Parallel chain with shunt adds gain ?

[Jesse]

Thanks everyone, all great replies. I was aware of the 100% mix in parallel and that is how I use delay.

The different mix law on that block is interesting. So if the dry signal is unity until 50% and the wet signal hits unity at 50%, it seems like at 50% mix you’d be summing two unity gain signals, which would result in the same 6 dB boost. Or is something else in the block compensating for that?

 

[yyz67]

That mix law is for delay, and if the delay is 'delayed' enough it won't add to the dry immediately. Short delay times would make total signal louder.

The general mix law is:

​

For reverb it's:

Mix​

When using Mix to control the level of the Reverb, the volume level of the dry signal is affected: when increasing Mix, the dry signal's level decreases. The prevent this, turn up Mix to 50%, set Level to +3dB, and use Input Gain to set the desired amount of Reverb. Or, put Reverb in a parallel row with Mix at 100% and use Level or Input Gain to set the desired reverb level.​

 

[mr_fender]

Thanks everyone, all great replies. I was aware of the 100% mix in parallel and that is how I use delay.

The different mix law on that block is interesting. So if the dry signal is unity until 50% and the wet signal hits unity at 50%, it seems like at 50% mix you’d be summing two unity gain signals, which would result in the same 6 dB boost. Or is something else in the block compensating for that?

If the signals overlap enough, you can get a 6 dB increase at 50% mix. Turn the delay time down really low like 50 ms so the signal overlap is very prominent and you'll hear the level increase compared to the bypassed level. Depending on what you play and the time of the delay, it's possible to have no overlap at all, such as playing staccato 1/4 notes with an 1/8 note delay time and only 1 repeat. On the other hand if you play 1/4 notes with a 1/4 note delay time you'll get full overlap and the most signal increase. Turning up the delay feedback can also increase the amount of overlap and signal increase you have as well (that's how you can get runaway oscillation effects when feedback is cracked up all the way).

 

[Jesse]

That mix law is for delay, and if the delay is 'delayed' enough it won't add to the dry immediately. Short delay times would make total signal louder.

Yeah I was talking specifically about the delay. The standard mix law makes complete sense: it always sums zero. With delay, I see what you’re saying about there being a…huh huh…delay in the signal, but if you keep playing you’ll get the case where delay repeats are hitting at the same time as played notes. I guess what it comes down to is that with most normal delay settings, this volume increase is negligible, especially since most of the time the delayed notes are at a lower level than the original note.