cheddatom

Pasting this from another forum where i've asked for help. Hopefuly someone here will know?.... So, I set it all up and started a big mix on PC1, started cubase on PC2 and loaded ampeg SVX. I routed the bass track through PC2 and back into PC1. This works fine, and the bass sounds amazing, and my cpu load is tiny. So, I tried VST link. I can't get this f***er to work. At first I thought i'd be able to use one SPDIF cable, but after trying for a while it seemed more logical to need two SPDIF cables, one for each way of communication between the PCs. Is this correct? I only have one proper SPDIF cable, so I used a standard phono lead for the other side, and this still didn't work. Is this just because of the cable? Or should it have worked "a bit"? ...... First, I set the input and output on the vst link page to SPDIF 0 on both PCs. Then I plugged the cable in. Then I activated VST link. It didn't work, so then I tried connecting both SPDIF 1s with a phono cable, and I set the input on PC1 to SPDIF 0, the output on PC2 to SPDIF 0, the input on PC2 to SPDIF 1, the output on PC 1 to SPDIF 1. EDIT: And it still didn't work.

I've just been through this entire thread and not one person has mentioned Nuno Bettencourt!! He's clearly the best guitarist alive by a mile.

[quote name='Finbar' post='409049' date='Feb 13 2009, 09:07 PM']That's my plan, haha. I'll be running my effects into one cab (mic'd), and a clean(ish) tone into a second cab (DI). They will hate me.[/quote] I've done loads of gigs with a DI and mic. I would basically tell the soundman to treat my guitar combo as a 2nd guitar, and the DI as the bass. They never had a problem. IMHO you won't be able to get a mic far enough away from the cab to capture real lows. I think practically you will have to use your DI for the low end, and a mic for your effects cab. In this situation, the house guitar mic will suffice. So, my advice is, don't get a nice mic and carry it around to every dive pissing off half the soundmen. Just give them a DI and ask them to treat your effects cab like an extra guitar.

You generally get a headphone output on on-board soundcards, as well as on USB interfaces, so you should be OK to put that into the CD input. Kenny - not that clever, but it might help. God knows why I didn't think of it before (or no-one else in this surprisingly large thread).

Kenny, you should try your laptop in your amp's FX loop!!

yeh, but kenny's doing fine with his laptop's on board sound, so obviously it depends on the set up.

You would be able to use the line-in and put the output into your minirig. Whether it will sound good, or work well.... You're better waiting until you get it set up and in place. You can get decent interfaces for £60ish these days so it's not as though it's a massive hidden future investment.

[quote name='kennyrodg' post='410765' date='Feb 16 2009, 09:39 AM']I tried every possible setting for the interface,well on the software at least,if there's anything i needed to change in the laptop that'd be me stump'd.I tried it through the rig last week and it was muddy,(my rig is'nt muddy on it's own) but through the headphones it's clear.[/quote] If it's clear through the headphones, but muddy through the amp, that would be caused by your amp's and cab's sound. Could you not get it to clear up using your amp's EQ? Take some lows off etc. When you're playing through headphones, you're probably using the cab simulation. It could be an idea to turn this off. Anyway, as it sounds fine through your headphones, you should be able to get it to sound fine at volume. I would only be worrying about your connections if you were getting a low input signal, or if your highs had disappeared, or if there was unwanted distortion etc. (all the problems that can come from using an instrument straight into dodgy line-inputs) I think trying ASIO4ALL could have worked - did you do that? Did you adjust the buffer size for the input on the interface?

Yeh I think it's how you had the interface set up. If you get no latency with your normal soundcard, and it sounds good through headphones, what's the problem? Does it sound crap through an amp?

Most digital pedals eat more than 200ma AFAIK.

Digital delays can take up 2-300ma, multi effects can be 500+, I used to gig with 25 pedals including a zoom b2.1u and a digital delay. I could run them all off two Boss adaptors, but it was extremely noisy. When I got my Godlyke PSU it solved all that.

I don't know about you guys but 1.5 amps is just not enough for me!!

I've done this before and it can work.... Upload your files somewhere and then we can have a go at doing our own mixes. I'd do you a quick mix, no problem. It's always good to have a new set of songs to work with.

The mixer would suffice as a DI but you may suffer from your standard soundcard. I would suggest buying a decent firewire or USB audio interface. Some of them even have pre-amps with phantom power so you'd only need the one box.

Have you tried the pedal in a blender? So you blend lots of clean bass in with your pedal, and run it through your bass rig. It could give you an easy solution.

We went to magic garden, and I would echo everything you've said but add.... He has a ton of amazing gear, loads of cool stories and loads of knowledge. However, after two days in there we came away with 2 songs roughly mixed expecting them to sound amazing due to his reputation, and they sounded crap. I'm sure if we'd gone back in they would have sounded great in the end, but it would take more time. The only reason we didn't go back was because our manager refused to pay for another session. We wanted to, so this isn't a bad review, it's just he's quite pricey and you will need plenty of time IMHO.

There's an input gain setting on SVX at the bottom. If this doesn't help get a decent soundcard (known as an audio interface).

You can't put anything in line between the amp and the speaker. It would depend on the features of your amp.

Kenny - yeh, you could do that but only if your laptop's of good enough spec. I'm sure you could download a "trial" to see.

Yeh, i'm talking about running it along side lots of other VSTs with automation on a mix file with 50+ channels, so one plug-in taking up 10 or 20% of my cpu power kind of sucks.

[quote name='benwhiteuk' post='401210' date='Feb 5 2009, 04:29 PM']It’s always a good idea to have the tuner at the start of the chain so the signal isn’t affected by any other pedals - more accurate tuning.[/quote] You could say the same about any pitch-tracking effects. I reckon most tuners won't be significantly affected by other pedals, unless they're modulation pedals that're turned on.

I would deffinitely have the exciter after the punch factory as the comp could reduce some of the highs you put in with the exciter.

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='400615' date='Feb 5 2009, 01:34 AM']Electric Larger-land? [/quote] Sounds dangerous.

Sounds like a chorus but could be a sublte phaser. Chorus and flange are basically the same thing, and you can make all three sound like each other. I don't think there's many modulation options on the zoom to go through so it shouldn't take too long. I'd get mine out and try to make it so I can tell you the exact patch but i'm a bit too busy sorry! I'm sure another nice Zoom owner wouldn't mind.....

Aaaaah, I see. You have to go through each module using the knob on the far left, and turn them off by pressing the two little switch buttons (can't remember the name for them) at the same time. When you have all modules off you should have a 100% clean sound to work with. EDIT: If it were up to me there would be a "clear patch" function on there so you could create a 100% clean patch quickly, but going through the modules isn't so bad, and once you have one clean patch, just copy it to loads of others.