"proper" effects theory

hey all

when i first started playing electric i impulsed and bought about 4 pedals, the CH-1, DD-3, FL-2, and EQ-1 ( i think). Then i went digital with the Zoom 707 and i thought it was great for a while until i became a better guitar player. I still like a lot of the dirty sounds that i've created but i'm thinking of going back to the stomp boxes, i might have a few questions as the digital 707 pretty much didn't actually TEACH me about effects and why they work and how to get the best sounds. Sure i played with all the knobs till i found something that sounded good, but still. . .

anyway, first and maybe last question!!:
what is the "proper" order to set up effects going from Guitar to amp. Assume i also havea distortion pedal of some kind as well, and a distortion boost pedal. I have the above listed boxes and a Boss Volume pedal and a vox gain boost box. . .

any sites that will help me with as well? I can get decent sounds, but i'd like to have them in the correct order and know why that is the correct order.

thanks in advace.

jeremy

Its been near two weeks, and not a word from anyone, so I'll have a go at it.

Generally, you want to put time-based effects (like delay, reverb, and echo), as 'late' in the signal chain as possible. The longer the cycle time, the closer to the end of the chain. Ideally, they should be added to the final mix, just before it goes to the monitors.

Phasing, flanging, and chorus are based on shorter times, so they should go earlier in the chain.

Distortion, (at least the overdrive kind), should be just about the first thing in line, possibly with EQ before it, and after.

Of course, all of this is likely to go out the window when your creativity gets going. That's how new stuff gets discovered!

The "conventional" way of hooking up fx is something like this:

distortion => noise gate => compressor => EQ => modulation FX => delay => reverb

Of course, there are no rules when it comes to creating a good sound, so, just experiment.


Greetz, TK

This is why an effects loop on an amp is a good thing. If you use amp distortion, you really don't want to be using a delay pedal unless you send it through the effects loop, because the distortion gets out of control. Think about it: when you use distortion, the distortion happens when you play two different notes together. If the delay pedal is after distortion, the signals of overlapping delays don't interfere, but if the delay is before distortion, the distortion treats the overlapping delayed signals as being one big chord, and it gets muddy real quick. This is why time based effects should almost always be put after tone effects, unless you are going for a deliberate effect.