active volume pedal as expression pedal?

    In my old setup the volume pedal was the most important effect. (You can do lots of things with a simple volume pedal like crescendos and sforzatos, violin tone, (squashy, "effect" type of) compression and weird tremolos!) Now on the KPA I miss my HILTON active volume pedal. I can hook up a BOSS FL-50L with a y-cable as EXP2 but to play the volume on such a shabby plastic device is quite sad, when you are used to a really smooth Volume pedal from the world of pedal steel guitar players. Now when I try to do the same y-cable-connection with the HILTON it won't read anything no matter how I connect the in and out jacks or switch the the Expression Type (1 or 2). Any ideas what could be done here? Is it possible that the y-cable does only work with passive pedals? The HILTON has a buffer on the input and output.


    I know I could insert it into the loop but then I loose slot X in the effects rack and I also add two stages stages of digital conversion (DA and AD). OK, this will probably what I will have to do but maybe someone of you has another idea.



    PS: >> this thread here >> reeds like it is possible to use an optical pedal but not one with buffers. So maybe a Morley will do for me?

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Edited 2 times, last by fretboardminer ().

    All I want to know is if that is generally so that we cannot use active volume pedals as EXP or is there an issue with my Hilton pedal?


    I would be so happy if I could use my Hilton or find another decent pedal for EXP2. I would need the X-slot for a studio EQ.

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Edited 2 times, last by fretboardminer ().

    You cannot use a volume pedal, you need a dedicated expression pedal.
    The Roland FV-500H is a great choice.
    Still you could use your volume pedal before the profiler, or in the effects loop placed in the X effect. Still the latter would compromize the audio quality.

    In the meantime I tried with a ZOOM FP01 expression pedal with a correct TRS-jack cable. There is no difference compared to the BOSS FL-50L with a Y-cable.


    It is not so much the physical ruggedness, that is troubling me but the uneven swell: violine swells especially with stronger chords always start with a slight bump at the beginning, they come in too sudden and then the rest of the curve is ok. They start from zero as the should do but in the very first movement they jump up to say 15 out of 100.


    Here is a >> soundcloud sample >>


    The bump at the beginning is even visible in the waveform (download enabled).


    I have set the RANGE parameter in the RIG menue to -5. Location is "post effects" and there is no compressor in the whole signal chain. Noise Gate set to 0.0.

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Edited 4 times, last by fretboardminer ().

    So now I tested it with a new Roland FV-500H. Mechanically it feels way much better but electronically the bump at the beginning of a swell is still there. I can also see it on the numbers in SYSTEM page 4/8 under VALUE: no metter how I set the minimum volume on the pedal (min vol only dials in a constant low level sound but doesn't cure the bump) the first 1 cm of the pedal way there is no reaction and then all of a sudden it jumps up to 300 or so.


    Firmware is 1.1.0.7459.


    Should I try a Flash Reset?

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Quote from fretboardminer

    So now I tested it with a new Roland FV-500H. Mechanically it feels way much better but electronically the bump at the beginning of a swell is still there. I can also see it on the numbers in SYSTEM page 4/8 under VALUE: no metter how I set the minimum volume on the pedal (min vol only dials in a constant low level sound but doesn't cure the bump) the first 1 cm of the pedal way there is no reaction and then all of a sudden it jumps up to 300 or so.


    Firmware is 1.1.0.7459.


    Should I try a Flash Reset?


    Please don't do a flash reset and tell everybody not to do it for an arbitrary reason!


    What you experience is the behavior of the potentiometer in your pedals. Jumping impedance.
    We will think about a solution that can solve that problem.

    Thanks a lot! In the meantime I will hook up the HILTON pedal into the FX-loop.


    I would never do flash reset without asking you (especially not because I have no clue what exactly this is :S ). And I recommend others to do the same.

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    I can move my FV-500H more than 1 cm until anything happens.


    Hmm - what should I do?


    I made some measurements (Tip to Ring on the EXP jack of the FV-500H):
    6 cm (Heel down) 10,3 K
    5,5 cm - 10,3 K
    5,0 cm - 10,3 K
    4,5 cm - 10,1 K
    4,2 cm - 9,3 K
    4,0 cm - 8,4 K
    3,5 cm - 6,1 K
    3,0 cm - 4,6 K
    2,5 cm - 2,2 K
    2,0 cm - 0,6 K
    1,5 cm - 0,0 K
    1,0 cm - 0,0 K
    0,5 cm (toe down) - 0,0 K


    This reads like I should send it back for another one, should I?

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Now I tested the audio path of the FV-500H. (Guitar > FV-500H > KPA) There is also a lot of leeway before the first signal comes in but then the fade is really smooth. I don't want to use it like that - just a test to see if this helps to solve the problem.

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Just a stupid idea: if you like the pedal you could glue or velcro a piece of rubber between the heel and the chassis so that the heel position is actually at the beginning of the sweep (5cm measured from the front).... :whistling:

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


    Thanks guitarnet70 - you are really "sage"!!! This is exactly what I did in the meantime before I logged in again here! Well I used papertowels for a test. (Actually first I did it because I was annoyed by the big knock the pedal makes when you hit the end of the pedalway.) It is half an inch on heel side and a bit less on the toe side but the HILTON also has only 4 cm (1.5 inches) of pedalway in total. So this seems to be a good way to go.


    And I also made another recording to compare the fades . It turned out I was mainly confused by the long leeway of the FV-500H. The fades are fine - well maybe a bit rougher but that is neglectable, I will get used to it. The bumps are only in my head ;( .


    So now I go and get some cork or rubber and fix the bug physically. I will have to buy a good wine because here in Germany most table wines have only screw-caps :D .

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Quote from fretboardminer

    Now I tested the audio path of the FV-500H. (Guitar > FV-500H > KPA) There is also a lot of leeway before the first signal comes in but then the fade is really smooth. I don't want to use it like that - just a test to see if this helps to solve the problem.


    This a different problem. Mine has large dead zone too.

    Hi,


    I had (and still have) a ProEl expression pedal and a Boss FV-500L and they both exhibited the very same problems (all of them) as fretboardniners do. I heard that the Boss FV-500H did not have this problem so I bought that and it arrived here yesterday. I plugged it in ready to do some smooth swells but I was very disappointed to see and hear that this pedal also showed the same problems.


    So I will keep a close watch on this thread to see what will happen as I use a volume pedal a lot. Both for swells as well as a way to control the overdrive characteristics of profiles.


    Cheers,


    Mats N

    Now I glued rubber on the chassis where the pedal hits the chassis. Two 2 mm pads of rubber plus one pad of foam rubber (to make the stops more silent) on the heel end and one rubber pad and one foam rubber pad on the toe end. This cured the leeway. But I still find the fades a bit rough compared to the HILTON.

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.