Effect Pedal Order.

[danny-79]

Just having an ask to see what kind of order(s) that people use and find effective., i gave up using effects a few years ago prefering just the natural amp-guitar but .... there back out an im having lots of fun experimenting with them, moving them around etc.. the order that ive personaly found to be the most effective is from the guitar
[u][/u]Tuner - (Boss TU-2).
[u][/u]Compressor - (Marshall Edward ED-3).
[u][/u]Overdrive - (Boss ODB-3).
[u][/u]Delay - (Marshall EH-1).
[u][/u]Octave Devider - (Electro Harmonics Octave Multiplexer)
[u][/u]Chorus - (Boss CEB-3)
[u][/u]Envelope Filter - (Ashdown)
ive got them all on a homemade board powered by a 10-way power adaptor (of a no name brand that i found on eBay for £15 an does the job brilliatly).
The only pedal that im not happy with is the compressor (marshall edward....) (im that happy with it that its no longer on the board), so what do others think ? there seems to be a lot of reviews out there of right an wrongs but at the end of the day im thinking that its down to personal tase/sound, after all one persons noise is anothers perfection!!
So any advances on that order greatfully appreceated.

Edited November 23, 2009 by danny-79

[chriswilliams666]

This is the order i would recommend.

TU-2 (Un-effected signal to tuner) into ED-3 into ODB-3 into CEB-3 into Octave into Envelope into Delay.

As far as i am aware you should always have delays at the end of the chain. You could also try putting your modulation and delays through your FX loop. That often makes them sound much nicer! It's what i do!




[quote name='danny-79' post='662231' date='Nov 22 2009, 11:02 PM']Just having an ask to see what kind of order(s) that people use and find effective., i gave up using effects a few years ago prefering just the natural amp-guitar but .... there back out an im having lots of fun experimenting with them, moving them around etc.. the order that ive personaly found to be the most effective is from the guitar
[u][/u]Tuner - (Boss TU-2).
[u][/u]Compressor - (Marshall Edward ED-3).
[u][/u]Overdrive - (Boss ODB-3).
[u][/u]Delay - (Marshall EH-1).
[u][/u]Octave Devider - (Electro Harmonics Octave Multiplexer)
[u][/u]Chorus - (Boss CEB-3)
[u][/u]Envelope Filter - (Ashdown)
ive got them all on a homemade board powered by a 10-way power adaptor (of a no name brand that i found on eBay for £15 an does the job brilliatly).
The only pedal that im not happy with is the delay (marshall edward....) (im that happy with it that its no longer on the board), so what do others think ? there seems to be a lot of reviews out there of right an wrongs but at the end of the day im thinking that its down to personal tase/sound, after all one persons noise is anothers perfection!!
So any advances on that order greatfully appreceated.[/quote]

[skankdelvar]

You could have lots of fun sticking the octave divider in between the compressor and the OD. And trying the chorus before the delay can sound reel purty.

Envelope filter immediately before or after OD could also be interesting. Experimentation is definitely the way to go. Mind you, these days, the only thing in my bass fx line is the tuner!

Edited November 23, 2009 by skankdelvar

[bobbass4k]

A lot of its personal preference but there are some general rules, octavers (especially analog ones) are very fussy and need as unaffected a signal as possible I much prefer mine at the front of the chain, but some people like it after dirt.

Compressor is a matter of preference, most people put it at the very start or the very end, depending on what you want to use it for at the start will limit the signal going to your pedals, this will affect some of them quite dramatically, it'll improve analog octavers. At the end will limit the signal spike from your pedals, very handy for wild filters, stops them blowing up your speakers.

Modulation effects chorus should got toward the end, time based effects like delay and reverd should at the very end. Filter and dirt is another preference thing, they should both go in the middle, between pitch shifting and modulation/delays, but the order is a preference thing, i like dirt>filter because it gives a lovely synth quack, but filter>dirt is a lot more subtle, personally i think it's too subtle, the dirt destroys the filter unless it's a mild/transaprent OD.

My general order is:

Pitch Shifting > Dirt > Filter > Modulation > Time based

[deej]

[quote name='bobbass4k' post='662332' date='Nov 23 2009, 02:32 AM']My general order is:

Pitch Shifting > Dirt > Filter > Modulation > Time based[/quote]

I pretty much follow this too.

Got my compressor at the start, any fussy pedals at the front, then I like having dirt before filters as it gives a totally different sound when used together. Then i just stick everything else on at the end. Oh and DI at the end of course.

[xgsjx]

I'm not an expert in pedals so I may be corrected, but I would have thought that having the compressor before the env filter (or any follower pedals) would make you lose out on controlling the dynamics of the filter due to it levelling the signal out.
I don't use a compressor at all after trying a few as I found all they did was ruin my dynamics & add ground noise.

I agree with the above order "Pitch Shifting > Dirt > Filter > Modulation > Time based" but deciding how you want them is 1/2 the fun & how you'll find "your" sound.

[Phaedrus]

Compressor at the end makes sense to me, on the thoery that however any other effects affect the signal, you should still always have balanced levels. Anything before the compressor is up to the user to try different variations till he gets his favourite set-up.

But I have two concerns about that:

1. What if you want a level boost for a solo/chorus/fill/whatever? Will a compressor at the end reduce that level boost to the level determined by the compressors control settings?

2. In my case, my last-in-line is my Hartke VXL Bass Attack - I use it as my DI, so it has to be last. This means any compressor would be before the VXL - how will that bear on things?

I'm between FX at the moment (sold my ME-50B so I could get a Squier VMJ fretless), and am swinging more towards separate pedals than a multi-FX unit for my new set-up. ATM, I'm pretty sure my set-up will be:

Bass ->
Korg DT-10 tuner (already own this) ->
Dunlop 105Q wah (yet to acquire this) ->
T-Rex Sweeper chorus (yet to acquire this) ->
Aphex Bass Xciter (yet to acquire this) ->
Electro-Harmonix Bass Blogger (yet to acquire this) ->
Aphex Punch Factory compressor (yet to acquire this) ->
Hartke VXL Bass Attack (already own this) ->
Amp & PA mixer

I'm doing a couple of mock-ups to get an idea of the dimensions of a custom DIY board I'll make for them all:



I'm well happy with the DT-10 and VXL. The Bass Xciter & the Punch Factory both have XLR DI outputs (not phantom power-able), so in thoery either could be used as a DI.

If compression is applied before the VXL, but after everything else, will this mean that any level-boosting pedal (Bass Xciter, Bass Blogger) won't actually result in a volume boost?

If compression is applied early in the chain (straight after the tuner, say), is there the risk that any level-boosting pedal wil blow the compressor's good work out of the water?

I guess I need to learn a little more about compression . . .


Mark

[iamapirate]

[quote name='Phaedrus' post='663167' date='Nov 23 2009, 09:08 PM']Compressor at the end makes sense to me, on the thoery that however any other effects affect the signal, you should still always have balanced levels. Anything before the compressor is up to the user to try different variations till he gets his favourite set-up.


If compression is applied before the VXL, but after everything else, will this mean that any level-boosting pedal (Bass Xciter, Bass Blogger) won't actually result in a volume boost?

If compression is applied early in the chain (straight after the tuner, say), is there the risk that any level-boosting pedal wil blow the compressor's good work out of the water?[/quote]

I'd 100% agree. Why would you put a compressor before (amongst others) an autowah or envelope filter which basically works on changes in volume? Unless you only had a bit of compression into it, and main compression afterwards.

[deej]

Sometimes what works in theory is totally different in practice. Like putting a fuzz before a filter, surely the fuzz would be too harsh and not give you the playing dynamics wanted for the filter, but in practice you end up with a really vocal synth like sound.