Need Opinions On Rack VS Floor Pedals

[RnR8396]

I have two separate issues that actually will come together during my quest here for help. I am on the fence as to which approach to go with, so I am seeking opinions/advice to help me decide. I never used effects before, but want to give it a go. I will try and explain what I want to achieve and then will read everyone's responses (hopefully they will be helpful and kind lol).
I want to be able to control and blend two overall sounds to create one signature sound for myself that I will basically not alter once comfortable. It will as I said be MY signature sound for most every song played. I want to have a totally clean sound (70%) and then have a separate blended effects sound (30%) that I can layer behind the clean sound. I would like to achieve this with using only one source for power ( a Peavey Tour Series 700 ) with 2 cabs, a Hartke 1508 (1x15" 2x8") and a Hartke 210 (2x10").
The 30% blended effects sound would consist of a combination of Reverb, Delay, Chorus and a Phase or Flanger. As far as the Effects go, since I dont plan to adjust much at all, I was leaning toward a Rack over Floor Pedals, using a Multi Effects Rack Mounted unit. I would like suggestion on which Multi Effects unit to go with, as I am very budget strapped to boot (thinking used like Ebay). The unit would need to be able to provide the 4 effects simultaneously to achieve my goal.
I am not sure how I would split my original signal to achieve this sound, or if a Rack or Pedal is the way to go here. It may seem like a crazy concept, but I would really like to try to pull this off, I just dont want my sound to get lost within the effects if this makes any sense. Most everyone on here seems very knowledgeable, so I turn to you and ask for feedback (the verbal kind). Can you guys help?

 

[DBCrocky]

Ok, lots to talk about here.

First off, do you really want your delay and reverb to just be on the effected bass sound, but the uneffected sound to be totally dry? As opposed to delay and reverb on the mixed sound? This is valid, I just want to make sure this is really what you want.

Now, if this is going to be your signature sound, you may want to put a little more effort into listening to various effects. Instead of buying an effects unit based on it being able to do this, base it on the sound of the effects. Not all choruses, flanges, delays and reverbs are equal!

That being the case, you will have more flexibility to get and change the actual effects if you use pedals. You can always mount the pedals in a rack or some other case to put on your amp! Just because they are pedals doesn't mean you have to put them on a floor board.

That said, there are a number of fairly cheap pedals that let you split and then remix your signal:

Here are two:

BOSS U.S. - LS-2: Line Selector

http://www.tonebone.com/re-bigshot-mix.htm

Hope this helps.

 

[Dave W]

I would start with some pedals so you can get an idea of what you like. A good rack mounted multi FX unit isn't exactly cheap, but then again neither is a good chorus/delay/reverb/etc and a blender pedal. In any case the pedals are going to be easier to tweak, and in some case will offer a better effect since they designed to do that one thing very well, as opposed to a multi FX where they are designed to do many things good enough.

You'll probably get more and much better responses in the effects forum.

And a touchy subject, your amp and cabs. It's generally not advised to pair 2 different cabinets, especially mixing so many driver sizes as the ones that you've selected.

 

[rockstarbassist]

As was stated, expensive rack gear that doesn't sound utterly horrid is very expensive and to my knowledge not really anything out there is catered specifically for bass. However, if you don't want to change anything "on the fly", then you really wouldn't need a MIDI controller so there's that.

Before I go any further, do you intend to ever play out live? Do you have your own soundguy/crew? Most places won't give the bass that many inputs to the board. You're lucky to get 1 ( ). You possibly could get away with doing a "dry" clean signal that would maybe go through a DI, then get a "wet" mic signal from your cabinet and blend those. That's usually how it's done even at the pro level, or both signals to a DI, etc.. Getting two mics on two cabs will be nigh impossible, as will two individual "power" signals from one amp.

Also, you say you aren't planning to "adjust" them that much- do you mean by the individual FX controls (Rate, Depth, Speed, etc.) or actually off/on? All of those on together will sound terrible.

Really, something as simple as a Line6 M9 would do you. I had the M13 and it was overkill, but easily the best multi-FX unit I've ever tried. I don't use many effects anymore so even an M9 is a bit much.

It's always ideal to have a fundamental "clean" signal but really with the Line6 unit, I didn't miss it too much. If you were keeping these on "full time" however as you stated, that may be different. Bottom line is- more than 1 source for bass live is tough in most venues.