Wet – Dry - is anyone using?

Johan Allard

Johan Allard

Power User
I've just been listening to That Pedal Show talking about Wet-Dry & Wet-Dry-Wet, and got interested in Wet-Dry. I have 2 CLR's that I use, I could configure Wet-Dry to only have stuff like Delay coming out of one of them and was just wondering if any of you use it? I've just been experimenting here at home and it's definitely cool and I can see that having one speaker dry has a different attack that I really like. Live I play both with the CLR's as backline and as monitors when feeding my Ax8 to the PA. As a backline it would be an easy thing to use live, and I guess I could only feed the wet side to the mono-PA, but then the mono-PA side would be wetter than what I would hear on stage so might overdo it.

Anyway, just wanted to see if you guys have some experience with this?

 
I don't believe in it (anymore).
In the "old days", it made sense: You want that raw, analog, tube sound, because the effect processors, with their AD/DA conversion would take that away. Now, with the Axe, when the "raw" sound is already from digital origine, the WD discussion is moot, imo.
It's better to have the "raw" sound coming from two sources.
 
MarcoB said:
I don't believe in it (anymore).
In the "old days", it made sense: You want that raw, analog, tube sound, because the effect processors, with their AD/DA conversion would take that away. Now, with the Axe, when the "raw" sound is already from digital origine, the WD discussion is moot, imo.
It's better to have the "raw" sound coming from two sources.
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I guess it depends on the effect...

Something like a reverb should probably be adjusted by FOH, otherwise it’s hard to judge whether there’s enough of it or too much in a given venue. But then you would most probably rely on whatever the local mixer has built in, which is in most cases less than stellar. Also, you’ll have reverb all the time, with no variability between songs, unless whoever is mixing knows your material and what to do in each part of the show.
 
As someone who has done FOH mixing I never used reverb on guitars. But then again I'm also a guitar player who reckons that a guitar player wants total control of their sound. And that means sometimes he wants a little reverb, sometimes over the top insane reverb, and sometimes no reverb at all. I've been to gigs where the guitar practically begged the engineer from stage to kill effects on his guitar signal.As long as I can use it in a mix I'll refrain from adding anything.
 
This is what I need to explore.... I hate how effects wash out the guitar tone... you lose the Kerrang on the pick attack
 
Great thing about fractals setup. Super easy to side chain affect like delay or reverb so it doesn't wash out the actual guitar amp signal path. Any affect block can be side chained.
 
So here's what I have and what I am about to attempt:

Output 1 - Line6 Power Cab OD==>AMP==>CAB(IR)==>PowerCab

Output 2 - splits off after the cab, DELAY==>REVERB==>Return of Landry tube amp==>Guitar cab

I've never had 2 paths going, so I need to read up on how to do that. Got the manual right here... One question, on the right of the Grid, in "Output", there's no visual way to see what is going to Out1 vs. Out2. Where is that controlled? (I'm looking in the manual where it shows an example of 'Complex Routing' and the time-based effects are on a parallel path.

So this will, presumably, sound different than just turning down the mix levels of the time-based effects right? Because of the separate cabs?
 
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Only one way to find out. Try it and record it. Because memory is both biased and subjective, whereas a recording and blind test is at least way less subjective. And play the same phrase into a looper so its as identical as possible.

For science!

We really need a mythbusters show dedicated to musician's myths in regards to sound and gear. You can easily do 10 seasons of those alone.
 
mikeyg said:
on the right of the Grid, in "Output", there's no visual way to see what is going to Out1 vs. Out2. Where is that controlled? (I'm looking in the manual where it shows an example of 'Complex Routing' and the time-based effects are on a parallel path.
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the tall thing on the right that says "Output" is the Output 1 block. anything connected to it will make sound at Output 1.

the FX Loop block is Output 2. so anything fed into that will make sound at Output 2.

do not connect the FX Loop block to the Output 1 block.
 
Thanks.

So I got it sorta working. Dry is going to Line6 cab. Some of the effects are working going out to the guitar cab.

Seems like now I've gone a 180. Now instead of a washed out sound, I'm getting some latency between the dry tone and the effects, and its noticeably separate. I'm gonna try moving the reverb on the dry signal to fatten it up
 
chris said:
hopefully you mean it splits off before the cab so you don't send a cab simulation to a real cab?
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I know to do it that way. But I’m having difficulty creating a split off for a parallel chain. Maybe I need the editor to do It? Using the machine editing it’s not working right.

I’m putting this on hold until the weekend. Hippie Tim is coming over for the assist.
 
mikeyg said:
I know to do it that way. But I’m having difficulty creating a split off for a parallel chain. Maybe I need the editor to do It? Using the machine editing it’s not working right.

I’m putting this on hold until the weekend. Hippie Tim is coming over for the assist.
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I don’t understand. So you did split it to parallel rows or you didn’t? You mentioned how it was designed earlier. Is it like that or not?

All I was asking is if your cab is being sent to both outputs. You can easily do this on the front panel.
 
I got it working with the editor. It’s different... I think the guitar sounds too dry, so I might add a touch of reverb so it’s not such a stark contrast
 
mikeyg said:
I got it working with the editor. It’s different... I think the guitar sounds too dry, so I might add a touch of reverb so it’s not such a stark contrast
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Hmm but that’s the whole point. Maybe you just need more volume from the effects speaker?
 
I often run a touch of spring or studio reverb in my “dry” signal. Just sounds a little better and more natural. The “wet” effects are then bigger reverbs, with long decay times etc, for added aural effect and enjoyment.

It’s like if you put a little combo amp with reverb into a huge warehouse. You’d hear the amp with its built in reverb, as that sound directly hits your ears, then you’d later hear that sound as it reflects around the huge space.

It’s really fun to play around with and if you close your eyes and play it creates a really convincing psychoacoustic perception of playing in a larger space. Not, just having it sound like a lot of reverb coming out of a point source in a small room, which is what using big ambient reverbs sounds like. Sound good, but sounds like an obvious effect, while with multiple speakers you can create some improved surround sound effects.

As I’ve said before, can’t really record it, can’t really share it with other in a typical audience, but really fun for your own enjoyment at home.

Maybe for smaller gigs soemthing like a Space Ststion positioned somewhere in the venue would work too... like a little bar or coffee shop gig. Could probably set up a bit of a quad sound system for that eaily enough, but is it worth it for 20 people ? Who’s to say, but I immensely enjoy doing it for my audience of 1 at home
 
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