How to avoid tone sucking

[audiomidijace]

I've been doing a lot of experimenting over the last year. Pickups, modules, Speaker cabs, clean boost pedals and FX. My rig sounds best when I plug directly in to my preamp and have nothing connected to my FX loop. I do jump the parallel loop and set the mix at full. It sounds wonderful. But the moment I put a clean boost pedal in front of my preamp that direct sound is gone when the pedal is bypassed. Same thing happens when I connect my TC Nova System in the series loop. Everything is set for optimum input and output levels, but my tone is seriously degraded. I get mediocre tone with really nice sounding FX. I suppose I can invest in another power amp and cabinet for a true wet/dry system, but I feel like I shouldn't have to! Is it the quality of the loop, the A/D & D/A of my digital FX or what? I also want to be able to use a clean boost and a wah pedal in front of my amp and not lose feel and tone. I don't know what to invest in to help with that.
Any ideas?

 

[kc2eeb]

I just ordered this:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/WhiteLoop

and this:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BlackLoop

They are supposed to be hard wired loop switchers/bypass.

Nothing fancy, the equivalent of a toggle switch like a Tele or LP.

These are BYPASS/LOOPERS.

 

[chrismilne]

What kind of pedal are you using?

 

[trimix]

Bypass looper. Some modules sound good with a a buffer in front of them, some don't, same goes for the fx loop. Get a programmable bypass looper to switch everything out of the path when straight-in is all you need, and buffered when the module calls for it.
I ended up going wet/dry, but that's it's own kettle of compromises...

 

[audiomidijace]

Bypass looper. Some modules sound good with a a buffer in front of them, some don't, same goes for the fx loop. Get a programmable bypass looper to switch everything out of the path when straight-in is all you need, and buffered when the module calls for it.
I ended up going wet/dry, but that's it's own kettle of compromises...

Tell me about your wet/dry system. How are YOU doing it?

 

[audiomidijace]

I've been talking to quite a few people about this. The first thing I did was remove the TC Nova System from the series FX loop and instead run from the RM4 output to the TC to the power amp. This actually does sound way better.
Also, today I'm cutting my 20' cables down to 10' cables. There was a time when I needed them that long, but that time has past, so the shorter the better. I'll let you know how I feel about the change.
I'm going to look in to a small bypass looper for the front end. Thanks for the info kc2eeb! When my boost and wah are ON they sound great.
Clean boosts I've tried so far: Suhr Koko Boost Reloaded, Xotic EP Booster, Empress ParaEQ boost, Creation Audio Labs MK4.23 and Blackstar HT-Boost. They were all good in different ways, but bypassed they sucked my tone.

 

[Corium_AZ]

I'd just stick whatever clean boost you favored in the insert/fx loop of your nova system, I believe it has at least one insertable/bypassable loop? That's what I do with my TC Nova Drive pedal, it lives in the 'fx loop' of my Tonelab rather than in-line. That way it can also be switched in/out using a midi control message rather than having to tap dance.

There are several midi/pedal loop switchers on the market now with true bypass. This is what I would use if I had a bunch of pedals and wanted them out of the signal path when not using them, and could simultaneously send midi to your RM for channel switching & the Nova System to change patches/programs. If that sounds good to you, look into the Boss ES-8!

 

[audiomidijace]

I believe you're thinking of the G-System, not the Nova System. No loops on the Nova. However I want the boost in front to drive the amp and not a volume boost. The Nova actually DOES have that feature. Not that I need it here in the studio much.
I believe I WILL get on of those little true bypass loopers for the front end boost and wah.
I just finished cutting down and re-soldering all of my Mogami cables. I had SO much more than I needed. I had enough to replace three 2 footers in the rack as well as the cables running to and from my Two Notes CAB. I still have plenty left over!
As I run from the preamp output to the TC input now, I have to be careful not to overload the TC input. That happened so I had to back off the input level on the TC.
Things are actually feeling and sounding better.
I'm loving my Orange PPC4x12! That thing is a monster!
I'm without a clean boost pedal at the moment, but I think I'll wait until my new modules come to worry about that. Rob is modifying my Mark X to add some low frequency options. He's also making me an XTC and one of the new JFM800 Marshall mods! After that we'll see what modules stay and what goes up for sale.