Hi Guys
My name is Rob, writing from Australia.
From reading a few posts I think I am really in the right forum for what I am about to ask. I didn't really know how to explain my question in the title so I'll try to explain it here but please bear with me as I am a musician and not a tech so my terminology may be incorrect and my ignorance glaringly obvious..

I perform solo with an acoustic guitar at different venues which all have their own PA + desk etc
but I bought my own floor monitor as I wanted something half decent to hear myself through.
I bought an EV SXA360 which I patch straight into the Aux out with no EQ as most of the venues have Behringer EQs which I don't like much and as I am only on stage alone feedback has been mostly nonexistant and the sound quality is usually very good with no EQ.

I use a TC Helicon VoiceLive2 for some subtle harmonies. I just updated the firmware and I want to use the loop function that has been added. When practicing at home I just use headphones and I can create loops with the guitar and the mic no problems but when I tried it onstage the loop would start to swell in a strange way because of the mic picking up the monitor on each subsequent loop and was not useable at all. I would like to be able to have some kind of control over the monitor level (is attenuate the right word?) just whilst I am recording the loop and then bring it back up to stage level once the looping is done but I need to do it from in front of the mic.

I can solder leads but that is about the extent of my knowledge regarding electronics and wiring. So I just made up a small box with a pot that I pulled out of an old pedal and a couple of in/out jacks and tested it. I plugged my guitar in to it then into my mixer. It works ok. No noise but the pot seems to only attenuate on the last quarter of the sweep.
But I know that my guitar has probably a much lower signal than the Aux send on a desk and I also know there are many types of pots I could have chosen instead of the first random pot I could find.. I will test it with the speaker in at a gig volume in tomorrow.
So is there any one with some advice for me how to achieve this brief attenuation from the mic position. I am in over my head and don't want to find out the hard way onstage that I have made things 10 times as hard as they could be as I have done before..
Sorry for the long post
Thanks in advance Rob

Hi, Rob and welcome.

Slightly off topic but have you considered monitoring via earbuds? Hook up any half decent pair to the headphones socket on the desk (assuming there is one and it's accessible) and your problem is solved. It doesn't suit everyone but as a solo player you're ideally placed and unless you're using a wireless guitar system an extra cable won't make a big difference.

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Ohm's Law states, "Your PA isn't as powerful as you think it is".

An ordinary (and cheap) volume pedal is all you need. A 'Lead Foot' LFX-1 is compatible with the Voice Live 2, as it has stereo/balanced ins and outs.

The pedal you are using also has the wrong pot for the task. Without knowing what is coming in and out of that guitar, I can't tell you which range of values is correct.

Hi
thanks for the replies. I guess I wasn't very clear in my first post. The box I made up is not for my guitar line (I only tested it with the guitar as it was late at night) it is for an insert between the output of the AUX and my monitor.
I thought of a volume pedal but I want to keep the footprint small and I have no more room in my case for a volume pedal. I have tried earbuds but not onstage. I am totally fine with rehearsing with headphones but the sound of the "in-ears" I borrowed from a friend were a bit dissapointing. No body in the guitar. And to be honest I cant bear the thought of not having the voicelive "hiding" behind my floor monitor. I tried a new set up last week with the Voicelive partly protruding from the side of the monitor and wouldn't you know it some peanut staggered up on stage and spilt a drink on it. It was not as bad as it sounds and I cleaned it up quickly and so far still works!


I have tested the box I made with the speaker and it works fine. I had the pot wired backwards so after changing that the sweep is now much better.
I guess another question I wanted to ask is now I am thinking I might just make a small footswitch with a resistor in it just to cut the monitor by half but I am using unbalanced leads.
Someone told me you should always use balanced leads from the desk to monitor.
Am I ok to wire this footswitch unbalanced? So far I have played at least 5 different PAs using an unbalanced out to the monitor and have had no problems so far.

Regards Rob