A quick one while he's away (guitar effect into a mixer)

[Kost1978]

Hi to everybody,
what do you think about linking a guitar stompbox (reverb or delay) to a mixer (aux send/ret) to use it as a voice/acoustic guitar effect?
Is it doable?
Any problems regarding impedance or other stuff?

As an example, I'm thinking about the "classic" Deep Blue Delay layout from Mark.

Obviously I can hook it up and try it myself (I will do), but I'd like to know if there are any known technical problems for this approach or better any mod to make a guitar effect working the way I described.

As usual, thanks in advance!
Paolo.

[Neil mcNasty]

Using pedals as effects on a mixer is a very good idea in order to get some unique sounds out of your studio sessions.
BUT... The impedance and signal strength is all wrong (as you suspect) and you will get a lot of distortion because of the high levels from the mixer compared to a normal guitar signal.
You'll also will get a lot of noise when running it back into the mixer, because you'll have to gain the channel pretty high in order to bring up the level so that it is high enough, bringing with it a lot of noise and hiss.
So what you need to do is to build an adapter that lowers the volume from line level to guitar level, run it trough the pedal(s), and then back into an adapter again, bringing it up to line level, so that the mixer will be happy with the signal.

Ken Stone's Stompbox Adapter is designed for using pedals with synths, and will take care of this issue.
I have made a layout for it, but it has not been built and verified yet.
(I have been going over checking it a few times, so I think it should be OK...)

Here is a link to the schematic: http://www.cgs.synth.net/modules/cgs60_sba.html

And here is my layout:


There is also a small version that only changes the signal from line level, to guitar level (in the lower right corner of the layout)
This can be used as a reamp tool, when you just want to send the signal from your mixer to your amp (without going back in a mixer)
It is not as good option as a proper reamp box, but it will get the job done in a decent way...

Using a couple of DI-Boxes is also an option...
Send the signal from the mixer the wrong way/backwards trough the first DI-Box, into your pedals, then from your pedals into a second DI-Box (normal way) and then back to the mixer.

Good luck and I hope that my reply will get you a step closer to your goal...
Cheers!

[Kost1978]

Neil mcNasty wrote

...Good luck and I hope that my reply will get you a step closer to your goal...
Cheers!

Thanks for your reply Neil, your point of view is quite interesting.
The only thing I'm missing is the +15/-15 part: do I need a special AC adapter?

Maybe the DI box part will be easier (considering the fact I already own two of them)...

Yesterday I tried one of my DB Delay linked to a mixer, it was...let say interesting!
Kind of a noise machine on steroid...

Anyway, thanks again for the info!
Paolo.

[Neil mcNasty]

You need a Bipolar Voltage Converter in order to get +/-15v and we are talking DC power here and not AC!!!
The converter runs on +9v DC (normal pedal power) and creates the desired voltages you need for this...
Here is a layout for such a Bipolar Voltage Converter:
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.no/2014/01/bipolar-voltage-converter.html

But if you have two DI-Boxes already, you should try that first and see if that sounds good...

[Kost1978]

Sorry, of course is DC, just a stupid typo...

Thanks for the voltage converter suggestion, I'm sure I saw it before in the layout pages, but of course I forgot about it...

[Neil mcNasty]

Here is the layout for the Rusty Box, that has a quite similar power section (but split in 3 parts), and you can just add the small +/-18v to +/-15v board in addition to the Bipolar Voltage Converter I posted above.
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.no/2014/03/tronographic-rusty-box.html