Genesis 3

Gary Lee Gimble · Post by **Gary Lee Gimble** » 6 Oct 2003 2:59 am

Brad, the warp button was the last bit of tweaking that enabled me to use the Genesis 3 out on a gig. My HWP Mullen sounds every so close to the tone Buddy has on his Steel Guitar Jazz album, well at least at home it does. I'll be bringing my Archos mp3 recorder out next week for the final critique. BTW, the Archos is a handy little recorder, just a hair larger than a pack of Chesterfields. The only draw back is the manual is not user friendly and to "hunt and peck" with my current aptitude leads to a mild migraine.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 6 Oct 2003 5:12 am

Yea Gary, I'm finding that I can get some really pretty convincing vintage amp tones. I'm finding that the key is often to find the correct drive level so the distortion harmonics aren't too strong on the higher harmonies. Just a little drive harmonics though seem to help get some really cool '50s and '60s steel tones. Still having fun.

Brad Sarno

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 6 Oct 2003 8:37 am

I put these presets on the INFO PAGE! if you want to see them after the thread has dropped off the list, rather than searching for it...)

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My best,
Ernie

www.buddyemmons.com

Bob Snelgrove · Post by **Bob Snelgrove** » 6 Oct 2003 11:37 am

So where's the best place to buy one of these guys?

thx

bob

Bob Snelgrove · Post by **Bob Snelgrove** » 6 Oct 2003 11:39 am

Does it have a compressor effect?

thx

bob

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 6 Oct 2003 1:43 pm

Bob, it does have a compressor with a pretty good range of settings.

Brad Sarno

jim milewski · Post by **jim milewski** » 9 Oct 2003 4:55 am

my PC has a 15 pin port on the sound card, is that the midi?, do they make a midi cable with a 15 pin, Brad, do you have a link to the download for the unit....thanks, jim

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 9 Oct 2003 7:18 am

The Digitech sites for downloading the GenEdit software and firmware updates are here.

http://www.digitech.com/soundcom/genedit.htm
http://www.digitech.com/soundcom/firmware.htm

Jim, I believe that the 15pin jack on the soundcard is where the MIDI connects. You need to get the $20 cable that turns that 15pin into two MIDI jacks, one in, one out. I really dont know PC, I'm pretty much Mac only but I have made this hookup on a friends PC. It's pretty simple. You'll need some kind of software so your PC will talk MIDI. I bet the websites mentioned above will walk you thru the procedure. Once it's all set up, the Genesis 3 will easily communicate with the GenEdit software. It's pretty cool.

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Brad Sarno
Blue Jade Audio Mastering
St. Louis
http://home.earthlink.net/~bradsarno/

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 9 Oct 2003 8:17 am

I tried BE's settings and I like what I heard
and I've not even scracthed the surface as to what can be done with this unit. Thanks everybody for posting and keep 'em coming.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 9 Oct 2003 9:35 am

What I'm really liking is how you can select the frequencies that the bass, mid, and treble operate at. It's almost a parametric EQ. Then the Cabinet resonance adjustment is a further tweak that can help a particular amp get balanced out. I'm a purist and usually just plug into my Twin keeping the signal path raw and un-messed-with, but the tweakability and the multiple amp sounds, and the good 24bit reverb and delays has me busy with this new toy. At first I thought it sounded weird but when I played with others I found it really mixed well. I like Buddy's choice of the '57 Tweed amp and 1-12 cabinet. That's about all I'm using except one setting I chose the blonde 2-12 cab and another I used the '65 1-12 cab. His choice of output type in the utilities section also seems to be the best. Go figure!

Brad Sarno

jim milewski · Post by **jim milewski** » 9 Oct 2003 2:37 pm

Brad, thanks, I downloaded version 1.4, also put Genedit on my computer, where in the unit do you pick what frequencies will be affected with the bass, middle and treble controls, I thought they were fixed, my version is 1.2, having a unit like this makes amps that are only fair in tone and no reverb a chance

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 9 Oct 2003 4:35 pm

Jim, hold down the Warp knob for 3 seconds or so. Then you enter into a mode where the 5 controller knobs across the top have new functions. Knob 1 changes the Green cabinet resonance up or down in increments of 12 halfsteps giving you a 2 octave range. Since a speaker cabinet has a fixed bass resonance due to it's dimensions and whatnot, this control lets you retune that resonant freq to more favorable frequencies if you need it. I'd just mess with it and see if it helps. If not, leave it right at zero. Knob 5 does the same thing for the Red cabinet.

Knobs 2,3,and 4 are your EQ frequency points in Hertz. For steel it's nice to have a midrange control in the 750-850 range, generally. The Session 400 and the modern Peavey mods put the bass at about 50Hz. The old Session 400 and unmodded Peaveys have the treble at or near 2700Hz. The modded ones and the Nashville 1000 put that freq at 6kHz I think. Since steel pickups tend to have their hotspots at 750 and 2500, it's a nice place to put them to help smooth out the pickup. Then you can use the cabinet resonance control to work that mid-bass range. Many variables with this box.

Once set, hold the Warp knob down for 3 seconds to leave that mode. I think you save your settings after that but I'm not sure. Maybe it saves them automatically.

------------------
Brad Sarno
Blue Jade Audio Mastering
St. Louis
http://home.earthlink.net/~bradsarno/

jim milewski · Post by **jim milewski** » 9 Oct 2003 6:51 pm

Brad, thanks again! looks like the default for the mid is 1500hz, nearly double of what I would call mid, this thing is getting better all the time, I just picked one up on eBay for $100, to keep with my gig equipment, sure beats dragging around a rack mount, your help is always most useful and greatly appreciated.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 10 Oct 2003 6:42 am

Hey cool, made in USA!

Brad Sarno

Gary Ball · Post by **Gary Ball** » 11 Oct 2003 4:51 pm

For what it's worth .....

Just called Guitar Center in Modesto, CA., and they informed me that Digitech Genesis 3 is no longer available. GNX 3 is the new model at 7l9.95 list and their price is 399.99.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 11 Oct 2003 6:45 pm

Yea, apparently they've decided that the floor model is more marketable. They took the brains of the Genesis 3 and put it on the floor with an expression pedal and depending on which model, you get like 1, 2, or 3 footswitches. The big model even records audio. I like the pod mentality for steel since we dont really have any extra feet available.

Even though discontinued, there seem to be a few left floating around out there, and Ebay is loaded down with them for about $90 on the average.

Brad Sarno

Les Green · Post by **Les Green** » 13 Oct 2003 3:16 pm

Where can one purchase the cable necessary for the downloads? Part # etc. I've been using the Genesis 3 for about a year now. Quite a gadget!
Les Green

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 14 Oct 2003 9:21 am

Just a heads up on the Genesis 3 and why they're being blown out so cheap. Apparently they've had some problems with them going into a mode where some parameters start to randomly and spontaneously change. The word is that the most common parameter change is the modulation rate if you're using something like chorus or tremolo. Mine had a problem with the delay Tap-It button where it would sometimes not respond to the tapped tempo but would suddenly set itself to a very very fast delay time. I think that was because mine was a store demo for 2 years and the button got abused. One European said that if the voltage from the wall fluctuates too much, that too can cause some wierd bugs. The large majority of them are said to remain reliable.

They have supposedly worked out these bugs but the implementation is in the new GNX1, 2, and 3 floor models which contain the brain of the Genesis 3. It doesn't look like they'll release the Genesis 3 anymore though. I wonder if they've got a new desktop, POD type model coming out. Perhaps a Genesis 6?

Brad Sarno

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 14 Oct 2003 5:08 pm

How does the Genesis 3 compare to a POD 2.0?
Dennis

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 15 Oct 2003 3:53 am

Can the tone control frequencies be altered on these units once you get inside via computer?
Thanks
Dennis

Mike Brown · Post by **Mike Brown** » 15 Oct 2003 5:15 am

Tony, why don't you place the Genesis effects device in the POST EQ PATCH of the Bandit amp? This is what this patch point is for.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 15 Oct 2003 6:47 am

Dennis, the software easily lets you dial in the active frequency for each band of the EQ. I haven't heard the POD-2 but I understand that at least the Genesis 3's effects are superior. My guess is that the Gen3 is more tweakable than perhaps any other modeling device.

Mike, the input impedance/level is for guitar level signals. I wonder if the signal at the post-EQ patch point on Tony's amp is too strong a signal for the input of the Gen3. I dont know.

Brad Sarno

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 15 Oct 2003 7:57 am

I used BE's settings and went in the front of the Bandit with the eq flat and it sounds fine. I'll try what Mike suggested and I have a PV Rockmaster tube pre-amp that I'm going to try with the Gen 3 for direct recording. I have a rack that I use but, this might work real well. I used the Blackface setting the other day for overdubbing a few songs and it didn't sound bad . All of the recording that I do, I run direct. Thanks for your help.
Tony

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 17 Oct 2003 1:58 pm

Brad, are these units easily repaired if they start drifting off on their own? Is this a factory repair proceedure?
Thanks
Dennis

Bob Snelgrove · Post by **Bob Snelgrove** » 18 Oct 2003 6:39 am

Hey Guys

Buddy suggested the "more" amp model setting and I can't find anything in the book about it. Is it an amp model or does it bypass the amp models?

thx

bob