Guitar Gear Forum

Hi,

I bought Koch Dummybox Home for recording my JVM silently straight into my DAW. However I encountered problems rightaway.

My signal chain is: guitar --> pedalboard --> JVM 215c --> Koch amp in (speaker cable from power amp) --> Koch line out --> iRig HD --> PC / Reaper.

This way, there's absolutely nothing comin' through. Reaper doesn't register any signal. Gain selector is maxed in iRig, tried to crank amp, nothing.

However, when I connect Koch's monitor out to JVM:s cabinet, Reaper recognizes it instantly. This way I am able to record, although Koch states this monitor out reduces signal to 1% - 3% of original, it is HELL a loud coming out of cab. I'm able to put JVM master to 2 or 2,5 and it's definitely not a bedroom volume anymore. In addition, though signal seems to be ok in Reaper (dB meter rises over the halfway of dr and there's still a plenty of headroom), when I listen my recording, it is REALLY faint. Compared to, for example, guitar straight to iRig & Amplitude, it's really, really quiet. Only way to get it boosted is to max every volume pot in Lepoulin Lecab vst. This doesn't seem right.

Before I bought this product, I thought this box could be used 100% silently and with no monitor cabs connected, just the chain I described first. Could someone confirm this? Is it possible the product is malfunctioning?


Hope someone can help! Thanks.

I think the iRig is the issue.
How are you connecting the Koch Dummy box to you iRig?
Isn't the iRig HD meant to connect a guitar to an iPhone or iPad?
The iRig has a 1/4 phone jack for a guitar and a mini cell phone USB type plug on the other end.
You may need a direct box between the Koch Dummy Box and the iRig.
The output on the Koch is Line Level not guitar level.

Since a line level signal is hotter than an instrument level signal, then I'd expect the signal going into the iPad/DAW to actually be too loud rather than too quiet (since the iRig expecting an instrument signal would mean it would be applying excessive gain). But I just looked up the iRig and it says it can accommodate line level signals too, so I'm stumped.

You're right - doesn't make sense...
Here's a link to the Dummybox manule: http://www.koch-amps.com/uploads/2/4/0/ ... manual.pdf
I don't see anything in the manual that will help but, maybe you will ?

Hi, thanks for replys.

About those line levels, few weeks ago I asked this from IK multimedia and they say -10 dB instrument level should be perfect for iRig (that time I thought of getting Mesa Cab Clone but chose Koch instead, cause it sends unfiltered signal at -10 dB). Also IK:s people thought that +4 dB pro line level could be too hot, that's why didn't want Cab Clone.

I'm just confused about this total silence when Koch monitor out is not connected. Tried to look everywhere some idea, how people usually connect this Dummybox, well there is this one video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggq_D3dZ_mM) and it seems there, that monitor out is always connected. So could it be that Koch isn't designed to give any signal out, if there is no monitor.. Makes no sense to me, if you look at product description/manual.

Thought of another solution, but didn't have courage to try it out yet. Do you think it could be safe to plug a cable to monitor out but leave another end free, so I could play without hearing JVMs cabinet and (maybe) get a signal to my DAW? Common sense says that amp shouldn't be fried cause there still is this load connected to power amp. But get any signal this way, dunno.

Also thought if I got a mixer between Koch output and iRig, if it helps anything, maybe at least some volume boost? The guy in the video above is using Focusrite 2i2 and it's working for him, so it should work with iRig IMO.

Found another video, he seems to be able to use Koch without monitor connected:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDLXFq2Hmp4