Multiple Pedals with Multi-Effects Units
In response to a question I got about combining a multi-effects unit with other pedals, I thought I would write a short post.
The answer to the question of what order to put them in is… ‘it depends’.
You have to identify a few parts of your signal chain to really figure it out. What effects are you using in your multi effects and what are the other pedals that you want to use with it. Do you have a killer boutique overdrive pedal and a BOSS ME-50? Well chances are that you will be using the OD from your pedal rather than what is built into the ME-50. Since we usually want to put overdrive and distortion early in the chain, I would put the OD before the ME-50.
I know some people who have a POD LiveXT on their pedalboad (I know big board) for the amp modelling and direct outputs, but most of their effects are in other pedals. So in this case their entire pedal chain ends with the POD, so that it can be jacked into the sound system directly rather than into an amp (or in addition to). I know several guys in church settings who use a POD this way, for the flexibility they can get out of it.
If you have something like a visual sound volume pedal, I would probably put that after my multi effects (unless my multi-effects had a volume built in) so that it was after my gain pedals. Also delay and reverb pedals can go well after a multi-effects unit since they usually come at the end of the chain.
Of course you would want to edit you multi-effects patches to work with your pedals so you didn’t have 2 delays or phasers or whatever fighting with each other.
So say you had an Effectrode Tube Drive, a BOSS ME-50 and a Line6 DL4 delay. I would put them in that order, leaving out the distortion and delay from my patches on the ME-50.
One last thing is that some multi-effects units have effects loops built in to them. You will want to look in the manual to see where in the signal chain the effects loop leaves the multi-effects unit. Is it after the gain stage (distortion) or after all the effects before amp modeling, or somewhere else? Some newer units (like the Digidesign Eleven) will let you move the physical effects loop to anywhere in the effects chain.
So the question is really what am I adding to or replacing in the multi-effects box and is it closer to the front or back of the signal chain that I want.
