Pan pedal not working on some patches

[billlorentzen]

I posted this as a bug report, but I thought I might ask if anyone else has seen this issue and maybe knows if I'm doing something wrong.

 

I have created three patches in which I used a pan>Y with a dist. pedal in the parallel path, returning to the main path in front of an amp. On 2 of them the panning did not change the path at the Y. On one of them it worked as expected. I could see the panning change from left to right, as I rocked the pedal (pedal 2), but it did not route to different paths. I cannot identify anything different about the working and not working patches.

[phil_m]

The paths coming out of a split block aren't a left and right pair. They are actually two stereo paths. So if you put a pan block before a split block, what you'll be doing is muting either the left or right side of each of the two paths. The pan blocks are kind of misnamed, in a sense, because really, it's more a balance control. If you think of how a balance knob acts, in the middle of the knob, both the left and right sides are at 100%. If you turn the knob to the left, the left side stays at 100%, and the right channel decreases the further left you move the knob. If you turn it to the right, the right channel stays at 100%, and the left decreases as you turn the knob more to the right. That's what is happening with the pan effect.

 

So anyway, I think you can do what you want to do by simply selecting the "A/B" option in the split block and controlling that with the expression pedal. The will allow to go back and forth between the two paths.

[ricksteruk]

It's worth remembering that all paths are actually stereo!  So splitting a signal to 1a and 1b just means you have two stereo signals.

 

It's a bit confusing at first - but you need to add a "pan" block on each path (one panned L and one panned R) if you want them to be treated as left and right channels.

 

EDIT - I took so long typing my reply that phil's more eloquent explanation made mine superfluous!!

[billlorentzen]

The paths coming out of a split block aren't a left and right pair. They are actually two stereo paths. So if you put a pan block before a split block, what you'll be doing is muting either the left or right side of each of the two paths. The pan blocks are kind of misnamed, in a sense, because really, it's more a balance control. If you think of how a balance knob acts, in the middle of the knob, both the left and right sides are at 100%. If you turn the knob to the left, the left side stays at 100%, and the right channel decreases the further left you move the knob. If you turn it to the right, the right channel stays at 100%, and the left decreases as you turn the knob more to the right. That's what is happening with the pan effect.

 

So anyway, I think you can do what you want to do by simply selecting the "A/B" option in the split block and controlling that with the expression pedal. The will allow to go back and forth between the two paths.

Hmm. There's definitely something wrong or something I don't get. Sometimes when I have a split I can assign a controller to it, but sometimes I can't. In one patch I was just working on, I have a split in the upper path, with a distortion pedal on one and nothing on the other, then it merges, followed by an amp, then it loops down to the lower path where I have another split with different cabs on each, then a merge followed by some more fx. This patch has a pan pedal before the first split, but it wasn't working (the dist pedal was in the line regardless of the panning. I tried to remove the pan pedal and assigning a pan to the split, but when I hit controller assign, it does not give options for controllers - it just shows there is a split.

 

Does this have something to do with using both upper and lower processors in serial? Or is it from having two splits in a single patch? Or is it just a bug?

[duncann]

Hmm. There's definitely something wrong or something I don't get. Sometimes when I have a split I can assign a controller to it, but sometimes I can't. In one patch I was just working on, I have a split in the upper path, with a distortion pedal on one and nothing on the other, then it merges, followed by an amp, then it loops down to the lower path where I have another split with different cabs on each, then a merge followed by some more fx. This patch has a pan pedal before the first split, but it wasn't working (the dist pedal was in the line regardless of the panning. I tried to remove the pan pedal and assigning a pan to the split, but when I hit controller assign, it does not give options for controllers - it just shows there is a split.

 

Does this have something to do with using both upper and lower processors in serial? Or is it from having two splits in a single patch? Or is it just a bug?

 

Maybe an easier and more straightforward way of doing what you want is to make the split, the one before the amp, an A/B split instead of a Y and assign the Route To parameter to an expression controller with a min of 'A 100' and max of 'B 100' (or the opposite if that's backwards).

[billlorentzen]

Maybe an easier and more straightforward way of doing what you want is to make the split, the one before the amp, an A/B split instead of a Y and assign the Route To parameter to an expression controller with a min of 'A 100' and max of 'B 100' (or the opposite if that's backwards).

I guess I don't know the difference between these two splits. The only way I've found to do this is by dragging an occupied block down to make the split. Is there another way?

[duncann]

I guess I don't know the difference between these two splits. The only way I've found to do this is by dragging an occupied block down to make the split. Is there another way?

 

Once you get a split in place where you want it, select it with the joystick and then depress the joystick, or just turn the joystick with the split selected. You have three choices for splits. Y - no parameters, A/B - can route the signal to either path or anything in between, Crossover - can control the frequency being sent to either path.

[billlorentzen]

Ok, thanks, I just figured this out myself, too. I'm learning!

[duncann]

Lots of things are easily overlooked about Helix, even if you know about them!