Blending in Effects

[son of frog]

Hiya guys,
Someone told me about a pedal / box which goes on your pedalboard which you can use to blend in an effect so you can get a good balance of effect to your dry signal, for example distortion and mix in dry bass signal to keep the low end, I forgot what it was called,

Does anyone know of this or something similar and where i can get one?
Cheers

[joegarcia]

There's a few that'll do it.
Boss LS-2 is prob the cheapest although it's also worth checking out the Barge Concepts VB-JR and the Xotic X-Blender both of which are up for sale in the used effects forum.

[0175westwood29]

i use an boss ls-2 for exactly what your describing, they work really well and you can grab them 2nd had for about 45 quid?

although ive heard alot about the x blender but i can't rem who makes it? if you google xblender it will come up or do a search on here, but for me the ls-2 is more than enough.

andy

/\ what joe said basically!

Edited April 11, 2011 by 0175westwood29

[son of frog]

[quote name='0175westwood29' post='1196343' date='Apr 11 2011, 10:48 PM']i use an boss ls-2 for exactly what your describing, they work really well and you can grab them 2nd had for about 45 quid?

although ive heard alot about the x blender but i can't rem who makes it? if you google xblender it will come up or do a search on here, but for me the ls-2 is more than enough.

andy

/\ what joe said basically![/quote]

Thanks for the replies, the LS-2 sounds like a reasonably priced answer, going to order one this evening.

But its got about 6 different settings, which one do you have it on to achieve this? The pedal front panel is rather confusing.
My guess was either the "A + B - Bypass" or one of the "A - Bypass" or "B - Bypass"?

Edited April 11, 2011 by son of frog

[woodyratm]

I have the Barge VB-JR which is an awesome thing. Well by have, i mean its for sale. Nice and simple to use too.

[dannybuoy]

Another shameless plug, but I have an X&M crossover blender for sale!

Standard blenders are great for adding a [i]bit[/i] of low end back in, but if you dial in too much clean it sounds funny with two clearly separate signals going on. I prefer to use this type of blender with fuzz pedals that already have decent lows, but just to add a bit of clarity and dynamics to the heavily compressed signal. Even better if you send a lightly overdriven signal into the blended fuzz, it sounds much more meshed together that way. If it's a lack of low end you're trying to make up for, I'd go for the Xotic X-Blender over the LS-2 or Barge since it has an active EQ built into it.

This X&M does it a bit differently though as you can keep the lows totally clean and send everything above that to the distortion pedal and adjust the levels of both channels, mimicking a recording setup where you blend a low-passed DI signal with a mic'ed cab.

Edited April 11, 2011 by dannybuoy

[phil.i.stein]

[quote name='son of frog' post='1196391' date='Apr 11 2011, 11:54 PM']Thanks for the replies, the LS-2 sounds like a reasonably priced answer, going to order one this evening.

But its got about 6 different settings, which one do you have it on to achieve this? The pedal front panel is rather confusing.
My guess was either the "A + B - Bypass" or one of the "A - Bypass" or "B - Bypass"?[/quote]
A + B MIX - Bypass. (with either A or B being clean signal, mixed in to taste) .the other two are single channels on/off.

great pedal.

Edited April 12, 2011 by phil.i.stein

[Raslee]

I'm using a Boss LS-2, i have a Boss multi FX ME-6 on the separate loop and blend both the bass sound and a synth sound from the multi fx for that phat Mad Professor dubsynth sound. Just for extra effect i use a wah back just before the return on the LS2 and control the filter of the synth...bloody phat and great techno bass sounds too but the great thing with the LS is that you can set the level of bass to effected bass sound so i can maintain the phat natural dub bass sound. Really rate the LS-2 for its price.

[son of frog]

sounds like a good idea, But i'm still not fully understood, haha, me just being a simpleton i expect,

So, you have it on the "A + B MIX - Bypass" setting, cool, and you have your clean signal going through

"A in - A out"
for example, and then you proceed to put the effect in a loop through

"B in - B out"
And you just leave the standard in and out port with nothing? And you can still bypass the effect if needs be? from the LS2?

sorry for so many questions, I just always get confused with effects loops etc. haha

[0175westwood29]

[quote name='son of frog' post='1196832' date='Apr 12 2011, 02:14 PM']sounds like a good idea, But i'm still not fully understood, haha, me just being a simpleton i expect,

So, you have it on the "A + B MIX - Bypass" setting, cool, and you have your clean signal going through

"A in - A out"
for example, and then you proceed to put the effect in a loop through

"B in - B out"
And you just leave the standard in and out port with nothing? And you can still bypass the effect if needs be? from the LS2?

sorry for so many questions, I just always get confused with effects loops etc. haha[/quote]

Almost right.

Loop a - out to your effect(s) and into loop a return.
Loop b - empty (clean sound)

And use the input and output as tho its a norm boss pedal, these inputs are the bypass.

Make sense?

Andy

[son of frog]

[quote name='0175westwood29' post='1196843' date='Apr 12 2011, 02:24 PM']Almost right.

Loop a - out to your effect(s) and into loop a return.
Loop b - empty (clean sound)

And use the input and output as tho its a norm boss pedal, these inputs are the bypass.

Make sense?

Andy[/quote]

Oh yeah cheers, So nothing in or outputting through one of the A or B channels.

Makes a lot more sense haha, Just make sure i get it right first time, I'm sure it wont blow up or anything, but better safe than sorry, ;P

Tom

[0175westwood29]

[quote name='son of frog' post='1196849' date='Apr 12 2011, 02:28 PM']Oh yeah cheers, So nothing in or outputting through one of the A or B channels.

Makes a lot more sense haha, Just make sure i get it right first time, I'm sure it wont blow up or anything, but better safe than sorry, ;P

Tom[/quote]

Indeed

For the money its really good, i also had some fun and put a few pedals in the other loop so you can mix effects together rather than them being inline ie one before the other.

Andy