SY-300 - SuperDave2001's SY-300/HX STOMP/ EHX Looper rig

Started by admin, February 24, 2019, 07:24:58 AM

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https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/line-6-hx-stomp.1981420/page-335#post-28090205


Heads up: this is going to be long and wordy. But I figured some people might benefit from hearing about the journey I just went on building my HX STOMP-based pedalboard and how I integrate it with an existing Helix Floor (and I couldn't be happier too).....



I already had a Helix Floor and I tried putting together a board that would house it ALONG with my Synth pedals (Boss SY-300 and Meris Enzo) and Looper (EHX 95000). The synth pedals were in a stereo loop of the Floor, with the Floor's Main Outs going in stereo into the 95000. This way I could do fun synth loops in parallel with the guitar tones, and record them to individual tracks on the 95000. The Floor was connected to those 3 pedals AND 2 Roland hardware synths (a JD-Xi and a System-8 going into a mixer then into PA/Monitor Mains) via MIDI. The way I set up my Floor is with each song I do in a set is it's own Preset. I'd set the Floor to STOMP/SNAP footswitch mode with 4 Snaps - Verse, Chorus, Solo, Extra - and any on-the-fly effects combos I wanted for the song with the 4 Stomp switches. And the Floor is the MIDI Clock Master with tempo saved for each Preset. So between the Snapshots and the Command Center, I could easily pull up patches on each unit, trigger pre-programmed rhythms on the JD-Xi, synth sequences on the System-8, and auto-record with the Looper instantaneously all in sync with unique settings cued by the Snapshots.

But the board was massive and unwieldy. So then I decided to do a "sidecar/aux" board for those things to use with the Floor. Once I committed to that, I realized that carrying 2 boards to everything wouldn't be any better. Then I thought I could incorporate an HX Stomp into that second board, eliminating the need for the Floor altogether. However I missed all of the MIDI control that the Floor gave me for how I use my gear. So I added on a Morningstar FX MC6 (with a 4-button aux unit).

NOW I had all of the Helix tone goodness AND MIDI control I needed that would fit on a nice 24x12 board. The only things lacking were the known differences between the Stomp and the Floor. But I figured if I make the Stomp my new primary Helix...it will force me to 1. build good sounding presets with less blocks, getting better at tone building and 2. ultimately play more and tweak less.

The Stomp is permanently in STOMP mode for the on-the-fly stuff and the MC6 handles all the "Command Center" stuff I was doing on the Floor. Each bank (30 total) of the MC6 can have 6 presets - and more with aux switches. So I have 10 available presets in each bank, and each preset can make up to 18 MIDI commands. I set each bank like this:



(MC6 - D, E and F change in each bank; A, B and C fixed in each bank)
Buttons D + F = Pull up specific Songs (Presets) on each MIDI device - 60 pre-programmed across the 30 banks
Buttons A, B, and C = Select Snapshots on the Stomp for whatever song is selected above
Button E = Extra Snapshot (will explain below)
(4-button Aux Switch - functions below are fixed and same in each bank)
Stomp Tuner
Stomp Expression Toe Switch (toggle)
Stomp All Bypass
Start/Stop - triggers MIDI MMC command to start the hardware synth sequencer (or DAW) playback
I build presets on the Stomp in the same way I do on the Floor - each preset is a song with tempo information saved in it. Perfect, does everything I wanted with an almost identical workflow. But of course.... I got greedy. I wanted to be able to use the Floor with this board as well. So when I wired everything up, i planned ahead for this. I used a Rockboard with the MOD2 I/O module that allows me to insert the Floor into the Stomp board's workflow:



Guitars go into the SY-300 first because the Thru Output is hardwired to the unit's Input. No buffer or AD/DA here, plus saves me a Block + Loop on either the Stomp (which are a premium) or the Floor. So if I'm using the Floor, I just disconnect the Thru Output from the Stomp's input and connect it to the Floor's input instead. The Floor's Main Outs go into the Stomp's Main Ins, and I put the Stomp in ALL BYPASS mode - not using the Stomp's processing in this case.

Pedal synths run in parallel to either Helix. They come back into the Stomp at the Effects Return (stereo) and the Return is in AUX IN Mode. This way it doesn't take up a Block, and again no AD/DA bringing it back into the flow. Then the Stomp goes in stereo into the 95000.

MIDI signals from the Floor or the Stomp are merged before a Splitter which sends the signals to the rest of the MIDI gear.



So now I have 3 options:
Use the Stomp board alone (with pedal synths, looper, and hardware synths)
Use the Floor board alone (w/o pedal synths and looper, but with hardware synths)
Use both boards together (basically same as #1 but with Floor as primary Helix)
And I was able to do this while at the same time limiting unnecessary AD/DA conversions along the way, eliminating I/O Blocks in the Stomp so that I have more Blocks for actual tone building, and control a pretty complex MIDI rig with a compact setup. I think this shows the power of the Stomp - especially with something like the MC6 and some careful organization/wiring.

Thanks to @Frank Ritchotte @Digital Igloo @phil_m and @jsad for all of the information AND inspiration they provide at TGP . I leveraged all of it for this... and think I'm good for a long time now.


https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/line-6-hx-stomp.1981420/page-335#post-28090205