Question About A Profex II And A Tonic, Brad Or Anyone

Danny Letz · From: Old Glory,Texas, USA 79540

Can a Profex II be used as just effects with a Tonic and power amp or will that be running it thru a second preamp? If you leave the equalizer out of the chain, will that leave the preamp out? Anyone running this way?

Mike Brown · From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

The Profex II should work fine with any power amp. The Profex II is a preamp that has built in digital effects.

Jonathan Cullifer · From: Gallatin, TN

You would probably be better off using a Black Box with the Profex rather than trying to chain the two preamps together.

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

I have a Tubefex and a Revelation
and see no issues putting them together.
_________________
DLD, Chili farmer. Plus bananas and papaya too.

Real happiness has no strings attached.
But pedal steels have many!

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

The only problem I see with using a ProFex II with a Rev or Tonic is that the Profex seems to only have an instrument level input. That means that it would have to patch into the volume pedal loop where the signal is still guitar level, and placed post volume pedal. I don't know about the TubeFex, but the rear fx loop on the Rev or Tonic is designed for line-level devices. I believe that a ProFex would be overdriven if placed in the rear loop.

Placing the ProFex in the front loop would put it in series. That means that all that pure tube analog signal kind of gets thrown out the window when the ProFex takes that signal and runs it thru transistors and 16bit A/D conversion, digital processing, and then thru a D/A converter. Part of the mentality of the Rev or Tonic is that the signal path is extremely pure and "boutique" from input to output. That's also where the rear loop comes in handy because it's a parallel loop. That lets you keep the guitar signal purely tube and analog, and merely blend the digital reverb/delay along with that signal.

Brad

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

fwiw, I have used a Profex II in the effects loop (Parallel) of my Stereo Steel rig, basically as a multi-effects unit.

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

This is cool. I honestly didn't know that the ProFex could handle line level input signals. Knowing that fact tells me that the ProFex is more usable with my preamps than I'd previously thought.

I think one issue that still stands out is that for parallel use like with the Rev or Tonic, I don't think the ProFex can run two effects like delay and reverb in parallel, only series. In the Walker Stereo Steel rig, he offers both topologies which is very handy. My preamps simply don't allow for that setup, parallel only. For just one effect like reverb OR delay, it's fine. The problem arises when you want to use both at the same time.

Thanks Pete and David and the rest.

Brad

Danny Letz · From: Old Glory,Texas, USA 79540

Brad, what would be a good effects unit that would work well with the Tonic? I'm really only interested in delay and reverb. I have a DD-3. I'd like to play around with some different kinds of reverb. The one in the Tonic is not bad, just want to try some others.

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

All things considered, I'd say the TC Electronic M-One is a fine choice. The TC stuff seems to be the easiest to get running in dual-parallel-100%-wet mode to run in the Tonic (or Rev's) parallel FX loop properly.

I still like the simplicity of the M300 or M350, but the M-One has slightly better resolution and lets you go deeper into tweaking the parameters. All 3 of these units are essentially two-engine units, one engine for delay, one engine for reverb. Great for steel guitar.

The Lexicon MPX-1 is very good sounding, but it's proving to be a hassle for many to get the internal routing set up for this dual-parallel-100%-wet topology. But it can be done, and a number of Tonic/Rev users have them in the loop. Others have it after the unit to avoid having to deal with the loop. That's a pretty killer sounding unit, the MPX-1, and especially the reverbs. They're very lush and 3D.

Top choice for me currently would be the TC M-One.

Brad

Bas Kapitein · From: Holland

Brad, why do you leave out the TC G-sharp, it looks like almost the same unit as a M-350 but more tuned for guitar players?

Bas

Len Amaral · From: Rehoboth,MA 02769

I use the Rev with a GP-100 in the effects loop and shut the preamp off on the GP-100 and use the effects only. Works very well. You may be able to do the same with the profex?

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Danny Letz · From: Old Glory,Texas, USA 79540

Brad, I kind of like the looks of the TC M350. I like the knobs on the front, one of the reasons I got the Tonic. Will it work ok mono on the Tonic?

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Sure,

the M350 works great with the Tonic. Just use the Left in and Left out on the M350, and be sure to push in that button on the back of it to make it run in "parallel". Also, the second knob from the left MUST be all the way cranked at 100% wet. Then you simply use the 3rd knob to control the relative amount of delay vs. reverb. Then on the Tonic itself, you use the FX knob to control how much overall effect you want. Works like a charm.

Brad

Bas Kapitein · From: Holland

Brad, I have to disagree with you on that. I compared the manuals of both the m-350 and the G-sharp and they only differ in about half the effects they describe. In general the M-350 is more aimed at universal use and the G-sharp more at guitar use.
The G-sharp also has a killdry switch (just like the m-350) that would not make sense if the parallel function was not an option.
I agree with you that a parallel way to hook up an effect is the way to go, but you should consider the G-sharp as well
Bas

Al Moss · From: Kent,OH,USA

Well, now I'm a bit confused here.
I've hooked up a TC G-sharp through the effects send and return on my Tonic and am using the effect level control on the Tonic to control the effected signal from the G-sharp. It sounds fine to me. Is this an incorrect, or, less than optimum, way to route the signal path? The input level on the G-sharp is up all the way, but it does not seem to be adding any noise or distortion to the signal. The reverb level is up all the way to fully wet on the G-sharp and I've got a smaller level of delay mixed into the signal that the Tonic is seeing. Is this method of routing the G-sahrp not the best way to integrate it's use by the Tonic? Oh Well

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