MESA BOOGIE QUESTIONS

[kramsicle]

OK...Brandon...here I am

I got the Rocktron yesterday. I seem to be confused about something. First, although it does not change my tone much, I have a problem with levels. I have it running through the loop. However, when i am playing clean (without distortion), you can tell the tone is a bit distorted. If i turn the loop off, the clean tone becomes truly clean without distortion. The distortion is very slight, but, when i strum the chords harder, the clean tone distorts. On my amp, I have two dials, a mix dial and a send dial. On the Rocktron Xpression, I have two dials as well; an input dial and an output dial. I think the answer to my distortion problem is in these four dials. However, i realize that when I lower the mix dial, the distortion disappears, but so do the effects. It doesn't seem like there is a happy medium between having the full effects and the processor distorting my clean tone. Do you have any suggestions to this dilemma?

[brandondrury]

Hey dude,

Thanks for joining my forum.? I'm working very hard to make a site that will actually help make better recordings and better recordings.? If you know anyone else that could use some help, send them this way.?

As for your question.? Here's what's happening (from my point of view):

You are sending too much signal to the Rockron effects box.? The signal is clipped.? You have quite a bit of options here since both units have professional level controls.? You can turn the the send down on the Boogie or you can turn the input level of the Rocktron down.? Yes, this will reduce levels, but I wouldn't worry about that because you should be able to boost them quite easily using either the output level of the Rocktron or by increasing the wet/dry mix on your Rectifier.

If you are unsure where to start, I would crank up the output of the Rocktron to 80% of it's maximum output.? Hopefully, this will be way too much effects.? Then you can just turn the input on the Rokctron down (or the output of the Boogie down) to accomodate this.? (The 80% setting is fairly extremely, but I'm doing that to make sure you lower the input side of the of Rocktron to eliminate clipping).

In the end, you'd like these to be relatively balanced.? This is called Gain Staging.? It means that balancing out your levels will reduce noise.? By cranking any one knob you are telling a little amplifier circuit somewhere to hit it hard....very hard which causes noise.? In this situation you have 3 or 4 possible noise sources which could cause noise or hiss.? One is output of the Boogie.? If you crank it too high, you may get noise.? Another is the input of the Rocktron.? If you crank it, you may get noise.? The third is the output of the Rocktron.? If you crank it, you may get noise.? (Note: It's possible that none of these circuits will have noise, but I wanted to address the issue just in case).?

Back to gain staging.? If your output on the Boogie is on 10 and the input to the Rocktron is on 1 you are overworking the Boogie output and underworking the Rockron input.? This doesn't mean the amps will explode, it just means that there is a greater chance for noise.? So, try putting each one on 5.? (Of course, if you are clipping you should reduce both to a lower setting).? Then on the output do the same thing.?

The mix thing on the Rectifier's parallel effects loop can complicate this a tad, but shouldn't be too big of deal.? Try putting the output of the Rocktron on half and the mix at 50/50 on the Recto.? That number may be WAY? off!!! If the signal is too low, try boosting both the output of the Rocktron and increasing the amount of effects in the mix.? (Note: the mix knob works the same way as a return level, but has a circuit setup so that you don't hear a volume change)

I hope this helps.? This concept takes 3 seconds to show in person, but is much more difficult to demonstrate in text.

Let me know if this helps and if you have any more questions.

Brandon