Is it safe to run an amp's FX loop in & out of a laptop?

[spuddle]

Hullo,

I just picked up a hardware amp at last for use with my live band because my laptop kept glitching the sound of my amp sim vsts. That said, there are a whole bunch of VST effects that I would still love to use in my chain but don't know what is the best way to go about it.

For example, my amp has an FX loop so I can insert a stomp box pedal after the preamp and then drive it out the power amp so in theory could I hook up my laptop and it's audio interface into this FX loop for processing the sound?

I know there is a matter of balancing the impedance properly but am scared to just hook up things for fear of causing gear to spontaneously combust.

Has anyone ever heard of or tried doing such a thing?

To make it clearer, here would be an example simple application of such a set-up:

• Plug guitar into guitar amplifier input >
  Guitar amp FX loop SEND >
  Laptop audio interface mono instrument (hi-z?) level IN >
  Process signal in DAW e.g. with Art Acoustic Reverb >
  Sum stereo DAW signal to mono >
  Laptop Audio interface mono instrument level OUT >
  Guitar amp FX loop RETURN.
  
  =
  
  Guitar amp signal mixed with my lush Art Acoustic Reverb (albiet not as spacious as a full stereo path ).

Am I crazy?

[C00kie]

What amp did you get exactly? All tube, or solid state? With solid state you can't do anything wrong.

Don't be so squeamish, just try it. It won't blow up in your face. Guitar signals are somewhat lower than standard line signals. So see how loud it gets into your laptop and make sure to feed the same level out.

I had no luck at all with using either the line output or effect send of my Orange OD-120. It drasticly changed the tone of the amp, and I haven't found a fix for it. Too bad...

[Hanglow]

I think amp send and returns are at line level, so use the standard line in and out on your AI. This is why a number of effects don't like being in the effects loop of an amp.

I have used my vsts as a pre then just put the input into the return to use the power amp only of the guitar amp. Works well enough

[ew]

It should work. The thru latency may drive you nuts, though...

ew

[spuddle]

It should work. The thru latency may drive you nuts, though...

ew

Yea that's what I'm worried about but I have played with an entire amp-sim rig all year so developed a tolerance.

A super low-latency hardware VST stompbox style host would rock. Something like a smaller, simpler Receptor I guess

Thanks for the responses guys, I will just have to have a play with it now..