anyone know how to use a Digitech TSR-12 multi effects unit

[tc8849]

i just got a digitech TSR-12 multi effects processor.. its a rack unit.. and this thing has a bunch of cool effects on it.. i was wandering if anyone on here has own one and or could help me with it.. i downloaded the manual and i have figured out a few things but thats it.. i have so many questions about it, but right now im having a brain fart and can only think of a few.. but as they come to me ill add them to this thread..

my questions
1. the noise gate i have the threshold set to -69, hold time 40ms, attack time 20ms, release time 195ms, attenuation 100db, but honestly i have tried moving these settings up and down to see if i can tell a difference and I CANT. so if some could let me know what im doing wrong..
2. the input and output knobs on the front..????
3. can i add my own settings. like instead of going to a factory preset that has delay, flanger and phaser. i would have to turn off the ones i didnt want.. to have say delay..
4. and i can wire it up to stereo or mono which one is better or does it matter..

so far i really like this thing.. I know that there are better ones out there, but for what i need and do this thing is perfect.. and plus it was free.. so if anyone could help me out I would be grateful.

and i am looking for a rack case that holds like 3-5 units if anyone has one lmk

if someone could tell glpg80 im trying to get ahold of him to see if he still has the SKB 2 space rack that would be great,,

 

[MetalTerrorist]

i just got a digitech TSR-12 multi effects processor.. its a rack unit.. and this thing has a bunch of cool effects on it.. i was wandering if anyone on here has own one and or could help me with it.. i downloaded the manual and i have figured out a few things but thats it.. i have so many questions about it, but right now im having a brain fart and can only think of a few.. but as they come to me ill add them to this thread..

my questions
1. the noise gate i have the threshold set to -69, hold time 40ms, attack time 20ms, release time 195ms, attenuation 100db, but honestly i have tried moving these settings up and down to see if i can tell a difference and I CANT. so if some could let me know what im doing wrong..
2. the input and output knobs on the front..????
3. can i add my own settings. like instead of going to a factory preset that has delay, flanger and phaser. i would have to turn off the ones i didnt want.. to have say delay..
4. and i can wire it up to stereo or mono which one is better or does it matter..

so far i really like this thing.. I know that there are better ones out there, but for what i need and do this thing is perfect.. and plus it was free.. so if anyone could help me out I would be grateful.

and i am looking for a rack case that holds like 3-5 units if anyone has one lmk

if someone could tell glpg80 im trying to get ahold of him to see if he still has the SKB 2 space rack that would be great,,

I have owned a few Digitechs of the TSR/GSP ilk and I can help you I think.

1. This depends entirely on the what you are hooking it up to and how you have it hooked up. Tell me what you're plugging it into and we'll go from there. FWIW - The Threshold clamps down harder on the noise as you change the setting from, say -69 up to -24. In other words, the closer to 0 you get, the more it's gonna try to silence. Attack determines how fast it'll silence noise after you stop playing. The hold and release determine how long it'll silence before it lets sound through again.

2. These will depend on the answer to #1 but I'd recommend setting them so that the level meter on the display doesn't max out. If it does, you'll see an 'Ovr' ( aka Overload ) LED blink. I suggest setting the Input/Output knobs so that when you hit the Bypass button on the front panel, the volume sounds the same either way. Again, this will be affected by how/what you have it hooked up to.

3. You can absolutely turn on/off effects and edit their settings. To turn off an effect, push the button on the right-hand side ( labeled 'Rev', 'Del', etc ) that corresponds to the effect you want to turn on or off. That'll be the first page of settings for that effect. If you press the '-' button on the 'parameters' cross it'll turn off the effect. If it's already off, press the '+' on the same 'parameters' cross and it turns the effect on. If there is more than one delay or modulation effect you can keep hitting the 'Del' or 'Mod' buttons or hit the right or left arrow on the 'Parameters' cross. The buttons are labeled 'Prev' and 'Next'. This will scroll through every page of settings for every effect in that preset. Just make sure you use the 'Parameters' cross, not the 'Program' cross.

4. As for stereo... this will depend entirely upon # 1. Stereo will probably sound better but can you run stereo with your rig? I can't say. I don't know what all your rig entails.

Get me the other info and I'll help you out further.

 

[tc8849]

my amp is a peavey ultra plus.. is this what you were needing???

 

[MetalTerrorist]

Yeah. That'll do.

For any patch on the TSR-12, if you want to use the noise gate, I would recommend setting the patch's wet/dry mix to 100% wet. If you push the 'next' button on the parameter cross enough, you'll wind up there. Setting it to anything else may result in a weird hollow sound. I won't go into why it does that. Generally every patch you use, you're gonna want that wet/dry mix at 100% wet.

In order to tame the amount of an effect you hear on a given patch there are individual level controls at the beginning of each effect's parameters.

Also, most presets use mixers that are hidden by default. Press the 'Mix' button and it'll start at 'Hidden' and every press after that will bring you to whatever mixers are in the patch. If you look at page 34 in the manual, they show you the diagram of how each patch/algorithm is routed. They typically use the last channel on any given mixer for the dry sound.

So, if you want a less dominating delay sound, try turning up the Input Level in the last channel or two of the mixers in the patch. ie: on a 5x3 mixer, turn up channel 5. That acts the same way as the wet/dry mix. You're basically adding more of your amps' dry tone to the output of the TSR-12. Sometimes it's just as easy and effective to just turn down the level on the idividual effect, which like I said, is usually one of the first parameters in each effect's block.

As for the Input and Output level knobs on the front panel... Turn the Output knob all the way down. Set the input knob where the little sound meter on the front panel only barely lights up the led @ 0, when you hit really hard, clean notes. Then bring the Output level knob up until hitting the 'Bypass' button on the TSR-12, again and again, doesn't change the volume of the sound.

See how that works out and by all means, read the manual. I'll help you out more if you need it.

 

[tc8849]

okay and BTW thank you so much, I have read the manual but its like reading the Chinese bible and I dont read chinese at all.. LOL "For any patch on the TSR-12, if you want to use the noise gate, I would recommend setting the patch's wet/dry mix to 100% wet" so this is even on my dry tone patch no FX??? were i jsut want the amp tone and nothing else??? i did notice that even my dry patch no FX ONLY AMP TONE when i went to wet/dry mix and went more to wet that the tone of amp changed.. actually alot brighter and clearly.. is that suppose to happen...??? or what I want??? to not have the hollow sound???

They typically use the last channel on any given mixer for the dry sound what does this mean?? once again sorry for being such a newbie..

you mentioned hitting the bypass button so what does that actually do??? and why do i hit it..???

thank you so much im sure i will jumb back on here and ask more becasue I understand you more clearly than the manual..LOL

thanks

 

[tc8849]

i for got to ask when storing a patch to my liking can I do in under the programs or do i need to change FXs and setting for FX in the algorithm section.. does that make since???
what doe thes "hidden and display" actually do??

 

[shredhead7]

I had one for years and thought that it was great. That is until I got an Alesis Quadraverb for $70 and played it through the same amp. Holy crap does the TSR suck your tone. I know that you got it for free, but I would not recommend using it. It really does color your tone something awful; unusably so. It was because of the stark contrast to that unit and just about every other late 80's-early 90's unit that I swore of Digitech for ever.

Seriously, you can do A LOT better for a minimal price: Roctrock Intellifex, Replifex, etc..., Alesis Quardraverb (do not get the midi verb, or the Plus version), Yamaha SPX. For a few more dollars you can pick up an older Lexicon or the TC GMajor.

 

[tc8849]

so the TSR-12 sucks the tone out of the amp.. I will have to do a AB comparison to see.. im thinking of selling it and jsut get pedals.. or trade for some.. all i want is a delay,chrous, phaser.. thanks for the tips..

 

[MetalTerrorist]

okay and BTW thank you so much, I have read the manual but its like reading the Chinese bible and I dont read chinese at all.. LOL "For any patch on the TSR-12, if you want to use the noise gate, I would recommend setting the patch's wet/dry mix to 100% wet" so this is even on my dry tone patch no FX??? were i jsut want the amp tone and nothing else???

If you aren't using any FX and you still want to use the TSR-12's noise gate, you will need the wet/dry mix at 100% if you have it set to 50% Wet / 50% Dry it'll not only present phase cancellation issues ( weird, hollow, EQ'd sound ) but you will still hear the noise the gate is trying to block because the sound coming out of the TSR-12 is a mix of the original noisy signal and the quieted, gated signal.

i did notice that even my dry patch no FX ONLY AMP TONE when i went to wet/dry mix and went more to wet that the tone of amp changed.. actually alot brighter and clearly.. is that suppose to happen...??? or what I want??? to not have the hollow sound???

The tone change you heard could be a mis-match in level settings between the FX loop on your amp and the input/output levels on the TSR-12. It could also be the result of the tone-sucking that digital rack gear is notorious for. I used the TSR-12 last week and I honestly didn't notice any significant impact on my tone and I'm very anal about that. I also spent a good deal of time dialing in the levels between my amp's loop and the TSR-12. ( ie: checking levels and the meter in FX-On and Bypassed modes ) I suspect some of the tone-suck people experience is due to this mis-matching which equates to user error. Some of it may be simply that some gear doesn't jive together. The bottom line is, if you like how it sounds, use it. If not, tweak or trade... That's my philosophy.

They typically use the last channel on any given mixer for the dry sound what does this mean?? once again sorry for being such a newbie..

In the TSR-12, when they use multiple stereo FX, they tend to route them into mixers as they go through the signal chain. So the signal path may look like this...

Input->Noise Gate->EQ->Stereo Chorus->Stereo Delay->5(input)x(output) Mixer

On the 5x2 mixer, inputs 1 & 2 are the left and right outputs of the chorus, inputs 3 & 4 are the left and right outputs of the Stereo Delay and input 5 is the signal coming out of the EQ. There are drawings of this in the manual too. Each algorithm is laid out a little different but they're all diagrammed in the manual. Basically, however many channels the Mixer has the highest channel number ( input 5 on a 5x2 mixer, input 7 on a 7x2 mixer ) is the 'dry' signal coming out of the EQ.

NOTE: The 'dry' signal is usually the output from the EQ.

Page 34 in the manual has all the algorithm diagrams showing the signal path/routing.

you mentioned hitting the bypass button so what does that actually do??? and why do i hit it..???

thank you so much im sure i will jumb back on here and ask more becasue I understand you more clearly than the manual..LOL

thanks

The bypass button on the TSR-12 bypasses all the processing of the TSR-12. Ideally, if you're going to bypass the TSR-12, in your amp's FX loop, you would just hit the FX loop button on your amp or amp's footswitch. That takes the TSR and all the cables connecting it to your amp out of the signal path giving you the the optimal sound from your amp.

To set the levels for the FX loop, the bypass button can be used to let you hear the difference in levels between the TSR-12 and the amp. So, if you have the TSR-12's bypass button pushed to bypass the TSR-12 and play, then push it again to turn on the TSR-12's effects and play, you want the levels the same. If your guitar is a lot quieter with the TSR-12 in bypass mode, you need to adjust the TSR-12's In/Out level controls on the front panel. Your amp and the TSR-12 have fixed settings so your setup is a little easier. Try the In/Out knobs at noon. You want the input as high as it needs to be so that the red light on the signal meter rarely blinks, even when you hit the strings real hard with your guitars volume knob full up. Now, when you hit the Bypass button on the TSR-12, if the sound is quieter with the TSR-12 bypassed, hit Bypass again to turn the TSR-12 back on and set THAT level to match the one you hear when the TSR-12 is bypassed.

Once you get this set right, you'll notice the TSR-12 seems to have less of a tone-raping effect on your guitar sound and you'll potentially have a little less noise since the TSR-12 isn't boosting your weak FX loop signal ( which will add some noise ) up to the needed levels before it even processes it.

As for the TSR-12 being junk as shredhead7 says, I've owned a TC G-Major, a Digitech 2101 and within a few days of each other a Rocktron Xpression, Digitech TSR-12 and Yamaha FX550. In terms of which sounds best...

The 2101 seemed to be a total tone killer. However, it's been years since I've used one and I've learned a lot since. User error? Maybe.
The TC G-Major and Yamaha FX550 seemed the most transparent to me.
The Rocktron Xpression and TSR-12 seemed on par with each other, slightly below the G-Major and FX 550 for transparency. Personally, I like the FX better on the Xpression and TSR-12. They sound more like good stompboxes to me. The G-Major sounded too clean and sterile. Didn't really strike me as wholly musical. Again, it's my perception, not fact by a longshot. Use what you like man...