[Harp-L] Re: Live Digitech RP in stereo

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Robert Hale wrote: 
<Richard,
<
<How often do you connect to the house mains in stereo?
<Robert HaleSpiral Advocate (Fanatic!)Learn Harmonica by Webcam
<http://www.youtube.com/DUKEofWAIL
<
<http://www.dukeofwail.com

Not often.  For one thing, I do a lot of gigs with the Peavey KB2, which is a mono amp all the way. I have two of them, but one stays in Idaho, which is far from where I'm writing this.  There's no point using stereo outputs if the signal is only going to a mono amp.  I'd rather have the summing of the left and right channels done inside the RP than try to set it at the amp's mixer. Further, if I'm using the KB2 as a stage monitor and sending the signal from it to the board, which I generally do on louder gigs, that's a mono connection.

I also have only one output coming from my looper, and the harmonica and vocals are summed there, meaning more mono.  Further, if you've visited my site at hunterharp.com and heard the two live recordings I posted there last week, you know that I play a lot of Americana/classic rock/blues/etc.--stuff that often requires a traditional amped harp sound or acoustic harp sound.  The traditional channel configuration of those setups is mono.  A 57 Champ only had one input--that's strictly enforced mono.

So for electric gigs with my usual rig, I don't bother.  If I'm going straight to the board, I could take two XLR outs, if in fact two are available at the board, and if the PA offers per-channel panning.  But there again, it's usually easier to run a 1/4" line to the board, and I don't think the difference in sound is dramatic in most rooms with most bands.  The RP is already pretty easy to hear.

For looping, I feel even less inclined to use stereo.  I loop multiple harp parts, and I don't think I would really want to have to adjust the placement of a stereo signal in a stereo field on a part-by-part basis.  Easier to leave it in mono and make the layers stand out from each other because of their frequency ranges, timbres, FX, etc.  I heard a recent Brandon Bailey piece (People Take My Soul, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MilBVE_B_YQ) where he looped two harps playing in the same range, and put a very prominent delay on one of them that also served as a rhythmic device--he synced the delays to the beat, or perhaps he set the beat with the delay.  It certainly made the part stand out from the other.  The performance sounded mono to me, and that's fine.

Recording is a different story.  The RP USB audio interface puts out a stereo signal, so when you connect to the computer via the RP you get a stereo recording.  I usually record harmonica tracks to my computer using the RP for the audio interface.  Since I generally play my parts through an RP whether I'm recording or not, and the only analog-to-digital or digital-to-analog conversion when recording via USB takes place at the 1/4" input to the RP, this also avoids a couple of stages of analog/digital conversion, meaning the signal to noise ratio is better. 

A big potential problem to be aware of with the RP355 and 350 is that the left 1/4" output carries a mono signal, but the XLR outputs must be used together or not at all; you can't get a mono signal out of the XLRs, and I have had more than one sound tech try to run a single cable from the left XLR to the board with absolutely horrible results.  I repeat: if you decide to use the XLRs, you have to use both. It's a good idea to carry a direct box and an XLR cable for taking a mono out to the board when the sound tech insists on a mono XLR feed.

Regards, Richard Hunter

author, "Jazz Harp" (Oak Publications, NYC)
Latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
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