Multi or singel...?

aja

Vick wrote Oky,so i guess that this must have been debated before?haha

Now look what you started haha! ???

Danny-B

Some multi's have really surprised me. I saw a jazz guitarist by the name of Mageshen Naidoo. He used a Gibson ES 335 and two Mesa Boogie amps. In the middle of this beautiful gear, was a BOSS GT 6. And damn, did it sound good...

MikeM

Yea... No..

I have a GT10. Ever since my 606 (A good 5 years ago at least) I have hated multi fx pedals. This thing however is epic. To my ears, which seem to not be that fantastic for guitar related stuff, the effects are really decent. And although not SPOT on to the 808 that is models, or the muff fuzz, it's pretty damn close. Boutique pedals usually also sound pretty close to what they're modelled on, just a little different.

I doubt I will get rid of this, unless I start getting paid decent money to make music. However what I plan to do is get at least a valve poweramp, and inject these handy effects into that. Best of both worlds IMO..

Yes this is my opinion, and I may not be right, but other people may not be right either ? I am still going to get my Musket though, sooner or later.

/flame suit on!!

DonovanB

aja wrote I dunno, for me I think better bang for buck is having one great tone rather than lots of sucky ones. But I get what you are saying...

I can get great tone from my amp alone. I use the GT8 cos it gives me some great Overdrive options (which my amp has anyway but I still use them), a decent delay, a few good wahs to choose from, a noise suppressor ( thank Goodness), a compressor, and an EQ with the ability to change them all with one movement...

the BEEEG downside is when it breaks. Hence why I bought the amp with effects just in case.

This whole discussion is much over muchness... if someone aks me, I have a limited budget what should I get? I will always say multi, and always not Zoom,

aja

So possibly the most versatile setup is to get a multi that has its own effects loop and then to add a pedalboard to that effects loop? Best of both worlds?

AlanRatcliffe

Can we just make a distinction here? There are amp modellers and there are multi-effects. While many units these days are both, you don't have to use amp modelling side of things. Also, don't confuse an entry level multieffect with the real deal. Look at the T.C. Electronic stuff and the Fractal Audio AxeFx.

There are also many guitarists using multieffects with amplifiers ...and not just guys playing at home. Vai, Fripp, Bumblefoot, Adrian Belew, Bullet For My Valentine, Peter Thorn, Steve Lukather, the Edge, et. al. are using them live and if you read through any copy of Sound On Sound or any studio mag, you'll hear most of the pros talking about using Amp Farm or Guitar Rig for their recordings.

In my experience, guys who complain about the tone of the decent multieffects units/modellers are the guys who have no idea how to use them, let alone program them. Often they have judged them based entirely on quickly scrolling through the presets. They also rarely get the point that the sound they are hearing is supposed to sound like a miked up amp, not what you hear standing in front of the amp itself.

</rant>

Danny-B

WOAH! Ten points to Gryffindor indeed...

Reinhard

I once heard a guy play a Les Paul classic > 1969 Plexi Marshall Super PA head > modern Marshall 4x12 cab. He nailed Slash's tone off the Appetite album and even some Velvet Revolver tones. I was very impressed, so if you know what you are doing, these multi Fx can sound really good.

MIKA-the-better-one

Multi's all in all, are not the real thing, I would rather buy the real thing, than a interpretation. Multis limit your options I say, its smarter to limit your effects and learn how to really utilise them. Plus you cant oscillate delays on multis. You dont need that much cash to buy good stomp boxes. I have managed to ascertain mine over a period of a year, and it seems a better investment, and way better sound. But as its been said multi effects can work for hobbyists, someone used that analogy of the printer fax machine very good

ed

I am with Alan on this one. Unless you guys are talking Zoom or Boss then multifx should not be looked at as inferior. Many of the big guys use rack systems such as the TC Electronic G force in their gigs. These systems have the ability to save effects patches so say you're playing 10 songs, you program all the effects for that song , get a foot controller and voila, all you have to do is flip a switch so theres no tap dancing. These rack mounts also have effects loops so you can run pedals through them so you can still keep you tuner and volume pedal and wah pedal with your footcontroller. Most guys use pedals since they are easier to travel with, but come to studio recordings most tend to lean toward racks. Another thing about boutique pedals is that they have a perceived value and hype is created around them especially when theres a waiting list like the Paul C timmy, but there are definitely many ways to nail a tone. Alan recently pointed out to me the simalarity between the danelectro tod and the Paul c timmy. I watch a youtube video where the $40 danelectro was placed against the $200 timmy and after some tweaking the guy got them to sound very similar. So yeah boutique isnt always THE best. But thats another debate on its own!

chris77

Each to his own I suppose. As a hobbyist I will never ever ever consider going the peadalboard route. I own a Fender Gdec and Vox valvetronix as well as a zoom gfx5 and to be able to choose between all the simulations, effects and tones is heavenly. I dont sound pro but to be fair, even if the gear fairy became my bitch and blessed me with all the dream gear in the world I probably wouldnt sound any better. So yeah, I would rather choose something that is almost as good as 50 originals than only two or three of the latter and none of the other. I like the copier analogy, it really sums it up well. If you make a living out of it, go for the originals - your're livelihood depends on it. If you're like me though, I reccomend the all-rounders. You get more for less and with the exception of a few purists no-one will look at you funny.

TomCat

The way I see it is that in some way we all want to find our own sound. For some it will be the MFX route and for others the pedalboard.

At the end of the day it's about what works for you and is very individualistic.

Personally, I lean towards the pedalboard route.

At church we have a guitarist who is using his MFX for the reverb, chorus and delay efects and a ProCo Rat in front of it for distortion.....works well so there is a bit of both there....

AlanRatcliffe

MIKA the better one wrote Multi's all in all, are not the real thing, I would rather buy the real thing, than a interpretation.

What is "the real thing" though? Overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals were originally ways to fake "the real thing" - a valve amp distorting. Chorus was an attempt to fake the "the real thing" - a Leslie speaker rotating. Phasers & flangers - a hand on the flange of a reel-to-reel tape machine, slowing it down. Delay - echo. Reverb - room reverberation. Etcetera, etcetera...

The electric guitar and amp themselves are nothing but a failed attempt to make a louder acoustic guitar. If everyone in the '30s and '40s had said "But it doesn't sound like my martin/Maccaferri/Gibson acoustic guitar!", we wouldn't have the electric guitar around today. It doesn't matter what any piece of equipment cannot do, find out what they can do (even if that was not intended by the designer) and use it musically.

Plus you cant oscillate delays on multis.

The GT-8 has modulation on the delays! The modulated delay comes from the Lexicon studio rack delays and multieffects and it's only recently that it's filtered (as it were) it's way down to the humble pedal. On the other hand, in Guitar Rig there is nothing I can't modulate, sequence or control with an envelope follower. Split a signal for parallel effects, split a signal into different frequencies, etc.. Really - if you know what you are doing, and have enough processing power, there is no limit. And no need for pesky cables, patch bays, mixers, buffers, spluffers... Plus when recording, I can keep on tweaking the effects and tones, even change amps on a recorded part right up until mixdown.

Don't get me wrong, I own and enjoy good amps (pretty purist about it too, with nothing but an occasional overdrive up front). Nothing beats 'em for the visceral pleasure of cranking everything and blowing your skirt up with "the stink of a too-loud electric guitar". Quick and easy to plug in, turn on and play and get a good sound. But that in no way detracts from what a good multieffect box/software can do, and when I want to get some work done and recorded, I reach for the multieffect software first.

MIKA-the-better-one

well now thath this topic is dying, you should get singles, they sound better, are cooler, and its the principle yes we can say all technology is a bastardisation of the previous BUT for now singles still out do multis on a whole other level, so maybe when they come out with a gt20 you can sell your singles and buyh a multi again

MikeM

Now that this topic has been ressurected,

Don't be a snob, multis sound close enough to single pedals, with more control, versatility, while being much cheaper and easier to carry about. (If you buy a decent one)

[deleted]

MIKA the better one wrote they sound better, are cooler, and its the principle

Discussions of facts are so infra dig...

Renesongs

I've been through the the stomp box Multifx route many times. In the final analysis I prefer the MultiFX because a). I know how to tweak the thing to get exactly the tone FXs I want b) I can save the settings so that I can get exactly the same sound at the gig (except for adjusting the global EQ to suite the venue in the sound check). c) It is way cheaper just one of my simpler presets would require a TR808, Vox Wha, a Spring reverb unit, Fender Twin and Marshall 800, together I would never be able to afford all that gear. It may not sound like the real thing in the studio but on stage with the house PA and the house engineer not even the real deal sounds that real. d.) There are no little patch cables or power supply chains to maintain or repair.

I have also heard tell of top international stars hiding their multi FX unit behind the amp stack because of the taboo of been seen using anything that is affordable to the man on the street.

nick

Not sure if it was mentioned before but the one downside to a multifx is if it goes, there goes your ENTIRE pedalboard. Single stomps you can maybe do without the chorus or one of your overdrives etc.

MIKA-the-better-one

MikeM I gotta quote you here "multis sound close enough to the original"
in that sentance you have just admitted a tonal compromise. you cannot tell me that you want to throw a digital "replicator" infront of a lovelly tube amp, full of nice sounds.

MikeM

I do. And I think that no one will notice the difference on stage anyway. Including me.

I also think that no one is going to tell the difference between my SD '59 or a SD Pearly Gates.

Just something I have come to learn recently.. We prioritise terribly in the music community.

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