RJM mastermind pbc User Manual Download

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Internal Line Mixer

Loops 7-10 also can be routed in parallel using the internal line mixer. Running effects in parallel became popular years
ago among L.A. studio musicians because it allows you to use a lot of effects without making your sound excessively
muddy. Effects like chorus, reverb and delay can be applied to your guitar signal individually, without having the effects
affect each other. For example, in a parallel system, reverb would be applied to the notes you’re playing, but not to the
echoes coming from your delay processor.

Another benefit of parallel routing is that you can have a separate dry signal path that doesn’t travel through your
effect processors at all, avoiding the signal degradation that happens when your signal is converted from analog to
digital and back again. This dry signal is routed around your effects and mixed back into your signal by the line mixer.

The third benefit is the ability to preserve delay and reverb trails. When most loop switchers deactivate a loop, the
effect is cut off abruptly. For most effects, this is exactly what you want. However, for delay and reverb effects, this isn’t
always desirable. It sounds more natural to allow the echoes to continue to trail off, but not echo any new notes played.
Using the line mixer permits this – in the Audio section of the setup menu, you can activate trails for any of the parallel-
capable loops. Trails will only work when the loop is set to parallel routing.

The internal line mixer is a basic mixer with unity gain inputs and outputs. Because of this, it works best with pedals that
have programmable output levels, and also have a “kill dry” option that allows you to output only the wet (effect) signal
from the pedal. The pedals from Eventide and Strymon are good examples. To use them in parallel, set them to “kill
dry”, then use the output level controls on the pedals to set the amount of effect you’d like to blend into your dry signal
for each preset.

The Mastermind PBC allows you to choose which loops are in series and which are in parallel for each preset. This is
done by entering loop selection mode (press the

Loops

button), then holding the desired loop (7 through 10). This will

switch the loop from series to parallel (or from parallel to series). The indicator light will be blue if the loop is series, and
purple if it’s parallel. The dry signal sent to the mixer can be activated or deactivated in the switch selection mode
(press the

Switches/Dry

button).

Setting any loop to parallel enables the internal line mixer. The way the signal is routed can be summarized in a couple
of rules:

1). Each loop receives its input signal from the output of the last series loop before it.
2). The dry signal is taken from the output of the last series loop.
3). The output of each parallel loop is sent to the line mixer, not to any other loops.
4). The line mixer output is connected directly to the main outputs of the PBC.

Here are a few examples of how different series/parallel combinations would be routed. Generally, you will want to
keep the parallel loops at the end of the signal path, but you can experiment with other routings as well: