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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Possibly for PT and MusicMike, but other experienced pros...
Most people set up their effects pedals in a daisy chain format where one pedal's output feeds the next pedal's input. However, some boards have a mini mixer which accepts leads from the individual pedals and sends a combined signal out to the amp/house. I recall seeing this set-up on PT's board. Besides more adjustment variability, are there additional advantages in adding a small mixer to your pedal board? |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Wouldn't the pedals need to have a bypass output to feed the next pedal? |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Yes, Wabbit, most of those that I'm familiar with have true bypass capability. |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Brad, I don't really have a pedal board. I have a bunch of DI boxes/processors that go to independant mixer channels so that I can feed a single channel on the main mix, or feed an FOH channel and monitor system simultaneously. I use a whole bunch of instruments, acoustic guitars, mandolin, electric lapsteel, Weissenborn and a bunch of dulcimers. So I need around 7 channels just for myself. Some club systems only have 8 or 12 channel boards. So the logic was to create a personal submix into a single channel. it works pretty well, but it's a very personal set-up that fits my needs right now. I'm actually in the middle of programming a Bose T1 ToneMatch to replace the whole thing.
There's nothing wrong with daisy-chaining pedals as long as you get the order right. The basic rules of pedal set-up are anything that increases gain such as compression and distortion should be first (one reason for this is if they are later in the chain they will amplify any hiss/noise from the other pedals. Compressors should be before distortion) Next should be modulation effects then delay/reverb. Exceptions to this rule are wahwah or Autowah pedals should go before the compressor, and volume pedals and/or noisegates should go after the modulation but before any delay effects, otherwise they can cut off the reverb tails or delay repeats.
A mixer won't do what you need with pedal-type effects. You'd need to go down the route of rackmount studio gear which can produce a wet-only output that would work with a mixers sends and returns, and you'd need a mixer with an auxilliary send for each effect you wanted to use. There are some very expensive true bybass pedal switching systems which physically remove any pedal not being used from the signal path. Only you can decide if you need to spend that kind of dough for that level of sophistication. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Great response, Paul. Thanks. I figured your set up was personalized and complicated, and your explanation of how to properly sequence the pedal chain is helpful. I don't need rack gear, but I am building a second pedal board, one for acoustics and another for electrics. I want to get this right. Thanks again. |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Good info, Paul. Thanks! |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Brad, my setup is not complicated at all. It's just multiple DI boxes (a Boss AD5 and 2 Baggs Para-Acoustics) plus a Boss Fender Deluxe Reverb amp simulator, into a Behringer mixer. The left output goes into a DBX compressor then into a Behringer Shark feedback destroyer. On larger gigs that channel feeds a monitor system and the right channel (which bypasses the DBX and Shark)goes to the main board. When we do our own sound it goes to our Bose L1s.
The Ovations go into the AD5, electric lapsteel into the Boss FDR1, Weissenborn and Dulcimer into the Baggs. Each goes to it's own channel on the mixer. The whole lot is built into a flight case and sets up in seconds.
For electric guitar gigs I have a Carl Martin compressor pedal, Carl Martin distortion, an amplifier and that's it. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Paul, I was with ya up through "my setup is not complicated at all". After that I came to realization that I've been off the 'playground' waaay too long.
Forty-five years ago (last gig), we only had two amps, guitars and mikes, oh yeah and some drums. The only effects we had were the amps' reverb/tremolo. 
Do you have a favored link(s) that diagrams and explains the different stages and configurations? |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | This is just stuff to ensure that a bunch of different instruments sound consistently good, without being at the mercy of inadequate sound systems or clueless sound engineers. It's really just the bare minimum of a high-quality DI box for each instrument, each of which go into a mixer to get a single feed sub-mix, which then goes to a good compressor (studio type, not pedal type) and then a feedback destroyer, then to the main board.
I don't have any favourite websites for this kind of stuff, but I'm pretty sure there's tons out there. |
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Effects routing question . . .
