Multi-Effects Processors - A logical approach to getting great results

shaunf · 2010-04-01T10:29:58+00:00

Guys, following on from this thread http://www.guitarforum.co.za/general-discussion/getting-that-sound-please-help/ where the discussion turned to multi-effects processors, with several people mentioned they were having trouble making them sound good. I want to create a bit of a guide for people who own these processors or who are thinking about buying one, so that they can better understand what they're buying as well as how they work. Hopefully this will ease the learning curve a bit and give guys a good starting point from where they can then begin to experiment, but from a solid, logical base. I'm going to quote 2 posts made in the thread in question as a starting point: shaunf wrote The reason most people dislike multi-effects processors like the Boss Gt-8, is that they continue to think of them as one big oversized stomp box. They plug one cable into the input of the pedal, plug the output of the pedal into the input of their amp, and away they go. If you do this, it's no wonder the thing sounds horrible. Would you connect a string of stompboxes in some random order, along with another (insert brand here) amplifier straight into the input of your amplifier and hope for the best? By just plugging the Gt-8, GT-10/whatever multi-effects processor you have straight into the amp's input, that's effectively what you're doing. In my humble opinion, the only things that belong connected to the your guitar amp's input are either your guitar itself, or stomp boxes, wah's and whatever other pedals are designed to operate in front of your amplifier's preamp. One begins to understand multi-effects processors better if you start to look at them as a much larger part of your rig, which is what effectively they are designed to replace. They replace the multitude of stompboxes you would usually have lying around on the floor, they give you a bunch of preamp models for many popular amplifiers, allowing you to effectively "replace" your physical amplifier's preamp, which means that you can make your amplifier sound like another type of amplifier, but at the same time, giving you the flexibility to still use your physical amplifier's preamp, and to place the array of effects built in to the multi-effects processor around whichever preamp you decide you want to use, and to sequence them in the order which provides the best results. Multi-effects processors are in essence, a "rig in a box". These virtual rigs require thought and planning, much like designing your dream physical rig does. Depending on what order you arrange effects in can have a huge impact on how they sound, and on how effects lower down the chain sound. The awesome thing is that these units place a multitude of effects, amplifiers, speaker cabinets, microphones etc etc within the reach of the average guitarist, whereas if you were to physically go and purchase each and every piece of equipment, it would cost you millions, not to mention, where would you store 20+ amplifiers? Bottom line, if your multi-effects processor is connected to a guitar amplifier using anything less than 4 cables, you're effectively using less than 1% of the processor's capabilities, and are doing the equipment a serious injustice by commenting about how horrible it sounds. I do need to add a disclaimer to this though, in that not all amplifier's effects loops operate the same, some are series and some are parallel, and the often differ in levels as well as impedance, and these can be factors which effect how one of these multi effects processors operate. Some amps just don't work well with them, and so it's important to try it with the amp you intend using. Secondly, the cables you use to make the connections are extremely important. Ordinary cheap instrument cables won't cut it, as due to the number of interconnects, things like ground loops can occur. As such, one should use high quality shielded cables, where one end of the shield is grounded. I spent the good part of a year doing exactly what I've warned against doing above with my GT-8, and wasn't exactly happy with it, but when I began reading about how things should be done with it, suddenly a light went on in my head, and even though I've owned it since 2005, not a day goes by that I am not blown away by what it is capable of, and I'm still only using about 50% of what it can do. Spend the time and learn to use the equipment properly and it will reward you in more ways than you could ever imagine. Alan Ratcliffe wrote I had great success using a GT-Pro. It is all in knowing how to program them. However, don't forget that most guys don't want to program something. Some will get attacks of the heebie-jeebies if a pedal has more controls than a Tube Screamer. One of the reasons electric guitar is so popular is that it's simple to plug and play. A couple-o-stomps and an amp is all most people need. And there ain't nothing wrong with that. Some of us are more adventurous by nature though and like players who use effects as a big part of their sound (Gilmour, Belew, Stevens, Fripp, The Edge). Many of us (particularly we "gentlemen of a certain age") went through building a pedalboard one effect at a time, learning how to use each by the time we could afford the next. Some of us delved into guitar synths, MIDI, piezos and studio techniques. Eventually you reach the "colossal pedalboard stage" and that's when rack gear and multieffects came into play. And that's where we have the decided advantage - being tinkerers by nature and also having worked with each effect singly until we know how do just about anything (I don't think I ever even unsealed the manual for my GT-Pro). Where the problem comes in is when the average or new player, who just wants to plug 'n play is handed a modern multieffect (often because of a better "value" compared to buying a slew of pedals). He goes from 0 - 100 on the learning curve, all in one fell swoop. He is suddenly faced with what is quite honestly, a bewildering complexity of buttons, knobs menus, sub-menus and a whole lotta new effects that he's never encountered before - all rounded off with some shoddy "presets" that were created in a rush to get the unit to market. Is it any wonder bad tones result? Or that he misses some small but very important detail like turning off amp and speaker sims before plugging into a combo amp? This is why I try and persuade guys to go for a few simple stomps and an amp first, before delving into the multieffect world. I also tell guys with multieffects to turn everything off but the amp and speaker sim and use to learn them first. Then work with one effect at a time, learning how each works thoroughly before switching it back off again and moving on to the next effect - it simulates the natural learning process I (and others) went through to get where I am now.

Charlie4

As usual, a wealth of information. Just what I need. 8)

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