HX Stomp as its own preamp?

[i7718]

I'm basically in 1st grade when it comes to effects, recording, and whatnot. I have access to powerful equipment, but I'm really not qualified to run it lol...and I don't know enough to know if what I'm doing is all wrong or just mostly wrong, but something ain't right.

 

I have an MPC Live 2 that I use as the rhythm for my rig. It syncs via 5pin to my HX Stomp and Boomerang III looper to keep everything in time. My guitar has a piezo and a stereo output jack that runs the magnetic coils to one side and the piezo to the other side...the guitar also has a built-in preamp for the piezo on one of the pots.

 

The other day, I ran the HX Stomp directly to the MPC to try and record into it and it worked, but at extremely low volume...which made me think I need a preamp for the signal...so I get smart and run the piezo from the guitar directly into the MPC (ya know, because there's a 9v preamp inside the guitar) and I get literally nothing at all. 

 

So I'm pretty confused.

 

-Has anyone out there integrated an HX Stomp with an MPC the same way that people do with PC/Mac DAWs?

-Can the HX Stomp act as a preamp and boost that signal up where I need it or do I need a true preamp after the Stomp? 

-I was running from the Balanced/Unbalanced outputs on the back, should I have used different jacks for this application?

 

Bonus question!

-For the piezo signal, is the on board preamp not a true preamp the way I expected it to be?

 

Thanks y'all, happy Father's Day.

[Schmalle]

The HXStomp can fulfill all your preamp needs. If you use an empty preset, crank the VOLUME knob, set INs/OUTs -> Input Level to Inst and Output Level to Line your piezo input signal is amplified by a factor of about 100.

The standard OUTPUT L/R is the right choice.

A piezo preamp converts the pickup signal to a signal that works with instrument inputs by amplifying and providing the proper impedance.

[Mareckiwt]

On 6/20/2021 at 6:41 AM, i7718 said:

-For the piezo signal, is the on board preamp not a true preamp the way I expected it to be?

Yea, piezo pickups will work ok with Helix.

If you have a plain piezo with no built in preamp in your guitar (passive) the Helix guitar-in will auto detect your pickup and set the impedance to 1Mohm. You can also set it manually to 1Mohm, but that's not necessary.

If you have an onboard preamp, it'll will work fine with the input impedance even lower than 1Mohm.

Either way you'll be ok.