Setting up Processors with FX Send/Return - Problems

[_Brutalism_]

Hi, well this is going to sound real noobish and I didn't think it would come down to this, but I'm not really one to drown in my pride so here it goes:

I want to hook up a Graphic EQ then followed by a compressor to the Amp head by using FX Send/Return.

The Equaliser has L and R inputs (as well as outputs obviously) so I got a Y-cable from the SEND and sent one into the L and one into the R of the inputs. Got 2 normal guitar cables and sent the outputs L and R from the EQ to the 2 channel compressor, sending one to each channel. I used another Y cable (one for each channel) to return the whole setup to the FX Return, however, only my Graphic Equaliser was being read. It's weird because it was plugged into the INPUT and the output went straight to the compressor. I don't know how it took the signal back through the input .

Now I can feel that there's some major flaw here in my reasoning which I'm gonna be whacking myself after for.

Can anyone of you kind folks tell me how I could rig this up properly and where I went wrong? I'd be glad to clarify if my description wasn't so good.

Many thanks!

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

What units are those? You can often just use a normal instrument cable from the FX send to the EQ's L input, and an instrument cable from L output to the compressor's L input. Most gear works in mono when only the left channel is in use.

 

[_Brutalism_]

Yes it's true that is in fact what I did before I used the Y cables. Well, the Graphic EQ is Behringer and the Compressor is ART.

Even though I can opt for another method, I thought that this "phenomenon" (albeit a personal one) should be made clear to me by more knowledgible fellows.

I also would like to add that the compressor was in fact reading a signal from the Graphic EQ, but it wasn't going into the RETURN because any changes I did to the compression (even a decrease or increase in gain) didn't affect anything.

 

[Skinny Viking]

hmmmm ... just a thought and I'm sure you checked but is it possible you have a bypass button pushed in somewhere on your compressor? It would let the signal return through to the head but like you said, you wouldn't hear anything different if you start messing with the controls

Just a thought

 

[_Brutalism_]

The bypasses weren't activated so I don't know why this happened. I will investigate further but I'm still perplexed.

 

[Skinny Viking]

2 channel compressor .... have you tried maybe just running one cable from your mono out of the EQ into the mono in of your Comp and then just one cable running out of the Comp into your return?

 

[_Brutalism_]

That had worked if I remember correctly (I tried it before I got my mind boggled into this).

If that is a viable option I will use mono however it would be nice to find out where I'm going wrong with the Y cables.

 

[Skinny Viking]

what I mean is ... are you feeding your signal from the EQ into a stereo compressor? If its a 2 channel, each channel should have a L & R input ... I don't think you want to feed 1/2 the signal to each channel

I might be wrong

 

[_Brutalism_]

The compressor has 2 channels but 1 input and 1 output of each. The first channel is L and the second is R. So I sent the L on the EQ to channel 1 (which has only 1 input and 1 output) and the R to channel 2 then used the second Y cable from the outputs of each channel to the FX Return.