SETTINGS, SETUP AND TIPS

Perhaps the hardest information to find regarding the TC 2290 is preset programming settings.

The unit comes pre-programmed with presets 80 to 99 and the manual gives a tutorial / example settings for presets 1 to 10.

Beyond these though, you're on your own. Many users seemingly find the TC 2290's manual quite a daunting read and therefore struggle with programming their own presets (though I personally think it's quite well written and not overly big at around 120 pages). The aforementioned pre-programmed and example presets do provide a good starting point for making your own presets, but a few pointers in the right direction are always welcome.

Obviously, a lot of this depends on how you use your TC 2290. What instrument you play, whether it's being used in a live rig or studio setup, etc. will all force variations in how you program the TC 2290.

Most settings are exclusive to each preset, allowing a degree of setup flexibility, but others can be set globally so that they affect all presets regardless of the individual preset settings.

One of the drawbacks of a unit with the TC 2290's depth and flexibility, is that not all parameters can be displayed at the same time. The unit has five LED numerical displays and various other flashing LED indicators, but still a large amount of button pushing is required to actually see the multitude of settings contained in each preset. For example, in the Feedback pane, the Select button needs to be cycled 3 times to view Level, High and Low in turn.

What's more, the push buttons themselves have more than one function, simultaneously. For instance, the TC 2290 has three forms of modulation (Delay, Panning and Dynamic). These can all be used at the same time, but the push buttons used to set them are shared between functions, so it can be confusing working out which parameter you are altering for which effect. Additionally, be aware that parameters you may not have actually adjusted yourself whilst programming or altering a preset, could still be active, so get into the habit of cycling through all parameters.

To ensure you know what you are altering, try to follow a set workflow. Below are the settings for the TC 2290's modulation effects. The numbering sequence on the buttons in the diagrams give a clue as to best practice. For instance, to adjust Delay Modulation, first ensure that it is switched on by pressing the Mod button in the Delay pane. Secondly, cycle through to Delay with the Modulation pane's Select button.

The images below are from the originally supplied settings card, which gives a good overview of which parameters are available (higher quality scans of each are available in the Downloads section).

Here are some settings examples...

And a useful blank A4 sheet to print-out to record your own settings on...

TIP:
If you decide to use the TC 2290 in a parallel setup, remember to kill the dry sound throughput to avoid phase issues. This can be done by setting each preset's Direct Volume to 0, or globally by setting the Special Number 17 to 1 (volume control is then controlled solely from the Output Volume pane keypad). However, be aware that if you are using any of the TC 2290's 5 effects loops, these effects are now also running in parallel and may not operate as expected; the effects loops do come directly after the TC 2290's input, so will be fed with a direct signal irrespective of the Direct Volume settings for preset or global, but their effect will still be blended with the direct signal after output from the TC 2290, which may cause problems for compressors, fuzz, distortion / overdrive, wah, etc.

TIP:
Using the XLR connectors rather than jacks will give much increased headroom.

TIP:
If you use the TC 2290's stereo effect loop, but with the TC 2290's delay bypassed, you will find the stereo effect only outputs mono. To get stereo output in this situation, you will need to avoid bypassing the TC 2290's delay via the Delay On button and instead program a dedicated preset on the TC 2290, which has no delay or modulation, but does have stereo panning.

TIP:
Preset overwrite protection can be set with Special Number 8. Default setting is to protect the factory supplied presets in location 80 to 100 (even though presets only go up to 99!), but if you want to use this space, you can alter the setting to overwrite them. Alternatively, you could use the function to protect even more of your own presets from accidental overwriting, by lowering the protect threshold (eg: set to 50 to overwrite protect all presets from 50 upwards).