ReValver® models guitar amplifiers, stompboxes and effects at the component level, resulting in unmatched realism, dynamics and tone. Now with the added power of Headrush FX, the software has an unprecedented level of tonal variety; and in exploring the possibilities you may find yourself wanting to tweak your tones and signal path via midi controls for your FX. In this guide we'll talk about how the signal chains of the Headrush standalone units and Revalver are different.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Revalver's Signal Chain Layout


The first thing you'll notice in the Revalver layout is that is does have Headrush's familiar IN/OUT blocks, along with categorized areas for your FX unlike how the Headrush lays them out. While this does follow the best FX practices suggestions laid out in the Headrush unit user guides, it is a significant departure. In addition, the Revalver setup makes use of a split signal chain, which does not requite changing the rig layout to access, it's simply always there. 



To turn on this split signal chain, you only need to turn on the signal chain's blocks in this area.


Input/Output Blocks


Inside the IN/OUT blocks, a few parameters inside are similar, just laid out in a more graphic, modular way; similar to an FX rack at a studio. To start, let's talk about similarities on the input block:


As you can see here, the noise gate, input gain are both available along with the signal reading on the VU meter. In addition, this is where you'll find your tuner. which also allows you to select what "A" frequency you're tuning the A note to, if you want to use a different tuning, and if you want the monitored signal as you're tuning to be clean, normal or muted.


Next the output:



The MIX parameter that you would find on every split rig on your headrush unit is here, allowing you to set the panning between the two rigs, and blend them together with this slider in the center. In addition, your Global FX EQ is going to be here, along with the level adjustments of the output and some reverb/compression.


FX Differences


While Headrush and Revalver do share essentially the same FX library, differences in the layout are going to be crucial to how you navigate and begin to explore the new layout.


The biggest difference in the layout is going to be how Revalver lays out their FX, as it does so in categories without any way of crossing over. What this means is that in your Headrush standalone unit, there may be things that you decided you wanted to place after the Amplifier/before the Cabinet or IR; mainly to mimic the signal chain of an FX Loop; for example a Wah or Chorus pedal. These FX are unable to be placed in this area in the Revalver layout.


Another difference is the way that Presets are found. When an effect is loaded to the Revalver signal chain, it will default to all parameters being at 50%. Instead of loading a new preset through the GUI like you do on the Headrush standalone, you would instead right click on the effect, hover over the Module Presets sub-menu and click Load; which will bring up the file browser to load the preset from outside of the Revalver architecture.



The final difference between Revalver and the Headrush standalone units is a hardware difference: all Headrush units were made to run the FX built into them, not every computer was made to run Revalver; and live audio processing can be very intensive. If you find yourself getting signal pops or digital distortions despite not clipping on your output, you can choose to downsample your effect to make the strain on your computer less significant. Likewise if you are looking to have your audio reused in high definition projects and need a higher sample rate for specific effects; you can choose to upsample the effect whenever your sample rate for a project is over 88kHz.


This option can also be bypassed in the Revalver settings>preferences to allow you to always force the plugins to upsample regardless of the sample rate. 


Questions? Concerns? Feedback? If you are still having trouble, please use the New Support Ticket button at the top to contact our support team for further assistance.