Delay?

[NCdan]

Well, I had the time to play around with my RF4 today, and much to my horror, there appears to be a delay when switching channels on the RM4. Maybe, just maybe, the footswitch buttons are especially stiff, but there seems to be a very slight delay. Has anyone else encountered this?

 

[jlbaxe]

iv heard other people complain about this with the rm4. you would think that since it is designed by bruce Egnater it would be the same as his m4's. wonder if any body knows what parts to swap out to take care of this? i was going to buy one just to use with a couple randall mods (xtc,super v,1086)but if there isnt any fix for the slight delay i will just swap them out with the eggies or just buy my 3rd EM4.

 

[JKD]

I'm sure there's got to be a little delay to prevnt popping or somesuch..but,
I thought I'd heard there was a PIC or micro-controller fix for this...made it better but not non-existent ... hilly would know ... as would RD/Steve I guess.

 

[jlbaxe]

i dont seem to have one with my egnater m4....

 

[JKD]

i dont seem to have one with my egnater m4....

...don't quote me on this but I think the M4 switching is different...the little black boxes on the modules are different comparing Eggie with Randall (Solid State Relay vs. electronic/buffered?) .. but I've never looked any of the parts up to know for sure.

 

[NCdan]

I'm definitely interested in any mods that can correct this. My music requires a lot of instant channel changes, and this delay is just enough to cut off the meat of my notes when i switch, which makes the delay quite obvious.

 

[Soulinsane]

I got the same issue. You need an updated PIC chip. What should we do, Randall? The PIC is programmed to mute everything while modules are being switched. Some of the chips were programmed to mute longer than needed and a delay is noticeable. Without the equipment to decode and program your own PIC chips it's hopeless to fix the problem alone.

 

[NCdan]

Eeeeeehhhhhh!!! That is not what I wanted to hear, Soulinsane :? , hahaha. Recording, this isn't a huge problem, but live this can be really awful; this is one of those problems that isn't only for snobby guitarists: the audience definitely notices channel switching delay, and anticipating the pause by switching early can be just as bad if you're going from clean to distortion or vice versa. If there isn't a mod that can fix this, I may decide to sell .

 

[Soulinsane]

With a new chip it would be easy to fix. You literally unplug the old one from the midi board and replace it with the new one.

The problem is getting a new one that programed correctly lol.

 

[audioholic]

My RM4 doesn't seem to have any noticeable, or at least problematic switching delay....


hmmmm, seems to go pretty instantly. I bought a used one, perhaps it was modded? but it works great here with the randall footswitch.

 

[NCdan]

Well, the delay isn't really that bad; for someone who doesn't require INSTANT channel changes I don't think it would be a problem, but if you're doing, say, a chord transition or a solo run, and you switch channels in the middle of playing, there should be a noticable pause while the channel switches. Maybe it's worse on some than others?

 

[okstrat]

Ever thought about using a delay with spillover? Might help... I need quick changes live too, and I never had any issues with any of my RM gear that I've gigged with (RM100, RM50, RM4+RT2/50)

Pete

 

[Soulinsane]

Ever thought about using a delay with spillover? Might help... I need quick changes live too, and I never had any issues with any of my RM gear that I've gigged with (RM100, RM50, RM4+RT2/50)

Pete

That's a really good ideal. The Midi channel switching mute isn't a problem on all the MTS. It seems the ones have the older PIC version only suffer from this delay thing.

 

[bruce egnater]

That issue was fixed long ago. There is an updated PIC chip with a shorter mute time (10ms vs 30ms). Contact Randall customer service or [email protected] There must be some mute time to prevent audible pops when switching.

 

[Sampson]

This was also addressed in another thread a few days ago.
http://mtsforum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=4723

Hey Guys!!

I wanted to clear things up a bit regarding the channel switching chips. Our original chips were set at a 40 millisecond delay, which is very standard, but may seem a bit slow for guys used to playing rack gear. We now offer a 15 millisecond chip which we'll be receiving from our MIDI supplier within the next week or so.

Ryan is our new guy in Customer Service and was unaware that this new chip is now available. The new chip is a direct replacement and will drop into the existing IC socket. Sorry for the confusion, but yes we can accommadate guys that want faster channel switching. The faster chip is compatible with all RM4 and RM100 models. Please contact Ryan directly and he can place the order for you.

[email protected]