Crossroads Signal Director
The Crossroads Signal Director has been developed in response to the need for a device that switches a signal from an instrument to two different devices. The switching action is activated by a footswitch mounted on the top of the unit and has two switching modes that can be selected on the side of the unit by a slide switch.
Mode 1: This mode allows the signal to be directed to Output A or Output B and can also be represented as A or B.
Mode 2: This mode allows the signal to be directed to Output A and Output B and can also be represented as A + B. The footswitch in this mode turns Output A on or off, while Output B is always active.
The two switching modes are made much more flexible and have many more advantages by the fact that Output A is transformer balanced. The type of transformer that we use is manufactured from the latest high performance wideband ferrite material and is audibly transparent with a frequency response that extends to over 100KHz. It is very important to have one of the outputs balanced because in many cases when connecting several devices together in parallel a ground loop is formed causing hum and interference. Safety from electrical shocks is eliminated when connecting two amplifiers in parallel because both electrical earth connections can be left connected and not lifted to eliminate the ground loop hum as is the usual and very dangerous solution used by many players. The reason you should not in any instance lift the ground to get rid of hum is because if there is an electrical fault in the amplifier that has it’s ground lifted, there is a great risk of you receiving a potentially lethal electric shock. The other advantage especially for guitar players when performing in locations where you are getting electrical shocks between the guitar and say the microphone stand is the ability to use thebalanced output to effectively and safely isolate the guitar from everything. Only the balanced output should be connected in this case to provide a fully floating situation thus providing full safety.
Simple previous designs of A/B boxes that are purely passive in design do not provide any of the above safety features and suffer many problems of clicks and noise when used in many situations. The Crossroads Signal Director has been especially designed to provide electrical operating safety with professional studio quality electronics and design techniques producing a modern design evolution.
The Crossroads Signal Director is active in design using a conventional 9V battery with an operational life of over 85Hrs. It can be also used with an external DC power supply of 9- 15V, it is recommended to use a regulated power supply but extensive internal filtering will provide noise free operation with virtually all power supplies. It has a very highinput impedance of over 500K and both A + B outputs have very low output impedance designed to drive long cables without any loss of high frequency or interface with other equipment designed to work at -20Dbu levels. LED Indicators show which outputs have been selected. Absolute no noise and click free switching with no bleed through of signal to the other channel are provided which is an absolute must when used in the A or B mode.
Applications: Driving 2 amplifiers in A + B or A or B modes for different amp tones. In recording applications as a direct box with balanced output to desk. On stage to provide fully floating guitar with full electrical safety. Use as a tuner buffer and mute. To direct signal to two different parallel signal processing paths.
Far from being just another passive A/B box, the Crossroads Signal Director utilises active circuitry.The Crossroads pedal is a particularly clever signal-routing device, which provides various different ways to use pairs of amps or channels, or a tuner or effects within your setup. One of these babies in your gig bag will see you through many difficult recording and live situations.
