Why not make the effects loop of Bias Guitar Amp Mini Switchable to Parallel?
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DEVELOPMENT IDEA
I bought Bias Guitar Amp mini and it's pretty good. In most cases, the sounds generated are almost indistinguishable from the genuine article. There is, however, one issue that could and should be resolved. The effects loop is in series. That means that 100% of the amp's signal goes through the multi-effects processor loop. The issue is that most effects processors color the sound, especially older ones. Often, dynamics get lost and frequencies are shifted around, even if the multi-effect unit is in bypass. That's because most multi-effect units are digital. During the A/D and D/A conversion, the sound can change as described above. This has probably to do with the quality of the A/D converter and other factors. In the end, the high quality of the digitally duplicated sounds of the Bias Amp sound digital, which defeats the purpose of Bias Amp. Perhaps a $5,000 multi-effects processor does not have this issue but most of us probably use affordable (cheap) multi-effects processors (in my case an old Digitech DSP). Applying EQ will not improve or revert to the tonal dynamics of the original Bias Amp mini signal once it has been modified by the effects processor.
The obvious solution would be to enable the effects loop to run parallel to the Bias Amp signal. The user can then dial-in how much of the original signal vs. effect they want. If this is a software solution, please make it happen soon. If it's a hardware issue, and can't be done, then I might have to sell my Bias Amp. I've ordered a brand new multi-effects processor to see whether I get a better result first. I'll update this post in October once I get the new gear.
Positive Grid, please let me know your intentions regarding series/parallel effects loop and if yes, how long will it take?
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Update to the serial vs parallel issue: I bought a Behringer FX2000. It can be switched to mono and in series and the mix can be adjusted. The main thing is that in bypass, the A/D conversion is so good that it does not affect the sound of the amp. However, it would still be good to have the option of series and parallel mode.
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I thought the manual inferred that this was switchable, even though it did not explain how.
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@madmarcus1960 Nothing in the manual, however, based on one of their videos, Positive Grid are thinking about making it switchable. Doesn't matter now anyway as my unit died last week. The unit freezes and the power amp stage doesn't turn on. I've returned it to the dealer.
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I thought i was going nuts trying to figure out this problem. Thank you for bringing this forward because i don't want to buy a new amp, this is my dedicated amp head and i love it.
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@zigguitars I've shared your insights to our product team and will keep you posted with a solid answer later.
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I seem to remember this being in development last year. @Felix are you saying no progress as been made as of yet?
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@zigguitars @bgucrossroads Yes we need to conduct a review to see if it can be implemented in the future. The parallel FX loop can be added by a firmware update, I will keep you guys posted when it's on the map.
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@felix So how would you deal with the trim (blend) control. I guess this would have to be software only, as thiere is no knob on the Mini. If that is the solution, Can you please pass to dev team to allow for a universal and individual patch setting? So we can set universal trim and then override if we want more or less of dry signal in out put per individual patch?
Thanks