Does Anyone Use Rack Gear

[dumbassbob]

I have a 10 space rack with highend FX.But I seem to get overloads How can I use them all What did they do before the Bradshaw loop rig Anyone old enough to know

[Steve Conner]

Sorry, your rack won't work properly without big hair and Spandex.

[dumbassbob]

Use Rack Gear

Its funny 20 yrs ago I bought alot of good vintage pedals,Now that everyone is useing pedals I am buying up all the rack gear I dont bend over that far to take in in the ass.

[GibsonLover]

That's why I don't sell anything, especially guitars. I'll use the rack stuff for recording and the pedal stuff for guitar. That way the seasons can change, and I'll still have something to plug in. When I'm too arthritic to play, I'll
cash in my "equipment 401K".

[dumbassbob]

Useing Rack Gear

I was trying to find out how they pluged all that gear togather before the Bradshaw controler came out,I try to put 2 DDL's inline and I get too low a signal. Did they use a patchbay? or a mixer?

[Steve A.]

When I'm too arthritic to play, I'll cash in my "equipment 401K".

Which is probably doing better than everyone's "real" 401K (although I'm not sure that the word "real" is still applicable).

I didn't like how things were heading last summer so I took all of my money out of the stock market in July, taking just a 10% loss from the peaks in October 2007. Probably the only good decision I ever made in my life!

Steve Ahola

[Steve Conner]

Rack gear had two different operating levels. -10dBV (about 0.1 volt, compatible with guitar pickups and stomp boxes) and +4dBu, which is about 10 times more voltage, and intended for use with pro gear.

If you patch a piece of -10 gear downstream of something that's pushing out +4, you'll naturally see a volume drop and distortion.

The solution is to use the same operating level throughout your rack, and then you can patch things together to your heart's content. Some gear is switchable or has pots to adjust it, some (like Line 6's rackmounts) has one set of ins and outs for each level, and some gear is just hard wired to one or the other level. In the latter case you may need to use something else as a level translator, maybe a Behringer Ultralink or suchlike.

I don't know if the Bradshaw switcher translates levels.

When it comes to rack gear, the first generation of digital stuff was horrific. As an investment, it's probably held its value more like sushi than Scotch. The only exception I can think of is the Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro, that earned a cult following with looping guitarists. The Line 6 Echo/Mod/Filter Pro rackmounts seem to have held their value better, but they're second generation digital at least. The Edge has one of each, so they must be good.

[dumbassbob]

Use Rack Gear

I played for years doing gigs with just a DDL-3 phase 90 SD-1.My rack gear is 4 tube 2 channal Soho preamp. Roland SDE-3000DDL Srv 2000 reverb,and a Yamaha D-1500DDL and a Digitech Timemachine for 8 sec loops and a ART SGE.It has 5 cool sounds that I use. (2)12 strings,Pitch transposer,and 2 flange chorus My Amps are 64 Bandmaster,1959 SLP Plexi So No Master Volumes.Plus I have a ton of vintage pedals,MXR90 6 band eq ,DOD 250 660,280 comp. JapBoss, Vox Dime Wha and some active loopbox's Most of the time I only use 1 or 2 sounds at a timeI hate to spend $800. for a Voodolab GXC.since I do not play gigs anymore. At 55,I do not want to wear a cowboy hat.Thanks

[Mark Black]

The SDE-3000 might be part of your signal-loss problem, but not because it is a bad unit (I love those and their little brother the SDE-1000). The input level LED meter on those shows red when you get past the approximate design operating level of either -20db or +4db (based on rear panel switch setting), and shows nothing about the true approach of clipping. Add to that the fact that -20db was a funny pick on Roland's part and does not follow most other manufacturer's nominal operating levels (-10db or +4db). They are set up for pretty much unity gain, meaning when you set your levels using the meter as your guide you get out either -20db (which is too low) or +4db (which is too high) for most of the other units.

The SRV-2000 has the same operating level issues.

For a quick fix I would try using the -20db setting, use the "Mix Out" and set the mix control for "dry", plug into another piece of gear that operates at -10db and has an input meter, and use that unit's meter to adjust the input level on the SDE-3000 (or SRV-2000) while disregarding the hopelessly-buried-in-the-red SDE-3000 meter.

Alternatively you could set the unit to +4db, follow the same procedure, and ignore the fact the SDE-3000 meter probably won't indicate much of anything. I have a feeling this won't sound as good and might introduce noise - let your ears be your guide.

For a more complete fix you can readjust the meter sensitivity via the trimpot labeled VR2 on the SDE-3000 (I have no service docs on the SRV-2000 - maybe someone else does). I set all my SDE-1000's (trimpot RT8 on those) to where the highest LED indicated the actual onset of delay clipping/distortion for PA work and was amazed at how much level you can actually get out of them, but it might be more appropriate for you to set the level for an indication of "0" at actual -10db output and realize that "going in the red" doesn't mean you are clipping.

I may reset my SDE-1000's to -10db indication and reassemble my own guitar rack gear for an 80's cover band project coming up - what the heck - I already own the stuff and it's "what we used back then".

Too bad I don't have enough hair left for "big hair" and I don't fit in my old spandex anymore (nor would I even try), but I probably could still tie some scarves around my knees...

[dumbassbob]

Useing Rack Gear

Thanks for the info Also I was looking at my service manual I have a SDE1000 not the 3000.I am a dumbass, Now I can get a little further up the rack road.I still like rack gear.I think I will always be a Tube to Tape guy.When I listen to my old LP's They sound better than CD remaster

[Jerry]

Some guitarists using big rack systems would use a Rane SM-26 mixer, actually 2 of them. The first one would be set up to split the incoming signal to six outputs. These would go into a rack processor and then the outputs of the rack processors would go into the other Rane mixer to mix the separate signals. You're running your fx in parallel this way, but you should be able to optimize each effect send and return. You can find them used for $75-150.