Rackmount Gear Thread

[rfurtkamp]

are you guys actually running stuff like this often or are you just dreaming of doing so?

i must say, it sounds insane and awesome, but it'd never get to utilize it fully right now

My master board that feeds the rack in the control room, and yes...it's complicated as fuck.

[rfurtkamp]

It feets the rack in the control room (older photo, but same rig but the amps have a dedicated "live" room now:

[MaxMaps]

Hly shit yes!

[qersty]

are you guys actually running stuff like this often or are you just dreaming of doing so?

i must say, it sounds insane and awesome, but it'd never get to utilize it fully right now

Not on guitar but I have two racks set up in inserts of my interface atm so that i can ad quadraverb of shit as I please

[Gone Fission]

I have thought about the miking up thing before but it feel like a headache while at the same time really cool. I think I*ve seen robert jonston do it with like an echoplex or a reverb. The separation isn't something I had thought of. That will probably be disappointing if I wanna do weird multitap stuff. I kinda don't feel the need to run rack stuff in series tho. I kinda just wanna have it all in the end in parallell so that i can blend it in and have all serial effects before

Lots of people do okay with things in parallel, which can keep stuff easier to plan signal flows. Splitting your sources becomes the main consideration.

The old Rane SM-26 units can work as mixers or splitters, and the company had put out a tech note on all the things they do: https://www.ranecommercial.com/legacy/p ... yMixer.pdf — worth looking at just for some ideas, even if it isn’t for you. The 26 can be very handy to expand the capabilities of other mixers, though, so worth getting at the right price. (Rane stuff is often very affordable used, but unless it’s an SM-26S with an internal transformer, don’t buy an SM-26 without its unique outboard supply.)

With the Samson SM-10 I mentioned before you can use the auxes in parallel without cascading—you just avoid using the aux sends on the returns. So let’s say you run a mono source into channel 1. You can use both the Mon send and the EFX send to split that source while keeping it running to the main mix. The rear panel send jacks are TRS stereo, and with a mono source that means a Y cord will give you two unbalanced copies of the mono Mon bus signal. The EFX bus will work the same. As a bonus, there is a TRS mono balanced Mon send jack on the front panel. So you can feed up to five effects units from channel 1 and run their returns to different channel of the mixer. If you have a second mono source, you can send a different level to the Mon and the EFX sends from the first source (or the same amount). Aux buses are mixing buses, too, like your main mixing buses, so auxes are a bit more flexible than a simple splitter. (The Rane has better control on levels sent to individual units than this approach, though.)

So that should give you thoughts of possibilities without messing with cascading rack effects. If it takes in your brain, you start working out signal flows on paper or a whiteboard or Visio or similar software. Even for parallel processing, it’s worth a bit of planning for the connections, cabling, level requirements of the units, and so forth. You don’t need to go right to the OCD of neatly bundling and zip-tying your signal cables on the opposite side from the AC cables in the back of the rack—you never have to do that, in fact. You just want to have a plan so things will work. Sounds dreadful at first, I know, but it can be fantastic when it comes together.

[crochambeau]

I'm awaiting delivery of a (broken, to be fixed) Akai MB76, which amounts to a seven input, six output rudimentary matrix mixer with 32 MIDI selectable memory slots. 1U rack. Each level control has a very stepped 12 levels, but I expect those levels include FULL and OFF, so I am excited.

I just mention this because the concept seems to fit well with the current arc of conversation.

Edited for pic. Two of the three voltage regulators were suffering from bad solder joints, works a treat now.

[Psyre]

I've decided to sell my Quadraverb, DEP-5 and M-One XL ...think I'm going to put the money toward an LTL Silver Bullet as my final piece of outboard processing. Orville will have to handle all bus effects.
It's going to be sad letting them go as they are all excellent in their own way, but part of a larger push to reduce all of my belongings

[crochambeau]

Shifting some shit around today and instead of growing a third arm to hold this while I removed the last screw I let it fall inside the rack, I blame slots and not my obvious incompetence .

[ibarakishi]

Shifting some shit around today and instead of growing a third arm to hold this while I removed the last screw I let it fall inside the rack, I blame slots and not my obvious incompetence .

fallen_inward800px.JPG

what is it? an old tube preamp?

[crochambeau]

what is it? an old tube preamp?

In a sense, yes. It's an old tube voltmeter, which can serve as a pre-amp with coarse 10 dB steps ranging from 80 dB of gain to 40 dB of attenuation. It is a total distortion machine.

[ibarakishi]

sounds glorious

[friendship]

what's a good unit that can give me multitap and multiband pitch modulation?

[Gone Fission]

Whaddya mean by pitch modulation? Vibrato and chorus kinda stuff?

And what is your budget? I’m not shelling for an H9000, but there’s a high likelihood I’m willing to or have already spent more than makes you comfortable.

[friendship]

Whaddya mean by pitch modulation? Vibrato and chorus kinda stuff?

And what is your budget? I’m not shelling for an H9000, but there’s a high likelihood I’m willing to or have already spent more than makes you comfortable.

Ya, ideally it would have multiple taps of static detuning/pitch shifting as well as LFO pitch modulation (vibrato & chorus). Maybe even envelope and triggering internal controllers?

An H9000 would be a dream but is... a little out of my budget. I wanted a Roland SDE-330 but they're really hard to find. Maybe there's some other obscure unit that can do complex chorus/pitch stuff?

[Gone Fission]

Multi taps of static detuning thins the herd if two taps doesn’t count as “multi.”

My top recommendation under $500 would be an Ensoniq DP-Pro, if you can find one. Take a gander at the algorithms in the manual and you’ll wonder why everyone isn’t talking about them. http://www.handelima.net/studiogear/man ... manual.pdf It’s because it’s about the last thing Ensoniq did before Creative/E-Mu ate the company and ended everything. A couple great multi tap algorithms, multi-tap chorus with bonus volume modulators per voice to add animation, and a six voice pitch shifter that can do detuner, big intervals, and regeneration. But this is hen’s tooth rare, so good luck.

Look at the algorithm manuals for the Boss SE-50, SE-70, and VF-1 to see if they do what you want. The Boss multi-tap algorithms are pretty basic, but may do enough for you. The SE-70 has the best contender for multi-tap pitch lunacy, including being able to use reverse delay shifters for any of the voices—super Mode 7 stuff, more voices than the standard Eventide Crystals algorithm.

Not rack but worthy, the Yamaha Magic Stomp is a really powerful multi-tap delay factory if you can get the PC software running to tweak it. Kinda just there two voice pitch shifting algorithm that does perfectly competent detune.

You should also check the manuals for the Alesis Quadreverb and the Rocktron Intellifex (and Intelliverb and Intellipitch) to see if they might give you what you want. I just couldn’t tell you because I’m not all that sure what they do. I believe these Rocktrons all have the bonus of an internal dry signal path, which means you don’t need to run them with a mixer.

Over $500/under $1000, I would start looking at a Lexicon PCM-80 with pitch card or an 81 with those algorithms built in.