richard_2277
New member
I am a former studio-owner that always practiced the rule of keeping my cabling high-end (like 'balanced, thick gauge, SPDIF, fire-wire' etc). Because of noise problems (grounding, phasing etc), I was always warned to avoid unbalanced connections. Of course, it makes sense if trying to achieve record-quality tone.
So anyway...these days, I have washed my hands of the recording world because I just want to play more and engineer less; I sold all my studio gear in order to replace it all with high-end and portable live gear. I will let some other band member collect and use all the studio stuff (ha ha).
I now own a pair of QSC K-8 powered speakers. I also just ordered a D-Tar Solstice pre-amp. Between the two, I remain in a balanced-cable atmosphere; the Solstice is my DI and I feed my powered speakers with Mogami balanced cabling...yeah baby!
But, now I am tempted to ad a high-end modulation delay pedal to this rig (and it needs to be connected in stereo, not possible if I want to run my guitar with both pick-ups, because the Solstice effects loop will no longer have full stereo functionality, internally). So, my idea was to run out of the Solstice (balanced mono, after i blend my two pick-ups), then into a delay unit (dreaming of balanced, he he), and then run out of that delay (balanced still) and out into my powered speakers...never breaking the chain of a balanced signal-flow. This is what i did with older rack gear rigs (when no pre-amp effects-loop was available).
Sadly, most floor-unit effects are only built with UN balanced connections. And, I am not aware of a half-rack sized processor that only does high-end delay only...are you? The only unit I see out there with balanced-ports is the TC Nova ND-1 delay. I know that unit is good but I am drooling at a few other more recent additions to the market....and those units are all UN balanced...bummer! I don't really want to ad tons of extra wiring-mods or transformers to this new rig. In the beginning, I was really trying to keep it simple! So, this post it to ask 2 questions:
1) First, are you all aware of any other pedal or half-rack type delays that are balanced?
2) Second, do any of you have any ideas on how else I could manage here? Could things be done in a better way (other than my Solstice)?
Remember, whatever system I build up needs to have dual input with separate EQ for each pick up (my piezo & my internal condenser mic). This is why i had to get the D-tar Solstice. For a while, I was thinking to use a Line 6 HD (but I am worried that quality of those pre-amps, EQ and delay will suck, compared to the Solstice & a nice delay). The Rockron floor units are nice too but, they do not have dual in's.
This is very frustrating to me. I do not want to dive back into the world of pedal-processing if it means accepting unbalanced noise issues! And, I would rather not start building up another rack full of gadgets when I just got through selling off that kind of stuff. I travel on the airlines a lot and do not need tons of cabling and hardware again (yuck)! I tried that TC G-natural unit (but it totally sucked).
Ultimately, I wish I could find a high end 1/2 rack or larger floor unit that does killer tape/modulation delay and also has balanced connections..
So anyway...these days, I have washed my hands of the recording world because I just want to play more and engineer less; I sold all my studio gear in order to replace it all with high-end and portable live gear. I will let some other band member collect and use all the studio stuff (ha ha).
I now own a pair of QSC K-8 powered speakers. I also just ordered a D-Tar Solstice pre-amp. Between the two, I remain in a balanced-cable atmosphere; the Solstice is my DI and I feed my powered speakers with Mogami balanced cabling...yeah baby!
But, now I am tempted to ad a high-end modulation delay pedal to this rig (and it needs to be connected in stereo, not possible if I want to run my guitar with both pick-ups, because the Solstice effects loop will no longer have full stereo functionality, internally). So, my idea was to run out of the Solstice (balanced mono, after i blend my two pick-ups), then into a delay unit (dreaming of balanced, he he), and then run out of that delay (balanced still) and out into my powered speakers...never breaking the chain of a balanced signal-flow. This is what i did with older rack gear rigs (when no pre-amp effects-loop was available).
Sadly, most floor-unit effects are only built with UN balanced connections. And, I am not aware of a half-rack sized processor that only does high-end delay only...are you? The only unit I see out there with balanced-ports is the TC Nova ND-1 delay. I know that unit is good but I am drooling at a few other more recent additions to the market....and those units are all UN balanced...bummer! I don't really want to ad tons of extra wiring-mods or transformers to this new rig. In the beginning, I was really trying to keep it simple! So, this post it to ask 2 questions:
1) First, are you all aware of any other pedal or half-rack type delays that are balanced?
2) Second, do any of you have any ideas on how else I could manage here? Could things be done in a better way (other than my Solstice)?
Remember, whatever system I build up needs to have dual input with separate EQ for each pick up (my piezo & my internal condenser mic). This is why i had to get the D-tar Solstice. For a while, I was thinking to use a Line 6 HD (but I am worried that quality of those pre-amps, EQ and delay will suck, compared to the Solstice & a nice delay). The Rockron floor units are nice too but, they do not have dual in's.
This is very frustrating to me. I do not want to dive back into the world of pedal-processing if it means accepting unbalanced noise issues! And, I would rather not start building up another rack full of gadgets when I just got through selling off that kind of stuff. I travel on the airlines a lot and do not need tons of cabling and hardware again (yuck)! I tried that TC G-natural unit (but it totally sucked).
Ultimately, I wish I could find a high end 1/2 rack or larger floor unit that does killer tape/modulation delay and also has balanced connections..
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