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how do you use Stereo Effects?


GisserD
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I've got a number of stereo effects pedals on my board, but ive never once used their stereo capabilities. Im sure that when the stereo outputs are used they make a lovely wide noise when monitoring through headphones or nearfeilds, or even FOH....

But what use, if any, do they have for those of us who play through a single amp with only one input?

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[quote name='GisserD' timestamp='1463057654' post='3048162']
I've got a number of stereo effects pedals on my board, but ive never once used their stereo capabilities. Im sure that when the stereo outputs are used they make a lovely wide noise when monitoring through headphones or nearfeilds, or even FOH....

But what use, if any, do they have for those of us who play through a single amp with only one input?
[/quote]

Without sounding arsey, but can I ask, in what gigging scene environment would you as a bass player require a stereo rig?

I know theres something for everyone, but personally, a stereo bass rig would either get laughed at by the FOH and the band. Apart from being in a large and I do mean large touring environment I have never ever seen the need or requirement for a stereo bass signal.

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[quote name='pendingrequests' timestamp='1463066014' post='3048269']
I know theres something for everyone, but personally, a stereo bass rig would either get laughed at by the FOH and the band. Apart from being in a large and I do mean large touring environment I have never ever seen the need or requirement for a stereo bass signal.
[/quote]

without sounding arsey... thats exactly my point!

so why do pedal manufacturers put so much effort into developing stereo pedals?

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[quote name='GisserD' timestamp='1463066618' post='3048275']

so why do pedal manufacturers put so much effort into developing stereo pedals?
[/quote]

Not sure there's actually much effort involved. Electronics are so cheap and so versatile these days that it can't add much to the production cost to replace a Mono output with an L/R Pair (the Left only being used by 99% of users for 99% of the time) and one extra chip to handle it.

As to running a stereo signal through your bass amp, well you just wouldn't. But you [i][b]might [/b][/i]take a feed to an unused L/R channel on the band's PA and feed some effect through there too.

Most FX pedals have at least one knob, switch or function than no one ever uses/

:lol:

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I've always wanted a stereo rig. I'd have all my lows through a mono bass amp, and then everything above say 400Hz going through my effects pedals into two guitar rigs, or a stereo PA or something. It'd be ace! I've used stereo delay on recordings quite a bit

...but yeh, you want the low end in mono really

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I asked this same question years ago. At one point my pedal board had 4 stereo outs which were totally useless.

Having a stereo rig, or simply having a split signal doesn't mean you'll use stereo outs on all the pedals.

I would guess that it's more for recording/ studio use, but I'm also a bit stumped why so many have stereo out.

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I used to use a stereo bass rig back in the early 90's, Peavey or Yamaha pre-amp, Ibanez harmonizer/delay or Alesis Quadraverb, into 2 stereo amps, running bi-amped into two custom speaker cabs each with a 12 and an 18. Usually had them stacked together on one side of the stage, but occasionally had them either side of the drums.. I would've run the effects stereo but the preamps weren't stereo so never got full use of stereo imaging... I didn't actually sound that good, Marshall DBS rig that superseded it sounded better.

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[quote name='GisserD' timestamp='1463066618' post='3048275']
so why do pedal manufacturers put so much effort into developing stereo pedals?
[/quote]

I've tried telling them that nobody uses stereo, but it's just in one ear and out the other.








no ?





maybe ?

Edited by ahpook
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If it's any comfort, I have never used the stereo capability of any of my guitar pedals either. I recall Steve Morse having a system where he ran one amp for his dry sound and the other for his delayed sound, but I'm always trying to slim down the amount of kit I carry, so a second amp would be a no-no for me.

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The trick to using a stereo rig in any environment is really knowing what to put in your left and right channels and whom is going to be receiving it and where best to use it. Armed with that knowledge, I'd used a full stereo bass rig for years. Not once did I ever have an engineer (worth their salt) have an issue with it and never did my 'sound' suffer.

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Thinking entirely hypothetically - and a little facetiously - if one had the kind of bi-amped setup in the style of later-years-Entwistle/Sheehan, like a few people have suggested above, you could run the effect out into the high-frequency amp and the dry signal out to the low. Stereo output sorted for one pedal.

But given you've got several of these...well, one almost wonders whether it's worth setting up a series of switchable intersections, such that you could decide whether the dry signal from your Big Muff goes out to the Stereo Chorus, from which the wet signal goes into a Stereo Delay, from which the dry goes into a Stereo Flanger, which all ends up going to the high-frequency side - for example. Consider the different permutations of wet and dry signals into two different sides of your twin-amp rig, consider the sheer breadth of sonic possibilities, and then consider how you're going to have to learn the footwork to [i]Riverdance[/i] to be able to switch sounds mid-song...

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Normally stereo outputs are L & R with different signals in each IE ping pong delay. Separate wet/dry outputs are a different thing.

The guitarist in my ridiculous metal jam-band uses a stereo rig, one on each side of the stage, with a "doubler" effect on one side. It works really well

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[quote name='dood' timestamp='1463234257' post='3049798']
The trick to using a stereo rig in any environment is really knowing what to put in your left and right channels and whom is going to be receiving it and where best to use it. Armed with that knowledge, I'd used a full stereo bass rig for years. Not once did I ever have an engineer (worth their salt) have an issue with it and never did my 'sound' suffer.
[/quote]

That's cos an engineer will just go "meh" and sum to mono.

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