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Distorted tone, clean low end?

#101
Joe Lonsdale said:
I want to thank everyone that contributed to this thread - I have found the (theoretical) solution I was looking for in the Umbrella Company's "Fusion Blender" which won out over the KMA "Tyler Deluxe" narrowly by being smaller, less expensive and having a slightly smaller feature set which more closely fitted my requirements. I ordered one from Reverb this morning and once it arrives I'll have to construct my new 'system' and put it to the test! Of course, it may not produce results I like or it might create a need for further and unpredicted purchases (aside from larger pedal board, more cables, boost pedal, klon for subtle sub-distortion, larger power supply) but that's one of the exciting things about being a musician, experimentation! I'll report in once it arrives and I have tried it out a couple of times live. Joe :)
Click to expand...

Let us know what you think once you have a chance to play with it...

I was kind of discouraged by the fact that the manufaturer's web is in Japanese only...
 
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#102
Zbysek said:
Let us know what you think once you have a chance to play with it...

I was kind of discouraged by the fact that the manufaturer's web is in Japanese only...
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That's true, but Google translated it very efficiently and it looks like a really high quality bit of gear - well thought out and well spec'd. Fingers crossed it's as good as the website suggests when it arrives! I have been busy sketching out my new pedal board (I'll have to buy a slightly bigger one, the Pedal Train Classic Jr) and it looks like I will now have space for a full sized tuner and boost pedal, which means I can get a strobe tuner on my board at last and also a boost with some EQ options. I'll also need a larger power supply - that's a whole other kettle-of-fish!
 
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#104
Ric5 said:
There are no issues latency or phasing
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That's interesting - the latency on the POD must be really short. I wonder if you've experimented by using the POD as the master for the rest of the board and compare the results? You could plug straight into the POD and use the POD's latency-compensated unmodelled DI out to feed your splitter. My instinct tells me that this would give you a more phase-cohesive (and therefore fuller) board. Perhaps you've already tried this. I work with digital audio professionally and am confident that if I replicated your set up in the studio I would experience some sort of phase issue...
 
#105
Joe Lonsdale said:
That's interesting - the latency on the POD must be really short. I wonder if you've experimented by using the POD as the master for the rest of the board and compare the results? You could plug straight into the POD and use the POD's latency-compensated unmodelled DI out to feed your splitter. My instinct tells me that this would give you a more phase-cohesive (and therefore fuller) board. Perhaps you've already tried this. I work with digital audio professionally and am confident that if I replicated your set up in the studio I would experience some sort of phase issue...
Click to expand...

OK ... I read up on this a little and supposedly the first guitar pod had some latency problems. The first bass pod incorporated improvements put into pod 2.0 and the latency problem was fixed. So it was the original guitar pod that had the problems.

to my ears I do not hear any latency, phasing or cancelation.

My issue with the bass pod that I have is that it is not hi fidelity the very highest and lowest frequencies don't come through when it is run by itself. Maybe it was designed that way for studio use. But since I run it parallel with other effects then I can blend different sounds together to get my tone.

Later line6 products are more hi-fi.
 
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#106
Joe Lonsdale said:
The Schalttechnik04 Omnilooper looks great. What I don't like about it is their decision to combine in and out into a single socket requiring a splitter Y cable. It saves pedal real estate but removes some emergency rewiring options when playing live :)
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I'm just a living room rocker. Still working out my first pedalboard so emergency rewiring isn't an issue for me. Currently I'm assembling the omnilooper and trying to figure out whether to put it in a bigger box with additional footswitches or to root the channels to an other box containing the switches. Both addons could accommodate mono outs. The stereo channel-outs/ins are switchable. When no cable is inserted they simply send the signal from out to in as if not existing. What kind of emergency rewiring do you have in mind? What could be an issue with the inserts? Lack of experience on my side... Thx!
 
#107
ceetee said:
I'm just a living room rocker. Still working out my first pedalboard so emergency rewiring isn't an issue for me. Currently I'm assembling the omnilooper and trying to figure out whether to put it in a bigger box with additional footswitches or to root the channels to an other box containing the switches. Both addons could accommodate mono outs. The stereo channel-outs/ins are switchable. When no cable is inserted they simply send the signal from out to in as if not existing. What kind of emergency rewiring do you have in mind? What could be an issue with the inserts? Lack of experience on my side... Thx!
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Well, the obvious one is a lead failing, and a Y-split cable is not one anybody else is going to be able to help you out with! Just make sure you have a couple of spares... Actually, perhaps I'm just scared of complexity! A complexaphobe :)
 
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#108
Ric5 said:
OK ... I read up on this a little and supposedly the first guitar pod had some latency problems. The first bass pod incorporated improvements put into pod 2.0 and the latency problem was fixed. So it was the original guitar pod that had the problems.

to my ears I do not hear any latency, phasing or cancelation.

My issue with the bass pod that I have is that it is not hi fidelity the very highest and lowest frequencies don't come through when it is run by itself. Maybe it was designed that way for studio use. But since I run it parallel with other effects then I can blend different sounds together to get my tone.

Later line6 products are more hi-fi.
Click to expand...
I used the direct out from the POD in the studio for years and never noticed any compromise in signal quality, but you've obviously got a rig you are happy with so I trust your ears! This has got me thinking that perhaps my TC SpectraComp, which is DSP-driven, introduces some latency and may introduce phase issues as part of a frequency split audio loop... I'll have to do some experiments...
 
#109
Joe Lonsdale said:
Well, the obvious one is a lead failing, and a Y-split cable is not one anybody else is going to be able to help you out with! Just make sure you have a couple of spares... Actually, perhaps I'm just scared of complexity! A complexaphobe :)
Click to expand...

I used to work in theatre... Your phobia is quite reasonable. I wouldn't entirely trust a lended cable as well and I do suffer from redundancy.

Edited because messed up quote.
 
#110
Joe Lonsdale said:
I used the direct out from the POD in the studio for years and never noticed any compromise in signal quality, but you've obviously got a rig you are happy with so I trust your ears! This has got me thinking that perhaps my TC SpectraComp, which is DSP-driven, introduces some latency and may introduce phase issues as part of a frequency split audio loop... I'll have to do some experiments...
Click to expand...

I like the signal quality from the pod, but the sparkling highs and subsonic lows are best achieved elsewhere on my pedal board.

I used to run a scooped mids and boosted bass and boosted highs eq on my bass ... but then I discovered that bass is about mids. The pod delivers on mids as does the Marshall pedal. The Bass vt and the MXR bass DI+ are more modern and hi-fi sounding.

I have been experimenting with 6 parallel channels ... but then I would need a bigger pedalboard to put more pedals. I bought 2 8 channel passive mixers.
 
#111
Ric5 said:
I like the signal quality from the pod, but the sparkling highs and subsonic lows are best achieved elsewhere on my pedal board.

I used to run a scooped mids and boosted bass and boosted highs eq on my bass ... but then I discovered that bass is about mids. The pod delivers on mids as does the Marshall pedal. The Bass vt and the MXR bass DI+ are more modern and hi-fi sounding.

I have been experimenting with 6 parallel channels ... but then I would need a bigger pedalboard to put more pedals. I bought 2 8 channel passive mixers.
Click to expand...
Do you switch sounds mid gig? If so, how?
 
#112
Back to the OPs question ...

Most distortion pedals with emphasize mids and cut low end. There are a few that only distort above a certain frequency level. But as I stated earlier I like parallel signals of clean and dirty.
 
#115
I have an Omnilooper and I think it is a perfect solution. Having used a few compact pedals with tons of ins + outs with separate jacks squeezed in I consider the TRS loop jacks a feature rather than a weakness. As with any cable I just carry a spare in my pedal case. There are a handful of features in the Omnilooper that people may not realize the importance of until they really experiment with this kind of signal chain- for example, being able to move the filter before or after each FX Loop- as many drive pedals don’t sound nearly as good (or can’t attain enough gain) when fed with a high-passed signal. Also the “Low Boost” switch, which I initially thought would be unnecessary but actually really kills when using certain FX combos like aggressive fuzzes in the HPF loop. While the idea of separate footswitches for each band sounds cool (like the Tyler), in practice I’ve found it nearly impossible to get a balanced output when bypassing just a single loop (would require a much more complex design than the Tyler utilizes IMO).
 
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#116
sunbeast said:
I have an Omnilooper and I think it is a perfect solution.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw it. I have no soldering skills, unfortunatelly...

sunbeast said:
While the idea of separate footswitches for each band sounds cool (like the Tyler), in practice I’ve found it nearly impossible to get a balanced output when bypassing just a single loop (would require a much more complex design than the Tyler utilizes IMO).
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw Tyler.
 
#117
So, once you have split your signal up and recombined it, using different alive becomes
Zbysek said:
Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw it. I have no soldering skills, unfortunatelly...



Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw Tyler.
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Yes, it's a shame that those pedals actually have foot switches at all - in many ways they are actually just a utility plug-in and it would be nice to set your routing options and then mount the unit under your pedalboard, hidden away alongside your power supply. I will be switching my channels with my Tech 21 SansAmp Programmable Bass Driver DI (3 channels) in combination with a post-router boost pedal for volume and a touch of high end. This is still all theory, by the way... Have yet to receive my splitter / crossover...
 
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#119
Joe Lonsdale said:
And how do you toggle through the POD settings? Is there another pedal somewhere?
Click to expand...

$_86.jpg
 
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#120
So, my Umbrella Company "Fusion Blender" arrived today - that means tomorrow I will get to try out my new clean-bottom, dirty-top pedal board - I'm very excited! The attached image is my mock up of the new board, minus a boost pedal (probably an MXR MX81) and a full-sized tuner (probably a Peterson Strobocomp or Turbo Tuner).
 

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