I have been thinking about getting one of the new Fender Mustang amps.
It looks like it comes bundle with software allowing recording via USB
from amp to computer, I believe the G-DEC Fender amps also have this feature.

http://www.fender.com/support/articles/fender-mustang-audio-recording-and-playback

I was wondering if any of you folks have tried this, and has anyone been able to
record into Realband utilizing the USB interface.
I presently have an M-Audio Delta 66 computer to mixing board connection, but thought
the USB might be a handy alternative.

I have the Mustang 1.

It's just easier to use the headphone jack out to the soundcard or mixer than use the usb.

Use the usb to connect with Fender Fuse and change parameters and effects etc.

You can download other user presets online at the Fuse community website.

HTH

I have the Mustang ll and I don't even bother trying to record with the usb because I know there's going to be some latency. Most of the threads I've read report that the latency can be managed by most folks but the headphone out is speaker emulated and Fender did a good job on it (imho). Getting a good clean signal to the daw with about -6 peaks is very easy and sounds better than a mike (again imho). Be aware that Fuse uses Silverlight so you have no choice but to install it. Doesn't bother me all that much but it does some folks, and to be honest, it did bother me some lol. Fantastic modeling amp though -- the twin model alone would have me hooked.


Jim

If the headphone out is indeed speaker simulated, and you already have Line Inputs on your soundcard, I'd go with headphone plug to Y breakout cable and plug into L and R Line on the already running soundcard.

I'm not a betting man, but if I was, I'd bet that the M-Audio has the better clock and converters anyway.

--Mac

Thank you for your responses.

I downloaded the Owners Manual that covers all the Mustang amps, and as you all have suggested, the headphone jack as an output for recording purposes, is suggested in the owners manual also.

I haven't had a chance to try the Mustang I or II, I did try the Mustang III (with one 12" speaker), and even though it's a mono amp I noticed thru the headphones the amp plays some of the effects in stereo.
Still need to try the other Mustangs before I decided.

Thanks again for your responses

Bill

Certain effects, such as rotary speaker, depend on the stereo field in order to work.

For example, a good rotary speaker ("Leslie") simulation must be able to deliver a spatial sound distribution that is constantly changing, as well as any simple Amplitude Modulation that the spinning speaker delivers. The rotating speaker effect contains both Frequency and Amplitude changes, as well as a rather complex series of phase distortions that all work together to deliver that sound.

If you attempt to recreate that effect in mono, it sounds like a rather weird Tremelo effect because there would be no spatial L to R abilities.

When recording, if you use any of those effects on a track, simply record that track in Stereo or to two mono tracks which must be panned hard left and hard right respectively at playback to hear the effect properly.

I solve the problem by simply recording my guitar amp simulators in stereo at all times. These days, with more powerful disks and computers, unless the track count gets inordinately high, I find no need to bother with recording those certain tracks that are mono to a mono track. The mono stuff on the stereo track is still mono as both tracks are identical. If I do want to pare off one channel after recording, most DAW softwares have a function to do that and create a mono track from the stereo. Just don't have it do that to the tracks that use stereo effects or you will be right back to the original problem and won't hear the full effect.


--Mac