H90 in the loops of 2 amps at the same time ?

[Graeme777]

Apologies for coming to the forum with this, but I’m struggling a bit and I figure someone here will have the same issue or a better idea than me.

I’m running the H90 in the effects loop of two amps. Signal is split before the amps inputs and runs from the guitar into the front of both amps.Then both effects loops are running into the H90 (one into Input one and out of Output one, and the other into Input 2 and out of Output 2) before running back to the amps.

The problem is that I’m getting gain/drive transfer across the channels, so the gain characteristics of one amp are leaking into the other (whichever is higher gain at the time). I can mitigate this effect a little by setting the routing to dual mode and running only one effect each side, but I’d rather have true stereo that maintains the drive characteristics of the individual amps.

Anyone got any ideas? I feel like there must be a clever way to route this that will solve it. Thanks in advance.

[joecozzi]

Hi Graeme777,

Running stereo in a setup where both amps have different settings or drive structures is not recommended. I understand many users wish to layer the sound of two amps live to sound better but whenever you introduce tonal disparities at the output (the speaker), the image ceases to truly be optimal for stereo audio. Think of listening to a mix in a studio but one monitor is setup with a different frequency response; we just don’t do that.

As you may have discovered, some algorithms mix or combine the signal of both sides to do what they do. In your setup, this forcibly mixes the preamp sections of each amp before processing. That’s what you’re hearing.

The only idea I have involves using amp modeling, where you can place the H90, or any effects, post cabinets after a mixer that combines the signal of both amps. Then, that connects to FOH. Many people do this. It’s like putting effects after you’ve recorded your guitar. The key thing to understand is that the signal from both amps was already mixed together before processing. That’s the only way to avoid the problem you’re encountering.

[Graeme777]

Thanks Joe,

As you say, different algorithms do it to a greater or lesser extent. It’s the gain transfer between the amps that’s most annoying.. turn one amp up and they both get louder.. makes balancing them a pain.Could there be a way to turn off signal mixing globally? I’m running wet/dry/wet with 3 different amps. Subtle differences in gain staging sound great in stereo if it’s done carefully.

I was hoping it could be done with inserts somehow, or with both available effects on parallel channels, but I guess that would need twice the processing power.

I wondered about another H90, one in each loop with one slaved to the other via midi, but I’m sure there’d be inconsistencies that wouldn’t sound good.

I was running this same system with 4 factor pedals previously and didn’t seem to have this problem, did they have independent channel processing or did I just not notice?

None of this is critical, I love the unit and I can always put the H90 in front of the amps or just run one amp clean and let the drive section of the other colour both, just trying to explore how this might be done without blending the amps together before processing.

 

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