Ins and Outs on Stereo Effects

[mvk20]

I'm a little confused about how stereo effects work in the Helix. For example, how would a Dual Delay work? Can you feed it a mono or a stereo signal from the previous block? 

 

As an example, could you send a stereo signal out of a stereo Dual Pitch block, into the stereo Dual Delay block, and then the L delay would only affect what came in on the L and R delay only affecting what came in on the R?

 

What would happen if you switched these two blocks' order?

[rd2rk]

All paths are stereo.

Stereo blocks maintain stereo output.

Mono blocks collapse the signal to mono.

A mono signal is actually dual mono - the same signal on both the LEFT and RIGHT of the path.

A mono signal into a stereo block restores stereo.

Using the "PAN" parameter of the SPLIT and MIXER blocks is how you control the routing of stereo or mono signals in a path.

Experimentation, especially when using headphones, will help you to fully grasp the ins and outs as explained above.

HINT - the stereo Ping-Pong delay is invaluable when learning how it all works.

[cruisinon2]

On 10/8/2024 at 1:31 PM, mvk20 said:

I'm a little confused about how stereo effects work in the Helix. For example, how would a Dual Delay work? Can you feed it a mono or a stereo signal from the previous block? 

 

As an example, could you send a stereo signal out of a stereo Dual Pitch block, into the stereo Dual Delay block, and then the L delay would only affect what came in on the L and R delay only affecting what came in on the R?

 

What would happen if you switched these two blocks' order?

 

Stereo fx are glorious...especially time based things like reverb and delay. 1/4 note on one side and dotted 1/8th on the other is the best thing to ever happen to guitar solos, but I digress. However, it all boils down to how you're monitoring everything. Through headphones or studio monitors it's wonderful. If you're playing through a single cabinet or FRFR speaker it becomes a mess. If there's no physical separation of two speakers at the end, don't bother...

[mvk20]

I'm still not quite understanding, so let me try a different way:

 

What I would like to do is emulate a wet-dry-wet setup, but coming out in stereo to feed 2 powered PA speakers.

I'd like to have the dry sound (coming from an amp or cab block) going to both the L and R parts of the signal.

Then I'd like to have L with a 220 ms delay, detuned -9 cents, and be able to control how much of that is mixed with the dry sound in the L speaker.

Then I'd like to have R with a 440 ms delay, detuned +9 cents, and have the same mix control as the R speaker.

 

Would this work? Send the Amp/Cab block out into an A/B or Y split, 1A would have nothing until the merge. Path 1B would have Dual Pitch Block that does the detuning mix at 100, going into a Dual Delay doing the two different Delay times, then to the merge block?

 

What I'm not quite understanding is, coming out of the Dual Pitch I have L and R signals, but does the Delay "know" to basically function as 2 separate mono delays? I'm used to feeding a mono signal into a Dual Delay, and having the repeats just come out at different times on the two sides. Is that just how the Dual Delay works - if you throw a mono signal at a stereo block, does it basically just use an identical L and R signal, and process them separately?

 

How would this work if you switched the order and had the Dual Delay feed Dual Pitch? Would Voice 1 be going out both R and L, but you'd only hear Voice 1 in the R speaker if you panned voice 1 all the way right?

 

I hope to goodness that all makes sense to someone - I know it's pretty convoluted and I'm probably not explaining it well at all!

[rd2rk]

Try the attached example preset. Take your DRY signal from SEND 1.

Use the DRY THRU of the SEND Block to determine how much of the DRY signal gets to the Stereo (WET) FX.

If you need more volume there use the GAIN Block.

 

Obviously, you'll need to adjust the settings of the WET FX to taste, I have no clue what you're after.

Likewise, move the PITCH/DELAY Blocks as you please.

mvk20.hlx

[mvk20]

Thanks - that's helpful and will get me on my way!