Unbalanced gear to run with our unbalanced decks!

D

drrats

New member
Hi everyone

I'm back again. I missed out on the trs 8, but I found a Tascam M308 and I think I've got a Tascam 38 on the way.

What unbalanced gear goes well with this sort of setup? First thought that comes to mind is FMR's RNC. Maybe we should get a list going? Or can come someone link me to a list already compiled?

Also, as the signal is unbalanced will I be able to run guitar FX pedals in the inserts etc? I have a lot of pedals but I don't want to fry them...

Thanks
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Sound System Interconnection
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Thanks for the link. Good info. So most people are using standard pro gear in their setups?

I was hoping people might be able to think of some good unbalanced gear that while might be getting ragged on by 'pros', is unique and useful, especially to us. I was think the FMR RNC would be such a thing. Also my Roland SP404sx sampler with its effects section is pretty nice too!
 
There's cheap gear with balanced connections and there's expensive gear with unbalanced connections. Use whatever works. Besides balanced signal there's also variation in signal level, the main two being -10dBV and +4dBu, that you have to account for.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
There's cheap gear with balanced connections and there's expensive gear with unbalanced connections. Use whatever works. Besides balanced signal there's also variation in signal level, the main two being -10dBV and +4dBu, that you have to account for.
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Yeah tbh honest I understand the difference between balanced and unbalanced. Perhaps I should have been more specific. I suppose I was more just hoping some people might have some recommendations on some interesting unbalanced gear the 'pro' people would normal shy away from due to problems linking multiple units in a chain etc. I think my sp404sx would be awesome to use on the master bus and inserts with all the effects and it's tactile interface, but it gets written off by the pro crowd all the time. I know most gearslutz would never think to use it in such a way. I just thought there might be some mavericks on here using some left field things is all. Once you're not too concerned about having xlrs on everything there's a lot of interesting things you can use.
 
I have a Strymon blue sky reverb pedal that I regularly insert into the console.
I particularly like using it on snares. I love it so much I wish they made it into a rack unit.

Most pedals work well with a console provided they aren't noisy.


Forget the gearslutz opinions and nose up-turning. Feel free to experiment. Use what you have to create interesting sounds. If it sounds good to you, it probably is good.

Besides, you may stumble upon something that's the envy of all the other kids. :D
 
RFR said:
I have a Strymon blue sky reverb pedal that I regularly insert into the console.
I particularly like using it on snares. I love it so much I wish they made it into a rack unit.
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Oh! I used one on the new album. My biggest beef with it was that it defaults to bypass, but I did discover a workaround.
Almost certainly voids your warranty but if anyone does want to run one permanently on a console, what you do is this:
1. Take the pedal apart, you may find that removing the bypass switch helps matters.
2. Find where the bypass switch plugs into the mainboard, and unplug it.
3. Next step is to short out the connector. The best and safest way is to use one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumper_(computing) ...the connector is exactly the right size. It also means that you can remove it and put the bypass cable back afterwards if you so wish.

...once reassembled, the pedal will switch out of bypass mode. I must point out that what we're actually doing is holding the bypass button down forever, and that when you boot up the pedal with the bypass button held down it's actually toggling the bypass mode between Trails and Hard bypass. Since this is for a permanent installation it makes no difference, though I'm not sure what the long-term effects will be. It may be that in 10-20 years the flash memory holding the bypass state will have burned out, but frankly I'd expect the program code to have leaked out of the flash by then anyway.
 
Nice! Well I've never heard anything Strymon that sounds bad so I'm sure it sounds amazing. I have a Boss RV5 that I could use as reverb but it does have a cold sort of sound. Super huge ambient reverb/delays though. Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced pedal spring reverb pedal that isn't too noisey? Or just a reasonably priced super tweakable reverb pedal (that doesn't cost strymon prices! haha). With the kind of things I'm going to be doing, it's not too important that I have a Lexicon.

How do boss pedals go as far as noise is concerned? I'm going to need some basic workhorse pedals for delay, flanger etc.

If anyone has any come across some interesting way of using pedals with their console, please do chime in!
 
is anyone using eventide stuff? I could see this working really really well.

Also, anyone know if the tascam m308 has enough signal at -10db to drive a spring reverb tank by itself? hmm...
 
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I've happily used the old boss blue chorus pedal a bunch. I like the old mono one, not the newer stereo.

I'd run a send from the guitar channel on the board into the chorus and bring the output of the chorus into a free channel.
Blend and pan to taste. Sounds lovely.
 
RFR said:
I've happily used the old boss blue chorus pedal a bunch. I like the old mono one, not the newer stereo.

I'd run a send from the guitar channel on the board into the chorus and bring the output of the chorus into a free channel.
Blend and pan to taste. Sounds lovely.
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This is good news as this is the chorus I have! The Chorus Ensemble CS5. As used by all the bands in the 80s.
 
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