Voodoo Lab

I have looked into another GCX (which would be my preference), but currently they're out of my price range. I'm in the UK the prices are a bit rich here for a GCX

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... x&_sacat=0

There is one on auction in the US that I'm bidding on..... I'll see how that fairs.

Hi

I have a dilemma... as some of you may know I have a rather extensive rack system which i need to expand even more, but on a budget.

I'm currently running in my rack a fully stereo GCX, a CAE line mixer, a TC D-Two and a TC G-force. I want to run both TC units through the mixer, but I only have 1 GCX loop available, all the others are full with stomp boxes.

Is it possible to run both units through the mixer, but run the G-Force in series, and the D-Two in parallel, utilising only one loop? How can I wire this up?

I'm looking at expanding the amount of loops by buying a small 4 loop audio switcher like a HEX (expensive) or a G-lab (cheaper) so i can expand my possibilities. This leads onto another question..... If I plugged a HEX or G-Lab into the loop out of the GCX do they need to be on the same midi channel as the GCX to work as an extension of the GCX, or will they have to have their own midi channel?

JohnClark wrote: ↑Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:23 pmIn order to use a GCX with another controller you can do one of two things.
One is to put a custom chip into the second (...third and fourth) GCX that will assign a different set of Control Change messages for each GCX unit.
Another method requires a controller that can be programmed to send SysEX messages, then you would only need to send this hexadecimal string after powering up the system...

F0 00 00 07 01 08 10 F7

The above SysEx message will auto configure the GCX units to each respond to a different set of Control Change messages.

I hope that helps!

As a matter of interest, do Voodoo Lab supply these chips and if so what is the cost?

What about power John

So the chip is only required in the 2nd GCP... I can keep my current GCP as my main controller?

I already have the EEprom chip, but haven't fit it yet as i haven't acquired a 2nd GCP. However, i'm now feeling that I'm running out of buttons for IA and really need at least 10 if not 12 to enable me to turn on/off effects on my G-Force plus all the pedals on my GCX.

Firstly, how does the 2nd GCP get power? Does it run on phantom power via the midi cable from the first GCP, or have I got to power it from a wall wart?

Secondly, do both GCP's need the EEprom chip or does it just need to be in the master GCP?

My intention is to purchase a 2nd GCP, and utilise one for presets and IA, and the second GCP for just IA... Or maybe one for presets, and the other for IA.... I'm not 100% sure I will finally do it so I'm open to ideas.

I've been looking at changing the controller over to an Axess Midi Controller but obviously the support for those is non-existent now as the company went bust. The other option was a CAE RT-16, but they're far too rich for my poor pockets, so I'm now seriously considering a second GCP. The only drawback with that is the size of the footprint on stage, my pedal board is already 1m x 0.5m in size, so I'll be effectively increasing it in length by a further 12" or so. But I suppose that's my problem

John, the backwards wah won't work with a wireless... It has to be hard wired, so on the occasion that I want to use the reverse wah i use a normal guitar cable plugged into the front input socket of the GCX.

I won't go into the whys and wherefores of the reverse wah effect, we should all know the history of this, Gilmour etc etc. but I have an issue that hopefully some techies might be able to find a solution to. Although this isn't todo with a GCX issue per se, I think the GCX buffered input is affecting how the wah pedal is reacting. Let me explain....

My guitar rig is quite substantial, a stereo rack with a switching system. My wah is a modified Area 51 conversion in a Dunlop enclosure. I wired a toggle switch to the enclosure so I could switch the inputs and outputs around for producing the seagull effects in Echoes (I play in a Floyd tribute). This all works fine when I plug the guitar straight into the wah, and then into maybe some other effects then into the amp. No problem, i can switch between wah or seagull effect at the flick of a switch.

Now onto my problem..... i had better explain the signal path...

The guitar is plugged into the front input of the Voodoo Labs GCX switcher (this is a buffered input), I then have various effects in loops 1 thru 6. The output of loop 6 goes to the input of my Wah, the output of the wah goes to the input of loop 7, I then have a boost pedal in the a send/return of loop 7, the output of loop 7 goes to my JMP1 pre-amp, and the signal from the pre-amp then returns to loop 8 input. I then have a TC G-Force in the send/return of loop 8 before the output of loop 8 goes to my power amp.

When I switch the seagull effect on i get nothing. I think it's a buffer issue, I read somewhere ages ago that the seagull wah effect doesn't like a buffered signal. This is why it only works in wahs with no input buffers on them. I suspect it's the buffer in the GCX that's causing the issue, but is there a way around this? would a line driver in the actual wah help, that's effectively a buffer??

In this video is a short sequence of a pedal similar to the one that Pete Cornish made for Steve McElroy of the Aussie Floyd... There's a line driver in this pedal, so I suspect what he's done is basically built a wah circuit into a box with a line driver.... but would this circumvent any buffers in Steves guitar rig??

I could run the guitar straight into the wah then into the GCX input, but would want to utilise the buffered input on the GCX which i don't think I can do from the rear as I have a wireless receiver plugged into the GCX. Also I have the wah wired into the GCX so that I can use it whether I use the wireless or cable.... I don't have to alter any cabling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6XKC2bqWe4

Must have been a short in the soldering.... resoldered and now all is fine

I think I've got to the bottom of my issue. I think it might be the cable between the pedal and the g-force.

I have a mulitcore snake of cables that connects the pedal board to the rack, it has 5 cables.

• Power
  Midi
  Wah-send
  Wah-return
  Tap tempo

I've checked the cable with a multimeter and there's continuity between tip and shield between the Jack's at each end which is correct, however when I plug in the tap pedal and the other end into the g-force it doesn't work.

However, as a test I tried one of the other cables in the snake... the wah send and it worked a treat. I did the same with the wah return and again it worked fine. So now I've whittled the issue down to the cable. I've checked both ends for solder bridges etc and can't see anything untoward... there is continuity between both jacks, so I'm now at a loss. I think I'll just desolder both jacks and solder in 2 new ones hopefully it's just a bit of dodgy soldering... I'll report back my findings

Unfortunately, it didn't work.... Did all you suggested, got to the I/O section control menu... Selected tempo, went into learn mode, the blinking eye flashed when I pressed the footswitch, then after that nothing. I pressed the tempo button on the front of the G-Force which started the blinking eye flashing... i pressed the footswitch and the tempo wasn't changing.

However, i tried something different. On the back of my rack I have a patch panel which has a socket for the tap tempo cable. The terminals of the socket are wired to a small patch lead that is plugged into the G-Force. I bypassed this patch cable and plugged the footswitch into a spare guitar lead, and then the other end of the lead directly into the G-Force. It worked a charm.... So either it's not working because it doesn't like the patch panel/patch lead set up... or something's wired incorrectly.

john, can you think of any reason it doesn't like the patch panel/patch lead scenario?? Maybe a buffer might help preserve the signal?