Voyager: possible to damage ext in, with hot signal?

[ummagumma]

I have been experimenting with boost & drive FX via the external input on my voyager

( the mix-out/insert cable I built via Knobtweak instructions is working great! )

as this involves overloading the signal, often over 20dB, I wanted to confirm it's not going to damage anything internally?

I don't want to blow any op amps etc

thanks!

[MC]

Not impossible, and probably exempt from the warranty.

[GregAE]

I have been experimenting with boost & drive FX via the external input on my voyager

(the mix-out/insert cable I built via Knobtweak instructions is working great! )

Ummagumma,

In case you missed it on KnobTweak, you might take a look at this article:

Kicking It Up A Notch - Overdrive techniques on the Voyager.

Location: KT > Files > Voyager

Greg

[ummagumma]

thanks guys!

I built the TRS-->TS cable, which lets you blend the effect in via EXT, while preserving the regular signal. based on the diagram by "Hoax"

FYI the pedal I am liking the most so far is a Radial "Regency": it has a boost section, a drive section with EQ, and even an FX loop

fwiw here is a clip of me messing with it:

https://soundcloud.com/user-200002765/voyager-radial

moog filter was rolled off quite a bit until 5min or so

[Markyboard]

Always one of my favorite topics. I discussed this a few months ago in this thread. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31122&p=171332#p171332

However I never finished documenting my final configuration so... what I found through much experimenting is that most distortion/overdrive/fuzz pedals have a huge amount of gain. The only input that handles these pedal outputs "correctly" is my mixer with +4dBu return inputs. Connecting the pedal output directly into the Voyager or a Moogerfooger (midi Murf or Midi Boost in my experimenting) caused that device to quickly overload with all but the most minimal signal. That's the distortion I was hearing, not what the distortion pedal itself was generating. It took me a while to realize this and why no matter how I set my Empress multidrive pedal (selecting fuzz, overdrive, or distortion) and varying the gain and eq and it always sounded pretty much the same.

I ended up and am very happy with Voyager>> Mixer Send>> Reamp>>MF Boost>> Empress>> Mixer return. I still add in Voyager feedback
from the Headphone output to the External input under pedal CC controlling the external Input level.

You may find different results - I'll be interested to know.

[ummagumma]

right! that thread was before I built the mixer cable, and prompted me to get going on it!

I agree, all my other pedals were much too dramatic & had no range; it was pretty much all-or-nothing

I will try using a mixer in the chain;

although the first thing I tried was just a mixer, to boost the signal: it was one of those cheap 70's radio shack things, that doesn't have much headroom. it actually worked pretty well, for what it was

thanks for contributing!

[Markyboard]

Glad I could help (maybe). A few more thoughts. Using a mixer for the send signal is also a bit tricky and you may have already encountered this. At +4 dBm line level mixer output is too much signal for the distortion pedal input- at least with my Empress pedal. Simply turning down the send level at the mixer (and I had to turn it down a lot) resulted in additional unwanted noise and I was back to the "all or none" scenario with controlling the distortion pedal. On the other hand using the Voyager Insert send (or any instrument level) may not provide enough signal and result in extra noise but I cant say for sure since I was focused on using this output for the internal feedback. For this purpose the insert was definitely too weak of a signal and I found the Headphone output much more effective. For driving the Empress distortion I got the best results using the mixer send into a Reamp device first but it really took some experimenting to convince myself that this was so.

Also while I believe I optimized the S/N, distortion pedals are inherently noisy by design (lot of gain, lots o pain). It's not an issue when playing notes but rather in between playing. To mitigate this I use a noise gate (Reaper) but any hardware noise gate or software should do.

One more - even though I'm running this through my mixer I never found mixing dry signal with distortion of any use. Blending the 2 signals is not the same sound-wise as turning down the amount of drive on the distortion box nor desirable imo.

[ummagumma]

great info, thanks!!

I never thought of using the headphone out into FX; you could even chain it into something else, and have a totally separate signal path

[Markyboard]

Here's the next step up in my never ending distortion/feedback experiments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo

[ummagumma]

hey that was interesting, thanks for posting it!

neat idea, wiring the phone jack internally....and you can negate it by turning the phone level down to 0, correct?

that is a helluva setup you have there!

[Markyboard]

Correct. Or turn down/off the external input. Also the external input jack is a shorting/switching jack. Inserting a cable plug replaces the headphone signal.

I believe the reissue mini works the same way. But the mini with only a low pass filter is very limited as far as controlling the feedback tones and character.