Einstein combo - series loop sounds better than parallel?

[LaXu]

To give you some background, I'm not much of an FX user. In fact I haven't had any effects for years. The only pedal I had was the Digitech Bad Monkey and I didn't use it much with the Diezel. Today I received a used Digitech Digidelay and went ahead and plugged it in.

I put the Digidelay into the parallel loop. As I played I noticed that my tone seemed somehow harsh. After some twiddling I found that it was the parallel loop - as the volume control for it in the back was turned up the tone became thinner and harsher, especially noticeable with something like a Strat. At first I suspected cables and the Digidelay but after plugging the pedal in the series loop I found no tone degradation. The buffers in the Digitech pedals seem to be rather transparent and not tone sucking at all.

So this got me wondering, is this just the nature of parallel loops or am I doing something wrong? Is there any drawback to using the series loop instead, aside from having all signal go though a few cables and a buffer in the pedal?

 

[duesentrieb]

The pedal doesn't have a Mix pot. The mix pot should be set to full wet and then you adjust everything with the amp's pot on its back. This way (without the mix pot) you get phasing sounds, thin and stuff.
With an average unit like a cheap Alesis or Lexicon it works like a charm.

For pedals I'd use the serial instead.

 

[Peter Diezel]

Please use the serial looop and buy a Boss unit.

 

[duesentrieb]

I'm using three Digitech units, Peter.

The CF7 (an awesome chorus pedal), the delay and reverb - for smaller gigs when I don't want to move my rack.
All units in front of the amp.
They are not too expensive and sound pretty well . . .

 

[synchu]

To the original poster - not really, the serial is not better than the parallel.

I am using Eventide TimeFactor in parallel loop and sounds really fabulous.
But it has that eminent Killdry feature which is particularly important.

I used it in the serial loop of various amps and it did not sound that good (except for the Reverse delay, which I preffer in the serial for obvious reasons).
So I didn't bother plugging in into the Serial of the Einstein.

Niki

 

[duesentrieb]

But it has that eminent Killdry feature which is particularly important.

 

[synchu]

..and btw, I can't vouch enough for the Eventide. Great (although somewhat expensive for a "stompbox") unit, great sounds. Will need some MIDI pedal board for live applications (and some kind of power socket due to lack of battery), but it is top notch both in quality of built, versatility, number of applications (both studio and live) and especially the sound.

Do yourself a favor and get one to match the sonic heaven of your Diezel amp


No I don't work in ads business

 

[ska]

Hi,

A few months ago I bought a Boss DD3 which I used in the serial loop. The repeats where not clean at all (ch1 mode 3 or ch2) and I don't know if it depended on the pedal... Anyway I sold it and I will probably purchase a TRex replica instead (although the Eventide has got great reviews). Anyone has tried one of those with the Einstein?

 

[duesentrieb]

I never use pedals in my Diezels loop (experience with all models btw), just rack gear with the ability to switch between 0 and +4dB with 0dB working best. Units were/are:

TC G-Major
Rocktron Intellifex
Rocktron Intellipitch
Lexicon MPX (if I remember correctly)

Pedals (at least those I know) have a -10dB level and most of them degrade the sound, esp. when used in the serial loop. In the parallel loop --> see posting above.

 

[ska]

So do you recommand the use of racks instead? I haven't made my mind whether I should by great pedals (one at a time to enjoy the process even more ) or save up for a Gforce...

I certainly don't want to buy a Replica a get a bad sound...

 

[duesentrieb]

I'm not too familiar with the TREX products, so I cannot comment on them, you know. There might be pedals out there who will work flawlessly, just the majority of them don't.

Maybe some more experienced guys will chime in and share their exp. with pedals in the loop.

I myself prefer rack gear by far.

 

[LaXu]

The pedal doesn't have a Mix pot. The mix pot should be set to full wet and then you adjust everything with the amp's pot on its back. This way (without the mix pot) you get phasing sounds, thin and stuff.
With an average unit like a cheap Alesis or Lexicon it works like a charm.

For pedals I'd use the serial instead.

Thanks for the info, that explains it. So serial loop it is.

The Digidelay is perfect for my needs. Cost next to nothing used and does delays. I don't really need anything fancier since I use effects so little.