Delays and Reverbs in front don't sound right...Help!

[Tremonti]

Until my cables come, I'm using all pre effects. Delay and Reverb are so harsh and not sure what do do.

-Tried running parallel and series. In parallel Id did 100% mix and dialed back level, but then I only heard the echo and not the initial note?

-When I tried mix in parallel at 25% and level at zero the effect was so harsh and pronounced it was unusable. Dialing way back to mix a 2% still seemed too much???

-Reverb same thing if not worse.

Ideas on what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!

Oh...filter block where I boost my signal clean by 4bd seems to work in clean but has NO effect in dirty channel. Another one I can't seem to iron out.

 

[philipacamaniac]

You can't run delays and verbs before an overdriven preamp. Well, you can, but something tells me you won't like the results. So in this pre-only setup, stick to your clean channel.

You say you had a delay set to parallel and mix at 100%, but you could only hear the echo - that sounds like the block was still in series. When you put a block in parallel, you'll hear the full signal of the block before it. If you don't use mix at 100% while in parallel, you'll be blending dry signal and likely throwing your levels all over.

Try this as the simplest start. Clean channel on the amp, all pre effects in series. This is how a standard bread-and-butter pedalboard is configured. Delay and verb blocks in series, levels at nominal. Start the delay mix at 0% and crank it until the desired amount of trails is heard. Be aware that for the delay block, the dry level will remain constant until you hit 50% mix, where it will start to decrease. Now shut off the delay and do the same with the verb, start it at 0% mix and increase until the desired sound is achieved.

I frequently run multiple delays and a verb in series before a clean preamp and it works really well. I also dig these effects in parallel, but only to help with leveling and if I don't want them interacting with each other.

 

[Tremonti]

You can't run delays and verbs before an overdriven preamp. Well, you can, but something tells me you won't like the results. So in this pre-only setup, stick to your clean channel.

You say you had a delay set to parallel and mix at 100%, but you could only hear the echo - that sounds like the block was still in series. When you put a block in parallel, you'll hear the full signal of the block before it. If you don't use mix at 100% while in parallel, you'll be blending dry signal and likely throwing your levels all over.

Try this as the simplest start. Clean channel on the amp, all pre effects in series. This is how a standard bread-and-butter pedalboard is configured. Delay and verb blocks in series, levels at nominal. Start the delay mix at 0% and crank it until the desired amount of trails is heard. Be aware that for the delay block, the dry level will remain constant until you hit 50% mix, where it will start to decrease. Now shut off the delay and do the same with the verb, start it at 0% mix and increase until the desired sound is achieved.

I frequently run multiple delays and a verb in series before a clean preamp and it works really well. I also dig these effects in parallel, but only to help with leveling and if I don't want them interacting with each other.

Problem I'm having is I say want both #5 Delay and #6 Reverb in parallel....I go to do that and it puts #4 in parallel too! Glitch? So then I only put #6 Reverb in parallel and the #5 Delay is in series. Odd behavior or maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Yes...Delays and Reverb before distorted amp don't sound great at all...just nature of beast I guess. Been years since I've ever run them before...guess I forgot!

 

[Tahoebrian5]

They are never going to sound good before the preamp. You could maybe turn the gain down on your amp, compensate with a drive block before the delay and reverb blocks. This way at least some of your distortion is before your time effects.

 

[philipacamaniac]

Problem I'm having is I say want both #5 Delay and #6 Reverb in parallel....I go to do that and it puts #4 in parallel too! Glitch? So then I only put #6 Reverb in parallel and the #5 Delay is in series. Odd behavior or maybe I'm doing something wrong?

The parallel/series setting applies to how the current block interacts with the previous block. So if you put #5 in parallel, you're saying you want it to be in parallel with #4. If #4 is a drive pedal, you're saying you want drive and delay to be parallel (ie the #3 signal feeds the drive and delay equally and they don't interact).

When you put only #6 in parallel, you're saying you want #6 in parallel with #5, and #4 feeding into both of them equally. This is likely the correct setting you are after.

I agree that the current series/parallel routing isn't terribly intuitive.

 

[Tremonti]

The parallel/series setting applies to how the current block interacts with the previous block. So if you put #5 in parallel, you're saying you want it to be in parallel with #4. If #4 is a drive pedal, you're saying you want drive and delay to be parallel (ie the #3 signal feeds the drive and delay equally and they don't interact). When you put only #6 in parallel, you're saying you want #6 in parallel with #5, and #4 feeding into both of them equally. This is likely the correct setting you are after. I agree that the current series/parallel routing isn't terribly intuitive.

Gotcha. Ya the axe fx layout was easy to comprehend, this but not so much. Thx!