Crossovers in effects chain

gjsven · #1 11-08-2008, 06:13 PM

Hi all,

Inherent in some effects is a loss of low-end, which can't really be compensated for by EQ. Some people with bi-amp setups running a sub on one channel and maybe a cab with 10" speakers on the other can maintain their low-end by just running the effects on the mid-high channel.

However, as I only run a single 6x10" cabinet I'm toying with the idea of putting a crossover in my effects loop before my effects unit, only sending frequencies above say 300Hz (i'd obviously have to work out what sounds good) to the FX unit, then combining the signals again before feeding back into the amp return. I'm wondering whether anyone else has done this before and what issues they may have experienced (noise, phase issues, tone degradation etc)?

KarateKid25 · #2 11-08-2008, 06:16 PM

You could just use a blend looper such as a Barge Concepts VB-JR. Put all your nasty tone sucking effects in the loop and then blend in some clean signal.

bongomania · #3 11-08-2008, 06:21 PM

Chief issue: finding a crossover which runs unbalanced and at instrument level
Next issue: extra two or three cables from the floor to the rack, annoying
After that: artifacts such as dropouts or tone-thinness around the crossover point

It's often been suggested that a crossover in pedal form would be a good idea, but there are no easy commercial solutions currently on the market. I believe Mooseapotamus made one, but I'm not sure whether you could easily order one at any time. There's an old Pearl chorus that has this feature, but they are hard to find. I think ART makes/made a small crossover unit that is about the size of a pedal, but I haven't actually seen it in stock anywhere.

KarateKid25 · #4 11-08-2008, 06:22 PM

Hey Bongo, am I missing the point here, or would a blend pedal basically achieve a similar result?

bongomania · #5 11-08-2008, 06:26 PM

Blend is 100% of the frequency range of both wet and dry. A crossover selects a specified frequency range for one or both sides.

grovest · #6 11-08-2008, 07:06 PM

http://www.rolls.com/product.php?pid=SX21

I thought about it for a while. There are some chorus, and of course compressors, that process separate parts of the signal. The above link is what I would have bought to experiment with. I'm not sure how well it would work, overall.

liquid-dream-ex · #7 11-08-2008, 07:54 PM

A guy named mooseapotamus makes one. Search for his username or "paralooper".

He plans/planed on selling them, but he never got back on me E-mail :-(

grovest · #8 11-08-2008, 11:40 PM

Interesting, thanks Liquid.

http://www.moosapotamus.net/THINGS/things.html

gjsven · #9 11-09-2008, 05:16 AM

Thanks for the ideas everyone, sounds like my initial concerns may have been justified. My effects are all in a rack-mounted multi FX unit (Digitech GSP1101) for simplicity but the signal passes through it twice - once before the amp (distortion and dynamics) and once in the loop (modulation, wah/yaya, synth, delays etc).

The only effects I really have problems with are the distortion and the wah/yaya effects (envelope filtering), and adding stomp boxes at the front of the stage just for these would add much complication to the overall setup (leads across the floor, extra noise/signal loss from the extra 40ft cable run, longer setup time, etc).

I'll think some more about whether it's a problem worth fixing, or whether there's a way to get around it with the features on the GSP1101.

Thanks for your help everyone!