Smooth amp transitions

A

akmojob

Member
Hi all, I have another question for you. I have been working with a/b swithching with clean & dirty amps. I have some patches that transition well and others that will give an audible "pop" when I switch. I have played around with them in series or paralell and have moved the order in which they are in series , but cant seem to get away from that pop....unless I mute the strings then it doesnt make the pop. Like I said before it doesnt do it with all patches , but a few of them it does and I cant figure out why. I have even tried to use a foot pedal instead of a switch but once I pass the 50% mark in the control grid it still does it. I have tried it really slow and fast with the pedal and it is still the same. Once it hits the half way mark the amps switch and the pop occurs. Is there a fool proof way to fix this and get a really smooth transition between amp models? I have seen some of the posts about this on yeks forum , but still havent been able to figure it out. I have seen on here also where people can fade the amps in and out smoothly with the transitions. Actually that is what I am trying to do.
 
I've been using exp. controllers to pan between amp blocks since firmware 7x and I've never had any issues with pops. :?
 
One thing you could do is to

- export two or more patches that exhibit the pops.
- record an mp3 of how it sounds to you.
- zip them up and send them to support.

You could also share those here, but I think support would be more likely to be able to do something about it.
Afaik the Uber model has had this problem for a while but there might be more.
 
OK, I just tried what the OP suggested, using the Pitch modifier to graduate between 2 amps, but it's not very successful as there is noticeable glitching in the sound as the processor tries to keep up.
 
You could use the MIXER with two channels controlled inversely by the same stomp switch (0-50-100, 100-50-10 for the modifier MIN/MID/MAX) .
Set a very small glide rate (DAMPING) and you'll actually get a fast crossfade!
 
Hey thanks everyone for the info. I am real curious Matman about the mixer crossfade that you were talking about. How do you connect the amps to the mixer? Do you have to do some sort of paralell connection ?
 
Thanks guys....I disabled the spillover and it does seem to fix the problem. I havent played at band levels yet , but I think that did it. Is there something wrong with the spillover or is it in the way I have my blocks set up?
 
forget everything that has been previously mentioned. the mixer method is not very good. the best thing you can do for this is to put a volume/pan block (set to pan) before the amps, (have the two amps in parralel) and set the input for the amps to left and right respectively, then assign an expression to control the pan in the volume/pan block and you have a seamless transition crossfading your signal to your two amps. works like a charm, i use it all the time.
 
geamala said:
forget everything that has been previously mentioned. the mixer method is not very good. the best thing you can do for this is to put a volume/pan block (set to pan) before the amps, (have the two amps in parralel) and set the input for the amps to left and right respectively, then assign an expression to control the pan in the volume/pan block and you have a seamless transition crossfading your signal to your two amps. works like a charm, i use it all the time.
Click to expand...
Wow.

You just told us the solution provided by one of the principal artist-tweaking-collaborators of Fractal Audio, the guy who helped both Dweezil Zappa recreate his fathers complete setups into two Ultra's and I think also Adrian Belew to get the weirdest stuff you could imagine, is "not very good". Yeah. that's Matman.

Well, maybe you're right. But I would have brought it more carefully.
 
Hi geamala I thank you for the tip , but I must not be that bright because I cant figure out how to set it up the way you suggested. I cant even figure out how to "set it to pan" .....can you give me a detailed instruction?....I am not sure how to place each amp on its perspective sides......thanks
 
Forget everything that anyone else said! I have the solution!!!!!!11111

Just kidding :) But here's something you could try.

1) Use two volume blocks. One for each amp.
2) You can put them in front or behind the amp blocks. Both will work, but putting the volume in front of the amp will start by giving you gain reduction whereas behind will not decrease the gain, only volume.
3) Connect both blocks to the same expression controller (e.g. External1).
- Set one volume block to go from 0-100%
- Set the other volume block to go from 100-0%

Here's an awesome!!! example drawing:
Code: 
      +----+ +----+
    +-|vol2|-|amp2|-+
   /  +----+ +----+  \
  /   +----+ +----+   \
------|vol1|-|amp1|---+---
      +----+ +----+
 
the reason i said that is because i have been through this problem myself and have tried many different ways to get this. the reason the mixer method sucks is because you are only reducing the post volume of the amp. ie: if you have a high gain amp and a clean amp that you wish to transition between, then as you sweep towards your clean sound the high gain only gets quieter and sounds very artificial, especially if you are wanting a smooth transition. i can imagine that in some cases it could be the sound you are after but most likely not. putting the panner before the amps and simply doing a cross fade of your input signal to the amps means that as you back away from your high gain amp you have a much more natural and smooth reduction in gain. also as you wind up your gain you get a gradual increase in gain as opposed to a really quiet cranked amp sound. you feelin me G? don't get your titties in a twirl. i'm just trying to help.
 
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