I run a Boss DD-6 on my vocal mic, when its plugged in it makes this horrible massive buzz through the PA. It doesn't seem to do this so much at gigs though, if I put this through a DI box before it gets to the PA will that stop or at least cut down the buzzing?
It may help. What is your whole setup? Your mic, everything before and after the pedal, etc. We'll get to the bottom of this.
Does your vocal mic have a mono TS 1/4" plug, or does it take a balanced/TRS/three-pin 1/4" or XLR plug? If it's an XLR or TRS connection, you probably have a bad ground when connecting to the pedal. In that case you'd need to replace the mic with something cheaper that just has an unbalanced TS plug, or run your existing mic into a mini-mixer or something that has an unbalanced instrument-level fx loop.
its xlr to jack from the mic into the pedal, then jack to jack from the pedal to the PA. I'm not too sure what you mean by balanced and unbalanced?
You have some reading to do. It's worth finding out more about this. Essentially, an unbalanced connection uses only two wires, and a balanced connection uses three wires. Instruments and pedals typically use unbalanced two-wire connections, and microphones typically use balanced three-wire connections. It matters because one of those wires is "ground" AKA "earth", and a bad ground causes horrible massive buzzing noises.
i've recently found out I've got A LOT of reading to do he he, electronics, wiring amps, jazz theory, theory in general.... the list continues! the mic I'm using is quite a cheap behringer mic anyway
Meh, that may be part of the problem. I've never had a happy experience with Behringer gear. IME even Nady is a better brand than Behringer. But I think the easiest solution here would be to get a new mic (you can still find decent ones for cheap) and a mini-mixer with an fx loop. If you play your cards right, it'll probably cost somewhere around $100. However, if you're like Joe P, you can probably find some inexpensive way to jerry-rig the whole thing. ;-D
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