TC Electronic Flashback Triple Delay User manual

Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 1
Flashback Triple Delay
English manual – 2014-10-14

Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 a
Table of contents
Important safety instructions 1
Before you begin 4
About this pedal 6
TonePrint 8
What are TonePrints? 9
Transferring TonePrints to your pedal
using the TonePrint app 9
Editing TonePrints with TonePrint Editor 10
Setup 11
Inputs, outputs and controls 13
Power / Switching the effect on and off 16
Audio in and out 16
Expression pedal input 17
USB port 18
MIDI IN / MIDI THRU jacks 18
Effect controls 19
Delay types 24
Maintenance 27
Updating the firmware 28
Switching the pedal from true bypass
to buffered bypass mode 29
Kill-dry on/off 29
Frequently asked questions 30
Links 32
Technical specifications 34

Important safety instructions
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Important safety instructions

Important safety instructions
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 2
1. Read these instructions.
2. Keep these instructions.
3. Heed all warnings.
4. Follow all instructions.
5. Do not use this apparatus near water.
6. Clean only with a dry cloth.
7. Do not block any ventilation openings. In-
stall in accordance with the manufacturer’s
instructions.
8. Do not install near any heat sources such
as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or other
apparatus (including amplifiers) that pro-
duce heat.
9. Do not defeat the safety purpose of the po-
larized or grounding-type plug. A polarized
plug has two blades with one wider than
the other. A grounding-type plug has two
blades and a third grounding prong. The
wide blade or the third prong is provided for
your safety. If the provided plug does not fit
into your outlet, consult an electrician for
replacement of the obsolete outlet.
10. Protect the power cord from being walked
on or pinched, particularly at plugs, con-
venience receptacles, and the point where
they exit from the apparatus.
11. Only use attachments/accessories speci-
fied by the manufacturer.
12. Use only with a cart, stand, tripod,
bracket, or table specified by the
manufacturer, or sold with the ap-
paratus. When a cart is used, use
caution when moving the cart/apparatus
combination to avoid injury from tip-over.
13. Unplug this apparatus during lightning
storms or when unused for long periods
of time.
14. Refer all servicing to qualified service per-
sonnel. Servicing is required when the ap-
paratus has been damaged in any way,
such as power-supply cord or plug is dam-
aged, liquid has been spilled or objects
have fallen into the apparatus, the appara-
tus has been exposed to rain or moisture,
does not operate normally, or has been
dropped.
Caution
You are cautioned that any change or modifi-
cations not expressly approved in this manual
could void your authority to operate this equip-
ment.
Service
All service must be performed by qualified per-
sonnel.
Warning
To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock, do not
expose this apparatus to rain or moisture and
objects filled with liquids, such as vases, should
not be placed on this apparatus.
Do not install this device in a confined space.
EMC / EMI
Electromagnetic compatibility /
Electromagnetic interference
This equipment has been tested and found to
comply with the limits for a Class B digital de-
vice, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC rules.
These limits are designed to provide reasonable
protection against harmful interference in resi-
dential installations. This equipment generates,
uses and can radiate radio frequency energy
and, if not installed and used in accordance with
the instructions, may cause harmful interference
to radio communications. However, there is no
guarantee that interference will not occur in a
particular installation.
If this equipment does cause harmful interfer-
ence to radio or television reception, which can
be determined by turning the equipment off and
on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the
interference by one or more of the following
measures:
►Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
►Increase the separation between the equip-
ment and receiver.
►Connect the equipment into an outlet on a cir-
cuit different from that to which the receiver is
connected.
►Consult the dealer or an experienced ra-
dio /TV technician for help.

Important safety instructions
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 3
For customers in Canada
This Class B digital apparatus complies with Ca-
nadian ICES-003.
Cet appareil numérique de la classe B est
conforme à la norme NMB-003 du Canada.
Explanation of graphic symbols
The lightning bolt triangle is used to alert the
user to the presence of uninsulated “dangerous
voltages” within the unit’s chassis that may be of
sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of elec-
tric shock to humans.
The exclamation point triangle is used to alert
the user to presence of important operating and
service instructions in the literature accompany-
ing the product.

Before you begin
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 4
Before you begin

Before you begin
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 5
About this manual
Use this manual to learn how to set up and oper-
ate your TC product.
To get the most from this manual, please read it
from start to finish, or you may miss important
information.
This manual is only available as a PDF download
from the TC Electronic website.
Of course, you can print this manual, but we en-
courage you to use the PDF version, which has
both internal and external hyperlinks. For ex-
ample, clicking the logo in the upper left corner
of each page will take you back to the table of
contents.
To download the most current version of this
manual, visit
tcelectronic.com/support/manuals/
Getting support
If you still have questions about the product af-
ter reading this manual, please get in touch with
TC Support:
tcelectronic.com/support/
Enjoy your TC product!

About this pedal
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 6
About this pedal

About this pedal
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 7
Thank you for spending your hard-earned mon-
ey on this TC Electronic product! We have done
our best to ensure that it will serve you for many
years to come, and we hope that you will enjoy
using it.
Flashback Triple Delay
There is one thing we keep hearing again and
again (which is probably to be expected when
you’re dealing with delays…) from guitar players:
“Your Flashback Delay pedal sounds so good –
we’d love to have several of these sweet delay
tones running at the same time!”
Well – stop dreaming. The Flashback Triple De-
lay is here, and it’s ready to rock your socks off!
The Sonic Multiverse
Have you ever heard a tape echo run through a
ping-pong delay and then into a reverse delay?
No? Time to try it out! With Flashback Triple De-
lay, you can go as crazy as your imagination al-
lows. And with the ability to run the three Delay
Engines in series or in parallel, you can go from
lush divine delays to otherworldly soundscapes
in an instant.
Flashback Triple Delay’s Resume
►Three independent delay engines
►11 different subdivisions
►Toggle between serial and parallel routing
►TonePrint®-enabled
►Tap Tempo
►16 Delay Types
►Analog-Dry-Through
►Expression pedal input
►Stereo input and output
►MIDI-enabled
True Bypass
Here at TC, we have a simple philosophy: When
you are using one of our products, you should
hear something great – and if you don’t, you
shouldn’t hear it at all. This is why this pedal
sports True Bypass. When it is bypassed, it is
really off and has zero influence on your tone, re-
sulting in optimum clarity and zero loss of high-
end.
You will also be delighted to hear (literally) that
this TC Electronic effect pedal will let your dry,
unprocessed sound pass without ever convert-
ing it to digital – keeping your original tone pure
and without any latency. This feature is called
analog dry-through.
Sometimes, it is advisable to switch an effect
pedal from True Bypass to Buffered Bypass
mode. For more information, see “Switching
the pedal from true bypass to buffered bypass
mode”.

TonePrint
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TonePrint

TonePrint
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 9
This TC Electronic product supports TonePrints.
To learn more about TonePrints, go to
tcelectronic.com/toneprint/
What are TonePrints?
When you look at your TC Electronic effect ped-
al, you’ll only see a few knobs. Actually, for some
pedals, it’s just one knob. So – one knob, one
function, right?
Actually, there’s a lot more to it than meets the
eye.
Star-tweaked signature sounds
When TC Electronic builds an effect pedal, the
relationship between its controls and many pa-
rameters “under the hood” are defined by devel-
opers, musicians and product specialists who
live and breathe sound. This gives you an excel-
lent starting point: a great-sounding pedal with
well-balanced controls.
But wouldn’t it be cool to have world-famous
guitar players – guys like Steve Morse, Guthrie
Govan, John Petrucci or Joe Perry – virtually re-
wire your delay pedal, defining what should hap-
pen “behind the scenes”?
And how about doing this yourself?
This is exactly what TonePrint allows you to do.
TC Electronic is working with top guitar players
who explore a pedal’s hidden tonal potential, re-
defining the controls and creating their personal
TonePrints. And we are making these custom
TonePrints available to you. Uploading them to
your pedal is really easy (see “Transferring Tone-
Prints to your pedal using the TonePrint app”) –
and with the amazing TonePrint Editor, you can
even create your own signature pedal, tweaked
specifically to your liking.
You can change the TonePrint in your pedal as
often as you like, and the best part:
It’s totally free.
Transferring TonePrints to your
pedal using the TonePrint app
Being able to virtually rewire your TC Electronic
effect pedal wouldn’t be much use if you needed
a lot of extra equipment to do it. This is why we
created the TonePrint app. The TonePrint app is
free software for popular smartphones that al-
lows you to “beam” new TonePrints right into
your effect pedal whenever and wherever you
feel like it.
Obtaining the TonePrint app
If you own an iPhone, you can download the
TonePrint app from Apple’s App Store.
If you own an Android phone, you will find the
TonePrint app on Google Play.
Once you have the app, no additional downloads
or in-app purchases are required. You can ac-
cess all available TonePrints from within the app,
and all TonePrints are free.

TonePrint
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 10
Transferring TonePrints to
your pedal – step by step
►Launch the TonePrint app on your smart-
phone.
►Find the TonePrint you want to use. You can
browse TonePrints by Artist or Product (i.e.,
pedal type). You will also find Featured Tone-
Prints.
►Plug your guitar or bass into your TonePrint
pedal.
►Turn your TonePrint pedal on.
►Turn up the volume on your instrument and set
the pickup selector to one pickup.
►Hold the speaker of your smartphone next to
the chosen pickup and touch “Beam to ped-
al”.
Editing TonePrints with
TonePrint Editor
The TonePrint app allows you to use TonePrints
created by your favorite guitar and bass players.
But this is only the start. Using TC’s TonePrint
Editor, you can create your very own signature
pedal sounds.
TonePrint Editor features
►Use TonePrint Editor to build your own custom
sounds.
►Enjoy complete control over all effect param-
eters and effect behavior – it’s your vision,
your sound.
►Customize knob function and knob range to
suit your needs and sounds.
►Audition your sonic creations in real-time live
– make changes on the fly and listen to results
immediately.
►Works with both PC and Mac.
Last but not least…
►TonePrint Editor is absolutely free!
Obtaining TonePrint Editor
If you want to use TonePrint Editor for your Win-
dows or OSX computer, download it from
tcelectronic.com/toneprint-editor/
If you want to use TonePrint Editor on your Apple
iPad, download it from Apple’s App Store.
Make sure to always use the most current ver-
sion of TonePrint Editor.
Obtaining the TonePrint Editor manual
Download the TonePrint Editor manual from
tcelectronic.com/toneprint-editor/support/
The TonePrint Editor manual describes how to
install and use the TonePrint Editor. If you open
the manual for TonePrint Editor in Adobe Reader,
you can click on interface sections to jump di-
rectly to the sections of the manual you are in-
terested in.

Setup
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Setup

Setup
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 12
Ready…
Your TC Electronic effect pedal box should con-
tain the following items:
►Your TC Electronic effect pedal
►a power supply
►a USB cable
►2 rubber strips for “non-velcro” pedalboard
mounting
►1 TC Electronic sticker
►1 leaflet about TC’s guitar FX product range
Inspect all items for signs of transit damage. In
the unlikely event of transit damage, inform the
carrier and supplier.
If damage has occurred, keep all packaging, as
it can be used as evidence of excessive handling
force.
Set…
►Connect a 9 V power supply with the follow-
ing symbol to the DC input socket of your TC
Electronic effect pedal.
This product has no battery compartment.
A power supply is required for operating this
product.
►Plug the power supply into a power outlet.
►Connect your instrument to the (Mono) in jack
on the pedal using a ¼“ jack cable.
►Connect the out jack(s) of the pedal to your
amplifier using a ¼“ jack cable.
Play!

Inputs, outputs and controls
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Inputs, outputs and controls

Inputs, outputs and controls
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 14
Flashback Triple Delay – rear
Click/tap on user interface elements to jump to the respective sections of the manual.

Inputs, outputs and controls
Flashback Triple Delay English manual 2014-10-14 15
Flashback Triple Delay – top
Click/tap on user interface elements to jump to the respective sections of the manual.

Inputs, outputs and controls
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Power / Switching the
effect on and off
Power input
To power up your pedal, connect a power supply
to its power input socket.
The power input socket of your TC Electronic
effect pedal is a standard 5.5 / 2.1 mm DC plug
(centre = negative).
Your TC Electronic effect pedal requires a 9 V
power supply providing 300 mA or more (sup-
plied). You may also use another 9 V or 12 V
power supply, as long as it provides 300 mA or
more.
To minimize hum, use a power supply with iso-
lated outputs.
Audio in and out
Audio inputs (stereo)
The audio inputs on the back of this pedal are
standard ¼” jacks (mono/TS).
►If your signal source is mono, connect it to the
MONO in jack of the pedal.
►If your signal source is stereo, connect the ca-
ble carrying the left signal component to the
MONO IN jack and the cable carrying the right
signal component to the STEREO IN jack.
Audio outputs (stereo)
The audio outputs on the back of this pedal are
standard ¼” jacks (mono/TS).
►If the next device in the signal chain has
a mono input (e.g. your amp), connect the
MONO OUT jack of TC Electronic effect pedal
to the other device’s input.
►If the next device in the signal chain has ste-
reo inputs (e.g. another stereo effect pedal),
connect the MONO OUT jack of your TC Elec-
tronic effect pedal to the left input and the
STEREO OUT jack to the right input of the
other device.

Inputs, outputs and controls
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Expression pedal input
You can connect an expression pedal to this de-
lay unit (optional/not included). Once you have
connected and configured an expression pedal,
you can use it to control one or more of the fol-
lowing parameters:
►Delay Time
►Delay Feedback
►Delay Level
These parameters will be explained later in this
manual.
You can define…
►which parameter(s) you want to control with an
expression pedal and
►the parameter range to control.
While Flashback Triple Delay has three Delay En-
gines, the Expression pedal will only control the
parameters for the Delay Engine selected with
the Delay 1/2/3 selector switch.
Choosing an expression pedal
For use with this delay unit, you should use a 25
kOhm linear pot expression pedal.
Please note that a standard guitar volume pedal
has a 250kOhm logarithmic pot and cannot be
used as an expression pedal with this delay unit.
If you already own an expression pedal and you
are not sure if you can use it with this delay unit,
please ask your local vendor or get in touch with
TC Support.
Assigning delay parameters
and parameter ranges to
an expression pedal
You can control any combination of the Delay
Time, Delay Feedback and Delay Level param-
eters with an external expression pedal. You can
make and store these settings separately for
each of the three Delay Engines, and they are
stored as part of the Delay Engine preset.
To set up parameters and parameter ranges,
proceed as follows:
►Connect an expression pedal to the Exp
Pedal jack.
►Switch on the delay.
►Choose a Delay Engine (1, 2 or 3) using the
Delay 1/2/3 selector switch. Make sure that
this Delay Engine is active – its footswitch
should be lit. You may also want to switch off
the two other Delay Engines.
►Set the expression pedal to the maximum
position.
►Set the knobs for the parameters you want to
control to the desired maximum values.
►Set the expression pedal to the minimum po-
sition.
►Set the knobs for the parameters you want to
control to the desired minimum values.
►Press and hold the footswitch for the preset
to store these settings.
►Repeat for the two other Delay Engines if you
want to control their parameters with the ex-
pression pedal, too.

Inputs, outputs and controls
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Resetting parameters and
parameter ranges
To reset the parameters and parameter ranges
assigned to a preset, proceed as follows:
►Connect an expression pedal to the Exp
Pedal jack.
►Switch on the delay.
►Choose a Delay Engine (1, 2 or 3) using the
Delay 1/2/3 selector switch. Make sure that
this Delay Engine is active – its footswitch
should be lit.
►Set the expression pedal to the maximum
position.
►Press and hold the footswitch for the preset.
USB port
Use the standard Mini-B USB port on your TC
Electronic effect pedal to connect your pedal to
a computer. This will allow you to load TonePrints
into the pedal or create your own TonePrint us-
ing TC’s TonePrint Editor. For more information,
see “TonePrint”.
If there are firmware updates for this pedal, they
can also be installed using the USB port – see
“Updating the firmware”.
MIDI IN / MIDI THRU jacks
These are standard MIDI (Musical Instrument
Digital Interface) connectors.
MIDI In jack
Connect a computer/DAW (or another device
generating a MIDI Clock signal) to the MIDI IN
jack to control the pedal’s delay tempo.
An incoming MIDI Clock signal will override the
settings of the pedal’s own Delay Time knob.
However, the Subdivision Selector knob still de-
fines the actual note values used to generate the
delays.
This delay unit is receiving MIDI messages on
MIDI channel 1.