Advice on connecting looper

itm

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to FX (and guitars TBH!), and am having a problem adding a looper to my setup.

The problem is that, depending on where I insert the looper in my FX chain, it either generates extremely loud hum/feedback or does not function as a looper (i.e. it does not loop/playback as it should).

In this scenario I get very loud hum/feedback but the looper functions correctly:
Guitar->Wireless transmitter/receiver->Digitech Trio->Ammoon Looper->Behringer V-Amp 3->Alesis MultiMix 6FX mixer->Powered speakers

In this scenario I get no hum/feeback, but the looper does not function at all - it just passes the signal up the chain:
Guitar->Wireless transmitter/receiver->Ammoon Looper->Digitech Trio->Behringer V-Amp 3->Alesis MultiMix 6FX mixer->Powered speakers

Can anyone enlighten me as to why the looper doesn't function correctly in the 2nd scenario?

Teetonetal

Pluggd into the trio incorrectly? How have you got it running into and out of the trio.

Have you got the looper level up? You need it to hear the loop

itm

Teetonetal said:

Pluggd into the trio incorrectly? How have you got it running into and out of the trio.

Have you got the looper level up? You need it to hear the loop

Doh! I had it plugged into the control (footswitch) input of the Trio. How embarrassing....

So now I have it plugged into the Trio's guitar input and the looper works fine but I've still got a significant amount of hum. Could it simply be a noisy power supply for the looper, or is there a more optimal way of connecting the looper into my chain which will minimise hum?

Teetonetal

Is the looper on a daisy chain with other pedals? If so, try it with its own dedicated psu or battery if possibe (battery only to test as it will eat it.)

itm

Its audio signal path is daisy chained with the Digitech Trio and V-Amp3, but it has its own dedicated PSU (it doesn't have a battery option)

Maynehead

Are you using good quality patch cables to/from the looper?

itm

Maynehead said:

Are you using good quality patch cables to/from the looper?

Hmmm...I suppose the answer is "I'm not sure". Maybe I'll try swapping in some other cables to see if they make a difference. If a cable is causing the problem is it likely due to the quality of the connections on the jack plug?

lovebuzz

very cheap pedal brand; could be the cause

Teetonetal

How are you powering it all? Do the trio and v amp all have psus, are they all plugged into a 4 way or wall sockets? Do you have a light dimmer or computer monitor near by?

Is the looper noisy by itself with just guitar and amp?

Finally I'd put the looper after the vamp.  Especially if the vamp is being used for distortion. Though the signal might be too hot.

The_Ethical

You need to isolate the problem,

Use cables to connect the guitar to the input of the Trio and from the Trio to the mixer and totally remove any other pedals from the chain. Is the hum still there? 

If not then add the Wireless TX/RX back into the chain and check for hum. No hum? Then continue to add your pedals back, one at a time, until the hum returns. The last pedal added is most likely the culprit.

I'm writing this late at night and I have drink taken but this should start you down the road to solving your problem.

itm

Thanks for all the feedback. I think the problem was a separate connection which I had forgotten (it's a mess of cables behind my equipment!), I had one of the line outputs from the V-Amp going directly to the Mixer, and the other going to a different channel on the mixer, but via the looper and Trio. For some reason this wasn't a problem before, but became a problem when I added the looper to this chain. I managed to get rid of most of the hum simply by killing the volume on the direct feed from the V-Amp to the mixer. Odd that it took the addition of the looper to reveal the problem, but at least I have a solution for it!