playing through two preamps at once?

[all420]

I currently run a Triaxis in my rack. It's great for distortion, but I'm looking to add some more sounds and also some texture buy adding an IE4. Is there anyway to do this without resorting to a Switchblade or Mixer? The problem stems from me having a G-force, BBE 362, and a few other rack processors between the preamp and power amp. When I am using only one preamp, I would like to have the signal from that amp going through both channels, and hence both cabs. I was thinking of possibly using "y" cables to join the outputs of the two preamps, but would these cause any signal degredation or volume loss? Everything in my rack is currently MIDI controlled and I'd like to keep it that way, but I would be open to using a A/B-Y box.

[tubefreak]

I'm sure mario of Axess Electronics has some nice solutions for this. Check it out. But Sound Sculpture also has a midi programmable A/B/Y switcher I believe.

On my website you'll also find an a/b switcher I designed together with a friend which works great to switch between 2 preamps. You can use one of the control switches of the Triaxis to control it. On geofex.com are some other (even better) designs.

Maarten

[EVH Wolfgang]

You could also considder a preamp that has built-in switching, like the H&K Access. You can tell the H&K to switch to another preamp attached.

I'm not sure what others can do that.

[Musicman2000]

It's funny... I was thinking/dreaming of the same thing, but under different conditions and a possible different solution.

Currently I'm running a Triaxis => G Major =>
and alternate between a Mesa 20/20 and Peavey 50/50 classic => Mesa 4x12 or twin G Benz G Flex 2x12's.

(My Poweramp preference is the 20/20 for the following reasons)

1. Lighter weight
2. Power tubes are fewer (4 vs. 8) plus more efficient/economical.
3. Power tubes are readily accessible on the 20/20. No cover

However, If I was to install say a Marshall JMP-1 into my rack???

I'm wondering if I could wire both the Triaxis and JMP-1 simultaniously into my Peavey 50/50 poweramp inputs.
Peavey's inputs seem to support this.

Then my midi controller (Rocktron Midimate) could be set up to select patch preferences between the preamps.

ie example
Patch #1 Triaxis Lead 2 Read (Channel #1) G Major Midi Chl #3

Patch #2 JMP-1 Marshall Crunch (Channel #2) G Major Midi Chl #3

What do you guys think? Makes me go Hmmmmmm? :D

I just don't have a JMP-1 or another midi preamp handy to test this idea out.

[jd01]

it's best to just use a mixer. doesn't need to be anything fancy. i take my signal into an axess bs2 to split it, into my pre's, then from each pre into a mixer and send mono out.