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Location: New Jersey | I have been experimenting with various effects to get the best sound/tone. I have 1982 6 string and 2002 12 string Balladeers playing thru California Blonde with following effects:
Boss Compressor CE-3
Boss Digital Delay DD-3
Boss Chorus Ensempble CE-3
LR Baggs Para acoustic DI
These effects do make a difference; depending on the song, I do get great sound after spending lot of time noodling with the knobs.
I am trying to see if I could get even better overall acoutic tone. Any thoughts on how you would arrange these effects in the signal chain.
I have it as ---
guitar -> CS-3 -> DD-3 -> CE-3 -> DI -> Amp
Peace
Bluerav |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | The best I ever heard was a request by James Taylor. With the sterio option wire the strings EAD, GBE and run the bass clean and the treble through a chorus and put them both back in the same amp. Sure sounded good when he did it. It was on an Adamas. He didn't take the guitar, just said, "Thanks, that was interesting".
Win some, loose some. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | My Adamas stereo is wired with alternating strings: EDB left and AGE right. How or why would anyone use that? Dave |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | I used to have a compilation cd back in the early '90's (put out by the guitar for the practicing musician magazine). It was laced with shredders of the time. Anyway, there was this one "classical" style piece by Steve Morse that was just unbelievable. He used a stereo pickup with alternate strings panned left and right in the mix, and that really made the piece incredible. Though it was one guitar fingerpicked impressively, the stereo panning of the alternate strings created the illusion that several guitars were playing. It was amazing through headphones too. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Looks like your chain is fine. Compression is good up front, get a nice solid signal into the effects as volume and attack change the result of some effects to something unpleasant. I would however, with an acoustic, use the compressor sparingly. A comp can really suck the life out of a dynamic performance by taking away all of the natural dynamics. Many folks use a compressor when they want to use a limiter or enhancer too.. but I digress.
Putting the delay next is good as it should be before Chorus which is also a time-based effect. After can be fun... but.. not as useable.
The Placement of the DI really depends on what you are doing with the other effects, but at the end is a good bet. I assume you are going into your amp with the DI output to a PA.
As I said, looks good, but you may want to experiment for fun. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | The thought on the alternate sterio was to give a much fuller sound when strumming a chord, different parts hit you from either side and the effect is a much fuller sound. |
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Location: NJ | I always thought of that as an interesting concept. I do a lot of "rolling" fingerpicking, and it would be interesting hearing that utilzing this feature. Never tried it, but I'll have to make a point to do so sometime.
(Anybody bringing a stereo guitar to OFC'04?) ;)
Am I wrong in this assumption Bill, or did Jesse Colin Young have something to do with developing this? I thought I read that somewhere. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | The idea of alternating the strings left and right like described is also an old "psuedo stereo" trick in recording. Run a mono (or even a stereo one for more dramatic affect) signal into a stereo EQ. Then, on one channel, lets say left, move each slider alternating up and down +6 -6 +6 -6 +6 then on the other channel, do the same but to the opposite sliders -6 +6 -6 +6 -6. It makes the signal "sound" stereo (or wider) because different frequencies are being enhanced on different sides. |
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Location: New Jersey | Thanks for all yours suggestions. I have read about stereo wiring and this is one of my to do list.
Miles, I use only slight compression, enough to smooth out the peaks; the attack is set at 9 'O' clock with sustain at 11 this evens out the tone specially during chord work. I don't use delay over 50ms, gives a reverb type effect. Yes, I do split the line out to the amp and from DI to PA.
Peace
Bluerav |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | The order of the effects is important. The general rule is anything which changes gain, such as a compressor, should be at the start of the chain (if they are put at the end they can amplify noise) Best bet would be compressor, chorus, delay, though the order of time/modulation FX is not crucial. You could also use an insert cable to put the effects into the FX loop on the Baggs DI
Another option would be to use the effects (but not the Baggs) in the FX loop of the amp |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Jesse didn't have anything to do with developing that but he probably used it very well. Can't remember who was working with us if anyone. I think it was one of those engineering things "we offer it because we can". Be interesting to see when this was first introduced and who the big endorsees were then, yes there used to be lots of them.
One was probably George McCannon who played alot locally and was always hanging out at the factory. |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | Paul T-
In the chain of effects, which should go first, a compressor or aural exciter/spectral enhancer? They both effect gain.
Just curious. Had them as rack effects for mixdown for my tascam 488 (cassette format multitrack) years ago, as it was always a real chore to get the mixdown to sound good to a cassette deck without sacrificing bass/highs frequencies to prevent clipping.
Now my rack stuff sits idol collecting dust.
Thanks.
Johnny |
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Location: Scotland | Johnny, try them with the comp first, then with the exciter first & go with whatever produces the least unwanted noise. I'd guess comp first will be the way to go. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Although experimentation is fun, I would go with the comp first. Although the exciter does effect gain, it also enhances and expands. Having the choice to provide an uncompresed input or compressed input will vary the output result. Really depends on what you are going for. If you want a REALLY fat electric guitar thing... put the exciter first.
Depending on the overall sound, an exciter at the very end of the chain can be fun also.
Also, agree that placement of time-based effects "delay vs chorus" order is not critical. YOu mentioned you have the Chorus ensemble (my favorite big grey box) and I always have that last as it makes a sweet stereo chorus output. If you want to create stereo with your delay, put it last. |
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using effects with acoustic guitar