent volume when driving the speaker with the PS-2 this could indicate that this is the location in the signal chain where the signal issue is occurring.
Yes I tried different xlr cables and 1/4" cables and it didn’t make a difference. I also tried different volumes with the line out level and amp level. It’s very frustrating. When I try to turn it up to a reasonable volume it’s completely distorted and unusable and even when I turn it down it’s only clear if I play super lightly.
I tried all amp volumes and and line out volumes on the back of the power station. It’s an 85W twin reverb so when playing through the speaker anything above 5 is really loud. Around 3 is still pretty loud but just tolerable for a small room. I started around 3 and pushed it up to 8. The operate bypass switch did not audibly change anything in silent mode.
Ok I followed you instructions you gave. My amp is very loud and clean. I matched the operate to the bypass by using the volume knob on the PS-2A. The issue I’m having is even with a crazy loud amp I’m still only hitting -15db in logic when I play loudly. And it doesn’t sound nearly as clean as it does through the speaker. Not even a little close. I turned the line level pot on the back all the way up just to try to get more signal into my DAW and it’s still at -15db when I play hard and my amp is very loud! I have the channel set to line level. Any ideas of what’s going on?
The signal going into the PS-2A is high power. But more importantly, the padded-down internal signal the Station will use for re-amping is good. This signal also forms the basis of that emerges from the various Line Outs.
You have tried different cables connected to the XLR and 1/4" FX Send
These outputs work without power.
We now need to determine if the level being sent by the PS-2A is actually low or if there is a problem at the receiving end, either hardware or software. Let’s start with the XLR output from the PS-2A.
You will need a Multimeter for the following.
Here is the setup:
Remove all FX loop and line out connections from the PS-2A
Connect your amp to PS-2A AMP IN
Do not connect anything PS-2A SPKR OUT
Do not turn on the main power to the PS-2A
On the PS-2A front panel, set Level to “LO” (button sticking OUT).
On the PS-2A back panel, rotate LINE OUT LINE LEVEL all the way to the right for maximum output.
Connect your guitar to your amp
Turn your amp on
We are now in silent mode
(NB: I did this in silent mode and operation mode and got the same results, but let’s do this in Silent mode because that is what you are aiming at).
You need need to measure the voltage across pins 2 and 3 of the male XLR output socket like so.
With an assistant or with your foot, play the guitar; you should see between 1V and 2V RMS (or more) of signal. This is around or greater than the +4dBu line level used for transferring signals between professional audio equipment.
When you do this, your meter should show 0 volts before you play the guitar. When it reads 0V, it is telling you that you are making good contact with the pins. Only continue if you see 0V; otherwise the results will be meaningless.
Here I am doing that; you can see the meter as I play beautiful music with my foot – no problems with the signal here. Notice the meter reads 0V before I play.
Please let me know what you find:
If you find a low signal level at the XLR output, there are very few components between Amp In and the XLR output. One of these could have failed. This will need a service fix.
If you find a good signal level, then the problem is with your DAW either hardware or software.
Yes I’ve tried both xlr and 1/4 line in with the correct cables and have had the same result.
I did the multimeter test you gave me. I followed your instructions exactly.
Measured voltage across pins two and three. Black on pin three. Red on pin 2. Start at 0.00
My amp turned up to 50% the meter went immediately into negative voltage then went up to 1.4 and back to negative. So I turned the amp up and then the meter was going crazy switching from negative to positive consistently ever strum. Strumming hard Went down to negative -4 sometimes staying negative and once or twice I saw it jump up to 1v or 2v.
I forgot to say, put your meter in AC mode. If we just take the magnitude of the number that’s in the right ballpark. OK, so the level seems to be OK. It is not very low; we can say that.
This test does not really help with understanding where the distortion is coming from. However, because the XLR output from the PS-2A is passive, there are not op-amps that could clip.
More and more I’m thinking we need to turn our attention to the DAW and try an eliminate a few things there.
What I want to avoid is that we say “sure let’s arrange a repair” and it turns out not to be the Power Station! That would just be a waste of time and money.
Yes I did it in AC mode. Yea it’s literally a brand new unit so that would be insane if I had to pay for a repair. And it sounded like this directly out of the box.
As far as the DAW, I’m sending line level it to a audio track set at line level. For a speaker IR I’m using Celestion Speaker Mix pro. I’ve tried putting that directly on the track and routing it to a bus with the speaker mix pro on (routed directly to the bus not as a send) sounded similar either way.
So what I noticed last night is when I had my speaker plugged into the PS-2A and the volume matched as you instructed. It was very loud in the room and sounded better in the DAW. When I turned the volume down on the PS-2A so it was quieter in the room I heard More degradation in the signal and the more I turned the amp up the more degradation I got.
Correction I did have it DC mode when it went negative. I just did it again in AC mode and it seems fine.
I’m trying to make sense how I can have my amp at full blast it only registers at max -15db in logic.
Do you have any idea why that might be? It should be super loud with the amp turned up right?
I have an UAD Apollo x8p. New this year. All the channels work. I’ve tried plugging into different channels. Right now I have it in channel 1.
When I plug a mic into mic pre and into channel 1 it’s at normal volumes and sounds great or when I plug my guitar right into the mic pre it’s at a good volume and sounds great. I’m only getting this crazy distortion when using the PS-2A that’s why my inclination is to think it’s related to the unit but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
It’s such a bummer. I’m supposed to be recording electric guitar tracks for a project right now and I can’t even use the unit that I invested in to help me record better guitar tones.
The PS-2A volume knob is entirely independent of the line level output, so I am not sure what to make of this observation.
If you turn your PS-2A all the way to zero, do you still hear this degradation sound?
OK, great, so we can confirm the signal level from the PS-2A is fine.
Yes!
Does the level go to zero when you don’t play? Just wondering if there is DC offset somewhere or a ground loop. This unlikely because the line out on the PS-2A is isolated…
I think you are right to focus on the DAW and software. Some things to check:
Your XLR cable is wired correctly, Pin 2 hot, Pin 3 cold (this convention is used by PS-2A and also the Apollo). Just mentioning it in case you made your own cables and you have accidentally wired the chassis to hot pin!
Make sure the input is configured for Line level and not microphone level signals
Make sure phantom power is off!
Can you plug the PS-2A into the Mic Pre and then the Mic Pre into the DAW?
Yes I still hear the degradation with ps-2a volume all the way down. It’s more pronounced the more I turn down the ps-2a volume. This degradation is not something ive ever heard before. It only happens when going through the Ps-2a.
Yes the level goes to zero when I don’t play.
Yes my cables are good. I don’t make them. I’ve tried multiple cables with same outcome.
Input is configured to line level and phantom power is of course turned off.
I haven’t tried plugging the ps-2a into the mic pre but I will. Can you explain the proper way to do that just so I make sure it’s done correctly for testing? Also what are we hoping to learn from this?
