Stereo pedal selection/signal chain advice

Yea I will report back. I will likely set up a mini version using part of my current one just to test it out. I have a feeling the Meris pedals or any other that use a TRS input may have an issue but :crossed_fingers:

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I’m fairly sure that unbalanced signals will pass through a balanced patchbay just fine, especially if you use just TS jacks all along the signal path.

I got the DC-7 rather than a Zuma because it seemed more flexible (every outlet has configurable voltage), and the RCA socket outputs seemed easier to work with if I ever build my own cables. The lower profile appealed too (not that I have an actual pedal board yet). It came with a wide variety of adaptors including a 3.5mm one for the Rat and a centre-positive one for the Boum, so I could get going straight away.

Wanna say also that my first play with the Mood brought a huge smile to my face. It’s fantastic! So weird and grainy.

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Yeah I think that’s right as well, if the whole signal chain through the patchbay is unbalanced then it shouldn’t be a problem, and when you get to the TRS stereo in on some pedals you just need a y cable, it’s still unbalanced.

An advantage of some of the Strymon power supplies is that they are expandable so if in future you need more power you can pass through power from the first supply to the next and only use one power point (but you’re still better off going bigger than you need to begin with :smiley: ).

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Oh good to know about the Strymon power. This may be important to me, as I should get a proper one for my bass pedal board also

For the patch bay:

Instead of balanced you could cable it with trs,
Use trs to dual ts cables
This would simplify stero patching, only one cable would be needed to re-patch the signal (trs to trs for the patch cables obviously)

If you want to get crazier with patching and get wierd with stereo signal ordering;

Patch everything (L and R from each device) in mono
Then you can reorder the pedal chain separately for each channel of stereo

Simple example would be reverb into delay on left side and delay into reverb on right, but you could really go nuts with experimentally different chains on each side or just keep it subtle to taste

For multifx:

Not a pedal and not great sq like some of the nice stuff you and others have listed but great for utility flexibility and fun: kp3

Has some nice features like fx release setting to fade smoothly back into uneffected sound, dry kill setting, motion recording, 8 quick button access memory slots, four sample/looper slots which can save to sd card, midi control for your other pedals and a decent variety of different fx, and it’s super fun to use

It is a little older, many fx are just so so/ not great, it uses rca connections etc, but it’s still pretty awesome and I would totally throw one in a stereo synth fx chain tabletop mangling hands on let’s get wierd sample feeder

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Well this was timed well
I was about to pull the trigger on either the
Electro Harmonix Operation Overlord
Or
Montreal Assembly Too Positive

To satisfy my stereo drive/dirt needs

I was actually surprised to find a pretty big hole of stereo dirt pedals. And was really surprised at the lack of stereo fuzz.
Lots that do dual channel stacking but very little that can handle a stereo signal

Until…

So ok. I may have blew my recent bonus check from work on a bunch of things for this idea. I will post more details and some pictures later on
But I recently heard about the Meng Qi Wingie2 Stereo Resonator and on a whim picked it up.

This little thing is so much fun. I spent about 30 minutes just tapping my fingers in the table it was on. I can’t wait to throw this in a chain and start sampling

So here is what I am currently rocking.

As you can see my little rack box is now full.
I added my second patchbay just being used in thru mode for the pedals.
I am also experimenting with adding the expression pedals in the patchbay also for easy routing or possibly multiple pedals at once. This is where I may end up using some of the patchbays normalizing features but for now, thru mode for everything.

found my old lexicon MXP 100. It’s a rack multi effect. I am going to work on getting it set up to me midi controlled by my digitakt. I honestly may just move it to a higher stop in the rack, the onboard control is not that bad, but it needs clock at the least.

I added the 1U blank panel just so I could keep track of what is where. I am writing on it with a small chalk marker. It really easily wipes off with a little water (or spit on the finger) so you can really easily erase something and change things if you move stuff. The marker is kind of my secret weapon, call it my version of white tape on my gear

All the pedals on the top patchbay are set up as trs connections so I only need one cable per in or output.
The patchbay is working out great so far. The ability to change the routing each time I sit down is so cool, but the real winner is being able to pull a few pedals out completely and used with a separate sound source all together.
Essentially anything in my patchbay can be added to one or all and everything in between.

I am still on the fence about moving my Bluebox’s inputs to trs connections on the bottom patchbay. I think it’s worth keeping as dual tr connection so I can still take advantage of 12 inputs on the Bluebox instead of only 6, but with that said my inputs 1-4 are going to almost always be 4 stereo sources (404mk2, DT, OT, & ST)

But I am in the middle of changing the outputs to trs connections. For my setup I am really only using the outputs as stereo sends, so it makes sense, especially so I can take advantage of those being sent to the pedal patchbay.
This also frees up a lot more space on the bottom patchbay.

I think my next goal is to make sure I can easily get mono signals from the Bluebox or just a patchbay input into the stereo chain. As you can see my Blooper is ready to get involved,but when I plugged it in, I was only getting signal in one ear.

Cheers
And don’t sleep on Wingie 2, just buy one. It’s so much fun and can fill a few holes

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Ok so probably not going to fit on the boat but…what what a cool looper pedal

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what looper pedal?

I was trying to make joke
I find it funny to think of people cutting their own records to make a lofi loops
Watching a live looper use this would be interesting for sure

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