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A/B/Y pedals and blend pedals. Is this a viable setup?


lidl e
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Bass->compressor->A/B/Y pedal

 

A->effects chain -> blend pedal

B -> Blend pedal.

 

The idea being able to always blend a clean tone into a dirty signal.

 

I assume this is a thing? Is this what people are using DI pedals for? I stepped away from buying gear for a few years and now everyone is crazy for DIs and preamps on their boards.

 

I figure something like an ehx switchblade up front and i found this pedal which is a blend pedal with expression pedal control of the blend.

 

https://www.thomann.de/ie/one_control_mosquito_wet_dry_fx_blender.htm

 

(edit:actually this pedal looks like it can act as a/b/y and blend since it has an effects loop.

 

This seems like a perfect solution.

 

Is this something obvious that everyone is doing? Are there any drawbacks?

Edited by lidl e
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The trouble with blending fx DIY is the fact that some fx return their signal distinctly out of phase from the clean input. An out of phase effected signal blended with the clean sounds like the backside of Satan himself served up with a side of week old offal. There are multi channel blenders that account for this with a 180 switch on the return. Have at it.

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10 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

The trouble with blending fx DIY is the fact that some fx return their signal distinctly out of phase from the clean input. An out of phase effected signal blended with the clean sounds like the backside of Satan himself served up with a side of week old offal. There are multi channel blenders that account for this with a 180 switch on the return. Have at it.

See, now these are the details i dont really understand. 

 

Ive been playing a long time and using effects almost as long, but i still dont understand what this means. This isnt an electonic term, right? Does this refer to a micro delay between clean and dirty outputs that causes the phased effect?

 

And what is a 180 switch?

 

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2 hours ago, lidl e said:

See, now these are the details i dont really understand. 

 

Ive been playing a long time and using effects almost as long, but i still dont understand what this means. This isnt an electonic term, right? Does this refer to a micro delay between clean and dirty outputs that causes the phased effect?

 

And what is a 180 switch?

 

180 switch is a phase reversal option that fully corrects a 180° phase inversion, keeping in mind some pedals are odd amount shifting.

 

Phase is indeed an electronic phenomenon. If I understood it properly I might have become an electrical engineer.

 

If you throw a tennis ball against the ground so it bounces against a wall and loops back to drop into your hand and threw another as it was hitting the wall then the two balls are out of phase with respect to their altitude 'signals' by crudely 180°. Ignoring the crudeness we could look at ideally thrown and bouncing balls...

 

Now if your mate stands further back and throws his ball harder so it bounces higher but comes back to his hand at the same time as yours you are in phase and the sound of your ball has a higher pitch added on top of the original. But if instead your mate throws his up against the wall and it bounces back to him off the ground you get a cacophony of bounces.

 

Importantly, unlike tennis balls bouncing the brain does not notice small discrepancies of phase when summing audio. Nor does it notice differences in phase reproduction across the spectrum.

 

 

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15 hours ago, fmb said:

I'd go with an Electro Harmonix Switchblade Pro DLX.

It's got blendable clean, return A and return B, can do serial chain if wanted and even has phase shift switches (need to open the pedal).

reading more about it, i think this is exactly what i need!

.

 

i'm trying to figure out if the series/parallel switch would help with the phase issue

 

cheers.

Edited by lidl e
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2 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

EHX Tri Parallel Mixer  :

 

TriParMix-large.jpg

 

 

i just saw that. it seems this is a viable idea since there seem to be dozens fo solutions for just what i'm looking for. i'm gonna check out how this is different than the switchblade

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7 hours ago, lidl e said:

reading more about it, i think this is exactly what i need!

.

 

i'm trying to figure out if the series/parallel switch would help with the phase issue

 

cheers.

The phase isssue is managed with internal switches (you need to open the pedal).

The series/parallel switch is used to determine how the input signal is routed through the A and B FX loops: in SERIES the FX loops are cascaded into one another, in PARALLEL mode the input signal is routed to the A and B FX loops simultaneously and you can mix them at the output.

 

https://www.ehx.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Switchblade-Pro-Manual-2021-03-19.pdf

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10 hours ago, GremlinAndy said:

Although a bit pricey, I use the Gig Rig ‘Wetter Box’ with an expression pedal. There’s a phase invert switch on the side, and each channel has a volume for matching the output to the input.  
Nice bit of kit.   👍

Yeah, that looks perfect, but as far as I can see the only difference between the LS2 or the switchblade pro is the expression pedal input which admittedly is an excellent useful feature, but is it worth the extra 200 quid?

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4 hours ago, lidl e said:

Yeah, that looks perfect, but as far as I can see the only difference between the LS2 or the switchblade pro is the expression pedal input which admittedly is an excellent useful feature, but is it worth the extra 200 quid?

I doubt it is for everyone.    I tend to be the singer and bassist, (when I’m in a band) so I tend to have to do the talking too.   I really needed the ability to just change the balance on the fly without all the bending down.    Plus, I’m too old these days for all the bending down.   LOL!  Definitely worth it for me.

 

(Plus, you can get an LS2 for peanuts from eBay.    They come around pretty often.)

Edited by GremlinAndy
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I dunno if anyone here is interested, but I thought it might be worth mentioning that there’s a nice Xotic X Blender pedal for sale in the forums atm.

what I like about this is that it has EQ pots on it.   Not cheap, compared to a Boss, but the EQ functionality might be what someone is looking for.

 

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/473741-tech-21-xotic-line-6-mxr-keeley-way-huge-tc-electronic/


I have no personal experience of these, but it was something I was looking at until I decided the functionality of the Wetter Box better suited my needs.

Edited by GremlinAndy
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 13/01/2023 at 05:51, fmb said:

The phase isssue is managed with internal switches (you need to open the pedal).

The series/parallel switch is used to determine how the input signal is routed through the A and B FX loops: in SERIES the FX loops are cascaded into one another, in PARALLEL mode the input signal is routed to the A and B FX loops simultaneously and you can mix them at the output.

 

https://www.ehx.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Switchblade-Pro-Manual-2021-03-19.pdf

Received my switchblade pro today.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.  It's exactly what i was looking for!

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  • 2 months later...

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