I've been out of it for a while so I'm not sure if multi's have gotten better but I've always loved individual pedals.
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Multi effect pedal vs. single effect pedals
- Thread starter gary mitchell
- Start date
After spending Hundreds of $$$'s on single pedals that I could only get one sound out of at a time without bending over and tweaking, I found Zoom! Now my entire rig is a Zoom MS60B into a Zoom B3n into a Yamaha DSR112 (powered monitor), and my tone has never been better. And it can change at the click of a button, to what ever I want it to be! And my entire board is valued at under $500 dollars, board included. The cost of about 2 boutique pedals.
And I like the dirt!
And I like the dirt!
Each has their pros and cons. I had a few over the years but don't currently own any multi effects and don't plan on buying another one any time soon. I like the simplistic aspect of a small board with just a few pedals. Right now my pt mini board has a wireless, compressor, fuzz, and overdrive. That's it. It helps me stay focused on writing music. I have a problem with getting side sidetracked when I have a lot of options.
Hello. But if you "went digital" with Strymon, you would still be using single pedals (last I checked, anyway; tremolo plus reverb in the Flint aside). So the question is not 'analog or digital?', but 'single or multi?'.
My very first pedal was a zoom 505. I still have it and use for a headphone amp from time to time. I went through various pedals and pedal boards over the years and last year I distilled it all down to the Bass Flyrig. It works great for what I need. I tried the newer Zoom and Boss stuff before I bought it too. I've even thought of taken it down to just the new Tech 21 Dug pedal.
I'm the opposite of how most players go. I started with individual effects and gradually went to using mostly multi-effects.
As a guitar player, I got tired of tap dancing around on songs where there are multiple effects engaged/disengaged with each chorus/verse of a song.
Multi-effects used to be just "ok" sounding, but have gotten a lot better. They do require some serious time and effort to get really good tones out of them.
Here is my list of some pros and cons of multi-effects:
Pros-
1) you can change multiple effects with touch of one footswitch
2) you get a wide variety of effects so you can try out some that you would not normally use or only occasionally use
3) cost....multi-effects are usually way less expensive
4) convenience--set it up and go
Cons-
1) individual effects will likely sound better because you can pick and choose your personal "best" of each effect
2) individual effects are generally much easier to adjust quickly if you need to tweak something, though some of the multis are not bad
3) if your multi goes down you have nothing, if an individual pedal goes down you can just bypass that pedal
*4) patch level difference issues are a big complaint of many inexperienced multi users on a live gig. But if you set one "base" tone that you add and subtract effects from, you rarely have problems.
Personally, for me the benefits of multi-effects far out way any drawbacks.
I personally gig with a Boss ME70 for guitar and use a Zoom MS60b for bass. I also have a Zoom ms 50g that I use for guitar if a lot of effects changes won't be needed. And I still have some individual pedals that I may add to the multeffect on occasion, but mostly my pedalboard literally just sits in a closet.
I have used just the Zoom ms pedals for churches with in-ear monitoring without an actual amp, to use as a programmable eq to change amp tones or to improve back line amps, as a compressor, as a tuner, as a hpf to remove unwanted low end rumble, etc. I always carry at least one of them just in case.
And even if you go the individual pedal route, an inexpensive multi like the zoom ms series can be a very good addition to a small pedalboard to give you additional effects that are just occasionally needed.
I use single for the following reasons:
-more options and ability to grow boards.
- if one pedal breaks I replace it or move it off. If your big digital multieffect pedal breaks it's a big repair cost or replacement.
That being said, if you have the money and the sound guy to do it, a multieffect with recallable switches, ie the chorus/ delay/ reverb shimmer for the intro to that one song can be one switch vs 4 pedals. Guys like John Myung use this but they also have a sound guy who operates the rack and sets all that stuff up and can afford to buy 3 in case one goes down. It's really personal preference
You could call the BlueSky "a reverb" but it has a bunch of different reverbs in it and some sound like completely different effects to me (the family of shimmer/'angel' verbs is completely different than plate, for example); so seems more like a multi to me because each reverb model has multiple adjustable parameters and sounds completely different.
But however you choose to parse that bit of semantics, the digital simulation has to be at least that good. So maybe an Axe FX II unit or the new Line6, but the Zoom-type stuff and others at that price point don't do it for me. It sounds ok soloed but very few of those patches hold up with a band live.
And dialing in digital pedals with menus and such is much more difficult. You can't just tweak something live to make it work. I prefer singles that have all of their controls exposed on the surface of the pedal due to both ease of use and sound quality.
I'm of the same mind. Digital modeling has come a long way in the last 5 years or so. I too tried some of the Zoom offerings and liked them overall but wouldn't use them to replace my entire board. I got the HX as well, as you know, and it replaced half my board. Could I get away with just using it? Yeah, probably. But for my needs, it's easier to use it in conjunction with some of my other pedals. I am very impressed with what Line 6 has to offer in the Helix family line. They really thought it through when they designed all these units. And they sound wonderful IMO. And menu tweaking has never been easier with the units like the HX.
So really, as many have already said, it all depends on your needs and wants. But if you wanted to streamline your setup and make it easier to just plug in one thing and go, the effects world has made that very possible today with digital modeling. I still have a hard time letting go of my preamps and such but I know if I had a Helix Floor, I could probably do away with my entire board. So really it's either or or both for me. Both sides have ups and downs and positives and negatives. Depending on how you look at it.
I'm very picky about sounds. I've returned a LOT of overdrive pedals in my search for a couple that work for me. One of them is an analog pedal, the other a digital, with dozens of models (of which I use 1 that I tweaked). The issue for me is user interface - multi effects pedals don't typically allow me to turn things on and off as I'd like - once you put a menu on the thing, it's probably not a gig worthy device for me. If you can separate the programming time wise from performing, as the overdrive pedal (and some of the TC electronic stuff I have does), then a dsp based thing can work, but if it tries to be a bunch of things, then the user interface is something that, so far, I haven't seen one I can work with.
I wouldn't count the Aftershock as a multi when all it does is distortion. Does a heck of a lot of different distortion, but it's dedicated to only distortion. Good pedal...I have one. And I still prefer the analog versions of every single pedal I have that it mimics.
I think you should try the search engine because there are lots of threads on this topic.
I use a multieffects unit, the TC Nova System. It's on channel B of my split configuration, the A channel is the unaffected bass tone. I blend the together for the best of both worlds.
Multi FX units have come a long way in the last 18-20 years. Remember getting a Zoom GF707, and it was... disappointing. Subsequently went down the ananlogue only route (especially with a guitar), visiting the boutique, hand wired kit (amp/pedals/pickups). Great sounds, but damned expensive.
After "making do" with an old PODxt bean, I decided to get a dedicated Bass unit. Tried a Bass PODxt, was underwhelmed, so bought a Zoom B3, which was good, but limited (especially using amp models and effects). Frustrated, and not wanting to get a second B3, I got a PODxt Live, and added the Bass Pack. To my ears, the amp models sounded better than the B3 added to the available effects slots and being able to change patches "on the hoof". Unfortunately, the effects weren't quite as good as I was hoping. Looked long & hard for another comparable unit, but kept coming back to either the B3 or the HD500(X). I bought the HD500X, still have it, still use it, still very happy with the package. Great amp model sounds (limited choice with the HD Bass Pack though), great effects sounds, all round well worth trying out (even for an "old" unit).
After "making do" with an old PODxt bean, I decided to get a dedicated Bass unit. Tried a Bass PODxt, was underwhelmed, so bought a Zoom B3, which was good, but limited (especially using amp models and effects). Frustrated, and not wanting to get a second B3, I got a PODxt Live, and added the Bass Pack. To my ears, the amp models sounded better than the B3 added to the available effects slots and being able to change patches "on the hoof". Unfortunately, the effects weren't quite as good as I was hoping. Looked long & hard for another comparable unit, but kept coming back to either the B3 or the HD500(X). I bought the HD500X, still have it, still use it, still very happy with the package. Great amp model sounds (limited choice with the HD Bass Pack though), great effects sounds, all round well worth trying out (even for an "old" unit).
I'm on multi units now, for simplicity, weight, and portability.
This is my gig case. Everything is in this except spare strings, which are in the bass gigbag. The Zoom B3n sounds great, is tiny, and requires only one power cable. No chance that I'll have a loose connector mid-set that I can't find.
Also - with individual pedals, you can't make many changes to the settings on the fly. That's not much issue with a dirt pedal or an octaver, but with something like a synth pedal there are way different effects you want. It's not practical to bend over and change a bunch of sliders on a gig. With a multi unit, you create the patches ahead of time and switch among them easily.
This is my gig case. Everything is in this except spare strings, which are in the bass gigbag. The Zoom B3n sounds great, is tiny, and requires only one power cable. No chance that I'll have a loose connector mid-set that I can't find.
Also - with individual pedals, you can't make many changes to the settings on the fly. That's not much issue with a dirt pedal or an octaver, but with something like a synth pedal there are way different effects you want. It's not practical to bend over and change a bunch of sliders on a gig. With a multi unit, you create the patches ahead of time and switch among them easily.
I would readily use a multi for things like Octave, Phaser, Chorus, but it would need to play nice with both my analog compression and OD and have a very easy interface. Looking for ideas...
The Eventide H9 is very good. So are the EHX digital pedals. Multi-effects are good and will continue to improve as time goes by.
The problem with chained analog pedals is the noise. Although if you are running distortion, maybe noise is not much of a concern.
The problem with chained analog pedals is the noise. Although if you are running distortion, maybe noise is not much of a concern.
If you're talking about digital effects then most modern multis are just as good as individual effects. Individual effects may offer functions or abilities that a generic multi can't do. It really just depends on what you want. I keep a Zoom CDR on my board just because it does a ton of different stuff.
I do something like what you have in mind.
I keep my octave, overdrive, bassballs, then use a Zoom B1on for additional envelope, fuzz, some modulation, and even an always on comp and eq setting. Then I keep some chosen modulation pedals. The Zoom made me remove 3 pedals, might make me remove 1 or 2 others, and keeps my GAS down for now.
This is one of the nicest things about the HX Effects IMO, the interface is super user and operator friendly. It's really easy to tweak on the fly and use in a live setting once you learn it. For me, I was navigating very easily and quickly within half an hour after powering it on for the first time.
