How to patch Yamaha SPX90 Multi-effect rack unit?

RecordingMaster

RecordingMaster

A Sarcastic Statement
Hi there. I was going to pick up a Yamaha SPX90 used for a pretty good price since I've heard some cool uses/stories about it from some pros. I checked it out and it looks like there is only one input on the back, and then a pair of stereo outputs. So what I am wondering is, how you'd send stereo sources to it?

I'd normally patch a stereo fx box into my session (to mix in real time with) as if it were a stereo plugin on an aux channel. That way, I can send different tracks to it - like drum overheads (which I usually create a stereo fader for) or guitar bus (which I usually create a stereo fader for) or keyboards (which are sometimes stereo), etc. Sure, if I send a mono source like a vocal to it, that's fine, it will come back from the fx box as a stereo effect (if I've chosen a stereo effect on the box), but I just don't get how any engineers have effectively used this on ANY mix when it only accepts a mono source? makes no sense to me.

Can someone explain?
 
jimmys69 said:
You can't. :(

The unit is mostly used for live setups where there is only a mono send.
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But I've read SO many articles on mix engineers using them. Surely I am missing something? Maybe the pics I am finding online are of a different unit and infact the real SPX90 has stereo ins?
 
I have a SPX90 and I can confirm just one mono input. One think you could do is once you find an effect you like is bounce the left side and right side of a bus separately.
 
I'm sure plenty of plugs sum to mono at the input also. If you want to use it, just use it.

Granted -- That's a pretty "classic" box... I'm not saying it's not usable, but it might sound a little dated.
 
I have an SPX 90 and it still gets used a lot, the plate reverb is a classic on snare (used correctly). I actually send to my rack verbs a mono signal anyway, the stereo out gives a stereo space to the reverb.

The only reason you would need a stereo input is if you were going to reverb a stereo mix as most sends come from a mono track.

Alan.
 
Theoretically....from an audience distance....most instruments become point sources of sound waves. You have to get pretty close to, say, a guitar, to hear differences in tone from the soundhole, body, neck etc.

Those point source sound waves radiate out spherically, sort of, to interact with a listeners two ears, and then, and only then, does ambiance come into play.

Theoretically.

Back in the day when chips were more expensive, and algorythms were plotted by sabre tooth tigers and Neanderthals, the SPX 90 used this approach to craft artificial ambience, one input, stereo outs.

In your DAW this isn't tough to work with, sum a stereo signal to mono by your means of choice, feed the SPX90 with one side of an interface output pair (typically the left is used by convention), and return the stereo ambience to a stereo input.

From this point of view, you are asking for trouble to feed an ambience calculator with a stereo signal, but...modern chips are much more powerful, and ambience algorythmss have...evolved...exponentially, and...

...there's no rule that mandates artificial processes used in the studio follow real world analog laws of physics.

The SPX90 does well enough that many still like it, hook it up as noted above, or...you can feed it from one side of a stereo signal, but you're going to lose part of the source if its true stereo, and not just twin mono.
 
It was normal to have effects boxes like that at the time. Lots of effects processors from that era were single input and stereo out. Part of what the unit does is create an artificial room ambience stereo effect from a mono source. Many other processors from that time and many years on had two inputs but still summed the inputs to mono before processing.

In practical terms you’ll be hard pressed to hear any difference then if the processor maintained stereo from input to output. If you had a hardware mixer (which sounds like you don’t) you would simply use an effects send from one channel of the stereo pair you have linked, or if the right/left sources are very different you could use the effects sends from both right/left channels and balance them to taste.

The SPX90 was my first decent digital effects processor for my home setup. I bought one new when they came out in mid 80’s. It’s the only one I had in my home studio for a couple years and it got the job done. It's good at reverb and delay effects.
 
You are coming from the perspective of running the signal through the effect, like an eq. These were used as a parallel effect, set 100% wet and mixed in with the dry signal, which would remain stereo. Used like that, it doesnt matter that it only has a mono feed because it is only pumping out effect, not touching the original source.
 
Farview said:
You are coming from the perspective of running the signal through the effect, like an eq. These were used as a parallel effect, set 100% wet and mixed in with the dry signal, which would remain stereo. Used like that, it doesnt matter that it only has a mono feed because it is only pumping out effect, not touching the original source.
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Reviving an old thread here but another one second hand has come up for cheap locally. I just though of the same question in this original post which I had totally forgot even asking about (but found it upon a google search of how to patch an spx90 to my interface). I don't care if all I can send is a mono signal anymore, but how would one set this up in a daw?

For example, sending things out to outboard fx via my interface (Echo Audiofire 12 with 12 analog ins/outs)... In Pro Tools, as if I am loading a plugin on an aux track for paralell fx, I select the in/out path, ie: In/out 1 on my interface for mono. or in/out 1+2 for stereo. It goes out of my interface (let's say line output 1), into the piece of gear, out of the gear and back into the corresponding input on my interface (line input 1). I guess I could set it up as a stereo insert (lets say in/out 1/2) but only send signal out of the left output from the daw to the device. So then on say a vocal track, I'd send it to the L output only, then it comes back as stereo, but wouldn't that cut the signal dB of the send by 50%.
 
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I don't use protools, so I'm not sure what they call everything...

You set up an aux send that goes to a mono physical output. Plug that output into the input of the spx90

Set up a stereo input in protools and route that to a stereo track. Plug the outputs of the spx90 to the two inputs on the interface that you routed to your stereo track.

Play the parts that you want reverb on and record what comes out of the spx90.

Now you have recorded the reverb and can unplug the spx90 from the system.

The reverb should be set 100% wet.
 
Farview said:
I don't use protools, so I'm not sure what they call everything...

You set up an aux send that goes to a mono physical output. Plug that output into the input of the spx90

Set up a stereo input in protools and route that to a stereo track. Plug the outputs of the spx90 to the two inputs on the interface that you routed to your stereo track.

Play the parts that you want reverb on and record what comes out of the spx90.

Now you have recorded the reverb and can unplug the spx90 from the system.

The reverb should be set 100% wet.
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Yes, I have the same idea in my head, but I am wondering how I'd use it in real time as an fx insert (on the aux) so i don't need to print it to a new track. Maybe this kind of routing was done much easier on a large format console. Huh. Meh
 
In cubase and nuendo, they have that functionality. It is a specific features that compensates for the latency and let's you do this.

Since I don't use protools, I simply don't know if it has that feature or not.

I would still print it. If you have to.come back to the project a few months later, you will have to set the whole thing up again AND make all the tweaks in the spx90 just to get back where you were...

Nothing gets saved to outboard for recall.
 
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