The Killdry (found in I/O Setup > Audio) stops dry sound from passing through the G-Force. If the G-Force is used in a parallel effect loop or three-way setup this prevents the signal in the G-Force from interfering with the dry signal, which could otherwise result in phase cancellations.
In a parallel effect loop a portion of the signal is branched off and sent to the effect in parallell with the dry signal:
/-- Effect loop --\
/ \
Dry signal --/ ---- Dry signal ----\-- Wet signal -->
In a series effect loop all signal is sent through the loop:
Dry signal --> -- Effect loop --> -- Wet signal -->
Most guitar amps use series effect loops. Mixer consoles usually have both insert jacks on each mixer channel (that are in series) and global aux send/return effect loops (that are in parallel).
The Killdry could also be useful in a three-way setup, where the dry signal from the preamp is sent to one speaker, while the stereo effects produced by the G-Force go to two other speakers:
/----> Dry sound ----> Middle speaker
/
Preamp ----- Stereo effect ------> Left speaker
\
\--> Right speaker
A three-way setup can be used if you don't want the dry analog signal to go through a digital processor, but a major disadvantage is that you cannot send more than 50% of the signal to a tremolo, filter or compressor (effects that you normally want to send 100% of the dry signal through).
The G-Force Killdry mutes the dry signal (that is, everything less than Mix 100%) in each and everyone of the effect blocks (except for the Compressor and the Panner/Tremolo), not just in the effect blocks next to the Input Section. For example, if you send a 100% Chorus signal into a 30% Delay, only the 30% delayed chorus signal is sent out. The other 70% of the chorus signal is muted. This means that the Mix parameters will actually work as Level controls: if you set any Mix parameter to 0% it will mute both its own effect block and all other blocks in series with it, just like if a Level parameter was set to 0%. A bypassed effect block will also mute both itself and other blocks in series with it. Because of these limitations I think the Killdry creates more problems than it solves. It's easier to simply make an ordinary preset with the effect blocks set to Mix 100%.
Ordinary presets usually don't work well with the Killdry turned on, so you should make special ones for it. As can be seen in the "3-way" factory presets (ROM presets 26-37) it's a good idea to rout all effect blocks in parallell in Killdry patches; after all that's the only way they can be bypassed without muting other effects in series with them.
If you want to send only part of a Killdry signal into the following effect block you can use parallel pipelines to bypass the rest of it. If you want to control the bypassed signal in real-time you can use a vacant effect block such as the Compressor, Tremolo, Delay or the Parametric Equalizer as a fake "pipe":
--> CHO --\ /-- REV -->
--
--> FIL --/ \-- CPR -->
CHO and REV used as effects; FIL
and CPR used as pseudo-pipelines
These effects can all be used with their Mix values set to 100% and still sound completely neutral (the Compressor with no compression, the Tremolo with no Depth, the Delay with no Delay time, Feedback or Hi/Lo-cut, the Parametric Equalizer with no cut/boost on its filters).
You use the Pitch Shift block with its Mix set to 100%, but after that you'd like to use only 25% of the Delay. With Killdry turned on, this would normally kill the 75% of the signal that was not meant to be delayed, and only allow the 25% Delay effect. But if you rout a pipeline in parallell with the Pitch Shift block it will fool the Killdry and rescue the pitch shifted signal that's not meant to be delayed:
--> PIT (100%) -- DLY (50%) ---->
\ /
\-----------/
Pipeline used to preserve non-delayed
pitch-shifted signal. A 50% DLY Mix in
parallell with the pitch shifted signal
results in 25% actual delay level.
Note that since dry signal is sent into the pipeline fork, this means that in order to get 25% DLY signal in total you must actually set Delay Mix, In or Out Level to 50%. If you set it to 25% you'd only get 12.5% in total, because of the pipeline signal. (This is not as confusing as it may sound: just keep in mind that two signals in parallell --both with 100% Level-- will each make up 50% of the total level. See also the page on routing effect blocks.)
Copyright © 1999-2016 Christian Jacobsson.