tubetime86

The way I see it I have several favorite foods, but there isn't one restaurant that makes them all. In order to get all my favorite foods I have to go to several different vendors.

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Arby911

You need a mirror...

And language comprehension lessons.



If you weren't so lazy, you could cook them all at home with better ingredients and a lower cost...

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The man who holds to a belief because of tradition, or hides it because he fears he may be shown to be wrong, does not love the truth but manifests a coward’s faithfulness to his prejudices.

gumbilicious

i mainly use stand alone pedals because when i was younger the digital MFX setups were expensive, complex and in some cases didn't sound that good. there was basically more bang for the buck in pedals. (i still acquired a top-of-the-line rp20 at one point though, it was a bit disappointing)

today i still own quite a few pedals, but i do use much more digital effects and computer software effects. the DSP style effects have improved considerably (esp amp emulation), but the other big thing is i can get all these programs and effects for free. not much reason for me to ignore them.

maybe one day i'll get a standalone MFX hardware unit.



this... this is a bad argument, i don't feel the need to address all the particulars but this is an over-generalized and grossly misrepresented interpretation of the problem.

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"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
-ae

fly135

Sure.... Because saying separate pedals has bearing on quality. If you want to be able to iteratively keeps swapping components until you achieve your tone nirvana then separate pedals are probably the only way to do this. And it can be very expensive.

IMO Cathbard has been owning the narrative. Gigging pros use digital multifx because they offer the simplest method to quickly change your tone up, which is necessary for bands covering a wide range of material. And because contrary to some belief even the distortion isn't necessarily crap. Sure you've got guys that will say the touch and feel to the tone doesn't inspire them like a tube amp. But a pro knows the job is done when the audience is thrilled with what they hear, not how the player feels the sound.

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Tasty Licks - A collection of my music
Secret Moment - A collection in the works

Kato10

Never, ever heard a distortion on any multi-effects that I liked and distortion is the main effect I use other than reverb. And I really prefer spring reverb so that counts out multi-effects again. I also find that when running multi-effects in front of a good tube amp, the effects unit tends to make all of my guitars seem similar and doesn't let the true character of the guitar shine through. Maybe I'm just a cork sniffer, but after 30 years of gigging I know none of my friends use anything but stomp box pedals.

Gigging pros use digital multi-effects...really? And a pro cares more about the audience than the tone huh? A couple very questionable points of view you have there.

Kato10

Convenience over tone? Spoken like a true pro.

Blompcube

what's questionable about either of these points?

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Only play as loud as you need to to get the desired level of power-tube distortion from your 100 watt tube amp.

fly135

So you don't think that there are gigging pros that use multifx? And you find it questionable that a gigging pro would care that the audience likes the music? Weird

But maybe you are a gigging pro that doesn't ever worry if his band is going to be booked, and never had a bar owner that cared if the dance floor stayed packed all night. Stranger things have happened.

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Tasty Licks - A collection of my music
Secret Moment - A collection in the works

gumbilicious

you are a gigging pro, you don't like MFX: therefore all gigging pros don't like/use MFX.

i think that is a pretty questionable conclusion.

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"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
-ae

mmolteratx

The fact of the matter is that very large touring bands have been using MIDI based rigs for what's getting close to 30 years. It's a great way to sort out all of the troubles of tap dancing. Personally, the only multi-effect I could have and be happy with it is the AxeII, though I'd still need a fuzz pedal because the fuzz models on it are lousy.

And if a musician gives more of a shit about his tone than he does about the audience, he's not a pro musician. The entire point of being a pro musician is to entertain people. If all you want to do is dick around with your tone, sit in your damn bedroom.

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WTLT 2012
PBT Native
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GG&A BotB Best Rig 2012

sg4ever

I feel like their are no absolutes. If you know what you need, you can get away with using individual pedals. By that same token, you can also know what you need and get away with a Line 6 m or some such multi-fx. Mike Einziger of Incubus uses a bunch of pedals and the audience is thrilled. Teppei Teranishi of Thrice uses a Line 6 M13 and their audience is also thrilled. It's up to the individual to determine what best suits them. The glove doesn't fit all hands.

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Fender MiM Tele
Fender MiM Strat
Vox AC15C1
various pedals

MaggaraMarine

Some people only need less than five different effects (for example chorus, delay, wah, compressor and phaser). I didn't count reverb or distortion because reverb is usually built in your amp and almost every amp has an OD channel (and if it doesn't, just crank it up and you'll get distortion). If you only need five or less effects, multi FX might not be the smartest thing to buy because you get so many useless effects. And a good multi FX will cost more than five individual pedals.

Also when you buy individual effects, you can buy what you need at the moment and when you feel that you need more effects, you can buy them.

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My motto: Play what the song needs you to play!

Gear:

Charvel So Cal (MIJ)
Digitech RP355
MXR Micro Chorus
Laney VC30
Tokai TB48

mark66saints

But have you thought that this "shortcoming" could be an advantage? Every room is different and will take your tone differently, and the ability to tweak your pedals on stage means that you can sound your best in any situation.
What if you decide on the night that you want a bit more dirt on that big solo, but instead of just cranking up the pedal, you have to go and get your manual out and start patching in a new channel during your sound check? Plus, no crazy oscillation from your delay pedals.

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Fender American Special Telecaster w/ Bigsby
Fender MIM Jaguar
Digitech Whammy-->Korg Pitchblack Poly-->Dunlop Cry Baby-->Danelectro Pastrami Overdrive-->EHX Big Muff Pi-->Joyo Digital Delay
Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III Red October Edition

sg4ever

Another thing that I should have mentioned. Some people need that and not many digital devices do that well, (if at all). There are just types of music that work better with at least some individual pedals like an analog delay. There's no way around the fact that some people need one or the other. There can't be an absolute.

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Fender MiM Tele
Fender MiM Strat
Vox AC15C1
various pedals

monwobobbo

i confess that i'm kinda old school as pedals were what i was brought up on. having said that i also don't really use many fx so never felt the need to program a mfx unit. i also like the flexibility pedals offer. love the phaser but not the delay well you're stuck with a mfx unit all or nothing (and yes i know you can loop other fx in but that kinda defeats the purpose). my board only consists of an overdrive, wah, delay and phaser. never all on at once and usually not more than 2 at a time if that.

as far as touring "pros" not all of them use a bunch of fx and some hardly any at all. it's all about need, no right or wrong.

Offworld92

...What? I don't sacrifice tone for convenience. I'm not using some $200 MFX, I have a GT-10. My tone altering stompboxes are an SD-1 and a CS-3, both black label. Yes there are more boutique options and always will be. But I'm not using crap by a long shot.

My stomboxes are always on, and in addition my GT gives me all the MIDI features I need, such as being able to switch from the Ultra channel of my JSX with EQ, reverb and slight delay, with optional synth & harmonizer FX on the aux controls, to the crunch channel on my JSX with just reverb and EQ with delay on an aux control, to a built in clean model into the poweramp of my JSX with a different EQ, reverb, delay and chorus on one of the aux controls.

All of that, all switched between instantaneously with "1", "2" and "3" on my GT.

Also not sure how people are calling stomboxes "flexible"... Good MFX are pretty much infinitely flexible. Yes, they take time to dial in, but that's not really the argument.

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In your mind, you can fly.

HUMANIZER

This isn't 1968. Use the volume knob.

Main Rig
Ibanez | S420 |
LTD | EC-1000 |
Peavey | 6505 | MS412 (WGS) |
Boss | TU-3 | CS-3 | GT-10 | NS-2 |
MXR | M77 |

gregs1020

most of the gigging guys i know use a MFX.

suffersystem

Depends on the situation really. I've used my X3 Live at gigs, other times I have used my 6505+. Still thinking of just using the 4 cable method, but just can never seem to find the time to get it set up and play with the settings.

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Gear
Raven Les Paul w/EMGs 81/85
Epiphone Lemonburst Les Paul w/EMG 81/85
Peavey 6505+ head
Mesa 4X12 cabinet
Line 6 POD X3 Live

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Tremolo Bum

I'm planning to go with 4CM and a multi effects unit for gigs. Going from from a clean to heavy distortion requires a lot of tap dancing for me otherwise.

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My Rig:
Guitars - Jackson RR3 Rhoads and DK2M Dinky
Amp - Peavey 6505+ w/ Avatar 212 cab
Effects - TS9, MXR 10 Band EQ, Carbon Copy Delay
-Digitech RP1000