question to guitarrists eclipse owners

[pauliusmm]

Hi,

i was reading some eclipse reviews that say there is noticable delay when changing presets. I want to buy eclipse as my primarry multieffects unit for live use and i want to know how bad this delay is? Is it usable live? will it be fixed to a level where it is not noticable?

how about if i use a lush long reverb and i change preset? does it cut it abruptly?

just want to make sure i will be able to use it right on stage

thanks

[scottburk]

I believe that, due to the complexity of the Eclipse algos, the loading delay will never be completely eliminated.  I use it as my primary f/x live and the lag has never really been an issue for me.  If you know which presets have a longer load time, it's easy to plan ahead and kick the change on a beat or two early.

[IDeangelis]

We have found that the majority of users still changes presets without a real need for it.

Let me explain:

if the next fx you need is just a different type of delay or chorus or verb, a different tweak is what needs to be set. If you are playin a typical top forty repertoire, using the classic gtr fx, loading a single preset that has shifter/delay/modulation/verb is all you need. Using MIDI CC messages, any parameter can be modulated in realtime, to a get a different tweak. So you could easily go from a lush chorus with stereo TTempo delays and long verb to a slightly detuned ADT with soft long delay and a tight ambience for your lead tone. It only takes some programming and a good MIDI pedalboard to achieve this kind of pro_flexibility. No need to reload a similar algorithm when things can be properly set within the currently loaded one.

That is the background of the MIDI Virtual Racks in the H-Series…something you may want to consider too. The Presets Manual has a good explanation in the very last pages.

Eclipse doesn't obviously have THAT kind of flexibility, but can get very close to it.

happy new year

I

[pauliusmm]

Thanks guys, that was helpful

few more off topic questions:

what is the best way to connect eclipse if i want to run signal to my amp and also stereo signal to front speakers if i am gigging? is it possible? or i need to take left output to my amp and right output to PA ?

and also is it ok to use external od/distortion pedals before eclipse? if it boosts the signal maybe there is a risk of clipping or peaking to eclipse?

thanks

[dannyagogo]

you can adjust the change time in the setup menu.mine was set at 0.5 secs i changed it to 0 and its now usable

[erikbojerik]

You *could* put the Eclipse into your amp's effects loop AND use its XLR outs to send to the PA on separate channels – but if you mic your guitar amp, then you'll end up getting the Eclipse on all 3 channels and it will be difficult to set the levels.  

If you have on-stage monitors, you could just not send the Eclipse back to your amp, just send its output to the PA and then to your onstage monitors.  That way your amp cabinet is Eclipse-free, but you can still monitor the Eclipse too, and let FOH deal with the house mix.

Here's how my own guitar rig is wired-it took me awhile to come up with this:

Guitars into Boss NS-2 (noise gate) then into instrument input of TC G-system, which has compression and filter section in front of 4 switchable analog effects loops.  The key here is that all 4 effects loops are always sending, and only the effect "return" is switched on/off by the G-system footswitches.

Loop 1 send/return connect to Mesa Triaxis preamp (you could use your amp head).  (as an aside, the second out on the Triaxis goes to "return" on the NS-2 for best noise filtering)

Loop 2 sends a mono signal to the Eclipse Ch.1 analog in.  So when the G-system's Loop 1 is "on" the Eclipse gets the output of the Triaxis.  When Loop 1 is "off" the Eclipse gets a clean guitar signal (+/- compression & filter from G-system).

Loop 3 return gets the "out" from the NS-2, which means it gets the Triaxis output as well when "on" (I have it on for almost every preset).

So after the effects loops of the Gsystem, the Eclipse and the G-system are both running in parallel – both can receive either "dirty" signal from the Triaxis, or "clean" signal straight from the guitar (pre-set selectable).

Stereo outs of both Eclipse and G-system go to a stereo line mixer, hard-panned to L and R outputs which go to 2 separate guitar amplifiers (all clean settings with flat EQs).

Eclipse is set to 100% wet, Triaxis-Eclipse-Gsystem levels are all set within individual presets.  Everybody's on MIDI channel 1 so when I change a patch on the Gsystem footboard, everyone gets the same program change message.  I could have done this with a different MIDI footboard, but I have size 13s and the Gsystem's foot buttons are nice and big (not kidding).

Onstage, I have a single monitor that lets me hear everything in mono, so I lose the stereo onstage but at least I can gauge the mix and either tweek the line mixer, or have my FOH boyz take care of it.  I could probably monitor in stereo but the stage is starting to get crowded.

Hope that helps

– Erik

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