Riaan
My setup at the moment is a hybrid hardware/software one: I use the pedalboard with at the moment, two seperate signal paths - one for electric pickup output and one for piezo's. This is for my Godin which has both outputs. The electric signal goes to my Fender amp via a couple of pedals, mostly a Keeley compressor, Fulltone Full Drive and Butler Tube Driver and EHX Holy Grail Nano with a Proco Rat at times. The piezo signal goes via a LR Baggs Para DI to my Ibanez acoustic amp. Line outs from both amps go to my Edirol FA-66 into Guitar Rig 4 (two copies running at the same time, one for electric on one channel, one for acoustic on the other channel). I use a BBE Supa Charger to power all the pedals, and the main electricity source of the entire setup, PC included, comes via a Sampson power conditioner.
The tone is awesome and there's absolutely no end to the combinations of effects and tones possible... 8) However I notice some noise in the Fender amp, but only when cables are plugged into both the acoustic and electric outputs of the Godin.
It seems that the piezo pre-amp in the Godin is responsible for this - this is the only place where the two signals meet before the Edirol. The noise disappears when I unplug the piezo output. Luckily I can get rid of the noise in Guitar Rig by using a noise suppressor, but the noise is of course still audible on the Fender's speaker. The guitar's pickup cavity is shielded with copper tape.
Noise isn't a problem when I play my Strat, which doesn't have a piezo output...yet ?
I wondered if it was time to get a noise suppressor somewhere on my pedalboard - the fact that GR's noise suppressor works probably means that a hardware noise suppressor pedal would work also? The ISP Decimator seems to be a good one?
AlanRatcliffe
You've got a ground loop. I doubt it's specific to the piezo preamp, but rather the combination of preamp and Edirol on the other end of the two cables. I get something similar if I split signals to Twin and monitors. I'm willing to bet that if you lift the ground on the DI it should cure it (that's what the ground lift is for).
If that doesn't work (some DI's only lift ground on the XLR, not the unbalanced out), try lifting the earth on one of the cables.
