general question about pedal bypasses

[MiHu]

maybe this is a very dumb question:

with digital effects: does the whole guitar signal get digitalised and processed an then reconverted to analog? and: if such a pedal with non-true bypass is switched off, is there any analog-digital conversion?

[tremolite]

As far as I know, at least with respect to digital delay pedals, the dry signal is digitized. At least that's the way Boss DD pedals work. I would assume with the more mainstream pedal manufacturers this is the case, that the dry signal coming into a pedal is digitized rather than simply passing thru to the output unaffected. I think higher end digital pedals, like T-Rex, do not do this A to D then D to A conversion... 

[MiHu]

thanks tremolite! I guess the only thing which is sure is that in non true-bypass pedals  the signal goes through a buffer amp when the effect is off.

I wonder if anybody on this board knows more about whether there is a-d d-a conversion involved?

[fuzzjunkie]

it depends on the manufacturer, application and price range as far as rackmount units go. I have some units where the signal is passed directly without a/d/a conversion in bypass mod and some that are. most of these units were made to be used in the studio...always on...to bypass you don't send a signal to it, so true bypass would be an unecessary feature. a few were made for guitar rigs, and you'd think those would have true bypass, but most don't

i have one Roland that does and another that doesn't. i think the Yamaha unit does, but I'd have to dig out the manual to be sure. I would expect most of the lexicon, roland and t.c. units in the $200-300 range are not true bypass.