If you use a mono sound source, select L-only in I/O Setup > Audio. If you use a stereo source, select Stereo (or LR sum if you want it mono anyway). Here you can experiment: there is nothing stopping you from using two distortion pedals or preamps in parallell, each fed into its own G-Force input jack. If you use a guitar with a stereo pickup you can program patches were some effects only affect one stereo side. If you have the choice of assigning the guitar strings to any side of the stereo image, this means that you can create patches were some effects only affect certain guitar strings, like delay only on the thin strings.
You can also let two players share one G-Force, each one using his own input jack, and by panning the effects in certain ways keep them separated from each other.
If you use the G-Force in mono the Manual suggests using the left output jack only.
The G-Force features balanced stereo tele outputs. If you use cables with mono plugs the balanced signal will automatically become unbalanced at the outputs (possibly by shorting one half of the balanced signal to ground). An unbalanced cable works fine in most situations, but when connected to a balanced mixer input a balanced signal will reduce hum and noise pickup from the cable. Usually balanced cables utilize XLR connectors, not tele jacks like on the G-Force. If your mixer console only has XLR jacks you may have to buy adapters or make cables with stereo (TRS) tele plugs at the G-Force end and XLR connectors at the mixer end.
For discussions on gear, amp sound and effect placement, check out amptone.com.
Using the G-Force together with an amp is no problem if your distortion comes only from the preamp. Then you can simply place the G-Force in the amp's effect loop, and use a transistor or tube power amp between the G-force and your speakers:
Preamp --> G-Force --> power amp --> guitar speaker
Some amps don't have an effect loop, some effects may sound better before the preamp, and some people like to get distortion from tube power amps. Such advanced setups are discussed on its own page.
In a home studio you can use a tube amp with an artificial load as described on the page about advanced setups, together with a speaker filter. If you use the Drive effect in the G-Force you should also use a speaker filter, otherwise the high frequencies may sound bad:
Tube amp --> load --> G-Force --> recorder --> --> fullrange monitors or headphones
Another recording method (in a soundproof room) is to place a microphone next to a tube amp's speaker, feed this signal into a mixer, and use the G-Force in the mixer:
Tube amp --> guitar speaker --> microphone --> --> mic preamp --> mixer --> G-Force in FX loop --> --> fullrange monitors or headphones
Many mixers feature phantom power; that is a DC voltage that can be sent out from the mixer inputs and is meant to power active (tube) microphones. Certain other microphones may take damage from this, but I have no idea if this goes for the G-Force too.
If you use other digital equipment like digital recorders or mixers you may want to connect these to the G-Force's digital In/Out jacks. That way the signal doesn't have to be converted into analog between the units, with some (small) sound degradation every time. If your other units use different digital connectors you must use adapters. The G-Force uses S/PDIF digital In/Out with RCA connectors, other standards include S/PDIF with optical connectors and AES/EBU.
The G-Force uses a 44.1 kHz sample rate and 24 bit resolution (for comparison, a CD record uses 44.1 kHz, 16 bit). The sample rate determines how high frequencies the A/D converters can handle, and should not be directly connected to gear using other values (like 48 or 96 kHz)*. The bit resolution determines how subtle dynamics that can be reproduced by the unit. When connecting units with different bit resolutions, so-called truncation distortion can occur. This can be masked with a process called dithering, which is featured in some effect processors (but not the G-Force). Again there are adapters available, although in these cases it might be cheaper, easier and just as good sounding to use the analog outputs instead.
* Its easy to believe that 48 kHz sample rate is better than 44.1 kHz, but the main reason 48kHz was introduced was simply (according to some sources) to make illegal copying on digital DAT recorders more difficult. The increased audio quality is said to be completely negligible. 96 kHz on the other hand may or may not make a difference.
When feeding the G-Force directly into a PA mixer you should enable its speaker filter, since PA speakers produce fullrange frequency curves (guitar amp speakers leave out lots of high frequencies, if this was not the case distortion sounds would be quite annoying). To keep down noise pickup from the cables you may also want to utilize the G-Force's balanced outputs:
Preamp --> G-Force + speaker filter -- > --> balanced cables --> PA mixer + amp --> --> fullrange speakers + stage monitors
If you want power tube distortion, add a power amp that is fed into an artificial load before the G-Force (again you'll need stage monitors for this setup, since you don't use any guitar speakers on stage):
Tube amp --> load --> G-Force + speaker filter --> --> balanced cables --> PA mixer + amp --> --> fullrange speakers + stage monitors
As an alternative you can put a microphone next to your amp speakers in the traditional way:
Tube amp --> microphone --> balanced cable --> --> G-Force --> PA mixer + amp --> --> fullrange speakers + stage monitors
You can also connect the G-Force to the PA mixer, as described in the section on studio mixers above. That way you don't need so many cables on the stage, but you still need a longer one between the G-Force and its pedalboard.
Copyright © 1999-2016 Christian Jacobsson.