Troubleshooting my Petrucci Stereo Rig

J

Jesse Orion

New Member
Hey guys! Long time lurker, first time poster here.

Over the last couple years, I’ve put together my forever studio rig inspired by Petrucci’s last few rig rundowns. I’m currently running two JP-2C’s with an Axe FX III in their FXL’s (7 Cable Method, 2 humbusters in appropriate positions in each loop).

There’s been much trouble shooting to get the rig to near perfection, many thanks to all of you for answering so many questions along the way.

I’ve come to the final piece of this puzzle. As the rig stood, I had dead silence across all three channels and glorious tone the second my pick hit the strings.

I recently added in the TC Electronic Stereo Mimiq pedal to get that last bit closer to nailing that Petrucci live tone. While it immediately sounded phenomenal while playing, it did introduce hum that was definitely not present before.

The Humbuster cables that were originally running from the L/R outs of the AFXIII to the inputs of each JP-2C now run into the in’s on the Mimiq pedal, and I have two Mogami gold 6ft TS cables going from the pedal’s outs to the amps’ inputs.

Troubleshooting so far has included:
Switching power supplies for the pedal
Switching to a battery for the pedal
Switching cables between the Mimiq and amps
Switching from true bypass mode to buffered bypass mode on the pedal

I’m simply at a loss. The important thing to note is that I do have dead silence achieved without the pedal, so now I realize that I’m at a point where I just don’t know what I don’t know, and i hope this might be an obvious issue to somebody more knowledgeable here.

Thanks in advance for any answers or ideas!

-Jesse
 
Not sure why Mimiq would introduce hum, but, having run my Mimiq in various ways including stereo in front of 2 amp models / real amps, I've gradually come to the conclusion it works best running mono on one side of a stereo signal. So you could try the following in a 7CM scenario:

Connect Mimiq in mono (mono in/out on the pedal) into only one of your two JP2C fx return segments (ie AxfxOUT-R > MimiqIN-mono, MimiqOUT-mono > JP2C-Rtn-R). Mimiq settings in this config are: Dry@0, Wet@90%, 1voice, tightness@noon. This config yields the best big wide doubled sound to my ear (double on one side only with the other side unaffected) without the phasing issues I was getting when using the pedal in its stereo modes. Just a guess, but connecting it this way might also help with your hum issues since only one JP2C return would be routed through it.

I used to think there was some added nuance to be gained by doubling one side before dual preamps vs after, however, given that I think whatever Mimiq does seems to be pretty linear, doubling one side of dual amps before vs after distortion is pretty much the same.
 
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sprint said:
Not sure why Mimiq would introduce hum, but, having run my Mimiq in various ways including stereo in front of 2 amp models / real amps, I've gradually come to the conclusion it works best running mono on one side of a stereo signal. So you could try the following in a 7CM scenario:

Connect Mimiq in mono (mono in/out on the pedal) into only one of your two JP2C fx return segments (ie AxfxOUT-R > MimiqIN-mono, MimiqOUT-mono > JP2C-Rtn-R). Mimiq settings in this config are: Dry@0, Wet@90%, 1voice, tightness@noon. This config yields the best big wide doubled sound to my ear (double on one side only with the other side unaffected) without the phasing issues I was getting when using the pedal in its stereo modes. Just a guess, but connecting it this way might also help with your hum issues since only one JP2C return would be routed through it.

I used to think there was some added nuance to be gained by doubling one side before dual preamps vs after, however, given that I think whatever Mimiq does seems to be pretty linear, doubling one side of dual amps before vs after distortion is pretty much the same.
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Interesting. Thanks for the detailed response. This seems to contradict all of the pro reviews I’ve read and watched that say this thing really shines best when using its stereo functionality.

Although, I understand what you’re saying still achieves the end goal by setting the dry to 0% and only running the wet to one amp.

I guess I’m just curious, what’s the compromise I’m making here if I were to go this route?
 
Jesse Orion said:
Any model you’d recommend for this set up, and where would you place it?
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Tekwerk Instruments isoPetrucci's guitar tech has his own small business making products and he has one coming out this month. There ar heaps on the market though, Radial Engineering, Morley, ART, Axess Electronics, Mesa Boogie, Behringer and more are ones that come to mind. I used Axess Electronics and Morley Iso's back when.
 
Jesse Orion said:
Interesting. Thanks for the detailed response. This seems to contradict all of the pro reviews I’ve read and watched that say this thing really shines best when using its stereo functionality.

Although, I understand what you’re saying still achieves the end goal by setting the dry to 0% and only running the wet to one amp.

I guess I’m just curious, what’s the compromise I’m making here if I were to go this route?
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Running Mimiq the way I described above is essentially still a stereo variation the same as running Mimiq mono-in / stereo-out with one voice and both wet+dry max'd which yields dry on one side / wet on the other.

Thinking more about the humm issue, it may be explained by Mimiq running before 2 distorted amps in either 1: mono-in / stereo-out with wet+dry up and multiple voices, or 2: in any stereo-in / stereo-out variation with wet+dry up - in these scenarios, if going into the front of your amps, you could easily be adding amp input level with multiple voices output from Mimiq to one side or the other, or both, pushing the front of either amp (or both) harder and resulting in added noise. Also, as always, if in fact pushing multiple voices into either single distorted amp circuit, a more "garbled" distortion will result from that circuit, compared to only one voice signal directed to each single amp's input as would probably be desired for doubling or mimiqing a 2nd guitar player in real time (2 voices total: 1 voice directed to each of 2 amps). If this is the cause of the humm, you could likely avoid it by simply moving the pedal configured as is from pre to post preamp position (cabled and set the same but going between the Axfx out and JB2C returns), or, run Mimiq in pre position but mono-in / stereo-out with 1 voice going into each of the JP2C inputs (1 Dry Voice Left, 1 Double Voice Right).

The problem I have with the mimiq pedal running stereo in / stereo out, even in post preamp position, is that it does not seem to be able to exactly preserve, or predictably regulate, the level and/or separation of L/R dry signals while just adding in the desired voices on either side or both sides (at least not from the testing I've done). That's a showstopper for me, and why I prefer only to run it with 1 voice, wet only, mono-in / mono-out on one side only, OR, with 1 voice (2 voices possible if positioned post preamp), mono-in / stereo / out - in these 2 configs, it seems to be able to preserve / regulate the dry signals properly - but, not in stereo-in / stereo-out as far as I've been able to observe. These 2 configs can work well pre (dry + 1 voice) with dual hard panned amps, or post preamp (dry + 1 voice or multi voice), but, as I mentioned above, mimiq seems linear so I don't think there's a difference (not that I can hear anyway) between pre and post positions when set to produce only 1 signal to each side (dry + 1 voice).

Been a while since I looked at a bunch of Mimiq reviews, but what I recall is many players noticing the phasing issues with multiple voices, and many preferring less voices (below is an example from a respected youtuber who starts off by explaining the basic doubling design with 1 doubled voice opposite to the main unaffected voice). TC put out a fw update to address some issues early on but I'm not sure what it fixed exactly (I think it improved the phasing issues in full stereo cabling). A mono mimiq was also released (the mini) which I think was in response to those (like me - I shouldv just got the mini) preferring a simpler config in the "one side only" mode I mentioned above ("mono" is kindv a deceptive term here since mimiq is only ever material (even if used with mono "cabling") in a stereo context - which is probably the reason for the frequent perception from reviewers that its best used in "stereo" mode (there is no mono use case afaik)). This pedal is notoriously misunderstood in terms of it's exact operation and in terms of what's specifically happening in stereo cabling with the different voice options; and the manual's, imo vague and imprecise explanations, don't help.

 
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Anthony76 said:
Petrucci's guitar tech has his own small business making products and he has one coming out this month. There ar heaps on the market though, Radial Engineering, Morley, ART, Axess Electronics, Mesa Boogie, Behringer and more are ones that come to mind. I used Axess Electronics and Morley Iso's back when.
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I did some serious research today, and I believe you hit the nail on the heard of what my issue is! I went and pulled the trigger on the Mesa Boogie Clearlink Receive ISO Transformer. I’ll check back in on this post to confirm whether or not it was the fix once it arrives! Thanks again!
 
here's a 2019 rig rundown of Petrucci's dual Mesa JP2C based rig using Mimiq. As the tech explains, and as shown in the vid, he uses Mimiq mono-in / stereo-out with one voice and wet+dry max'd (yielding 1 dry voice L / 1 wet voice R) into the front of the 2 JP2Cs (L and R amps into separate cabs/fx). No use of stereo-in on Mimiq (as I would have guessed given the stereo-in / stereo-out issues I mentioned above).

 
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Jesse Orion said:
I did some serious research today, and I believe you hit the nail on the heard of what my issue is! I went and pulled the trigger on the Mesa Boogie Clearlink Receive ISO Transformer. I’ll check back in on this post to confirm whether or not it was the fix once it arrives! Thanks again!
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Let us know how you go 👍
 
Bumping for update. I have the same hum issue myself.

But as others mentioned, I will also look into putting the mimiq in the post-amp position in the chain. And the iso transformer as well.
 
Hey dude, thought I’d give you the update. I’ve had it confirmed that for every amp you add, you have to add one transformer. This would mean if I decided to go to a W/D/W rig and add that third amp in the center, I’d need to buy a second transformer. The formula is # of amps -1 = # of transformers necessary.

I purchased the Mesa Boogie Receive Clearlink transformer and it was instant silence with zero tone suck. Absolutely awesome and highly recommend.
 
Jesse Orion said:
Hey dude, thought I’d give you the update. I’ve had it confirmed that for every amp you add, you have to add one transformer. This would mean if I decided to go to a W/D/W rig and add that third amp in the center, I’d need to buy a second transformer. The formula is # of amps -1 = # of transformers necessary.

I purchased the Mesa Boogie Receive Clearlink transformer and it was instant silence with zero tone suck. Absolutely awesome and highly recommend.
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Hey that's cool to know - thanks for posting.
 
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