PAGE 12
FX MIX CONTROL & EFFECTS LOOP: (Continued) The MIX Control has a range that roams between 10% and 100% of the wet blend.
It is not possible to completely remove the parallel signal from the EFFECTS LOOP path with the FX MIX Control (this is due to a decision
made by us to preserve the maximum tonal performance while the LOOP is in use). Connect your processors in the following manner as
illustrated on the following page: If your processor is a mono device or, you simply wish to process only one side of a stereo harness - you
may choose either of the
Recto Pres’
EFFECTS LOOP RETURN jacks (LEFT or RIGHT) as they both process the same sound. Just be
sure to keep your channels straight as you continue on down the signal chain to the power amp. Once a signal has been fed to the
EFFECTS LOOP SEND jack, the unused RETURN jack will not produce a signal at its corresponding MAIN or RECORD OUTPUT
jack.
NOTE: When the PARALLEL EFFECTS LOOP is not in use and nothing is connected to the SEND and RETURN jacks, make sure the
EFFECTS MIX Control is set to 10% (counter-clockwise to stop). This setting ensures the best tone and output gain is possible at all times.
If you use your
Recto Pre
hardwired into the same system all the time, this will not become an issue. However, if you carry the
Recto Pre
to different studios separately or take it in and out of your rig frequently, it is a good practice to mark your EFFECTS MIX Control setting
with a grease pencil and “zero-out” this control every time you disconnect your processors. Although the
Recto Pre
will still produce
great sound even if this advice is not followed, attack response characteristics and output levels will be compromised.
Though the
Recto Pre s’
EFFECTS LOOP is the best type for a guitar product to preserve the inherent attack characteristic and overall
sound quality and no expense was spared in its development, our tests have resulted in some interesting findings. We have had the best
sonic and tactile results by actually bypassing the EFFECTS LOOP altogether and patching outboard gear directly between the pre-amp
and the power amp with short, good quality cables.
Though this may seem in many ways contradictory to the very concept of - and reason behind - a parallel effects loop...in repeated test
situations we found the sound to be more three dimensional and full of punch, body and life than that of the same processing used in the
EFFECTS LOOP with equivalent cable lengths. Theoretically (and electronically) this does not make good sense - and in fact should
actually cause greater degradation of tone due to the more sensitive impedances present at the MAIN outputs. Nonetheless, being the
tone-first-theory-later design team we have come to be, this patching scheme has worked much to our favor. We have long felt this to be
true and in fact included this tip in some of our other products’ owners manuals. To verify our findings we recently took a census of TriAxis
(Programmable Pre-amp) users among our phone-in customers and touring artists and found that most used their processing between
pre-amp and power amp, saving their effects loops for more specific switchable applications. When asked why, in almost every case they
said they liked the sound better between the pre-amp and the power amp. So try both ways for your specific application and choose the
one that fits your ears and patching requirements best. There is no right or wrong way to interface processing to your
Recto Pre
so
experiment at will.
NOTE: If you intend to record with the
Recto Pre’s
Direct RECORD OUTPUTS and you wish to use the same processing you use in your
live rig and print it to a track (s) - you will need to feed the processors from the RECORD OUTPUTS, not the MAIN OUTPUTS. From there
you will need to connect either one (or both if stereo) of the processor’s OUTPUTS to the console’s LINE INPUTS. The signal should be
of a adequate level and the blend should be close to what you are used to in your live rig.
MODERN / EXT. TRIGGER TO POWER AMP
As described earlier in the Front Panel section of this manual under SOLO, this is the trigger port for the auto-tracking MODERN feature.
This jack sends a trigger pulse to the corresponding jack on the
MESA
Rectifier Stereo 2:100
and
Stereo Simul-Class 2:90
power
amplifiers.
These smart power amps auto-modify the amount of negative feedback when the MODERN mode in
CHANNEL 2 of the preamp is selected or switched to via the Footswitch. This reshaping is crucial to
the sound of this mode and using this feature duplicates the circuit and the performance of this punish-
ing mode in the
Dual & Triple Rectifier Solo Heads
.
SEND
MODERN
EXT. TRIGGER
TO POWER AMP
10%
100%
FX MIX
NORMAL
HANDBUILT IN PETALUMA CALIFORNIA PATENTS PENDI
RECTO~PREAMP
ALL TUBE
RECORDING AMPLIFIER
117 V~
1 AMP
60 HZ.
POWER
LIFT
GROUND
MIN.
REAR PANEL CONTROLS: (Continued)