Line mixing 2 steroe keyboards with a mono in pedal board

[Freerskier]

Ok. Its a conundrum that's probably been solved. Apologies - but I thinking I'm getting nearer... I am a gigging, fairly compact (Well 5' 10" - see what I did there!) musician - I leave the RT-3 and Leslie at home.

 

Simple live set-up - Hammond Xk1-C and Alesis QS8.1. Works for me. Plus a pedal board with Lounsberry Pedals and a couple of MXRs, I want to keep it simple. The last pedal in the chain being the nifty MXR chorus with the (pseudo) stereo outs - these go to my lovely little stereo Spacestation amp. I did use a Y connector (see previous post by me) to ill advisedly merge mono outputs from the 2 keys into the first pedal. That's not really working as you'd imagine.

 

Now that the Y cord is in the bin how could I "share" the pedal board between both Keyboards - signal from both fed into first mono pedal. If I could have both keyboards remain in stereo that would be rad.

 

First, the non-stereo option I'm considering - simple line mixer like the Behringer MX400 to combine mono outputs from the 2 keys into 1 output that feeds into the pedal board - simple, job done. Keys still emerge in stereo out of the chorus MXR at the end of the board. However, any synth programs with, say, panning built in that move across the field wouldn't etc.

 

So, If I want the keys to remain in stereo, can I do this with a line mixer with an Aux send. Stereo outs from both Keys into separate channels of the line mixer. Pedal board is attached to the Aux, so feed keys to the board that way. 2 outs from the MXR come back to 2 further input channels on the line mixer and route those to the main outs. I think this would NOT work as the original stereo signals from the keys would be mono'd when sent to the mono aux that feeds the board.

 

I'm not gonna buy duplicate pedals - that would be silly and also I don't want a big mixer to play with and I like the sound and immediacy of the pedals, not going to rack effects and a midi switch, and no suggesting not using the pedal board and using the fx in the synth doesn't fly either.

 

The only thought I had was a version of the above - routing the keys stereo outs to ins on the mixer. Then send these inputs to the main outs of the line mixer. This retains any stereo effects in the patches. I'd of course still have the board attached to the aux. I'd then mix the 2 return channels from the pedal board into the main outs along with the delightfully still stereo original signals (see above). As I type this it sounds like like the plan. But hey, I'm just playing with logic...

 

If a line mixer is called for something like the Behringer ones, the tank like Alesis Multimix 8, ART make a couple of course - recommendations?

 

If there's a simpler solution - 'Freerskier - you plum - this is what I did and it works" then great - Can't help thinking if that little MX400 just had an aux it would be the biz for this. Anyway..

 

Positive answers from practical experience appreciated - I guess I mean, "You could try this, and this and you wanna avoid that and maybe this would work" + any re-analysis of the sonic globe and my set-up - "hey this keyboard does all that" not needed. What practically did you do to achieve the above.

 

Many thanks pop pickers.

 

 

 

 

[moogerfooger]

if any device in your chain is mono the end result will be mono regardless. why do you want to process both keyboards thought the same pedals?

[onelife]

A Yamaha Mixer - MG8 (if you can find one) or an MG10 - would fit the bill nicely and they are inexpensive. You could run your keyboards in stereo and use the aux send to feed a mono signal to your pedals. Run your speakers from the main stereo outputs.