Anyone abandoned individual pedals and gone back to a multi-FX?

BintyTwanger77

Wazmeister said:

Teetonetal said:

Gassage said:

@Wazmeister

Honestly, I have now tried the FX8. My plus was nonned.

Forget all this fancy dan Strymon and Chase Bliss- go try a CE1 or an original Elec Mis; or an Effectrode Tube Vibe- as much as my plus was nonned your gast will be flabbered, I assure you.

I'm taking the opposite view. All this chasing after the mythical best tone is a nonsense. 2 questions are all that matter. Does it function as I need. Is it inspiring. 

Old, new, vintage or digital is irrelevant. If a pedal or mfx fits those two questions you are golden.

Wisdom. Spot on mate

Already found my perfect base tone. Then tried adding a Tumnus. Even more perfect. Wow.

I haven't succumbed to multiFX yet, but give it time...

stratman3142

ICBM said:

Bugger… just discovered a possible fatal flaw in my plan. On the GT-5, the Manual mode functions cannot be set per patch. It does give on/off control of individual saved effects in any patch, but you can't set it so the different pedals operate *different* effects depending on the patch. ie you can't have button 1 operating the compressor in one patch and the feedbacker in another, for example. That's quite restricting, since the whole point is to not necessarily have the same five virtual pedals each time.

I might see if I can live with it though - the effects do genuinely sound very good, and the editing is very familiar since it's so similar to the SE-70, in fact many of the parameters are exactly the same.

You can do what you want with a GT6, because that's  how I use mine as, in effect, a multiple pedalboard in manual mode, with a different pedal board under each patch. But you'll need to use decent drive pedals in the FX loop because the built in drives are pretty crap. The other effects are good though. I expect the newer Boss GT versions will offer the same functionality. 

If you're going down the multi fx route I'd definitely consider one with an FX loop so you can choose your own drives, because that's the area where the old units fall over. I expect if you want decent drives within the unit you'll need to go down the Helix, Kemper or Fractal route, which I expect is where I'll end up eventually.

Beexter

Like a lot of things in life, I reckon the Multi-fx vs individual pedals thing is just a cycle.  

Where you are in the cycle now, dictates where you'll go next. I'm in the Individual Pedals part of the cycle at the moment but will no doubt move round to the Multi-fx quadrant when one of the manufacturers gets the overdrive/ distortion section sorted out.

Until then,  I can't justify the cost of the new breed as I view them as incomplete. I would want an all in one solution with a Multi-fx  - to me, that's the whole point 

Also, if a manufacturer wants to sell me product, find a way for me to actually try it in my country without having to buy it first. Like a dealer maybe....

Chuffola

@ICBM ;;

I'm pretty sure the GT100 will give you what you want in terms of pedalboard manual mode and non-classic Rock fx too. 

Its VERY easy to programme either directly or software - no wading through pages of menus either.

Yes, it's COSM but, apart from the amps, everything sounds fantastic. Even some of the drives! 

I just posted one to a forumite today, but I'm only selling coz I literally only use about 3 fx and space is a premium at the moment. I can get 3 pedals and set them on my amp if I need to. The GT100 is pretty large...

£180 posted was my price. 

ICBM

Interested, but I think I'm going to stick with the GT-5 for now. I'll maybe investigate the 100 if I get frustrated with it .

The GT-5 does also have a loop, but I specifically don't want to use it unless it's for 4CM with my amp or just possibly my V-Twin pedal (amp substitute) - the idea is to avoid all that cabling nonsense and building another pedalboard .

monquixote

I think the GT-5 will suit your needs better as it includes the analog drives which I think will sit better with you. 

By all accounts it was a bit of a Rolls Royce unit and none of the follow up units have been built to the same standard.

The editing on the GT-100 is the best I've experienced with the exception of the Helix.

midiglitch

ICBM said:

I'm think of doing. I'm contemplating buying an old Boss GT-5.

I hate building/rebuilding pedalboards.
I hate not being able to change something - even just the order - without having to rebuild my pedalboard.
I hate metal click footswitches (OK, I could build an all-Boss/Ibanez/DOD board).

I'm beginning to find the current 'retro' type effects boring and I long for non-rock sounds. (AKA I like Mike Oldfield .)
I want to love digital sounds. I firmly believe they don't sound crap, they're just being used wrong. Not that I've ever been happy with them before…
I like being different for the sake of it .

Should I go down the push-button-editing rabbit hole again?

Yes.
i did.

and the thing I've learnt from doing it is that there no point in talking to people about it: the old ways have a lot of momentum.  Just let them judge with their ears and smile quietly inside.

ICBM

Well… It Is Done.



I am now the proud owner of a GT-5.

jaytmon

ICBM said:

Well… It Is Done.



I am now the proud owner of a GT-5.

I like a happy ending!

ICBM

jaytmon said:

I like a happy ending!

Ending? We haven't got to the pain and frustration of parameter editing, finding it restricting to use live and never being *quite* happy with the drive sounds, then selling it again and the inevitable "giving up on multi-FX and going back to single pedals" thread yet.



Or do you mean that's the sequel, The Pedalboard Strikes Back?

steer

For what it is worth, I use individual stomp boxes, but on my board is a Zoom MS100bt, which is a stomp box sized multi effects unit. So I have both.

I use the zoom for reverb, delay and the like, and have individual boost, overdrive and compressor pedals in front of it. I tend to have three or 4 favorite patches setup for live playing on the zoom, which you cycle through by pressing the footswitch. I feel this gives me the best of both worlds. 

Multi effects have come a long way since back in the day when I first tried them. What I like as well is that you can try out different sounds on the multi at your leisure, which then sometimes lead to GAS over the real thing. Hence I am lusting after an original Marshall govner now!

Some people have dismissed the overdrive sounds on the zoom multi units, but I tested the TS9 sound back to back against a real TS9, and I could not really tell the difference. That's my experience anyway. 

professorben

https://imgur.com/a/3Hen2
Is this not the solution? 
Multi fx with an SD-1w in the internal loop. 

Wazmeister

I must admit, that ODs still have the edge pedal wise over the multi effects.... But the rest is up for grabs, imho

Beef

I just can't imagine I'd get along with the all-in-one approach. What am I supposed to spend my money on if I get an multi effects pedal? Also ladies love an expansive pedal collection. That's a fact.

Teetonetal

Beef said:

I just can't imagine I'd get along with the all-in-one approach. What am I supposed to spend my money on if I get an multi effects pedal? Also ladies love an expansive pedal collection. That's a fact.

Easy. You get a multi fx... say helix. 
Then you make a grab n go board for  jams.
Then you make a board of interesting pedals the mfx can't do.

Then you put both in a helix loop.

ICBM

Beef said:

I just can't imagine I'd get along with the all-in-one approach. What am I supposed to spend my money on if I get an multi effects pedal?

I suppose in the long run what I'd really like is a multi-FX which holds something like 100 digitally-emulated pedal models (because no-one needs more than a hundred pedals… )which either perfectly replicate any vintage effect you've ever come across, or new ones that people develop, and which can be selected in any order and any combination, and assigned to say a dozen footswitches and a couple of expression pedals, with sets of knobs which control the parameters in real time.

So what you would then buy is downloads of the pedals you don't already have, from an 'app store' type operation, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth into the box. This probably exists already but I've been living under a large pedalboard since about 1997 .

kjdowd

ICBM said:

Beef said:

I just can't imagine I'd get along with the all-in-one approach. What am I supposed to spend my money on if I get an multi effects pedal?

I suppose in the long run what I'd really like is a multi-FX which holds something like 100 digitally-emulated pedal models (because no-one needs more than a hundred pedals… )which either perfectly replicate any vintage effect you've ever come across, or new ones that people develop, and which can be selected in any order and any combination, and assigned to say a dozen footswitches and a couple of expression pedals, with sets of knobs which control the parameters in real time.

So what you would then buy is downloads of the pedals you don't already have, from an 'app store' type operation, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth into the box. This probably exists already but I've been living under a large pedalboard since about 1997 .

Don't think it does but it'd be a grand idea. 

Beexter

ICBM said:

Beef said:

I just can't imagine I'd get along with the all-in-one approach. What am I supposed to spend my money on if I get an multi effects pedal?

I suppose in the long run what I'd really like is a multi-FX which holds something like 100 digitally-emulated pedal models (because no-one needs more than a hundred pedals… )which either perfectly replicate any vintage effect you've ever come across, or new ones that people develop, and which can be selected in any order and any combination, and assigned to say a dozen footswitches and a couple of expression pedals, with sets of knobs which control the parameters in real time.

So what you would then buy is downloads of the pedals you don't already have, from an 'app store' type operation, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth into the box. This probably exists already but I've been living under a large pedalboard since about 1997 .

To some degree,  the Zoom MS100 BT is some of the way there. You can download models of specific pedals from their online store ( some of them are direct models of existing or classic pedals) and then Bluetooth them into the pedal. It lacks the multiple switches and dials but in principle, it's along the right lines.

jaytmon

ICBM said:

jaytmon said:

I like a happy ending!

Ending? We haven't got to the pain and frustration of parameter editing, finding it restricting to use live and never being *quite* happy with the drive sounds, then selling it again and the inevitable "giving up on multi-FX and going back to single pedals" thread yet.



Or do you mean that's the sequel, The Pedalboard Strikes Back?

Haha followed by the Return of the Multi-FX!

professorben

Beexter said:

ICBM said:

Beef said:

I just can't imagine I'd get along with the all-in-one approach. What am I supposed to spend my money on if I get an multi effects pedal?

I suppose in the long run what I'd really like is a multi-FX which holds something like 100 digitally-emulated pedal models (because no-one needs more than a hundred pedals… )which either perfectly replicate any vintage effect you've ever come across, or new ones that people develop, and which can be selected in any order and any combination, and assigned to say a dozen footswitches and a couple of expression pedals, with sets of knobs which control the parameters in real time.

So what you would then buy is downloads of the pedals you don't already have, from an 'app store' type operation, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth into the box. This probably exists already but I've been living under a large pedalboard since about 1997 .

To some degree,  the Zoom MS100 BT is some of the way there. You can download models of specific pedals from their online store ( some of them are direct models of existing or classic pedals) and then Bluetooth them into the pedal. It lacks the multiple switches and dials but in principle, it's along the right lines.

But it's a Zoom.........