Silent Fly

I used to have a RC-2 and now I have a RC-3. Personally, I think the RC-3 is a step forward. Apart from the fact that it is stereo and it has 99 memory locations, it is easier to use. To answer your question, yes. You can download loops from the RC-3 to your PC and vice versa. I never tried but according to the manual, if they are in right format (WAV, 16-bit linear, stereo, 44.1 kHz) the RC-3 will play them.

My recommendation is use a DI as a DI and a headphone amplifier as a headphone amplifier. The circuits are different and the they are designed to drive different loads. Providing the DI can deliver the full range of frequencies to the hardphones, you may and you damaging the DI connecting a headphone to the output. The same applies the pedals. Unless the builder says otherwise, they are not designed to drive headphones.

[quote name='owen' post='1206537' date='Apr 20 2011, 10:40 PM']It is not personal curiosity. We all want to know![/quote]

[quote name='DanOwens' post='1206459' date='Apr 20 2011, 09:39 PM']So Liam is in awe of your genii. To the point where he's asked me to ask you (Max mainly but everyone please pitch): How much for a simple mixer with 50 inputs? No level control, just summing 50 piezo sources. Dan[/quote] "Simple" and "50 high impedance sources" are somehow not entirely compatible I would recommend Liam to contact me directly to discuss the details. My email address is in my signature. Just as a personal curiosity, what is the source(s) of the 50 piezo?

[quote name='MarkBassChat' post='1206347' date='Apr 20 2011, 08:09 PM']Dan, I'm not sure what you mean by piezo-mics. Is it a set of piezo transducers e.g. for a drum kit, or is it for a guitar? Connecting piezo transducers in parallel is widely used by piezo bridge manufacturers. If you look at this: [url="http://www.shopping.com/Graph-Tech-Graph-Tech-Ghost-LB-63-Floyd-Bridge-with-Piezo-Pickups-Gold/info"]http://www.shopping.com/Graph-Tech-Graph-T...ckups-Gold/info[/url] you will see that 6 piezo transducers are connected in parallel and the output goes to a preamp. There are two conditions when you do it: the wires have to be very short (15 cm max), and the input impedance of the preamp has to be very high (e.g. 10 MOhms). Otherwise it will sound bad. There are no such problems like described above (one transducer vibrating cause another transducer vibrate), or voltage drops down. Voltage divider is when you have two components in series and here you have 6 components in parallel. Make a search on piezo buffers or Ghost piezo bridges. Some companies make buffers where every piezo element has a separated input (e.g. Ghost - for a MIDI preamp) but ,as you can see with other Ghost bridges, it is not required. Just two days ago I installed a piezo bridge in my colleague's guitar and it sounded great - almost like an acoustic guitar. But remember what is needed: short wires and high impedance buffer. Mark[/quote] I am sure that your experience in connecting in parallel multiple piezo pickups has been positive – only you can tell it. However, there is one thing on which I respectfully disagree: there is a voltage divider. It is true, as you said, that a voltage divider is when you have al least two passive components connected in series. [i]This is exactly what happens.[/i] The 7 pickups that do not generate signal are connected in parallel but for the [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9venin%27s_theorem"]Thévenin's theorem[/url] they are equivalent to 7 impedances in parallel. The equivalent impedance is Z/7. If you look at [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_divider"]Wikipedia[/url] figure 1, Z2=Z/7 and Z1=Z (where Z is the impedance of each transducer), Vin is the voltage generated by pickup #1. For the Thévenin's theorem and the voltage divider equation, Vo/Vi = 1/8 regardless the value of Z. Having said that, if there is a voltage drop, it doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad thing. If the piezo transducers can generate enough voltage, the voltage drop can be within reasonable limits. It can also be compensated by increasing the gain on the preamp. Moreover, considering they are piezo transducers, the inductive effects are probably zero. The high output impedance also offers some form of isolation from capacitive effects. I am convinced that an active mixer would sound better than a simple parallel connection but I must admit that I never tried an A/B comparison.

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='1206277' date='Apr 20 2011, 07:01 PM']This is the inside of my bass. There's a blue and a white wire going to each pickup, where should I put the capacitor ? I'm not really sure what you mean by in parallel . I'm not really bothered about being able to adjust it. I really just want the effect of a passive tone control all the way off. Would I need two capacitors, one for each pickup ? I've sent you an email asking about your builds by the way, they look very cool .[/quote] It depends on how the electronic operates but to be on the safe side, I would use two capacitors. One for each pickup. If each pickup has a two wires (blue and white) you need to connect one leg of the capacitor to the blue wire and the other to the blue white. Do not disconnect any wire between pickup and pots/circuit. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_and_parallel_circuits"]Parallel connections[/url] are like the strings of your bass: all the strings are connected on one side to the headstock, on the other side to the bridge. In [i]series[/i] means they are one after the other, like the carriages of a train. [quote name='Soliloquy' post='1206277' date='Apr 20 2011, 07:01 PM']I've sent you an email asking about your builds by the way, they look very cool .[/quote] Thanks for the kind words Soliloquy - if I understand who you are I just replied.

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='1206217' date='Apr 20 2011, 06:27 PM'](...) what you're got there is 2 capacitors, is that right ? (...)[/quote] Yes - it is exacly what it is. The value of the two capacitors depends on the pickup type and model. [quote name='Soliloquy' post='1206217' date='Apr 20 2011, 06:27 PM']Are they just in line with one wire from the pick up ?[/quote] I am not sure I get what you mean by "in line with one wire". They are connected in parallel to the pickup. It can be done with just one capacitor and a simple switch or with a potentiomenter and a capacitor like a standard tone control. [quote name='Soliloquy' post='1206217' date='Apr 20 2011, 06:27 PM']I don't want it switched, the bass doesn't have a scratchplate.[/quote] It can be implemented in different ways. It can also be done with a push-pull on the volume.

[quote name='DanOwens' post='1205928' date='Apr 20 2011, 03:04 PM'](...) Just out of curiosity, could you explain how the impedance will negatively effect this setup (I know it will, and that was my first thought, but I don't know why...). Dan[/quote] The simpler way of describe the problem is this. Let's assume that only on pickup generates signal (pu#1) the other pickups (pu#2 to up#8) are totaly silent. If a generator (pu#2-8 in this case) produces zero voltage it is equivalent to its internal resistance (i.e. output impedance). In other words the circuit is: pickup #1: produces signal and it has an output impedance of Z pickup #2 to #8 are like 7 loads in parallel from the pu#1. The total load that pu#1 sees is Z/7. If you apply the [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_divider"]voltage divider[/url] formula the attenuation is: Vout/Vin = 1/8 which is roughy -18dB. This before applying any real load to the pickups like for example an amp input. Things are slightly more complicated because of the capacitive and inductive effects but you get the idea.

The simpler way is probably [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=124651"]this[/url]. The problem in adding passive tone control with active circuits is that to get the full effect they should be just after the pickup (i.e. before the active circuit). Even with active pickups like EMG that are sold with passive tone control, the effect of the tone is not [i]exactly[/i] like a passive tone applied to passive pickups. The main reason is that the active electronics isolates the inductance of the pickup’s coils and it doesn't allow the interaction between the pickup and capacitor. For a simple treble cut-off is usually not a problem but it is not exactly the same thing.