Effects/Loop question

[patricknorth]

I want to combine the sounds of two different distortion pedals. I am not currently able to try anything because I am away from my practice space, so the question I pose to the board is this:

Is there a difference between placing the pedals side by side in the signal chain, and placing each pedal in it's own dedicated loop and mixing the signals using a Boss LS-2.

[DannDubblewe]

There absolutely is. Some dirt boxes stack well (ie in series, one out into the other's in) and some do not. The LS2 is a parallel blender so the two distortion sounds will sit on top of one another to make an entirely different sound instead of one pushing the next which can sometimes yield not-so-great results. Play with it! Parallel blending loves dirt boxes. Make. Heavy. Sounds.

[patricknorth]

Awesome! thanks for the input.

[ga_edwards]

Originally Posted by DannDubblewe

There absolutely is. Some dirt boxes stack well (ie in series, one out into the other's in) and some do not. The LS2 is a parallel blender so the two distortion sounds will sit on top of one another to make an entirely different sound instead of one pushing the next which can sometimes yield not-so-great results. Play with it! Parallel blending loves dirt boxes. Make. Heavy. Sounds.

Agreed.

I have a TC Nova Drive which houses separate overdrive and distortion circuits - essentially two pedal in one box. There's a routing button that let's you run OD into dist in series, or dist into OD in series, or OD and dist together in parallel. Each gives wildy different results.

Check out a demo video if you can find one to hear for yourself.

[DagoMaino]

I run my distortions both ways on my board, one in each loop and also stacked on the main signal... Experimentation will get you everywhere! I will say though that the LS-2 is one of the best things to happen to my board!

[RoeyHaviv]

Similar here - I run OD on one loop and clean with mids scooped on the other, keeping the mids distorted and lows and highs clean.