Looping guitar and vocals but keeping the signals separate

[Phil the Ross]

I'd like to run my setup by you experienced people and see what you think.  One important aspect of my act is looping acoustic guitar and vocals together, but wanting to keep the two separate as far as where the final signal ends up.  Even though there are loopers out there that have a mic and instrument input, I want to be able to keep the signals separate on the output end, which is where my mixer comes in, see below. (and just to save someone the trouble, I know my acoustic signal is affected by effects pedals. I'm ok with that)

 

So currently, my setup is:

 

Mic to effects (reverb, delay) to mixer channel 1.

 

Acoustic guitar to effects (Zoom A3 modeler, chorus) to mixer channel 2.

 

Mixer FX out to the looper, single input. 

 

Looper back to Aux In on the mixer.  That way I can turn up the loop amount for vocal or guitar separately.

 

My mixer has main out, left and right.  To separate the guitar and vocal signals, I pan the mic, channel 1, hard left, and pan the guitar, channel 2, hard right.  Then I have a cable go from the left main out to a PA or wherever I want my mic to end up, and a cable going from right main out to my amp.

 

It seems to work fine but I did recently experience some issues with my guitar signal coming out of my amp.  My question for you, fine person if you've followed me so far, is whether the above setup is seriously causing my sound to suffer, or if I may just be missing something as far as the amp itself goes.

 

Thanks so much in advance for your advice, it is truly appreciated!

 

Phil

[twostone]

 

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Phil the Ross wrote:

 

I'd like to run my setup by you experienced people and see what you think.  One important aspect of my act is looping acoustic guitar and vocals together, but wanting to keep the two separate as far as where the final signal ends up.  Even though there are loopers out there that have a mic and instrument input, I want to be able to keep the signals separate on the output end, which is where my mixer comes in, see below. (and just to save someone the trouble, I know my acoustic signal is affected by effects pedals. I'm ok with that)

 

 

 

So currently, my setup is:

 

 

 

Mic to effects (reverb, delay) to mixer channel 1.

 

 

 

Acoustic guitar to effects (Zoom A3 modeler, chorus) to mixer channel 2.

 

 

 

Mixer FX out to the looper, single input. 

 

 

 

Looper back to Aux In on the mixer.  That way I can turn up the loop amount for vocal or guitar separately.

 

 

 

My mixer has main out, left and right.  To separate the guitar and vocal signals, I pan the mic, channel 1, hard left, and pan the guitar, channel 2, hard right.  Then I have a cable go from the left main out to a PA or wherever I want my mic to end up, and a cable going from right main out to my amp.

 

 

 

It seems to work fine but I did recently experience some issues with my guitar signal coming out of my amp.  My question for you, fine person if you've followed me so far, is whether the above setup is seriously causing my sound to suffer, or if I may just be missing something as far as the amp itself goes.

 

 

 

Thanks so much in advance for your advice, it is truly appreciated!

 

 

 

Phil

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 Instead of main out to amp just use half insert feed to the amp and see if that will help,

half insert is the first click on the mixer insert point which dubs as a direct out.

[Phil the Ross]

Thanks for the reply. I only have main out L/R and control room out L/R as my mixer's outputs (it's a Behringer Eurorack UB802, should have mentioned this before). I think my mixer isn't equipped with what you're talking about? But I have to admit I'm not familiar with the "half insert" description.

[twostone]

 

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Phil the Ross wrote:

 

Thanks for the reply. I only have main out L/R and control room out L/R as my mixer's outputs (it's a Behringer Eurorack UB802, should have mentioned this before). I think my mixer isn't equipped with what you're talking about? But I have to admit I'm not familiar with the "half insert" description.

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Yep your right the mixer doesn't have any inserts. sorry can't help ya out. Maybe somebody else can.

 

[Pro Sound Guy]

Vocal mic into channel 1

Guitar into direct box, and out of direct box via xlr cable to channel 2 input on the mixer.

Use line out of the direct box into your guitar amp.

Run from Effects Send on mix into Input of effects unit.

Run output from Effects unit into channel 3 line input.

Run main left and right out to your power amp, and then into your speakers.

Turn up effects sends to get a good signal to the effects device 

Bring up channel 3 level until you have desired saturation of effects on your vox/instument.

Keep the effects send on CHANNEL 3 off! Only use the effect sends on vocal/instument channels.

This is for a stereo setup.  You can pan slightly left and right to your taste, or keep pans centered.