Why would this disabled amp block change my levels?

sick pickle

sick pickle

Inspired
Hey folks, still getting my head around all of this (coming from Helix).

Please see this screenshot:

Screen Shot 2022-10-13 at 6.44.26 PM.png

My intended signal chain here is my 'crunch' sound:

  • Amp2 is Triple Crest 2
  • Cab 2 is Dual IR's

Amp1 is BYPASSED in this scene (that is my clean amp sound) - however, if I jump between AMP 1 channels on this scene with Amp 2, you can Clearly hear the signal fluctuate in volume (I suppose, based on whatever amp settings are in this channel). How can I avoid this? I assumed that it was disabled, therefore, any changes in this block would have zero impact on my sound of the engaged blocks.
 
The signals are being added together because they're in parallel. Set the bypass mode of each Amp to Mute instead of Thru.

From p. 59 in the manual:
  • Parallel effects should have Bypass Mode set to “MUTE”, “MUTE IN”, or “MUTE OUT” to avoid increasing the dry signal level when the effect is bypassed.
Click to expand...

Also, p. 7 in the Blocks Guide says:

Screen Shot 2022-10-13 at 3.55.15 PM.png
 
Last edited:
Greg Ferguson said:
Make sure each amp is in a different channel; if they're on the same channel then, when you changed the mode, it happened for both amps. That bites newcomers to the Fractal system.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I sorted this out.

Unfortunately, going from Scene 1 to 2 is causing a very significant POPPING sound, almost like clicking drum sticks together. All I am doing is turning off the top path, and turning on the bottom path, but the clicking is significant enough for me to worry about the fidelity of the unit.
 
peepeepoopoo said:
Thanks. I sorted this out.

Unfortunately, going from Scene 1 to 2 is causing a very significant POPPING sound, almost like clicking drum sticks together. All I am doing is turning off the top path, and turning on the bottom path, but the clicking is significant enough for me to worry about the fidelity of the unit.
Click to expand...
Export the preset here.
 
Attached! Just continually strum a hard Am chord and switch between Vox and Crunch (Scene 1 and 2) and the click/pop is very audible.
 

Attachments

  • Foo Fighters.syx
    24.1 KB · Views: 6
Found another popping situation, slightly different from the previous post. This time, going from Lead to Crunch+ (S4 to S3).

In switching these scenes, the amp 1 block was loading up channel C which was a 58 tweed and this was causing a HUGE pop sound. But I switched Amp 1 channel to B (which is the AC20) and the crazy pop went away. So it seems like that tweed amp has something happening where it introduces a huge amount of tonal switch, enough to really excite the pop sound. Doesn't happen with the AC20.

Video here:



The popping is not as noticeable on the video as it is in person in front of the monitors - its a VERY loud clack/pop sound.
 
Is that a 'Turbo' preset? It is causing a CPU warning on my non-turbo unit (firmware 3.00).

I set all channels of the Cab blocks bypass types to 'Mute. Changed any muted blocks from unnecessarily changing channels, which shouldn't matter, but often does?

There does still seem to be an issue when going between scenes 3 and 4? Even though amp 1 is bypassed in both scenes. it is causing a big burst. Even if amp 1 is completely removed from the signal chain, the burst still happens.. Bug?

Edit... I see that you also discovered this.

Setting the muted amp 1 to the same channel (doesn't matter which) in scenes 3 and 4 stops the burst.
 

Attachments

  • Foo Fighters II (3.00).syx
    24.1 KB · Views: 1
Last edited:
Moke said:
Is that a 'Turbo' preset? It is causing a CPU warning on my non-turbo unit (firmware 3.00).

I set all channels of the Cab blocks bypass types to 'Mute. Changed any muted blocks from unnecessarily changing channels, which shouldn't matter, but often does?

There does still seem to be an issue when going between scenes 3 and 4? Even though amp 1 is bypassed in both scenes. it is causing a big burst. Even if amp 1 is completely removed from the signal chain, the burst still happens.. Bug?

Edit... I see that you also discovered this.

Setting the muted amp 1 to the same channel (doesn't matter which) in scenes 3 and 4 stops the burst.
Click to expand...
Turbo yes. It's about 76% on mine.

Yeah - the channel switch in the muted AMP Block 1 (which isn't even enabled in Scenes 3/4) causes the huge burst.
 
The parallel mute settings took me a good couple of hours to get my head around coming from L6, lots of trial and error and reading and re-reading the manual.

On your popping stuff, look at a Leon Todd video on changing amps seamlessly, he uses a multiplexer block which can be used to swap in and out that may help?
 
I don’t mess with parallel routing. Too much preset leveling magic for me to get my head around. I use two amp blocks in series. Use scenes to switch amps. No problem.
 
Ben Pinkus said:
On your popping stuff, look at a Leon Todd video on changing amps seamlessly, he uses a multiplexer block which can be used to swap in and out that may help?
Click to expand...
That was the old way we used to switch seamlessly. V3.0 of the firmware largely did away with the need for that.
 
Watching with great interest! :cool: I am also coming from predominantly using a helix for the last few years and I have yet to wrap my mind around the use of the bypass modes and when to use which ones. Lots to learn... :eek:
 
dmacattack said:
The popping is not as noticeable on the video as it is in person in front of the monitors - its a VERY loud clack/pop sound.
Click to expand...
Didn't catch which FW you're on. If the latest (21b), there could be some quirks to be ironed out wrt bypassing etc.
 
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