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Pedal Board or Multi-Effects Processor
- Thread starter cassanova
- Start date
Individual pedals do one thing really well.
Multi FX do many things okay, some things really well, and some things really badly.
If you’re very particular about things, a multi may not get you what you want in terms of specific tones.
Multi FX do many things okay, some things really well, and some things really badly.
If you’re very particular about things, a multi may not get you what you want in terms of specific tones.
The debate rages on while many of us have decided to make the best of both ~ using single effects for the things they do best and multi effects for the things they do better. Single effects sometimes have a better, more organic or unique sound and may offer more individualized control. Multi effects offer a wide range of choices in a small foot print, memory settings for recall, the ability for combinations otherwise unavailable, access to devices often rare and expensive that otherwise would not be obtainable, the ability for updating, saving and sharing sounds & patches.
On my board, I have a Bassbone for bass switching and gain balancing first, then tuner into an HX Stomp which i guess is a MEP though it really seems like more... I have a synth in each of the two Hx EFX loops as for me, that is what the HX can't deliver. As far as comp, light dirt (Timmy/Teemah), modulation, eq and sims go- the HX does fine. I control the synths and the HX via a combination of the HX foot switches and a Morningstar midi controller.
For me... On a blues or country date, I could easily take the HX and a Big Shot i/o alone.
I always cable at least 2 basses so the switching and gain balancing thing for me is huge...
in my case a combination of MEP, special stuff in the EFX loops and pulling it together with a midi controller seems to be the best bet. Particularly
in a live setting. Maybe in a recording setting having 4 boo-teak drives to choose from makes sense but live ? The nuances kinda get rounded off...
I put a several hundred gigs on a Zoom B3. I treated is as 3 effects per bank and used maybe 5 or 6 banks. I was not at all unhappy with that thing. Got many compliments on tone and often got questions about what was that thing you used in that song ? Always a variety of envelope and octave plus direct or flange... I spent time on my patch levels and bass content and... efx are I believe best used sparingly. I might have used a mild comp and light drive for of a blues date- we segue into that funky vamp jam and I'm stomping the synth! but then it's off and the shock value has been applied to the crowd. So... give the rarity with which you apply them spend big on the impact efx and rely on the MEP for core duty. Now, which are the impact EFX ... that is going to vary player to player. In my case a C4 and a Future Impact are just IT. For someone else it might be a super snazzy distortion, modulation, echo or...
My guitarist is experimenting with a Strymon Iridium and a Big Sky. He has several boutique pedals for dirt (original 70's Tube Screamer which truly rocks), delay, chorus, etc... I can see him migrating to an FRFR and leaving the stereo Rivera / Mesa combo's rig home. I could to a Helix LT for more processor power. We could easily be ampless next season...
The current batch of MEP's are ridiculously useful.
For me... On a blues or country date, I could easily take the HX and a Big Shot i/o alone.
I always cable at least 2 basses so the switching and gain balancing thing for me is huge...
in my case a combination of MEP, special stuff in the EFX loops and pulling it together with a midi controller seems to be the best bet. Particularly
in a live setting. Maybe in a recording setting having 4 boo-teak drives to choose from makes sense but live ? The nuances kinda get rounded off...
I put a several hundred gigs on a Zoom B3. I treated is as 3 effects per bank and used maybe 5 or 6 banks. I was not at all unhappy with that thing. Got many compliments on tone and often got questions about what was that thing you used in that song ? Always a variety of envelope and octave plus direct or flange... I spent time on my patch levels and bass content and... efx are I believe best used sparingly. I might have used a mild comp and light drive for of a blues date- we segue into that funky vamp jam and I'm stomping the synth! but then it's off and the shock value has been applied to the crowd. So... give the rarity with which you apply them spend big on the impact efx and rely on the MEP for core duty. Now, which are the impact EFX ... that is going to vary player to player. In my case a C4 and a Future Impact are just IT. For someone else it might be a super snazzy distortion, modulation, echo or...
My guitarist is experimenting with a Strymon Iridium and a Big Sky. He has several boutique pedals for dirt (original 70's Tube Screamer which truly rocks), delay, chorus, etc... I can see him migrating to an FRFR and leaving the stereo Rivera / Mesa combo's rig home. I could to a Helix LT for more processor power. We could easily be ampless next season...
The current batch of MEP's are ridiculously useful.
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This is purely subjective, but unless you have a constraint like budget, space, weight, etc.; my ears would recommend analog over digital - whenever possible.
I use digital pedals only if I want a digital sound in the first place, or there is no good analog alternative. Even then, I check if the digital pedal is true bypass or not, and hope that it has an analog dry mix. LS-2 works too.
There are good/bad instances of both analog/digital effects, obviously. Analog may not sound better in all cases. But in my years of playing, they sounded better in enough cases to shape my default preference.
I use digital pedals only if I want a digital sound in the first place, or there is no good analog alternative. Even then, I check if the digital pedal is true bypass or not, and hope that it has an analog dry mix. LS-2 works too.
There are good/bad instances of both analog/digital effects, obviously. Analog may not sound better in all cases. But in my years of playing, they sounded better in enough cases to shape my default preference.
I like multis because once you've figured the thing out, most of them are able to be set so that they work in a reliable way at a gig regardless of how many times you bump the knobs or whatever. I also like that they cost a little less than incessant GAS. The big down side is that sometimes they can be overwhelming to focus in on a specific set of sounds you want. There can also be sacrifices made to stick with the tones in the box (if you just need a generic delay then it's fine, but if you're looking for a specific delay sound with a particular modulation you may have to just figure how to make do with close). This last criticism is less true with each new generation, but it's still true. Also, a handful of the effects in every multi I've tried are just not up to snuff.
Discreet pedals do have the advantage of a specific design goal. They are trying to do a handful of specific things, rather than all of the things, and if those handful of things fit right into the wheelhouse of the sound you want they will sound much better to your ears with less effort to dial in than a multi.
All IME and all that.
Discreet pedals do have the advantage of a specific design goal. They are trying to do a handful of specific things, rather than all of the things, and if those handful of things fit right into the wheelhouse of the sound you want they will sound much better to your ears with less effort to dial in than a multi.
All IME and all that.
If getting individual pedals, you can really hunt down sounds you enjoy, whereas with a multiFX unit you use the sounds you have available. This could be a compromised compression sound, into a compromised octave sound into a compromised dirt sound, which ends up miles away from what you were hoping to achieve.
When starting with one or two individuals, you'll play around with the parameters to really understand what each one contributes to the overall sound, and how you can tweak it to get different things. If you only have 6 knobs to twiddle between 2 pedals, you'll explore it all. When you know them like the back of your hand, you can add another.
This leads into being paralysed by options on a multiFX pedal: it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the options available, whether you want a "tube" overdrive or a "soft clipper", "saturation" or "hard clipped"?
Finally, playing with pedal order. Some people prefer wah after dirt, some the other way around, and there really is no right or wrong answer, but multiFX often have some limits in where you can put certain effects.
Hope this helps
When starting with one or two individuals, you'll play around with the parameters to really understand what each one contributes to the overall sound, and how you can tweak it to get different things. If you only have 6 knobs to twiddle between 2 pedals, you'll explore it all. When you know them like the back of your hand, you can add another.
This leads into being paralysed by options on a multiFX pedal: it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the options available, whether you want a "tube" overdrive or a "soft clipper", "saturation" or "hard clipped"?
Finally, playing with pedal order. Some people prefer wah after dirt, some the other way around, and there really is no right or wrong answer, but multiFX often have some limits in where you can put certain effects.
Hope this helps
@Cmallet This is where the HX shines. It has solid core effects. And 2 efx loops? Those efx loops are where the critical super cool stuff should live. The architecture of the HX allows you to position the loop anywhere in the chain. So if you have a really great WHA in loop A, and a super cool distortion in B. They can be addressed as B=>A or A=>B in any given patch. Crazier yet are snapshots. Each Patch can have 3 snapshots. Any device in the chain can be turned on or off...I think you could reverse the order of the loops via snap shot but have not tried that yet.
