Delay in loop adds treble?

RandallFlagg

OK back on this issue with effects in loop adding treble again. I set the HOF and Flashback to buffered and the treble boost is now constant and not just there when pedal engaged, but I don't like the delay and reverb trails so I turned it off and got a seperate TC Bonafide buffer which gives the same result, constant treble push regardless of whether the delay and reverb are on or off. I liked this treble boost at first and thought it was treble being restored that was being lost but when I compare to guitar straight into amp with no effects it's obvious that using the buffer and pedals in the loop is adding a very noticeble presence and treble boost. Even with adjustment of the tone controls on the amp I can't get the same sound as straight into the amp. Is this an anomaly with the specific TC pedals, the design of the amps fx loop or common to all buffered effects? Am I being unrealistic to expect exactly the same signal when routing through a pedalboard as directly into the amp? I don't get the same treble push when putting the pedals in front of the amp, only through the loop.

RandallFlagg

Bump on this. I reverted to using the delay and reverb into the front as I prefer the natural tone of the amp and don't want this treble boost, I tried to adjust tone controls but cannot dial out the change in tone I get when using a buffer & pedals in the FX loop. I much prefer the tone without using the fx loop.

So the way I see it I have a choice:

Delay & reverb in front of the amp, which should OK clean but bad with gain.

Delay & reverb in the loop (with a buffer) and a cleaner more pleasing delay & reverb that works better with gain but adds an irreversible tone change int treble & upper mids that can't be dialled out.

Is there any other way?

Sporky

A few ideas occur - use a buffer with a tone control, or an EQ as the buffer.

It may well be down to the loop design - not that it's wrong, just that it has this peculiarity.

Dave_Mc

digitalscream said:

There's a switch in the Flashback which turns off the true-bypass behaviour and leaves the buffer engaged at all times; a side-effect of this is that you'll get delay trails after you switch the pedal off, for smoother transitions. Read the manual

EDIT: Holy shit, did I know something that @ICBM didn't?

haha

trails scare me, though. i turned them off on my digitech hardwire delay because it was a bit disconcerting to turn the pedal off and still have delays going... especially if it's getting close to self-oscillation  

jonnygreentrees

ICBM said:

professorben said:

@icbm ok I get what you are saying, but my signal path starts with a 20ft cable into a boss TU2 halfway through the pedal board it hits an SD-1w then carries on through a couple of overdrives, then hits the aforementioned analogue delay, BUT the only drive pedal affected is the OCD........ The other drives sound as normal. The drastic brightening of the tone can't be attributed to the 20ft of cable going to the amp.

Yes it can - although it's the other way round . The cable causes the treble loss.

The reason the OCD is affected is because it has an unusually poor output design - the output is fed directly from the volume and tone pots which will drastically reduce the effectiveness of the preceding IC stage. The cable after the board causes treble loss, and turning on any other pedal after the OCD cures it.

If you put any other properly buffered pedal directly after the OCD and before the analog uedelay it should fix it too. You could try the Boss, just leave it turned off for the experiment.

I have the same issue with the bearfoot uber bee, is this designed in the same way?