The Steel Guitar Forum

Just bought a ProFex I....it's great. Got Jeff Newman's presets off the web and have some questions. What's the difference between series and parallel? I understand in theory, but are some effects better one way or the other? Also, I was always told compressor first, delay last. Are there other "rules" about where you put effects in the chain?
The Newman presets seem to show that you can adjust the volume of each effect separately. I don't see how to do that. Some effects have "mix" but some don't.

thanks,

Lowell

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Sho-Bud SuperPro
1976 Peavey Session 400
Muddy Waters Telecaster
Fender HotRod Deluxe

Lowell,
I have a ProFex I that I bought off the forum a while back and I've been very happy with it. It has some features that I like; the headphone jack, no wall wart, etc.
Unfortunately, it's not 'exactly' like the Profex II regarding programming parameters, but it's close. What I did was use the Newman patches as far as they would go and when I ran into one of the params that didn't match up, I just went on. I think you'll find that the more noticeable (important?) things like EQ settings, delay times, decay times, reverb and delay types will all match up pretty well and you get you close.

As for the rest, you'll just have to trust your ears and 'adjust to taste'. I found that I ended up modifying the Newman presets I use at least a little bit anyway to work better with my guitar and amp combination. The up side of having to tweak your own settings is that you'll be a lot more comfortable trying to make a change on the fly if you play live. I can almost guarantee that whatever patches you set up at home will not sound the same on stage and you'll want to change something.

Regarding series vs parallel, I'm not sure how the algorithm is setup in the Profex, but I always assumed it was just like it sounds, series being one effect's output driving another effect's input, and parallel being the equivalent of a y-out y-in type setup. Other than maybe a noise gate being last in the signal chain (at least for guitar), I don't know that there are any real rules. I could be wrong ...

BT

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bterry.home.netcom.com

Thanks Bill. I'm having a similar experience. I'm not worried about the settings being a little different.
Here is one of Jeff Newman's presets:

0 – MightyGood: 3B+CF+DL+RV
3B= Ty=Guitar, Lo=+35, Mfrq=750Hz, Mid= -40, Hi=+20
Ouput Level (+) = 100

What is that Output Level???? Do I have that on the Profex I? I can't find it. It seems crucial to the sound.


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Sho-Bud SuperPro
1976 Peavey Session 400
Muddy Waters Telecaster
Fender HotRod Deluxe

Hmmm.... Been a while since I messed with mine. Once I got it dialed in I don't mess with it much. The '+' signs indicate parallel right? I would expect that the output '100' would be like a mix control for the level of that effect relative to the rest. That would probably make sense if you think of what EQ is intended to do, you'd want 'a lot' of your signal eq'd whereas you might want less of it 'reverbed'.

It could be the ProFex I has fixed output (100?) for all effects that are paralleled. Then you use the mix param type controls for the time-based effects. Dunno... this is about where I started wingin' it. Drop me an email and we can swap some patches if you want.

BT

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bterry.home.netcom.com

Lowell - Each effect has an "output" level. Go into edit mode then use the > arrow to position the cursor to the right of the effect you're adjusting. Now press the 'edit' button again. You will see a value that you can vary from 0 to 100. At least that's the way it works on the Profex II. Hope this helps. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Dave Smith on 09 March 2001 at 08:16 AM.]</p></FONT>