Stereo outputs

  • Thread starter Thread starter thebigcheese
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thebigcheese

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
So I just got a bunch of Digitech pedals--the Distortion Factory, Hyper Phase, and DigiDelay, if you must know--and all of them have stereo outputs, which seems like a good time saver vs. doubling guitars in the mix, so I guess the question with that then is how do I get them all going into just one stereo mix on my mixer? Should I just use splitters or whatever to put the three outputs into one input on the mixer? Or should I connect them separate and use busses to mix it all down? Now that I think about it, this is probably a dumb question anyway... But I'd like to hear your takes on it. Thanks!
 
The only way to do it is with a line mixer.

It is a pretty bad idea to do this because most of these things (especially the chorus and flangers) reverse the phase of one side. This will give you a stereo image that will be pretty weak sounding and completely disappear in mono. That's a bad thing. Just play your parts twice, it will always be much stronger.
 
Well, I was asking because of the delay especially, which has some ping-pong things you can do with it in stereo. I'm not sure how much I would end up liking that in an actual recording, but it might be fun to play around with, and it would be an annoying pain to have to pan it all myself.
 
If you are recording on a computer, just play the guitar without the effect then insert a ping-pong delay.

You can always use the pedal as a send effect on a 4 track.
 
so even mixing down to busses on my mixer wouldn't work? Even if, assuming I had a nicer mixer than I do, I could switch the phase of the inputs?
 
If you switch the phase of the outputs, it wouldn't be stereo anymore. The phase difference is the only difference between the left and right.
 
thebigcheese said:
So I just got a bunch of Digitech pedals--the Distortion Factory, Hyper Phase, and DigiDelay, if you must know--and all of them have stereo outputs, which seems like a good time saver vs. doubling guitars in the mix, so I guess the question with that then is how do I get them all going into just one stereo mix on my mixer? Should I just use splitters or whatever to put the three outputs into one input on the mixer? Or should I connect them separate and use busses to mix it all down? Now that I think about it, this is probably a dumb question anyway... But I'd like to hear your takes on it. Thanks!
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The problem as I see it is that those boxen all have mono inputs (don't they?). If you use more than one of them in series, which output of the previous box in the chain do you use as the input of the next one? No matter how you mix the outputs, it won't be the same as a chain of FX with stereo ins and outs. Not that it couldn't possibly sound good, just not the same.
 
Farview said:
If you switch the phase of the outputs, it wouldn't be stereo anymore. The phase difference is the only difference between the left and right.
Click to expand...

No kidding? Hmmm. Learn something new everyday on this board!
 
thebigcheese said:
So I just got a bunch of Digitech pedals--the Distortion Factory, Hyper Phase, and DigiDelay, if you must know--and all of them have stereo outputs, which seems like a good time saver vs. doubling guitars in the mix, so I guess the question with that then is how do I get them all going into just one stereo mix on my mixer? Should I just use splitters or whatever to put the three outputs into one input on the mixer? Or should I connect them separate and use busses to mix it all down? Now that I think about it, this is probably a dumb question anyway... But I'd like to hear your takes on it. Thanks!
Click to expand...

What I don't understand about your question is that you're getting 3 outputs, as opposed to 2 (stereo).

Assuming you can record 2 channels at once with whatever you're recording on, record the left and right outs of the effect to separate channels....then pan each channel how you want....1 hard left, the other hard right, or whatever.

Using a mixer, you'd end up with the same thing....one output of your effect going to one channel, the other output going to another. Then pan them in the mixer however you want. The stereo outs of the mixer will be your left & right channels.
 
I meant that I have three pedals, each is stereo, so I would end up with 3 extra outputs. I was thinking I could just route the one output that goes through all the pedals to one channel, then the three different stereo ones into other channels, and mix that all down to left and right on the mixer. I don't fully understand phase, but I feel like that ought to work.
 
thebigcheese said:
I meant that I have three pedals, each is stereo, so I would end up with 3 extra outputs. I was thinking I could just route the one output that goes through all the pedals to one channel, then the three different stereo ones into other channels, and mix that all down to left and right on the mixer. I don't fully understand phase, but I feel like that ought to work.
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So try it. Check it in mono to see if the sound disappears at certain parts of the sweep.
 
I'm suprised noone has brought this up, this won't work for 'doubling' your guitar tracks. The reason doubled tracks, be it guitars vocals or whatever, sound the way they do is because of the slight differences [or sometimes not so slight] in the two tracks. These differences are not nearly as perfect of an oposition as phase inversion so that won't give the desired result either. What you're going to get by using the stereo outs to two seprate tracks is the same waveform going to both channels. This would be akin to duplicating the track in your DAW or cut and pasting the same waveform to a second track and panning them hard left and right. This yeilds the same sound coming out of both speakers which gives you a mono signal and what you're going to hear is one guitar track dead center.

The stereo outs would NOT be useless if you wanted stereo effects such as a chorus that panned left and right, stereo delays, rotary simulations ect. but it's not going to give you that double tracked effect.
 
That's not entirely true. I've been doubling tracks in Pro Tools by making a second track with a very slight delay. It doesn't get you the nice differences between tracks, but it's easier if it's just a temporary solution. There are various "wideness" settings on these pedals, so I'm imagining they do something similar, but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

On the other hand, we've got two guitarists anyway, so if we're playing the same part, it'd be easier to just double it with the pedals. If anyone's ever interested enough to want to hear back on this, I can post a track, but it's going to be a while (didn't want to bring my mixer to school... takes up too much space).
 
thebigcheese said:
On the other hand, we've got two guitarists anyway, so if we're playing the same part, it'd be easier to just double it with the pedals.
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Why don't you just take the 5 minutes to play it again? (or have the other guitarist play it) It will sound much better that way.
 
I dunno... just curiosity to see if it will work. Plus, we always mess up, and it ends up being another like half hour to get another good take.
 
Even the half hour is worth it. Think of it this way, you will get a better recording and it will force both guitar players to know what they are playing. This will make the band tighter, make your shows better, and attract a better class of groupie. Everyone wins when you just do the work. Shortcuts are for hacks.
 
Farview said:
Even the half hour is worth it. Think of it this way, you will get a better recording and it will force both guitar players to know what they are playing. This will make the band tighter, make your shows better, and attract a better class of groupie. Everyone wins when you just do the work. Shortcuts are for hacks.
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Totally!

Hard work and dedication aren't some of the characteristics the newer generation are known for though.
 
ez_willis said:
Totally!

Hard work and dedication aren't some of the characteristics the newer generation are known for though.
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They used to say that about our generation too.


Now it's true, of course. Back then, about us, it wasn't.
 
Hey, there's nothing wrong with trying to make life easier. We've got two guitarists anyway, so I like to double both to get a really sweet sound. In that sense, we get differences in the playing anyway. I might rerecord anyway, when I'm going for a final version, to see how it sounds with lots of different types of sounds... anyway, thanks guys. We'll see how it goes.
 
If you start piling up more than 3 tracks playing the same thing, you will end up with a thinner guitar sound.
 
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