Pedal Chain Advice

[Marcus]

Hi Guys,

i've never used effects live before and am in need of some advice about how best to wire up some pedals and in what order etc

The Pedals I will be using are :

Electro Harmonix Bass Balls

Boss ODB3

Aphex Fat Bottom Exciter

Apex Punch factory (compression pedal)


Should I use them via the effects loop or inline ? on a combination ?

Should the compressor be last or first

AnyAdvice welcome

Thanks

Mark

[Kev]

id personally go for the order youv just wrote them in, inline, but it all depends on what you prefer, just experiment

[mr pablo]

[quote name='BassManKev' post='258082' date='Aug 8 2008, 01:45 PM']id personally go for the order youv just wrote them in, inline, but it all depends on what you prefer, just experiment[/quote]


+1 although i'd put the aphex xciter after the compressor

aint nothing wrong with messing around with setups till you find the one you like best

[cheddatom]

Yeh I agree with pablo so....

Bass Balls, Octave, Compressor, Xciter -> Amp

I wouldn't bother with the effects loop.

[Oscar South]

I use the Aphex Punch Factory and Bass Xciter too on my pedal board, I'm not sure which the best way round to put them would be yet but personally I'd put both of them before everything else. I like to put the stuff that goes towards my basic 'tone' before any effects, which I think of as being seasoning that I'd add on top of the basic sound. I was also told that its much more difficult to compress a distorted sound effectively than a clean tone.

Edited August 8, 2008 by Oscar South

[cheddatom]

If you put a compressor before a dynamic follower (bass balls) then you are restricting the effect that your playing dynamics will have on the follower. If you put a compressor before a distortion pedal that reacts nicely to your playing dynamics - again the same issue.

It depends on what you're using it for, but I would always have my compression towards the end of the chain for these reasons.

[Marcus]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the input...... I can see there is merit in experimentation... I can see why a compressor befor the bass balls wouldn't be the right route....

Any opinions on using the 2 Apex units in line

and then the Bass balls and ODB3 in the loop ?

Mark

[Kev]

mate dont bother with the loop, no use for it really, just do them in line.

yeah puttin the compressor before the bassballs would ruin the effect, definatly should be near the end (im sticking with it being before the aphex)

[cheddatom]

It might be that the aphex will work better with a more consistent signal, after the comp. It might be that the comp will enhance the bottom end of the aphex. You will have to try them and see what sounds best.

[Oscar South]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='258151' date='Aug 8 2008, 02:26 PM']If you put a compressor before a dynamic follower (bass balls) then you are restricting the effect that your playing dynamics will have on the follower. If you put a compressor before a distortion pedal that reacts nicely to your playing dynamics - again the same issue.

It depends on what you're using it for, but I would always have my compression towards the end of the chain for these reasons.[/quote]

I'm adding a light 'grit' overdrive to my chain this week which I'll probably put in front of the Punch Factory, so I'd have the Xciter first (well, after tuner), then OD, then comp, then usually a Big Muff type distortion, then any delay or loop effects or anything else like that. I'll play with the OD/Xciter/Punch factory order though as the Xciter also acts like a compressor to some degree, but I'd prefer to use the Xciter on a clean signal and the OD on a uncompressed signal, so that somewhat limits my options.

I like the comp before the hi-gain distortion for the exact reason you specified, when I turn that on I want a thick even layer of sound that can sustain forever, and I get that a LOT better from a compressed signal.

If I used a bassballs I'd run it in a seperate split and blend it at the end or at least after the compressor.

Edited August 8, 2008 by Oscar South

[cheddatom]

Try blending your xciter with your OD!

[Oscar South]

I could try it, I'd not really sure what it'd do better than if they were in series though. I'm using the Xciter as more of an extension of my basses tone than an effect really, so I like to have it before everything else so they can work on the modified sound.

Someone should make a series of envelope controlled pedals with 'envelope in', 'dry out', 'clean in' and 'wet out' jack sockets. The envelope in wouldn't contribute to the sound but would control the envelope so you could plug your bass (or anything else) into there, take the clean bass out of the dry out and into a compressor (or anything else), back into the clean in of the pedal and finally out of the wet out so that you can use an effected signal but have the envelope controlled by your clean dynamics (actually, doesn't the Q-Tron+ have pretty much this? Never really played with it much when I had one).

Possibly pointless, but potentially interresting.

Edited August 8, 2008 by Oscar South

[cheddatom]

That's a good idea. You could put some fuzz in the loop, have fuzz before envelope follower, and still have some dynamics for it to follow, which is pretty much impossible at the moment.