What's the preferred (cleanest/best/easiest) way to run Mono out Stereo return FX loop?

[tjbassoon]

I wan to run a pedal in the Effects Loop that has a mono input but stereo output, and I'd like to retain that stereo path as best as possible. What's the best and simplest way to do this so that I can engage and disengage the loop with a single switch on the Helix?

 

Based on what I have learned about how the Helix processes stereo signals, the best way to ensure I retain the stereo path is to do:

Send1, split path hard pan L/R and on one path Return1 (left output) and on the other path Return 2 (right output) and then put effects in parallel in those two paths. The reason for this is that many stereo effects on the Helix sum to mono and then output in stereo. Not sure what would all need to be assigned to a single footswitch to make this easy to turn on and off though.

 

I'd prefer to keep it on one path. Would FX Loop 1/2 be a valid option for this setup? Just run out Send 1 and leave Send 2 empty, but use the returns? Would this retain the stereo path? And then if I do that how to retain the stereo image? Is there documentation on which effects on the Helix has that will retain that stereo signal before the output?

[phil_m]

If you had a mono effect before the stereo FX Loop block, yes, you could just use that. Using just one of the sends doesn't automatically sum to mono, but the mono block would output a dual mono signal, so the fact that you're only using one side wouldn't really matter.

 

As far stereo effects in the Helix, they don't sum the dry signal to mono. They will blend the two side for the wet signal, though. So I guess it depends on what you're actually going for. If you want true stereo processing, as in each side is processed independently then, yes, you would want to use separate paths. You could put the split block after the stereo FX Loop and then hard pan in the split block to send the left and right side to separate paths if you wanted to go down that route.

[tjbassoon]

Gotcha.

 

As for summing to mono, the reason I suspected that was that I asked a while ago about the Ping-Pong delay, and learned that that effect essentially sums the signal and then creates the left/right delay sounds.