Strymon Lex rotary pedal and GCX/System Mix Plus question

[gerax]

Hi

I'm trying to incorporate a Strymon Lex rotary emulator pedal into my system which has 2 amp heads, a couple more stomps (in GCX loops) and a pair of FX processors hooked up to a System Mix Plus (Mix 2 and 3).

I'd like the Strymon to be in the GCX loops (being a pedal) so that I could put reverb and other FX on its rotary signal, but the Strymon is mono in/stereo out, and I'd like to use it in stereo so the leslie effect spreads out the 2 channels.

I thought about putting it in one of the System Mix Plus sends, but am I going to get into some impedance issues hooking it up that way?

The serie right now it's like this:

buffered guitar in> compressor stomp (loop 1)> Plexi stomp (loop 2)> Y split to preamp 1 and 2> return select (loop 3) > Tremolo pedal (loop 4)> dBx rack comp 1 (loop 5)> Strymon Lex Rotary (loop 6)?? (to what??) > to VCA in on SMP > Mix1 in 1

Loops 7/8 are used for stereo Boomerang looper getting Mix 1 out from SMP and going to Mix 2 in 1 of SMP (so that it can be switched out while still playing loops back onto power amp.

Hope that makes sanes...

What's the best way to hook it up, should I modify the GCX loops to stereo?

[JohnClark]

Well, you could run the outputs of the Lex to both inputs of the VCA, use the VCA in Stereo Mode and feed both the Left and Right inputs of Mix 1 In 1... but without a second free mono GCX Loop you will not be able to switch it in and out of the signal path. The GCX Stereo Mod will convert four of the GCX Loops to stereo if you want to go that route. try routing the pedal without going through the GCX Loop(s) first to decide if you like how it reacts being placed after the preamp sections.

I hope that helps!

[gerax]

Hi John

Resurrecting this topic from a few months back...

I thought about that, and let' say I'd have 4 of the GCX loops modified to stereo. That would take care of the Lex switching within the GCX. But then there's another issue I can' get over: if I get out of the last loop from the GCX (let's say it's loop 7 as the 8 is still engaged with the Boomerang looper pedal, now in stereo) and route it to the STEREO VCA control on the SMP, then also STEREO to Mix 1 In 1, then how can I drive the 2 FX processors (Lexicon MPX-1 and Eventide Eclipse) if the Passive Split jacks only accept mono signals? I could just route one channel to FX 1 and the other to FX 2 but that would mean processing only one side of the stereo incoming signal if you understand what I'm saying...

Thanx

[JohnClark]

Ah-Ha... but the Passive Split will in fact be stereo. Once you connect to the Mix 1 In 1 Right, it breaks the Normal connection that would otherwise have the lower Passive Split jack produce the same signal as the upper Passive Split jack. If you went this route, you would simply use Y-Cables to feed both processors.

[gerax]

OK, cool.

Le me see if I got this right: with 4 GCX loops modified to stereo I can run the Lex in stereo, go LR from it's stereo switcher out to the VCA on the DMC stereo in. Then stereo in to the Mix 1 In 1 and use two Y cables from the 2 passive splits so that the 2 L channels go to the L inputs on FX 1 & 2 and the 2 R channels go to the R inputs on FX 1 & 2. Is that correct?

Do you think that splitting the signal with the Y cables will cause any issues to the signal: noise, ground loops, s/n ratio...?

Thanx, that looks like a solution.

[JohnClark]

OK, cool.

Le me see if I got this right: with 4 GCX loops modified to stereo I can run the Lex in stereo, go LR from it's stereo switcher out to the VCA on the DMC stereo in. Then stereo in to the Mix 1 In 1 and use two Y cables from the 2 passive splits so that the 2 L channels go to the L inputs on FX 1 & 2 and the 2 R channels go to the R inputs on FX 1 & 2. Is that correct?

Correct.

Do you think that splitting the signal with the Y cables will cause any issues to the signal: noise, ground loops, s/n ratio...

The source of this signal is one of two preamp outputs. There should be no problem splitting this line level signal.


Now go plug this stuff in and try it out already!