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Building My Guitar Rack


trmckenz

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Hey guys,

 

I need a little help hooking all of my new gear up. Here's a list of what I want to run:

 

Furman PL-8 Power Conditioner

Korg DTR-1000 Tuner

Rocktron Patchmate Loop 8

TC Electronics G Major 2

Rocktron MidiMate Foot Controller

 

All of this is going into my AC-30CC

 

I understand how to put the things in the loops on the Patchmate, I just have no idea how to control the G Major 2 with my footswitch.

 

So from my guitar I go into the front of the Patchmate, then loop in my tuner and any processors I add later, then output to the AC-30. For the G Major 2 do I put that in a loop AND run my foot controller through it before sending the MIDI signal to the Patchmate? or just MIDI? or just loop?

 

Also, should I output my effects to the FX loop, or keep it all line level?

 

Thanks a lot!

 

Trent

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I'm not familiar with the Midimate, so someone else will have to help you with programing it.

 

The Voodoo Lab GCX is about the same thing and they have a bunch of different signal flow examples/setup suggestions here.

 

The Patchmate should work about the same. I don't know if the Patchmate provides phantom power for the Midimate, but if it does, you will want to go from the Midi mate MIDI out > Patchmate MIDI in and then Patchmate MIDI out/thru >G Major MIDI in.

 

The G Major is designed to go in the FX loop of the amp. You can still put it in a loop on the Patchmate if you want to be able to take it out of the signal path.

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I'm not familiar with the Midimate, so someone else will have to help you with programing it.


The Voodoo Lab GCX is about the same thing and they have a bunch of different signal flow examples/setup suggestions
.


The Patchmate should work about the same. I don't know if the Patchmate provides phantom power for the Midimate, but if it does, you will want to go from the Midi mate MIDI out > Patchmate MIDI in and then Patchmate MIDI out/thru >G Major MIDI in.


The G Major is designed to go in the FX loop of the amp. You can still put it in a loop on the Patchmate if you want to be able to take it out of the signal path.

I'm a GCX guy myself, but I took a quick look at the Patchmate Owner's Manual, which says: If you use a 7-pin MIDI cable, the Patchmate will power your MidiMate. This is definitely the preferred way to do it, so just Google "7-pin midi cable" to find tons of places to order one at whatever length you need.

 

Do consider that you do not have to run your guitar signal through all the Patchmate loops; you can use them independently. In other words, you can run the FX Loop Send from your amp to the In jack of any loop and run from the Out jack of that same loop back to your amp's FX Loop Return. You can then connect the Send and Return jacks of that loop to your G-Major 2, which will result in the G-Major only being active when that particular loop is active. You will still be using MIDI to change patches on your G-Major, but for those times you don't need/want effects, just deactivate the loop.

 

I'd also like to share a little GCX tuner trick I learned a long time ago that should work with your Patchmate. In whatever loop you use for your tuner, your guitar signal will route to the In jack and from the Out jack to wherever you want to send it. Use the Send jack to send the guitar signal to your tuner when the loop is activated, but do NOT run a cable from the Tuner Out to the Return jack of the loop. Bingo!! Silent tuning.

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Thanks a lot!

 

All that is going to help me. I've already got the 7-pin, it's just sort of confusing to get the right set up as I'm trying to figure out how many cables I need, etc.

 

So I run the foot controller to the back of the Patchmate where it says "Phantom Power" so it's powered. then I run the G Major 2 in through the Midi Ins/Outs of both systems. Then I can put the G Major 2 in a loop as well with 1/4" cables so when I don't want to use effects it just skips over the tone loss. And to put it into my effects loop, all I would do is run the FX send/return of the amp into the In/Out of the loop with the G Major 2 in it.

 

sound correct?

 

The tuner suggestion you had was great!

 

I shouldn't have too much trouble programming it, but lord knows i'll be posting something about that when I get stuck.

 

:thu: thanks!

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Thanks a lot!


All that is going to help me. I've already got the 7-pin, it's just sort of confusing to get the right set up as I'm trying to figure out how many cables I need, etc.


So I run the foot controller to the back of the Patchmate where it says "Phantom Power" so it's powered. then I run the G Major 2 in through the Midi Ins/Outs of both systems. Then I can put the G Major 2 in a loop as well with 1/4" cables so when I don't want to use effects it just skips over the tone loss. And to put it into my effects loop, all I would do is run the FX send/return of the amp into the In/Out of the loop with the G Major 2 in it.


sound correct?


The tuner suggestion you had was great!


I shouldn't have too much trouble programming it, but lord knows i'll be posting something about that when I get stuck.


:thu:
thanks!

Just to clarify:

 

You want to connect the MIDI Out (phantom power) connector on the MidiMate to the MIDI In connector on the PatchMate and you want to connect the MIDI Out/Thru on the Patchmate to the MIDI In on the G-Major 2. No other MIDI connections are necessary.

 

Run a 1/4" cable from your amp's FX loop Send jack to the In jack of any loop on the PatchMate, and a 1/4" cable from that loop's Out jack back to your amp's FX Loop Return jack. From that same PatchMate loop, run a 1/4" cable from the Send jack to the G-Major 2's In jack, and from the G-Major 2's Out jack run another 1/4" cable back to the PatchMate loop's Return jack.

 

You'll program the MidiMate to change patches on the G-Major 2 via MIDI, and as long as the G-Major loop is programmed to be active, you'll be good to go when you change patches. If you ever want by-pass the G-Major 2 entirely, just step on the button to manually deactivate the loop.

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I am so lost programming this thing. I really need a little guidance here, step by step would be great.

 

I have it all hooked up, and I'm trying to figure out how to send the patches on the G Major 2 to change via the MIDIMate. I made the presets on the G Major 2 and they vary by tempo since I use a lot of delays....

 

help please!!!

 

thanks!

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I am so lost programming this thing. I really need a little guidance here, step by step would be great.


I have it all hooked up, and I'm trying to figure out how to send the patches on the G Major 2 to change via the MIDIMate. I made the presets on the G Major 2 and they vary by tempo since I use a lot of delays....


help please!!!


thanks!

You don't need to "send" patches from the GM-2. Your MIDImate is what tells the GM-2 what patch to change to, and in order to do that you first need to make sure your MIDIMate and GM-2 are communicating on the same MIDI channel, and you need to make sure they are both configured to use the same starting point.

 

Actually, they should be communicating right out of the box, but if not, check your documentation and make sure both units are configured to Channel 1.

 

Apparently the factory default starting point for the MIDIMate is 0, and the GM-2 is 1. To fix this, go to Page 18 of the GM-2 manual, look at the Program Bank section, and configure your GM-2 to "External." Given what you've posted so far, that should get your MIDIMate and GM-2 to match up.

 

If after doing this they still aren't working properly, please provide complete details on how you have everything connected.

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