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  • May 7, 2010 at 12:19 pm #80196
    e-325
    Member

    Hi,
    I’m a user from Spain, so first of all please excuse my bad english :)
    I recently bought a Voice Box pedal thru ebay.com
    It was my first pedal so I didn’t think about AC problems… but once I open the box I realized the power supply wasn’t for europe so I read a lot about how careful I should be about how to plug with the right Voltage, etc.
    I bought an adapter that is Center Negative and 9,6 volts as is refered in the instructions of the pedal, but once I plug the microphone it started to make a hell of noise from the microphone signal output. I’m connecting it thru a XLR/1,4jack to an amp, but looks like it’s not working. The guitar, though, sounds clean and sharp, so I’m not sure where the problem comes from.

    I’m looking like mad what to do or where to go but here in spain looks like nobody has that pedal or at least there’s no information on the net. I’ve thought about buying an official EHX AC Adapter for Europe but I can’t found any info about anyone that is compatible with the Voice Box.
    Also, I read that is better to plug the voice box to a breakout box or a mixer, but as I don’t have any of those and I thought to use the voice box before a looper pedal I would like to know if it will work on a XLR/jack cable.

    I’m really worried because it was my first purchase, I had a lot of problems with the shipping (it arrive 2 months after my purchase) and I didn’t thought in all of these problems, and as I bought it thru ebay I’m not quite sure if I would have warranty it the device is broken, even before I plugged anything…

    Hope you would give me a hand and finally ends working, because is a really useful pedal for what I’m doing.
    Thanks in advance,
    Jordi.

    May 7, 2010 at 3:25 pm #104727
    Paco (EHX staff)
    Member

    what kind of noise is it? a loud hum? can you still talk into the mic and hear anything?

    May 7, 2010 at 3:29 pm #104728
    B.Daws
    Participant

    Jordi,

    I have a Voice Box I am quite experienced with so I will try to offer you some help. As far as the power goes it looks like you are going the right way with that with the adapter and such. Since you are running the Voice Box to an amp (I read it as you have an XLR out of the pedal to a 1/4″ connection into an amp right?) you have to make sure the preamp volume is probably low or even off (You might even want to try and Aux In or a Slave In if your amp has one). I’m guessing, since the Voice Box is a preamp, that you might be overloading the amp and getting hellacious feedback or something of that nature. Also check by bypassing the pedal (click the left switch) and see if the Mic is still making the noise just to make sure it’s not the pedal circuit. Also you might try running the Mic Power on Low instead of High since you are going into another amp. I’m just guessing that the problem is you are using two Pre Amps with the Box and your Amp and it’s overloading the power stage in your amp with way too high of a signal. I have run my Voice Box into a mixer and a set of pre’s and I have to have the Mixer’s Pre or the other Pre off for it to work well. Good luck and let me know how this works out.

    May 7, 2010 at 3:56 pm #104636
    e-325
    Member

    Thanks for the fast reply guys.

    The noise is not a sort of feedback, more like the one you will hear from a broken cable, but extremely loud. The cables are working by themselves, I mean, if they aren’t thru the pedal, you can use them and you won’t get any noise, all 4 (well, XLR/XRL I haven’t tried in other places, but I bought it yesterday so I guess is not there the problem…) works perfect and no noise at all.
    I’m getting the point of the preamp thing, I will have a try but as you said when I press the mic bypass switch it happens nothing, so I guess it has something to do with the device, not the cables/amps.
    I’ve uploaded the noise i’m getting:

    http://cl.ly/x0P

    as you see, when it gets louder is when I switch the mic gain to Hi. When I press the Mic Bypass nothing happens.
    I’m seeing that the AC adapter i bought is only 9V, could be the ,6V less that probably is frying my pedal and making it act like crazy? If it had something to do with the AC adapter it shouldn’t even turn the lights on, right?

    I don’t know what else should I do to make this thing works…
    Thanks again.

    May 7, 2010 at 4:02 pm #104603
    Mr.Grim
    Member

    lowering the voltage on any pedal will never hurt your pedals, only raising them will.
    at most it may act abnormal as you mentioned.

    i wouldn’t mess with your power supply, it seems your doing the right thing, and thats not the problem here.

    May 7, 2010 at 4:08 pm #104561
    Paco (EHX staff)
    Member

    it sounds like something isn’t right with your set up. going xlr to 1/4inch with a simple adapter is not the best way to do it.

    it sounds like a ground loop hum to me.

    even though it hums, can you hear anything when you speak into the mic?

    May 7, 2010 at 4:12 pm #104562
    e-325
    Member

    even though it hums, can you hear anything when you speak into the mic?[/quote]

    nothing.
    (well, my neighbours yelling to stop that f*ing loud noise)

    I’m using one of these if I didn’t explained myself right:

    CABL56-wf0.jpg

    May 7, 2010 at 4:29 pm #104563
    B.Daws
    Participant

    Upon listening to that it sounds like something isn’t hooked up right or there is a pedal problem. Let me try to clarify how you have it hooked up again…

    Microphone(XLR) to XLR In on VoiceBox.
    XLR out on VoiceBox to 1/4″ in on Amplifier.
    Guitar 1/4″ In to 1/4″ in on VoiceBox
    1/4″ out on VoiceBox to ?

    Clarify this if it’s wrong please…

    Also what kind of Microphone are you using? Make sure you have your Phantom Power set correctly on the side!!!

    May 7, 2010 at 4:49 pm #104560
    e-325
    Member
    Quote:
    Upon listening to that it sounds like something isn’t hooked up right or there is a pedal problem. Let me try to clarify how you have it hooked up again…

    Microphone(XLR) to XLR In on VoiceBox.
    XLR out on VoiceBox to 1/4″ in on Amplifier.
    Guitar 1/4″ In to 1/4″ in on VoiceBox
    1/4″ out on VoiceBox to ?

    Clarify this if it’s wrong please…

    Also what kind of Microphone are you using? Make sure you have your Phantom Power set correctly on the side!!!


    1/4″ out on VoiceBox to another Amp (a 100W Hughes and Kettner) which makes no problem at all with the guitar output.

    I’m using a basic dynamic mic, sort of Shure Model 55SH Series II, with no phantom needed. When I plug the mic to the amp with the XLR-1/4″ I need to put it some way loud to hear something (if the guitar needs to be at 3 to hear something, say that to hear the mic you need to put it at 7) , but makes no noise at all.

    I’m thinking about going to a music shop here in Valencia that sells EHX pedals. Even they don’t have the voice box, maybe I can try other cables/instruments/mics and see if the problem is not in the pedal.
    If it is… what’s the way to go? I would get a new one or I have to pay for shippings, etc? As I said I bought the pedal on march 28 and I receive it last monday because of the seller on ebay (wrong direction twice, really).

    Thanks a lot again guys, you’re helping me not to kill myself today… :)

    May 7, 2010 at 5:02 pm #104557
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    is it possible your XLR to 1/4″ cable has the ground connected to the hot lead? I know my friend had some like that and threw them out after getting phantom powered (he referred to them as “@$^$%&#$ suicide cables”). at the music store (when you go test it) see if they can lend you a passive DI box and a XLR cable to test it.

    May 7, 2010 at 5:10 pm #104536
    B.Daws
    Participant

    The previous poster brings a good point. Your XLR to 1/4″ cable may be the issue. The 1/4″ end might be TRS that is wired differently than a mono cable such as you would connect to a guitar amplifier.

    May 7, 2010 at 5:23 pm #104535
    e-325
    Member

    ok, i’ll have a try.
    Hope is only a cables issue…
    Thanks again, I’ll tell you something on monday.

    May 24, 2010 at 2:14 am #105671
    geencnm
    Member

    E-325 I am having the same problem with my voice box and I bought it new from a music store with it’s proper power source. I absolutely love the pedal can do but here’s my issue. I play an electric guitar thru a pedal board into my amp. This setup on it’s own gives me little to no noise or hum. I bought the voice box and proceeded to hook it up. I put the Mic into the xlr and connected xlr out to xlr into a PA system. I put my guitar signal into the voice box into my pedal board and into my amp and all of a sudden I got that noise running my guitar thru my amp that is usually very quiet. I placed my voice box in the middle of my effects chain, and at the end all with the same noise. The only time it had no noise was when I bypassed my pedal board and amp and went directly into the PA sound system. Guitar signal was quiet and so was the voice and all worked well. That would be great if I was an acoustic guitar player, but I am not. Todavia estoy buscando la solucion, since I want to keep the pedal but cannot plug my guitar into it and use the rig that I’ve work so hard on to get my tone. I think it has something to do with going into the amp instead of a regular sound system. . . .even though I like this pedal alot, I am ready to return it if I can’t get it to work with my set up. Can anyone help.

    May 24, 2010 at 4:18 am #105683
    e-325
    Member

    Hi Again,
    I went to a store last week and the pedal worked pretty well with no issues at all. Sounded clean and worked fine with my Power Adaptor. I bought the cables and though that there was the problem (specially with the XLR/Jack that gave me a lot of problems)

    Back home, again the noise.
    I guess… I’m using a Huges&KEttner;100W Bass Amp and a Cheap 20W Aria Bass Amp. Maybe there’s the problem, right? I’m using bass amps. I guess I will have a try in one of my friends’ guitar amps and see if it works there (it should, because in the stor it did…)

    Anyway, thanks a lot for your time.

    BTW, I’m fucking shocked by Lost Finale.

    May 27, 2010 at 6:55 am #104514
    andrew_19000
    Participant

    You can maybe get it here –

    * http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/yahoo-…

    * http://www.moviecodec.com/topics/10925p1…

    * http://forums.wincustomize.com/23646

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