NOOB Help: Do I Need a Buffer?

[Mike]

Dream Box is fine with or without a buffer - The Dist2 actually has an input buffer (op-amp), and the op-amp muff is not fussy.

Like others have said if you notice treble drop off, lack or sparkle or spank or whatever just whack a buffer front and back and see where you're at.

I know when I had lots of pedals on my board I used to opt for a DT-10 tuner up front rather than the pitchblack to get that buffer goodness

[Mike]

That Klon I built you has an always on buffer BTW, so that will be doing some heavy lifting for you - that's why your guitar tone is so good - because of me.

[Bacchus]

Good to know that about the Dream Box.

The magic always on buffer is precisely why I put the Klon back on there. The fact that it sounds brilliant as a drive pedal too is something of a bonus, in a weird way.

True buffers are in the fingers anyway.

[NickS]

I offer "Vampire Slayer" as a potential name for a buffer. Kills tone suck and is an appropriately dreadful pun.

Tell me it's already been done....

[Doog]

A podcast got close:

[Bacchus]

Yeah, just read that. I've read around and found other people who have had noise issues with the OC-3.

I'll leave it for now and see how annoying it actually is in a band setting. There's also the option of the noise gate in the M13.

Had a practice last week, listened back to the recordings yesterday and yep, that OC-3 whine is very annoying.

Think I'll have to remove it from the board and rely on Whammy and M13 for my durty octave down sounds.

[Doog]

I had similar things with my PS-5 years back, as I was/am sure it wasn't getting enough current from the daisychain power supply. Ended-up putting the PS-5 on its own cheapo adaptor and the problem went away; looks like the OC-3 is 50mA also.

[Bacchus]

It currently has its own, dedicated supply from the Isobrick, so it's getting at least 100mA from an isolated supply. I'd have hoped that would be the same as a dedicated wall wart style dealio, but I'll give it a go. Not sure how keen I would be on using another power cable to my pedal board, but I'm nosey about it enough to find out.

[Bacchus]

Finally sussed this. It wasn't the OC-3 after all, it was the Whammy. Whammy and Memory Man now on their own supplies, the OC-3 is actually happy enough to be daisy chained with some drive pedals.

[NickS]

Doesn't surprise me, my Digitech Drop adds whine if not on its own psu.

[Bacchus]

I knew the Memory Man could be tricky, but I don't remember the Whammy being so.

I think in my head, the fact that the WH-5 is true bypass and used a normal power supply (in contrast with all the previous Whammies) made me think that it was therefore fool-proof and unlikely to be the culprit.