Vintage FX pedal on 16rig

Fuse AudioFuse
#1

Hello !

I am trying to use a vintage phaser pedal on my 16rig (the Behringer VP1 which is a Small Stone clone). It seems that the line levels from my synths are not well accepted by the pedal. The audio from the synths seems way too loud and the output of the pedal is very distorted and clipped. If I turn down the synth level it is ok but is it the correct way to use vintage FX pedals ?

Thank you for your help !

#2

Hi cedric. I’m a bit confused - is your audio flow synth->pedal->16rig or something else? If it is, then yeah you’ll have to adjust the synth master volume to avoid clipping/distorting in the pedal.
I’d guess the pedal is designed for processing an instrument level signal while synths always output line level which is way hotter.
Input to 16 should be gain adjusted as usual.

#3

Just checked the VP1’s manual and indeed the pedal has (as expected for a guitar effects unit) a Hi Z (high impedance) input jack.

Meaning, it expects a low level “guitar like” signal and not a line level synth one.

Googling for “convert line level to Hi Z” throws solutions like using a Reamp Box or perhaps using a common passive DI Box in reverse to adapt the synth output to “guitar pedal” level.

Hope that helps
Cheers.-

1 Like
#4

Thank you for your answers ! I have read something about reamp boxes and it seems that it is the good way to do the thing. So the 16rig can’t convert line to instrument levels :).

1 Like
#6

It is almost that, I am using the pedal in the output 5 and back to the input 5. And in my daw I can route vst and other synth into this effect.

Vst > 16rig > pedal > 16rig
Or
Hardware synth > 16rig > pedal > 16rig

#7

I’d be inclined to just lower the output gain from the 16rig going into the pedal. It seems to work ok for the pedals I’ve driven from the 16rig. “Guitar” pedals are very commonly used these days with synths and the like which provide line-level outputs. I don’t think anyone bothers with DI boxes and the like when doing so - you just pad/“gain stage” using the synth’s volume control.

1 Like
#8

Hi @cedric75018 and welcome to The Sound Explorers Forum!

I LOVE using ‘guitar’ pedals in my DAW and do so in most productions in some way or another.
I use one of These myself, they’re not cheap, but they’re incredibly versatile, built like a tank and S/N Ratio is pretty decent, depending on which pedal/s you’re using.

Personal faves are EHX Bad Stone phaser/Stereo Electric Mistress, Boss Waza CE1/2 and Dim C/D, Boss BF3 and a few others.
It’s a ‘relatively cheap’ way of getting into some rather interesting analogue outboard.

HTH!

3 Likes
#9

It can, but only through the front outputs 3 & 4. See “Reamping a Guitar or Bass” in the manual, or this video:

Obviously, only part of it applies when you’re using a synth instead of a guitar or bass, but the basic idea of how to set up and connect the outputs 3 & 4 is the same regardless of the source of the audio.

3 Likes
#10

Hey Cedric, tmoore is right ! The 16Rig does that very well using this reamp functionality. You don’t need to do it with a guitar or bass recording, anything you will send into the outputs 3/4, set to re-amp mode, will work well :slight_smile:

2 Likes