We're going to try to give a quick look at the major types of guitar effects pedals. Here in part 1 we'll cover the basics.
We
know that there are a million web sites offering insight to this topic,
but its been our experience that they're written by engineers, not
musicians... they read like microwave manuals rather than a helpful
resource... Anyway... off we go.
Boost
I can't really
milk more than a few lines out of this topic. It's pretty cut and dry- a
boost pedal will give your signal a volume boost - or cut, depending on
how you've got it set. Most boost pedals act as a master volume control
allowing you a pretty wide range of use.
Why do I need a boost
pedal? To bring your guitar volume up over the rest of the band during a
solo, to drive your amp harder by feeding it a hotter signal, to have a
set volume change at the press of a button.
Overdrive
When most
guitarists talk about overdrive, they are referring to the smooth
'distortion' produced by their tube amps when driven to the point of
breaking up. Overdrive pedals are designed to either replicate this tone
(with limited success) or drive a tube amp into overdrive, creating
those screaming tubes beyond what they normally would be able to do
without wall shaking volume.
Why do I need an overdrive pedal?
Overdrive pedals can be used as a boost pedal- so you get those inherent
benefits, you'll get some added girth to your tone from the distortion
created by the pedal. Most overdrive pedals have tone control giving you
wider tone shaping possibilities.
Distortion
Based
on our above definition of overdrive, distortion is where overdrive
leaves off. In the rock guitar world think Van Halen and beyond for a
clear example of distorted guitar tone. Distortion pedals often emulate
high gain amps that create thick walls of sound small tube amps are not
capable of creating. If you're fortunate enough to have a large
Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Diezel or other monster amplifier to create your
distortion you might not need a distortion pedal. But for the rest of us mere mortals, distortion pedals are crucial to modern guitar tone.
Why
do I need a distortion pedal? You want to be relevant don't you? Even
with large amps, like those mentioned above, distortion pedals play a
key role in modern music. They offer flexibility that boosts and
overdrives can not rival.
Fuzz
God bless Ike
Turner and the Kinks. Both acts achieved their landmark tones by using
abused speaker cabinets. Ike dropped his on the street walking in to Sun
Records to record Rocket 88, the Kinks cut their speakers with knives
or so the legends have it. No matter how they got it, their tone changed
the world. Some call it distortion, some call it fuzz, however, seeing
the progression from these damaged speakers to the fuzz boxes built to
emulate those tones, I think its safest to call what Turner and Davies
created/stumbled upon was fuzz.
Why do I need a fuzz pedal? Ya like Hendrix, don't
ya? In all honesty, the fuzz pedal is seeing resurgence in popular
music these days. Bands like Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Muse and
the White Stripes rely heavily on classic designs on recent releases.
Compressor
The
job of a compressor is to deliver an even volume output. It makes the
soft parts louder, and the loud parts softer. Current country music
guitar tone is driven by the use of compression.
Why do you need a compressor? Improved sustain, increased clarity during low volume playing.
Modulation
Flanger
The
earliest "flanger" effects were produced in the studio by playing 2
tape decks, both playing the same sounds, while an engineer would slow
down or speed up the playback of one of the dupe signals. This is how
you could produce wooshing jet streams. The edge of the old school tape
reels is called the flange.
Why do I need a flanger? A flanger
will offer a new color to your tonal palette. You can live with out one,
but you'll never get some of the nuance coloring of the Van Halen's,
Pink Floyd's, or Rush's of the world.
Phase shifter
The
phase shifter bridges the gap between Flanger and Chorus. Early phasers
were meant to recreate the spinning speaker of a Leslie. Phase
shifting's over use can be heard all over the first few Van Halen
albums.
Why do I need a phase shifter? See Flangers answer.
Chorus
Chorus
pedals split your signal in 2, modulates one of them by slowing it down
and detuning it, then mixes it back in with the original signal. The
effect is supposed to sound like several guitarists playing the same
thing at the same time, resulting in a wide swelling sound, but I don't
hear it. You do get a thicker more lush tone, but it doesn't sound like a
chorus of players to me.
Why do I need a chorus? Because Andy Summers uses one, and Paul Raven says so... that should be good enough.
Tremolo
As
a kid, did you ever play with the volume knob on the TV or the radio
manically turning it up and down? Yeah? Well you were a tremolo effect.
Why do I need a tremolo pedal? 6 words for ya: The Smiths 'How Soon Is Now'
Delay
A
delay pedal creates a copy of an incoming signal and slightly
time-delays its replay. You can use it to create a "slap back" (single
repetition) or an echo (multiple repetitions) effect. Who amongst us
can't appreciate The Edges use of digital and analog delay throughout
U2s career?
Why do I need a delay pedal? See Flangers answer.
Wah
A
variable band-pass frequency filter... Screw all that- you know what a
wah wah is... its porn music! It's Hendrix! It's Hammett. It's Wylde.
It's Slash.
2014年7月28日星期一
2014年7月27日星期日
The Evolution of the Guitar Effects Pedal
During the golden age of rock and roll it became fashionable and
expressive to use distortion. And the only way to do that up in till
that time was to crank the amp all the way up or make small cuts
directly into the speaker cone. The result was a 'sputter like sound'
and Gibson guitar's responded to this and released the Fuzz Tone
distortion pedal. A world first!
No well rounded story should go forth without first crediting the Gibson Maestro 'Fuzz Tone'. The Fuzz Tone pedal introduced the world to its very first distortion pedal for the electric guitar, residing in that all important floor dwelling wedge of an enclosure. Soon after many popular group's utilized it such as; The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Monkey's and so on...
However while all this change took place the basic fact remained the same. The classic's we're all limited to the analog effects and studio equipment of the time. In fact cementing the humble analog guitar pedals in the mortar of the golden age of rock and ever increasing pages of history. No matter what pedal simulations transpire the guitar effects pedals used by those early legends of rock remains the same.
No longer large companies that invested much time and money into human labor, short cuts quietly took hold. Digital solder robots replaced legions of workers. With this great turn once again, the success of each new designed seemed to lean on the shoulders of engineers. Many designed teams had members that never even picked a guitar.
A new/old desire emerged over this massive market and the rebirth of the handmade analog pedal took hold once again. Practical innovators with much personal experience now had a fighting chance. True-by pass, germanium transistors now could be added as ingredients to new designs that recall vintage hints of history through out the mature design.
No well rounded story should go forth without first crediting the Gibson Maestro 'Fuzz Tone'. The Fuzz Tone pedal introduced the world to its very first distortion pedal for the electric guitar, residing in that all important floor dwelling wedge of an enclosure. Soon after many popular group's utilized it such as; The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Monkey's and so on...
However while all this change took place the basic fact remained the same. The classic's we're all limited to the analog effects and studio equipment of the time. In fact cementing the humble analog guitar pedals in the mortar of the golden age of rock and ever increasing pages of history. No matter what pedal simulations transpire the guitar effects pedals used by those early legends of rock remains the same.
No longer large companies that invested much time and money into human labor, short cuts quietly took hold. Digital solder robots replaced legions of workers. With this great turn once again, the success of each new designed seemed to lean on the shoulders of engineers. Many designed teams had members that never even picked a guitar.
A new/old desire emerged over this massive market and the rebirth of the handmade analog pedal took hold once again. Practical innovators with much personal experience now had a fighting chance. True-by pass, germanium transistors now could be added as ingredients to new designs that recall vintage hints of history through out the mature design.
2014年7月23日星期三
Guitar Effects Pedals Explained
So, let's say you have been playing your electric guitar for
awhile and haven't quite figured out how to sound like your favourite
band. You know how to play all their songs, but the guitar just doesn't
sound right. You've heard about effects pedals, but you have never used
one. Could one of these pedals be the answer to all your questions? The
answer is yes--and no! An individual effect pedal may produce one of a
thousand different sounds, and it's up to you to decide which ones are
adequate insofar as what you're trying to achieve musically.
To begin, you'll need to go to a music store and see what's available and try out different effects pedals to hear for yourself the sounds they produce. A number of distortion pedals, for example, are on the market, and they produce sounds decidedly most appropriate for metal, punk, grunge, blues overdrive, or any number of different styles. Each one is activated by stepping on it while one plays. It remains on until one steps on it once again to turn it off. If your amp's distortion channel just doesn't give you the sound you want, it may be worth trying out a distortion pedal or two. Other pedals operate the same way--that is--they are activated by stepping on the pedal one time and deactivated by stepping on the pedal again. Digital delay effects, which allow repetitions of the last note played, and chorus effects, which provide a smooth element to one's clean channel, are popular pedals that follow this operation.
Not all pedals, however, are used in the same fashion. Wah pedals, like the popular Crybaby pedal, are used by first stepping all the way down on the pedal to activate a switch and then gently rocking the pedal back and forth as the "wah" effect increases and diminishes to one's liking. Volume pedals operate similarly. One can rock the pedal to one position to decrease volume gradually or all at once. Another pedal that rocks back and forth is the whammy pedal, which simulates the use of a whammy bar for electric guitars that do not come equipped with them and for those players who don't want to knock their guitars out of tune by using an actual whammy bar.
Another option that one should take a look at when browsing through the effects pedal selection at the music store are multi-effect pedals. Several brands manufacture effects pedal boards that provide lots of different effects in one unit. While such products are usually more expensive than an individual pedal that performs one function, they can be a more economical choice since for one price one can set several effects before one's feet. Many offer both distortion pedal-style, single-tap pedal action as well as a rocking pedal for wah, volume, or whammy effects. It's important to keep in mind, however, that multi-effect pedal boards have a reputation for providing inferior quality to those of individual pedals.
To begin, you'll need to go to a music store and see what's available and try out different effects pedals to hear for yourself the sounds they produce. A number of distortion pedals, for example, are on the market, and they produce sounds decidedly most appropriate for metal, punk, grunge, blues overdrive, or any number of different styles. Each one is activated by stepping on it while one plays. It remains on until one steps on it once again to turn it off. If your amp's distortion channel just doesn't give you the sound you want, it may be worth trying out a distortion pedal or two. Other pedals operate the same way--that is--they are activated by stepping on the pedal one time and deactivated by stepping on the pedal again. Digital delay effects, which allow repetitions of the last note played, and chorus effects, which provide a smooth element to one's clean channel, are popular pedals that follow this operation.
Not all pedals, however, are used in the same fashion. Wah pedals, like the popular Crybaby pedal, are used by first stepping all the way down on the pedal to activate a switch and then gently rocking the pedal back and forth as the "wah" effect increases and diminishes to one's liking. Volume pedals operate similarly. One can rock the pedal to one position to decrease volume gradually or all at once. Another pedal that rocks back and forth is the whammy pedal, which simulates the use of a whammy bar for electric guitars that do not come equipped with them and for those players who don't want to knock their guitars out of tune by using an actual whammy bar.
Another option that one should take a look at when browsing through the effects pedal selection at the music store are multi-effect pedals. Several brands manufacture effects pedal boards that provide lots of different effects in one unit. While such products are usually more expensive than an individual pedal that performs one function, they can be a more economical choice since for one price one can set several effects before one's feet. Many offer both distortion pedal-style, single-tap pedal action as well as a rocking pedal for wah, volume, or whammy effects. It's important to keep in mind, however, that multi-effect pedal boards have a reputation for providing inferior quality to those of individual pedals.
2014年7月22日星期二
Playing Live With Guitar FX Pedals - Getting the Right Sound
When you are playing around with your guitar at home or doing
some recording, it can take a bit of work to get the right tone, you
play about with the knobs and settings, get the sound you are looking
for and let rip. When you are playing live, things can get more
complicated, especially if you require different sounds for different
songs. You set your pedals up at home, everything sounds right, you get
to the gig and your tone is suddenly a disaster. What went wrong?
Well, if you play live then you have to expect a certain amount of problems. No two halls sound alike and many things will affect your tone, anything from the amount of people at the venue to the placement and volume of other band members, even the arrangement of the furniture. You'll never find a default setup that sounds right every time, you will always need to tweak your sound in one way or another but there's one very important element to your setup that will alter your sound drastically if you don't understand how the signal from your stomp boxes interact with the settings on your amp ... volume!
When the venue fills up, band members often crank up, so you turn up your amp to compete and find all your FX now sound like a mess, too much reverb, too much delay, the chorus has disappeared and your solos have become inaudible. Sound familiar? Chances are you've turned up the gain on the amp and everything has changed. This problem occurs as a result of badly matched gain staging. There's no quick fix for this problem, the best you can do is understand what it is so that when it occurs you have a better chance of dealing with it. Not knowing about it just leaves you guessing what knob to twiddle.
Most amps have at least two volume controls, gain and main volume. If your amp has two channels then you'll likely have two or more gains as well as the main volume. Now I don't want to bore you with the technical details so I'll give you a basic explanation of what the differences are.
Guitar amplifiers have two main stages, the pre-amp and the main amp. Two channel guitar amps will have two pre-amps and one main amp. You can think about this as two separate amplifiers in one box (or three for a two channel amp). The reason for this two stage idea is because guitarists like to crank up the volume and overdrive the signal to create distortion. For everything else this is bad news but for loud guitar it's extremely common. So the reason we guitarists get two volumes is so that we can have the amp cranked right up without having it blasting out at full volume. We can adjust the pre-amp (gain) to give us the amount of distortion we want, and the main amp gives us an overall volume so that we can get the right overall level.
This idea works well when the guitar is plugged in directly to the amplifier but when you place something like a multi effects pedal between the guitar and amp, the amp's gain setting has a large affect on the resulting sound. Ideally, once you have got the sound you want from the pedal then the gain on the amp should stay where it is. If later in the gig you decide to use the gain for getting a bit more volume then the sound will change drastically. If you are all out of main volume and forced to turn up the gain, you might find you now need to change the patch settings on the pedal as well.
Effects such as delay, reverb and modulation usually sound best if they are placed in the chain after any distortion. Your pedal is probably setup this way and works well internally but as soon as you turn up the gain on the amp, you introduce more distortion after the pedal. This will often reinforce effects like delay, making them sound much louder and messier than they would with a lower gain level. This can't really be explained any further without getting too technical so the best thing to do is experiment with various pedal patches and listen how they are affected with varying gain levels.
One more thing worth noting. If you use an overdrive or distortion to boost your volume over guitar solos then the gain will have a huge impact on the amount of boost you get. A guitar amp's pre-amp section can only take so much before it max's out on available headroom. What this means is the higher the level, the lower the amount of boost. Again, try it and listen. Set the main volume very low so that you don't blast the house out. Now set your overdrive pedal to max and the guitar amp's gain quite low. When you switch in the pedal you'll notice a massive volume boost. As you turn the gain up higher, the amount of boost gets smaller until eventually the pedal seems to make no difference at all. If you are using this boost to your advantage in live situations then this is also something you must be aware of.
Well, if you play live then you have to expect a certain amount of problems. No two halls sound alike and many things will affect your tone, anything from the amount of people at the venue to the placement and volume of other band members, even the arrangement of the furniture. You'll never find a default setup that sounds right every time, you will always need to tweak your sound in one way or another but there's one very important element to your setup that will alter your sound drastically if you don't understand how the signal from your stomp boxes interact with the settings on your amp ... volume!
When the venue fills up, band members often crank up, so you turn up your amp to compete and find all your FX now sound like a mess, too much reverb, too much delay, the chorus has disappeared and your solos have become inaudible. Sound familiar? Chances are you've turned up the gain on the amp and everything has changed. This problem occurs as a result of badly matched gain staging. There's no quick fix for this problem, the best you can do is understand what it is so that when it occurs you have a better chance of dealing with it. Not knowing about it just leaves you guessing what knob to twiddle.
Most amps have at least two volume controls, gain and main volume. If your amp has two channels then you'll likely have two or more gains as well as the main volume. Now I don't want to bore you with the technical details so I'll give you a basic explanation of what the differences are.
Guitar amplifiers have two main stages, the pre-amp and the main amp. Two channel guitar amps will have two pre-amps and one main amp. You can think about this as two separate amplifiers in one box (or three for a two channel amp). The reason for this two stage idea is because guitarists like to crank up the volume and overdrive the signal to create distortion. For everything else this is bad news but for loud guitar it's extremely common. So the reason we guitarists get two volumes is so that we can have the amp cranked right up without having it blasting out at full volume. We can adjust the pre-amp (gain) to give us the amount of distortion we want, and the main amp gives us an overall volume so that we can get the right overall level.
This idea works well when the guitar is plugged in directly to the amplifier but when you place something like a multi effects pedal between the guitar and amp, the amp's gain setting has a large affect on the resulting sound. Ideally, once you have got the sound you want from the pedal then the gain on the amp should stay where it is. If later in the gig you decide to use the gain for getting a bit more volume then the sound will change drastically. If you are all out of main volume and forced to turn up the gain, you might find you now need to change the patch settings on the pedal as well.
Effects such as delay, reverb and modulation usually sound best if they are placed in the chain after any distortion. Your pedal is probably setup this way and works well internally but as soon as you turn up the gain on the amp, you introduce more distortion after the pedal. This will often reinforce effects like delay, making them sound much louder and messier than they would with a lower gain level. This can't really be explained any further without getting too technical so the best thing to do is experiment with various pedal patches and listen how they are affected with varying gain levels.
One more thing worth noting. If you use an overdrive or distortion to boost your volume over guitar solos then the gain will have a huge impact on the amount of boost you get. A guitar amp's pre-amp section can only take so much before it max's out on available headroom. What this means is the higher the level, the lower the amount of boost. Again, try it and listen. Set the main volume very low so that you don't blast the house out. Now set your overdrive pedal to max and the guitar amp's gain quite low. When you switch in the pedal you'll notice a massive volume boost. As you turn the gain up higher, the amount of boost gets smaller until eventually the pedal seems to make no difference at all. If you are using this boost to your advantage in live situations then this is also something you must be aware of.
2014年7月17日星期四
Digitech Multi Effect Pedals: A Guitarists Review of the Digitech RP Guitar Effect Pedal Series
I suppose I could give you all the usual talk about the
professional sound and user friendly interface that the manufactures
love to ramble about in their "reviews", but I know you can get that
from them. What I can tell you about is how these pedals sound to me,
and how easy (or hard) they are to use, and how well they are
constructed, from a guitarists viewpoint.
The RP series starts with the RP55, and continues to the RP355 with more or less the same layout and functionality throughout, with the addition of integral foot controllers on the RP255 and RP355. Where things really start to get interesting, especially for someone who plays live, is with the RP500 and RP1000.
Construction
The RP500 and RP1000 are basically built like a tank. Believe me when I tell you, this helps when your playing live. Nothing like a broken switch when your about to launch into your favourite solo. I've also noticed that all the connection points at the rear of the unit are very robust (XLR, guitar input/output/USB/CD). This is probably because they are mounted into a steel casing, which helps resist movement, and cracking. I've had this happen with a few pedals. The best part however, is the footswitches. They are, again, made of steel. Pretty hard to wreck with your size 12 cowboy boots, no matter how hard you stomp. The only weak point I could see would be the rotating knobs used for effect tweaking. They are made of plastic, and located near the footswitches, so potential for breakage there.
Features
The RP500 and RP1000 are basically the same unit, with a few key features. They both have a row of effects footswitches for controlling compressor, distortion, chorus/fx, delay, and reverb. These effects can all be modified on the unit itself using the knobs, or by using the X-Edit software that comes bundled with the units. Many classic, and modern sounds can be replicated with this setup including distortions like the Ibanez TS-9, TS-808 Tube Screamer, Arbiter Fuzz Face, Big Muff, Boss DS-1 and more. This can be found in quite a few multi effects pedals, but some cool additions are the Digitech Whammy if your'e into Jack White, or Tom Morello, or the Univibe and Octavia if your'e into Jimi Hendrix or Doyle Bramhall II.
They also both come with a 20 second looper. If you have never used a looper before, its more fun than a barrel of drunk monkeys. This feature is actually what persuaded me to buy the RP500 as I was looking at buying a dedicated looper (Line 6 JM4), but realized I would get much more bang for the buck with this unit. I also tried the JM4 in a guitar shop and thought the sound was very poor.
If you have 2 amps, or even better a PA with a couple of powered monitors, you can run a stereo signal (via XLR or 1/4" outputs) and create some amazing sounds. I do this with my Fender Twin Reverb tube amp, and a cheap practice amp, and WOW! Try some effects like the Tremolo Panner, or the Rotary Speaker and you get some very interesting panning sounds across the speakers. I can only imagine what two great amps would sound like.
Ease of use
To rearrange my title here, its easy to use! I think it took me a grand total of 10 minutes from opening the box to start getting good sounds out of this unit, and to begin tweaking the presets. The presets are actually not bad. I say this because I normally don't expect any presets to be worth keeping, but in this case, I have kept them all. They make a good starting point if you are creating new sounds. Being as there is room for 100 factory presets and 100 user presets, there is no need to delete anything. The X-Edit software is also fairly user friendly. The tweakability of the effects is greater with the software than it is on the unit itself, so if you are really into this, then you will want to get the unit hooked up to your computer.
Amp/Cabinet Bypass
Speaking of amps, what turns most people off buying these types of effects pedals is how they sound through an amp. I have to admit that I have tried some multi effect pedals through my tube amp and they sounded very bad (so do some single pedals). This probably had a lot to do with the fact that you could not turn off the amp modeling, which was designed to be heard through reference speakers, or headphones, and not colored by the amplifier circuitry. One of the biggest advantages of the RP500 and 1000 is the amp/cabinet bypass switch. This simple little switch (at least the switch looks simple!), allows you to apply the effects of the unit directly to the tone of the amp/cabinet you are using (in my case a Fender Twin Reverb). You really notice the difference when you hit the switch on a tube amp, and the sound becomes much warmer and organic. When you activate the internal amps and cabinets by pressing the switch again, through headphones, or computer speakers the sound is fantastic, with quite realistic sounds. I'm not really into this feature of the pedal (amp modelling), but I'm sure some would have hours of fun with it.
RP500/RP1000 differences
Well, the first difference is price. The RP500 normally comes in at around $300 while the RP1000 costs approx. $500. This price difference is due mainly to the second row of switches on the RP1000 that allow you to control external stompboxes. This was added with the pedal freak in mind who wants the advantages of the new breed of multi effect pedal, but just can't part with their old pedals that they have built their sound around. The side benefit of this is that it will allow you to experiment with new hybrid sounds, combining your old pedals, and the new library of effects, tones and amps that comes built into the RP1000 (160 to be exact).
With a combination of solid construction, ease of use and great sound, the RP500 and RP1000 would make a worthy addition to any guitarists arsenal of pedals. After awhile, I bet you will find its the only pedal you need.
The RP series starts with the RP55, and continues to the RP355 with more or less the same layout and functionality throughout, with the addition of integral foot controllers on the RP255 and RP355. Where things really start to get interesting, especially for someone who plays live, is with the RP500 and RP1000.
Construction
The RP500 and RP1000 are basically built like a tank. Believe me when I tell you, this helps when your playing live. Nothing like a broken switch when your about to launch into your favourite solo. I've also noticed that all the connection points at the rear of the unit are very robust (XLR, guitar input/output/USB/CD). This is probably because they are mounted into a steel casing, which helps resist movement, and cracking. I've had this happen with a few pedals. The best part however, is the footswitches. They are, again, made of steel. Pretty hard to wreck with your size 12 cowboy boots, no matter how hard you stomp. The only weak point I could see would be the rotating knobs used for effect tweaking. They are made of plastic, and located near the footswitches, so potential for breakage there.
Features
The RP500 and RP1000 are basically the same unit, with a few key features. They both have a row of effects footswitches for controlling compressor, distortion, chorus/fx, delay, and reverb. These effects can all be modified on the unit itself using the knobs, or by using the X-Edit software that comes bundled with the units. Many classic, and modern sounds can be replicated with this setup including distortions like the Ibanez TS-9, TS-808 Tube Screamer, Arbiter Fuzz Face, Big Muff, Boss DS-1 and more. This can be found in quite a few multi effects pedals, but some cool additions are the Digitech Whammy if your'e into Jack White, or Tom Morello, or the Univibe and Octavia if your'e into Jimi Hendrix or Doyle Bramhall II.
They also both come with a 20 second looper. If you have never used a looper before, its more fun than a barrel of drunk monkeys. This feature is actually what persuaded me to buy the RP500 as I was looking at buying a dedicated looper (Line 6 JM4), but realized I would get much more bang for the buck with this unit. I also tried the JM4 in a guitar shop and thought the sound was very poor.
If you have 2 amps, or even better a PA with a couple of powered monitors, you can run a stereo signal (via XLR or 1/4" outputs) and create some amazing sounds. I do this with my Fender Twin Reverb tube amp, and a cheap practice amp, and WOW! Try some effects like the Tremolo Panner, or the Rotary Speaker and you get some very interesting panning sounds across the speakers. I can only imagine what two great amps would sound like.
Ease of use
To rearrange my title here, its easy to use! I think it took me a grand total of 10 minutes from opening the box to start getting good sounds out of this unit, and to begin tweaking the presets. The presets are actually not bad. I say this because I normally don't expect any presets to be worth keeping, but in this case, I have kept them all. They make a good starting point if you are creating new sounds. Being as there is room for 100 factory presets and 100 user presets, there is no need to delete anything. The X-Edit software is also fairly user friendly. The tweakability of the effects is greater with the software than it is on the unit itself, so if you are really into this, then you will want to get the unit hooked up to your computer.
Amp/Cabinet Bypass
Speaking of amps, what turns most people off buying these types of effects pedals is how they sound through an amp. I have to admit that I have tried some multi effect pedals through my tube amp and they sounded very bad (so do some single pedals). This probably had a lot to do with the fact that you could not turn off the amp modeling, which was designed to be heard through reference speakers, or headphones, and not colored by the amplifier circuitry. One of the biggest advantages of the RP500 and 1000 is the amp/cabinet bypass switch. This simple little switch (at least the switch looks simple!), allows you to apply the effects of the unit directly to the tone of the amp/cabinet you are using (in my case a Fender Twin Reverb). You really notice the difference when you hit the switch on a tube amp, and the sound becomes much warmer and organic. When you activate the internal amps and cabinets by pressing the switch again, through headphones, or computer speakers the sound is fantastic, with quite realistic sounds. I'm not really into this feature of the pedal (amp modelling), but I'm sure some would have hours of fun with it.
RP500/RP1000 differences
Well, the first difference is price. The RP500 normally comes in at around $300 while the RP1000 costs approx. $500. This price difference is due mainly to the second row of switches on the RP1000 that allow you to control external stompboxes. This was added with the pedal freak in mind who wants the advantages of the new breed of multi effect pedal, but just can't part with their old pedals that they have built their sound around. The side benefit of this is that it will allow you to experiment with new hybrid sounds, combining your old pedals, and the new library of effects, tones and amps that comes built into the RP1000 (160 to be exact).
With a combination of solid construction, ease of use and great sound, the RP500 and RP1000 would make a worthy addition to any guitarists arsenal of pedals. After awhile, I bet you will find its the only pedal you need.
Continue your search for these great multi effect pedals and more
at [http://multieffectpedal.com] A great resource for all guitarists
who are looking for their own sound.
2014年7月16日星期三
Guitar Accessories: Effect Pedals and Devices
Electric guitarists seldom just plug into an amp and start
playing. Well, they may start out that way, but if you listen to the
radio - or any recorded guitar music, for that matter - you quickly
notice a lot more going on than just a "straight" guitar sound. At the
very least, you hear some ambient treatment in the form of artificially
created echo, or reverb, as the effect is known in guitar lingo. You may
hear some (intended) distortion, especially in rock and blues music,
and you may hear additional effects, such as wah-wah, vibrato, and other
electronic manipulations. Welcome to the wonderful, wacky world of
guitar accessories known as effects.
Effects are devices that plug in between your guitar and amplifier and enable you to alter your signal in all sorts of creative and unusual ways. Scores and scores of these guitar accessories are available from all different manufacturers and in all price ranges. You can buy them as individual units or as an all-in-one box, called a multieffects processor. But whether you go for the package deal or à la carte, effects can spice up the basic sound of your guitar in all sorts of exciting ways.
Most effects come in the form of foot-accessed pedals, also known as stomp boxes because they reside on the floor and you activate them by stepping on a footswitch. This setup enables you to selectively turn effects on and off while playing the guitar without interruption.
If you plug, say, a reverb device inline (that is, between the amp and guitar), you can make your guitar sound as if you're playing in a cathedral. A distortion unit can make your tones sound like those of Jimi Hendrix, even at low volumes and with your amp set to a clean sound. Dozens of different types of effects are available - more than you could possibly own, not to mention use all at once. The price of these individual units varies, too, with distortion boxes as cheap as $45 and digital reverbs and delays as much as $175 (or more).
Individual pedals are a great convenience because they enable you to buy effects one at a time and use them in a modular fashion - you can choose to include them in your chain or not, and you can rearrange their order to create different effects. But many guitarists opt for a multi-effects unit, which puts all the individual effects into one housing. Multi-effects units are programmable, meaning that you can store different settings in the effects and recall them with the tap of a foot. Multi-effects guitar accessories, like individual pedals, also offer a modular approach to effect ordering, although they accomplish this electronically rather than physically.
Effects are devices that plug in between your guitar and amplifier and enable you to alter your signal in all sorts of creative and unusual ways. Scores and scores of these guitar accessories are available from all different manufacturers and in all price ranges. You can buy them as individual units or as an all-in-one box, called a multieffects processor. But whether you go for the package deal or à la carte, effects can spice up the basic sound of your guitar in all sorts of exciting ways.
Most effects come in the form of foot-accessed pedals, also known as stomp boxes because they reside on the floor and you activate them by stepping on a footswitch. This setup enables you to selectively turn effects on and off while playing the guitar without interruption.
If you plug, say, a reverb device inline (that is, between the amp and guitar), you can make your guitar sound as if you're playing in a cathedral. A distortion unit can make your tones sound like those of Jimi Hendrix, even at low volumes and with your amp set to a clean sound. Dozens of different types of effects are available - more than you could possibly own, not to mention use all at once. The price of these individual units varies, too, with distortion boxes as cheap as $45 and digital reverbs and delays as much as $175 (or more).
Individual pedals are a great convenience because they enable you to buy effects one at a time and use them in a modular fashion - you can choose to include them in your chain or not, and you can rearrange their order to create different effects. But many guitarists opt for a multi-effects unit, which puts all the individual effects into one housing. Multi-effects units are programmable, meaning that you can store different settings in the effects and recall them with the tap of a foot. Multi-effects guitar accessories, like individual pedals, also offer a modular approach to effect ordering, although they accomplish this electronically rather than physically.
2014年7月14日星期一
Digitech Multi Aftereffect Pedals: A Guitarists Review of the Digitech RP Guitar Aftereffect Pedal Series
I accept I could accord you all the accepted allocution about the able
complete and user affable interface that the articles adulation to
constitutional about in their "reviews", but I apperceive you can get
that from them. What I can acquaint you about is how these pedals
complete to me, and how simple (or hard) they are to use, and how
able-bodied they are constructed, from a guitarists effects pedals.
The RP alternation starts with the RP55, and continues to the RP355 with added or beneath the aforementioned blueprint and functionality throughout, with the accession of basic bottom controllers on the RP255 and RP355. Where things absolutely alpha to get interesting, abnormally for anyone who plays live, is with the RP500 and RP1000.
Construction
The RP500 and RP1000 are basically congenital like a tank. Believe me if I acquaint you, this helps if your arena live. Nothing like a torn about-face if your about to barrage into your favourite solo. I've aswell noticed that all the affiliation credibility at the rear of the assemblage are actual able-bodied (XLR, guitar input/output/USB/CD). This is apparently because they are army into a animate casing, which helps abide movement, and cracking. I've had this appear with a few pedals. The best allotment however, is the footswitches. They are, again, fabricated of steel. Pretty harder to bones with your admeasurement 12 cowboy boots, no amount how harder you stomp. The alone anemic point I could see would be the alternating knobs acclimated for aftereffect tweaking. They are fabricated of plastic, and amid abreast the footswitches, so abeyant for accident there.
Features
The RP500 and RP1000 are basically the aforementioned unit, with a few key features. They both accept a row of furnishings footswitches for authoritative compressor, distortion, chorus/fx, delay, and reverb. These furnishings can all be adapted on the assemblage itself application the knobs, or by application the X-Edit software that comes arranged with the units. Many classic, and avant-garde sounds can be replicated with this bureaucracy including distortions like the Ibanez TS-9, TS-808 Tube Screamer, Arbiter Fuzz Face, Big Muff, Boss DS-1 and more. This can be actuate in absolutely a few multi furnishings pedals, but some air-conditioned additions are the Digitech Whammy if your'e into Jack White, or Tom Morello, or the Univibe and Octavia if your'e into Jimi Hendrix or Doyle Bramhall II.
They aswell both appear with a 20 additional looper. If you accept never acclimated a looper before, its added fun than a butt of bashed monkeys. This affection is in actuality what abiding me to buy the RP500 as I was searching at affairs a committed looper (Line 6 JM4), but accomplished I would get abundant added blast for the blade with this unit. I aswell approved the JM4 in a guitar boutique and anticipation the complete was actual poor.
If you accept 2 amps, or even bigger a PA with a brace of powered monitors, you can run a stereo arresting (via XLR or 1/4" outputs) and actualize some amazing sounds. I do this with my Fender Twin Reverb tube amp, and a bargain convenance amp, and WOW! Try some furnishings like the Tremolo Panner, or the Rotary Speaker and you get some actual absorbing animadversion sounds beyond the speakers. I can alone brainstorm what two abundant amps would complete like.
Ease of use
To adapt my appellation here, its simple to use! I anticipate it took me a admirable absolute of 10 account from aperture the box to alpha accepting acceptable sounds out of this unit, and to actuate tweaking the presets. The presets are in actuality not bad. I say this because I commonly don't apprehend any presets to be account keeping, but in this case, I accept kept them all. They accomplish a acceptable starting point if you are creating new sounds. Being as there is allowance for 100 branch presets and 100 user presets, there is no charge to annul anything. The X-Edit software is aswell adequately user friendly. The tweakability of the furnishings is greater with the software than it is on the assemblage itself, so if you are absolutely into this, afresh you will wish to get the assemblage absorbed up to your computer.
Amp/Cabinet Bypass
Speaking of amps, what turns a lot of humans off affairs these types of furnishings pedals is how they complete through an amp. I accept to accept that I accept approved some multi aftereffect pedals through my tube amp and they articulate actual bad (so do some individual pedals). This apparently had a lot to do with the actuality that you could not about-face off the amp modeling, which was advised to be heard through advertence speakers, or headphones, and not black by the amplifier circuitry. One of the better advantages of the RP500 and 1000 is the amp/cabinet bypass switch. This simple little about-face (at atomic the about-face looks simple!), allows you to administer the furnishings of the assemblage anon to the accent of the amp/cabinet you are application (in my case a Fender Twin Reverb). You absolutely apprehension the aberration if you hit the about-face on a tube amp, and the complete becomes abundant warmer and organic. If you actuate the centralized amps and cabinets by acute the about-face again, through headphones, or computer speakers the complete is fantastic, with absolutely astute sounds. I'm not absolutely into this affection of the pedal (amp modelling), but I'm abiding some would accept hours of fun with it.
RP500/RP1000 differences
Well, the aboriginal aberration is price. The RP500 commonly comes in at about $300 while the RP1000 costs approx. $500. This amount aberration is due mainly to the additional row of switches on the RP1000 that acquiesce you to ascendancy alien stompboxes. This was added with the pedal aberration in apperception who wants the advantages of the new brand of multi aftereffect pedal, but just can't allotment with their old pedals that they accept congenital their complete around. The ancillary account of this is that it will acquiesce you to agreement with new amalgam sounds, accumulation your old pedals, and the new library of effects, tones and amps that comes congenital into the RP1000 (160 to be exact).
With a aggregate of solid construction, affluence of use and abundant sound, the RP500 and RP1000 would accomplish a aces accession to any guitarists armory of pedals. After awhile, I bet you will acquisition its the alone pedal you need.
The RP alternation starts with the RP55, and continues to the RP355 with added or beneath the aforementioned blueprint and functionality throughout, with the accession of basic bottom controllers on the RP255 and RP355. Where things absolutely alpha to get interesting, abnormally for anyone who plays live, is with the RP500 and RP1000.
Construction
The RP500 and RP1000 are basically congenital like a tank. Believe me if I acquaint you, this helps if your arena live. Nothing like a torn about-face if your about to barrage into your favourite solo. I've aswell noticed that all the affiliation credibility at the rear of the assemblage are actual able-bodied (XLR, guitar input/output/USB/CD). This is apparently because they are army into a animate casing, which helps abide movement, and cracking. I've had this appear with a few pedals. The best allotment however, is the footswitches. They are, again, fabricated of steel. Pretty harder to bones with your admeasurement 12 cowboy boots, no amount how harder you stomp. The alone anemic point I could see would be the alternating knobs acclimated for aftereffect tweaking. They are fabricated of plastic, and amid abreast the footswitches, so abeyant for accident there.
Features
The RP500 and RP1000 are basically the aforementioned unit, with a few key features. They both accept a row of furnishings footswitches for authoritative compressor, distortion, chorus/fx, delay, and reverb. These furnishings can all be adapted on the assemblage itself application the knobs, or by application the X-Edit software that comes arranged with the units. Many classic, and avant-garde sounds can be replicated with this bureaucracy including distortions like the Ibanez TS-9, TS-808 Tube Screamer, Arbiter Fuzz Face, Big Muff, Boss DS-1 and more. This can be actuate in absolutely a few multi furnishings pedals, but some air-conditioned additions are the Digitech Whammy if your'e into Jack White, or Tom Morello, or the Univibe and Octavia if your'e into Jimi Hendrix or Doyle Bramhall II.
They aswell both appear with a 20 additional looper. If you accept never acclimated a looper before, its added fun than a butt of bashed monkeys. This affection is in actuality what abiding me to buy the RP500 as I was searching at affairs a committed looper (Line 6 JM4), but accomplished I would get abundant added blast for the blade with this unit. I aswell approved the JM4 in a guitar boutique and anticipation the complete was actual poor.
If you accept 2 amps, or even bigger a PA with a brace of powered monitors, you can run a stereo arresting (via XLR or 1/4" outputs) and actualize some amazing sounds. I do this with my Fender Twin Reverb tube amp, and a bargain convenance amp, and WOW! Try some furnishings like the Tremolo Panner, or the Rotary Speaker and you get some actual absorbing animadversion sounds beyond the speakers. I can alone brainstorm what two abundant amps would complete like.
Ease of use
To adapt my appellation here, its simple to use! I anticipate it took me a admirable absolute of 10 account from aperture the box to alpha accepting acceptable sounds out of this unit, and to actuate tweaking the presets. The presets are in actuality not bad. I say this because I commonly don't apprehend any presets to be account keeping, but in this case, I accept kept them all. They accomplish a acceptable starting point if you are creating new sounds. Being as there is allowance for 100 branch presets and 100 user presets, there is no charge to annul anything. The X-Edit software is aswell adequately user friendly. The tweakability of the furnishings is greater with the software than it is on the assemblage itself, so if you are absolutely into this, afresh you will wish to get the assemblage absorbed up to your computer.
Amp/Cabinet Bypass
Speaking of amps, what turns a lot of humans off affairs these types of furnishings pedals is how they complete through an amp. I accept to accept that I accept approved some multi aftereffect pedals through my tube amp and they articulate actual bad (so do some individual pedals). This apparently had a lot to do with the actuality that you could not about-face off the amp modeling, which was advised to be heard through advertence speakers, or headphones, and not black by the amplifier circuitry. One of the better advantages of the RP500 and 1000 is the amp/cabinet bypass switch. This simple little about-face (at atomic the about-face looks simple!), allows you to administer the furnishings of the assemblage anon to the accent of the amp/cabinet you are application (in my case a Fender Twin Reverb). You absolutely apprehension the aberration if you hit the about-face on a tube amp, and the complete becomes abundant warmer and organic. If you actuate the centralized amps and cabinets by acute the about-face again, through headphones, or computer speakers the complete is fantastic, with absolutely astute sounds. I'm not absolutely into this affection of the pedal (amp modelling), but I'm abiding some would accept hours of fun with it.
RP500/RP1000 differences
Well, the aboriginal aberration is price. The RP500 commonly comes in at about $300 while the RP1000 costs approx. $500. This amount aberration is due mainly to the additional row of switches on the RP1000 that acquiesce you to ascendancy alien stompboxes. This was added with the pedal aberration in apperception who wants the advantages of the new brand of multi aftereffect pedal, but just can't allotment with their old pedals that they accept congenital their complete around. The ancillary account of this is that it will acquiesce you to agreement with new amalgam sounds, accumulation your old pedals, and the new library of effects, tones and amps that comes congenital into the RP1000 (160 to be exact).
With a aggregate of solid construction, affluence of use and abundant sound, the RP500 and RP1000 would accomplish a aces accession to any guitarists armory of pedals. After awhile, I bet you will acquisition its the alone pedal you need.
2014年7月10日星期四
Guitar Effects Pedal To Improve Your Sound
Listen to an electric guitar plugged dry, into an amplifier.
Observe how, as soon as the note is played it pretty much fades away.
Note how every mistake that the player makes, is sounded out in all its
glory. You only have to see how many professional guitarists rely on
small boxes in their signal chain (between the guitar and amp in cabling
terms) to beef up their tone, to make it more lush and wet or to make
their technique a little more forgiving.
Broadly speaking there are certain types of guitar effects pedals with different sub-variations. Here are some of the more common examples (it's not an exaustive list - check product pages for big brands such as Boss, Mooer, MXR or Electro Harmonix for more):
Delay / Reverb - These FX pedals are great for stretching out your guitar tone using timed repeats for delay or a lush reverberation (think shouting inside a stone building) for reverb. You play a note and you can have it automatically replayed, making your riffs sound bigger and potentially more effective. Listen to U2's guitarist, The Edge on "The Joshua Tree" for some amazing use of delay. This type of effect normally comes in analog or digital formats with the former sounding a little more grungy and the latter going for the clean sterile sound.
Modulation - Chorus, Flange, Phase and Tremolo all come under this guitar effects pedal banner (reduced to Mod for short). Chorus plays back the original signal along with a slightly de-tuned cloned version. The two soundwaves collide to create the effect. Phase and Flange are a little less subtle with a whoosh or aircraft taking off being the nearest analogy here. Tremolo fades the volume in and out to create a wavy effect that is very effective in country and blues. All can give you a richer, more interesting twist to your guitar playing.
Distortion - this effect varies hugely from a soft clipped overdrive to a punch-in-the-stomach brutal high gain guitar tone. Distortion comes via a pedal and often direct from the amp itself using its natural characteristics. Pedals can be useful for a distortion that changes the amplifier's natural sound. For example Vox produce the Satchurator distortion pedal that can give you Joe Satriani's tone (or something approximating it). Valve based technology is popular in the distortion market for it's natural driving characteristics though transistor based pedals can do a great job - just try the MXR M78 Badass for a good example of this.
Looping - not really an effect but very popular for sampling playing and then repeating it back for practice or performance purposes.
Expression - this covers Wah Wah, Volume and Expression pedals. These rock backwards and forwards under your foot to control the sound. Wah was made hugely popular by Hendrix and is used in most genres of music today, producing a "wah, wah, wah" sound that can be controlled dynamically. Volume is useful for fading out your guitar sound and creating volume swells like those of Mark Knopfler. Expression pedals can change an effect parameter up or down with pedal movement. For example you can connect one to some delay pedals and change the millisecond parameter as you play.
Compression - a tricky one to describe but roughly speaking, Compression smooths out your sound, taking the peaks out. It's often used for clean, funky playing and lead guitar. Listen to the product demo for Rothwell's Love Squeeze compressor - great pedal and very popular.
As mentioned previously, there are more pedals than mentioned here and it's up to you to seek out demos online but if you have maybe at least one pedal from each of the above types, you wont go far wrong. Use them with taste and in the right musical place and learn how your favourite players use their effects. Sometimes it is great to just plug into an amp and keep it simple but open your mind to guitar effects pedals and you wont look back.
Broadly speaking there are certain types of guitar effects pedals with different sub-variations. Here are some of the more common examples (it's not an exaustive list - check product pages for big brands such as Boss, Mooer, MXR or Electro Harmonix for more):
Delay / Reverb - These FX pedals are great for stretching out your guitar tone using timed repeats for delay or a lush reverberation (think shouting inside a stone building) for reverb. You play a note and you can have it automatically replayed, making your riffs sound bigger and potentially more effective. Listen to U2's guitarist, The Edge on "The Joshua Tree" for some amazing use of delay. This type of effect normally comes in analog or digital formats with the former sounding a little more grungy and the latter going for the clean sterile sound.
Modulation - Chorus, Flange, Phase and Tremolo all come under this guitar effects pedal banner (reduced to Mod for short). Chorus plays back the original signal along with a slightly de-tuned cloned version. The two soundwaves collide to create the effect. Phase and Flange are a little less subtle with a whoosh or aircraft taking off being the nearest analogy here. Tremolo fades the volume in and out to create a wavy effect that is very effective in country and blues. All can give you a richer, more interesting twist to your guitar playing.
Distortion - this effect varies hugely from a soft clipped overdrive to a punch-in-the-stomach brutal high gain guitar tone. Distortion comes via a pedal and often direct from the amp itself using its natural characteristics. Pedals can be useful for a distortion that changes the amplifier's natural sound. For example Vox produce the Satchurator distortion pedal that can give you Joe Satriani's tone (or something approximating it). Valve based technology is popular in the distortion market for it's natural driving characteristics though transistor based pedals can do a great job - just try the MXR M78 Badass for a good example of this.
Looping - not really an effect but very popular for sampling playing and then repeating it back for practice or performance purposes.
Expression - this covers Wah Wah, Volume and Expression pedals. These rock backwards and forwards under your foot to control the sound. Wah was made hugely popular by Hendrix and is used in most genres of music today, producing a "wah, wah, wah" sound that can be controlled dynamically. Volume is useful for fading out your guitar sound and creating volume swells like those of Mark Knopfler. Expression pedals can change an effect parameter up or down with pedal movement. For example you can connect one to some delay pedals and change the millisecond parameter as you play.
Compression - a tricky one to describe but roughly speaking, Compression smooths out your sound, taking the peaks out. It's often used for clean, funky playing and lead guitar. Listen to the product demo for Rothwell's Love Squeeze compressor - great pedal and very popular.
As mentioned previously, there are more pedals than mentioned here and it's up to you to seek out demos online but if you have maybe at least one pedal from each of the above types, you wont go far wrong. Use them with taste and in the right musical place and learn how your favourite players use their effects. Sometimes it is great to just plug into an amp and keep it simple but open your mind to guitar effects pedals and you wont look back.
2014年7月7日星期一
Guitar Multi Effect Pedals: Finding Your Sound With One Pedal
Like they always say, you get what you pay for. Except in this case, you get more.
Just saying "multi effect pedal" a few years ago would have got you thrown out of most bands, but oh, how times have changed. My first guitar multi effects pedal was the Zoom 505. Honestly, it was a piece of hissing, digital crap, but it made me realize the potential that lay there within its cheap, semi-transparent blue housing. I actually brought it to one of my band practices, and I can tell you, that pedal combined with the roaring power of a cranked, 70's Fender Twin Reverb was painful to say the least, especially for my band mates. So I went back to my "snake pit", home-made pedal board consiting of the usual guitar pedals (distortion, tuner, delay...).
Then, last year I started researching new guitar pedals on the internet, and found a new opinion developing regarding multi effect pedals. Experienced guitarists, with a large collection of expensive, boutique single effects pedals were starting to sing the praises of multi pedals by brands like Digitech, Line 6 and Boss. Either these players had reached an advanced stage of hearing loss, or they really liked these multi effect pedals!
I was particularly surprised with reviews of the new Digitech RP line of pedals (RP500, RP1000). Guitarists were going off about how great the sound was, the quality of the effects, and the ease of use. None of these qualities had previously been associated with a multi effects pedal. These pedals (and others by Line 6 and Boss), have such a wide palette of great sounding effects, that its hard to understand why you would buy single guitar effects any more.
With this thought in mind, I did a little research on single effect pedal prices. I picked 9 of my favourite single effects, that are also produced by most new multi effect pedals, and priced them out. This is what I found:
Dunlop Crybaby 535Q multi wah: $125.44 Visual Sound Volume Pedal: $139.95 Proco Rat Distortion: $67.49 Boss CH1 Super Chorus: $89.00 Boss FRV-1 '63 Fender Reverb: $129.99 Boss DD7 Digital Delay: $169.00 Boss RC-2 Loop station: $189.00 Boss TU-2 Tuner: $99.00 MXR M-102 Compressor: $69.95 Total price: $1077.83
This would give you a pretty impressive pedal board! Especially in size. My old pedal board had half this many effects, and it was a beast to deal with. You would be looking at 11 patch cables, 9 power connections, and the board itself.
I now own the Digitech RP500. It has all of these effects built in, with a total of 125 effects, a looper, all metal construction, and stereo output. But honestly, the best thing of all is its ability to shut off all digital modeling, and simply become a pedal board. This feature, through my old Fender Twin Reverb tube amp sounds awesome. Better than any single pedal, or combination thereof I have ever owned. The only thing that sounds better than my RP500/Twin Reverb combo, is an RP500 through two Twin reverbs in stereo! Huge, lush, shimmering sound. All that, for $300 bucks (the pedal that is).
So if your looking for a single, or multi effect pedal, do your research. Despite their digital sounding names, the latest in multi effect pedals can produce amazing sounds, at a reasonable price. They simply allow you to explore more creative sound ideas.
Just saying "multi effect pedal" a few years ago would have got you thrown out of most bands, but oh, how times have changed. My first guitar multi effects pedal was the Zoom 505. Honestly, it was a piece of hissing, digital crap, but it made me realize the potential that lay there within its cheap, semi-transparent blue housing. I actually brought it to one of my band practices, and I can tell you, that pedal combined with the roaring power of a cranked, 70's Fender Twin Reverb was painful to say the least, especially for my band mates. So I went back to my "snake pit", home-made pedal board consiting of the usual guitar pedals (distortion, tuner, delay...).
Then, last year I started researching new guitar pedals on the internet, and found a new opinion developing regarding multi effect pedals. Experienced guitarists, with a large collection of expensive, boutique single effects pedals were starting to sing the praises of multi pedals by brands like Digitech, Line 6 and Boss. Either these players had reached an advanced stage of hearing loss, or they really liked these multi effect pedals!
I was particularly surprised with reviews of the new Digitech RP line of pedals (RP500, RP1000). Guitarists were going off about how great the sound was, the quality of the effects, and the ease of use. None of these qualities had previously been associated with a multi effects pedal. These pedals (and others by Line 6 and Boss), have such a wide palette of great sounding effects, that its hard to understand why you would buy single guitar effects any more.
With this thought in mind, I did a little research on single effect pedal prices. I picked 9 of my favourite single effects, that are also produced by most new multi effect pedals, and priced them out. This is what I found:
Dunlop Crybaby 535Q multi wah: $125.44 Visual Sound Volume Pedal: $139.95 Proco Rat Distortion: $67.49 Boss CH1 Super Chorus: $89.00 Boss FRV-1 '63 Fender Reverb: $129.99 Boss DD7 Digital Delay: $169.00 Boss RC-2 Loop station: $189.00 Boss TU-2 Tuner: $99.00 MXR M-102 Compressor: $69.95 Total price: $1077.83
This would give you a pretty impressive pedal board! Especially in size. My old pedal board had half this many effects, and it was a beast to deal with. You would be looking at 11 patch cables, 9 power connections, and the board itself.
I now own the Digitech RP500. It has all of these effects built in, with a total of 125 effects, a looper, all metal construction, and stereo output. But honestly, the best thing of all is its ability to shut off all digital modeling, and simply become a pedal board. This feature, through my old Fender Twin Reverb tube amp sounds awesome. Better than any single pedal, or combination thereof I have ever owned. The only thing that sounds better than my RP500/Twin Reverb combo, is an RP500 through two Twin reverbs in stereo! Huge, lush, shimmering sound. All that, for $300 bucks (the pedal that is).
So if your looking for a single, or multi effect pedal, do your research. Despite their digital sounding names, the latest in multi effect pedals can produce amazing sounds, at a reasonable price. They simply allow you to explore more creative sound ideas.
2014年7月6日星期日
6 Of The Most Popular Guitar Effects Pedals Explained
Guitar effects pedals, which are also called stomp boxes, are
used by the musician to change the sound of their guitar. Stomp boxes
get their name because of the "stomping" action needed to make the
effect work. When the pedals are off, you are playing with the guitars
clean (unaffected signal) sound coming out of your amp. When you step on
it to turn it on, the signal that goes to the pedals are changed
creating the desired effect.
You can also connect more that one effects pedal to your guitar. Simply use patch cables (short cables) to connect them to each other using the imput and output jacks. You can individually control which effects you want on and off at any time just by turning (stomping) them on or off. When a pedal is off, the signal will bypass it and go through anyone that is turned on.
For the best possible sound, you should place your gain and tone based effects at the beginning of your line of pedals. Gain and tone based effects include distortion, volume, wah and EQ. Next you should put the pedals that change the pitch or color of your sound. Then at the end of your chain, you can put the pedals that affect your timing such as delay, reverb and flanger.
If you accumulate a large amount of effects pedals, you can keep them all organized and protected by using a pedal board. Pedal boards are basically a flat board that all of your pedals can be placed on all connected together. You can even get them with covers, transformers and power cables to make it a breeze to pack up and move from gig to gig.
One thing to be aware of is that connecting too many pedals together can cause a lot of humming and unwanted noise. To fix this problem a noise gate pedal can be used.
With so many different types of pedals on the market today, I couldn't possibly list them all. So I'm doing the next best thing and will explain some of the more popular ones.
Distortion:
Distortion is used in many popular musical genres especially metal, rock and hard rock. The distortion pedals job is to clip the signal, giving it's distorted sound.
Chorus:
Chorus pedals give you a thick and lush sound by duplicating your original sound; adding some delay to it and then mixing it back with your original signal. This ends up making your guitar sound like a bunch of guitars or a "chorus of guitars" if you will.
Flanger:
Just like the Chorus pedal, the Flanger duplicates the signal, adds a short delay and then mixes it back with your original signal. The difference here is that the Flanger's delay includes several repeats that get longer and shorter at a steady rate. This produces a thicker sound compared to the Chorus pedal.
Wah-wha:
The Wah-wha pedal kind of looks like your cars gas pedal and you rock this pedal back and forth to allow lower and higher frequencies to pass though. This then produces the "wah-wah" sound. Jimi Hendrix in the late 60's and funk music in the 70's made this effect famous.
Reverb:
The Reverb effect emulates natural acoustic spaces by producing an echo making your tone sound like it's being played in a big concert hall.
Talk Box:
Last but not least is the Talk Box. The Talk Box pedal has a small speaker in it that plays the signal loudly up an airtight small plastic tube. This tube is taped to the side of the microphone where it sticks out just enough to be able to send the sound into the guitarist's mouth. The guitar player then makes shapes with their mouth to change the sound, which is then picked up by the microphone. Many performers have used the Talk Box over the years but one of the most famous was Peter Frampton who used it on his song "Do You Feel Like We Do" off his Frampton Comes Alive record.
Hope you have enjoyed my explanations of some of the guitar effects pedals that are out there. This is just a small fraction of the effects that are available to you. A good tip would be for you to do a little research on some of your favorite guitar players and find out what effects they use that give them "their sound" the most. For example if you were into hard rock or heavy metal, it would be a good idea to start off with a distortion pedal. Rock On!
You can also connect more that one effects pedal to your guitar. Simply use patch cables (short cables) to connect them to each other using the imput and output jacks. You can individually control which effects you want on and off at any time just by turning (stomping) them on or off. When a pedal is off, the signal will bypass it and go through anyone that is turned on.
For the best possible sound, you should place your gain and tone based effects at the beginning of your line of pedals. Gain and tone based effects include distortion, volume, wah and EQ. Next you should put the pedals that change the pitch or color of your sound. Then at the end of your chain, you can put the pedals that affect your timing such as delay, reverb and flanger.
If you accumulate a large amount of effects pedals, you can keep them all organized and protected by using a pedal board. Pedal boards are basically a flat board that all of your pedals can be placed on all connected together. You can even get them with covers, transformers and power cables to make it a breeze to pack up and move from gig to gig.
One thing to be aware of is that connecting too many pedals together can cause a lot of humming and unwanted noise. To fix this problem a noise gate pedal can be used.
With so many different types of pedals on the market today, I couldn't possibly list them all. So I'm doing the next best thing and will explain some of the more popular ones.
Distortion:
Distortion is used in many popular musical genres especially metal, rock and hard rock. The distortion pedals job is to clip the signal, giving it's distorted sound.
Chorus:
Chorus pedals give you a thick and lush sound by duplicating your original sound; adding some delay to it and then mixing it back with your original signal. This ends up making your guitar sound like a bunch of guitars or a "chorus of guitars" if you will.
Flanger:
Just like the Chorus pedal, the Flanger duplicates the signal, adds a short delay and then mixes it back with your original signal. The difference here is that the Flanger's delay includes several repeats that get longer and shorter at a steady rate. This produces a thicker sound compared to the Chorus pedal.
Wah-wha:
The Wah-wha pedal kind of looks like your cars gas pedal and you rock this pedal back and forth to allow lower and higher frequencies to pass though. This then produces the "wah-wah" sound. Jimi Hendrix in the late 60's and funk music in the 70's made this effect famous.
Reverb:
The Reverb effect emulates natural acoustic spaces by producing an echo making your tone sound like it's being played in a big concert hall.
Talk Box:
Last but not least is the Talk Box. The Talk Box pedal has a small speaker in it that plays the signal loudly up an airtight small plastic tube. This tube is taped to the side of the microphone where it sticks out just enough to be able to send the sound into the guitarist's mouth. The guitar player then makes shapes with their mouth to change the sound, which is then picked up by the microphone. Many performers have used the Talk Box over the years but one of the most famous was Peter Frampton who used it on his song "Do You Feel Like We Do" off his Frampton Comes Alive record.
Hope you have enjoyed my explanations of some of the guitar effects pedals that are out there. This is just a small fraction of the effects that are available to you. A good tip would be for you to do a little research on some of your favorite guitar players and find out what effects they use that give them "their sound" the most. For example if you were into hard rock or heavy metal, it would be a good idea to start off with a distortion pedal. Rock On!
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2014年7月3日星期四
How to Order Your Guitar's Effects Pedals
It is important to follow a few basic guidelines when you begin
running multiple effects pedals for you guitar in a series. Improperly
ordering your effects chain or pedal board can result in poor tones and
unwanted noise. Remember, these effects pedals are actually altering the
signal of your guitar, so when placed in a chain, an effects pedal
could be processing a signal that has already been altered many times.
This is what makes the order of them so vital to your sound.
1st Position - Chromatic Tuner / EQ
I always recommend placing a chromatic tuner (if you have one) , first in your chain. This ensures that the pedal is getting the strongest signal possible, which will make accurate tuning much easier. Now is a good time to also add your EQ pedal to your chain. This allows you to shape your sound before it starts to have effects applied.
2nd Position - Distortion/Overdrive/Fuzz
It is important to have your distortion pedals as the leaders of your chain because they are what your guitar tone is based on. Placing these pedals first in your chain ensures that you are only distorting your true guitar sound.
When you start playing with multiple effects, this keeps the integrity of the more complex effects pedals like chorus and flange in tact. These pedals carefully alter your guitar's signal, and distorting them could taken away from their tone.
3rd Position - Wah Pedal
There are some guitar players who prefer having their Wah Pedal in front of their distortion pedals (Jimi Hendrix), but I have found that I get the best results by placing it after them in the chain. A Wah Pedal is basically an EQ that sweeps the high ends, and low ends of your sound, which will cause the signal going to the distortion pedal to be altered if it is placed before it. Placing your Wah pedal after your distortion pedals will provide a nice linear sweep because you'll have one steady signal coming into it.
4th Position - Delay
At this point in your effects pedal chain we have shaped the tone of your guitar, and added the foundations of distortion. Placing a Delay pedal in this position will result in only the signal coming into it to be repeated, thus preserving the sound of the modulation effects that will come after it. You do not want to add delay to effects like flange, and chorus. If you were to place these before your Delay pedal, the effects they create would also be delayed. You want these to be consistent while the core sound of your guitar is being delayed.
Position 4 - Modulation
Modulation effects consist of flange, chorus, phase, envelope filters, etc. All of these add color, and depth to your sound. As we noted earlier, it is important to keep these signals as true as possible on their way to your amplifier. Running a flanger effect before a distortion, or overdrive pedal would distort the flanger's sound, and would harm the subtlety of the effect.
Position 5 - Volume Pedal
This position should be reserved for any pedal that is going to take away from the sound of your guitar, primarily a volume pedal. You want to place your volume pedal in this position so that you can accurately decrease the effect volume for ALL your pedals. If you were to place it in the middle of your chain, you would only lower the effect volume for all of the pedals that come before it. This is also an acceptable position for a Tremolo pedal.
Position 6 - Reverb
Reverb is an effect that usually occurs naturally. For this reason, you want to place this effect after all of your modulations, distortions and EQs have been applied so that the Reverb can shape your sound as realistically as possible.
1st Position - Chromatic Tuner / EQ
I always recommend placing a chromatic tuner (if you have one) , first in your chain. This ensures that the pedal is getting the strongest signal possible, which will make accurate tuning much easier. Now is a good time to also add your EQ pedal to your chain. This allows you to shape your sound before it starts to have effects applied.
2nd Position - Distortion/Overdrive/Fuzz
It is important to have your distortion pedals as the leaders of your chain because they are what your guitar tone is based on. Placing these pedals first in your chain ensures that you are only distorting your true guitar sound.
When you start playing with multiple effects, this keeps the integrity of the more complex effects pedals like chorus and flange in tact. These pedals carefully alter your guitar's signal, and distorting them could taken away from their tone.
3rd Position - Wah Pedal
There are some guitar players who prefer having their Wah Pedal in front of their distortion pedals (Jimi Hendrix), but I have found that I get the best results by placing it after them in the chain. A Wah Pedal is basically an EQ that sweeps the high ends, and low ends of your sound, which will cause the signal going to the distortion pedal to be altered if it is placed before it. Placing your Wah pedal after your distortion pedals will provide a nice linear sweep because you'll have one steady signal coming into it.
4th Position - Delay
At this point in your effects pedal chain we have shaped the tone of your guitar, and added the foundations of distortion. Placing a Delay pedal in this position will result in only the signal coming into it to be repeated, thus preserving the sound of the modulation effects that will come after it. You do not want to add delay to effects like flange, and chorus. If you were to place these before your Delay pedal, the effects they create would also be delayed. You want these to be consistent while the core sound of your guitar is being delayed.
Position 4 - Modulation
Modulation effects consist of flange, chorus, phase, envelope filters, etc. All of these add color, and depth to your sound. As we noted earlier, it is important to keep these signals as true as possible on their way to your amplifier. Running a flanger effect before a distortion, or overdrive pedal would distort the flanger's sound, and would harm the subtlety of the effect.
Position 5 - Volume Pedal
This position should be reserved for any pedal that is going to take away from the sound of your guitar, primarily a volume pedal. You want to place your volume pedal in this position so that you can accurately decrease the effect volume for ALL your pedals. If you were to place it in the middle of your chain, you would only lower the effect volume for all of the pedals that come before it. This is also an acceptable position for a Tremolo pedal.
Position 6 - Reverb
Reverb is an effect that usually occurs naturally. For this reason, you want to place this effect after all of your modulations, distortions and EQs have been applied so that the Reverb can shape your sound as realistically as possible.
2014年7月1日星期二
What's The Best Order For Guitar Pedals?
Let's have a look at the most common guitar foot pedals used by
guitarists today and see what are the best ways to order guitar pedals
in the signal chain.
• Distortion / Overdrive
• Compression
• Wah Wah
• Delay
• Phaser/Flanger
• Chorus
The best way to look at this is to consider what sound you want to come out of the end of the signal chain as each guitar pedal will effect the sound of the one that follows. Below a standard ordering of guitar effect pedals and the reasoning behind their placement in the signal chain.
However keep in mind that there are no set rules on ordering your guitar pedals. Remember that trying different ordering can possibly lead to new and interesting sounds.
Wah Wah Pedal
By placing these before distortion effects, they vary the distortion intensity of the affected frequencies at the same time.
Compressor Pedal
With compression its best top place it before the distortion / overdrive pedal as placing it after can often simply compress and raise the noise of the distortion pedal. Also placing the Compressor after the wah wah pedal can help to minimise the volume variations caused by the wah wah emphasising different frequencies.
Distortion / Overdrive Pedal
Placing these pedals after the wah wah allows the wah wah pedal to control the amount of fuzz by it changing the frequencies and tone being sent to it, giving what most players prefer. This guitar pedal ordering was used by Jimi Hendrix.
Also distortion / overdrive pedals aren't usually placed after the chorus, phaser or flanger as these modulated signals can easily clash with the harmonics unless you're looking for that particular sound. Chorus / phaser / flanger pedals chorus flanger and phaser pedals tend to sound the best here with the overdrives/distortion pedals before of them as they effective work well effecting the distorted sound.
Delay Pedal
Delay Pedals can lead to mushy sounding chaos if placed before overdrive or distortion pedals causing spikes in the audio levels and unpredictable sounds. Its also best to be delaying that particular guitar sound the all the pedals prior has created and not the other way around.
So hopefully this article has give you some good ideas on the best way to setup the ordering of your guitar pedals in the signal chain form your guitar to the amp. Try this ordering but again don't be afraid to try other orderings and experiment to see what other sounds you can come up with.
• Distortion / Overdrive
• Compression
• Wah Wah
• Delay
• Phaser/Flanger
• Chorus
The best way to look at this is to consider what sound you want to come out of the end of the signal chain as each guitar pedal will effect the sound of the one that follows. Below a standard ordering of guitar effect pedals and the reasoning behind their placement in the signal chain.
However keep in mind that there are no set rules on ordering your guitar pedals. Remember that trying different ordering can possibly lead to new and interesting sounds.
Wah Wah Pedal
By placing these before distortion effects, they vary the distortion intensity of the affected frequencies at the same time.
Compressor Pedal
With compression its best top place it before the distortion / overdrive pedal as placing it after can often simply compress and raise the noise of the distortion pedal. Also placing the Compressor after the wah wah pedal can help to minimise the volume variations caused by the wah wah emphasising different frequencies.
Distortion / Overdrive Pedal
Placing these pedals after the wah wah allows the wah wah pedal to control the amount of fuzz by it changing the frequencies and tone being sent to it, giving what most players prefer. This guitar pedal ordering was used by Jimi Hendrix.
Also distortion / overdrive pedals aren't usually placed after the chorus, phaser or flanger as these modulated signals can easily clash with the harmonics unless you're looking for that particular sound. Chorus / phaser / flanger pedals chorus flanger and phaser pedals tend to sound the best here with the overdrives/distortion pedals before of them as they effective work well effecting the distorted sound.
Delay Pedal
Delay Pedals can lead to mushy sounding chaos if placed before overdrive or distortion pedals causing spikes in the audio levels and unpredictable sounds. Its also best to be delaying that particular guitar sound the all the pedals prior has created and not the other way around.
So hopefully this article has give you some good ideas on the best way to setup the ordering of your guitar pedals in the signal chain form your guitar to the amp. Try this ordering but again don't be afraid to try other orderings and experiment to see what other sounds you can come up with.
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