This pedal was created with horn players in mind. The order of operations is simple. Plug your microphone’s XLR into the Blow!, the from the “send” 1/4” output, run a cable to your first pedal. Then take the cable from your last pedal in the chain and plug it back into the Blow! in the “return” jack. This will then allow you to run an XLR from the blow to whatever mixer or speaker you are plugging into. This is a simplistic and elegant solution to achieving pedal connectivity with a microphone, but it is not the only piece of this puzzle. One of the greatest challenges in the microphone to pedal connection is gain structure. To you have a powerful enough signal going to the first pedal so that you are getting fully saturated sound, and driving the pedal with enough signal or gain? Is the signal that is leaving your pedals strong enough so that the front-of-house does not have any trouble giving you enough volume for the mix? Both of these challenges are solved by the Blow!’s two knobs. The largest of the two knobs controls the input gain, or the strength of the signal going from the microphone to your pedals. This can be easily dialed in so that you are providing the pedals with enough signal. Too little signal and you will sound quiet and weak. Too much signal, and you will overload and distort your pedals. The main gain knob will allow for a perfect amount of signal. The smaller of the two knobs controls the strength of the signal leaving your pedalboard and going to the speakers. This gives you the abilitty to dial in the perfect amount of signal for the front-of-house or for your own personal speaker without compromising the amount of signal going to your pedals. If your pedals’ output is quieter overall that the dry input of your instrument, then you can make up of that with this know. This type of multi-layered volume control can be described as gain staging, and is a simplistic yet advanced way of perfecting the QUALITY of the sound of your pedals.
Of course, there are other features of the blow that make life easy. There is a 48v switch on the side that allows to to provide phantom power to any mic that needs it. There is is also a fail-safe switch that will turn your effects loop on or off. If you turn on a particularly volatile effect and you start feeding back or having sound issues, you can simply hit this button to disengage all your effects and save the audience’s ears. There is even a light that will glow, indicating that the pedal is receiving signal, so that you do not have to guess if you are getting sound from your microphone to your HornFX Blow! By Zorg.