Silly effects routing question - Parallel routing and levels

[Karl Houseknecht]

So if I put four different effects in parallel and bypass them all, what does this do to the overall level of the patch after them? Nothing? What about when they are engaged? Do I have to set each effect level to 1/4 of normal?

See? I told you it was a silly question.

 

[Jay Mitchell]

So if I put four different effects in parallel and bypass them all, what does this do to the overall level of the patch after them?

Depends on your bypass mode. If it's the "mute" variety, then bypassing them will leave only the parallel shunt that you will have to have in order to pass signal.

What about when they are engaged?

Depends on the effect.

 

[6L6C]

Depends if we are on the same page (time based mostly) reverb, delay, flanger, phase.
When running in parallel you need to crank the mix level (100%) on the effect, and control the effect with its level. If you don’t do this every time you bypass an effect and there is still direct signal present the overall volume of the patch will go down and go way up when engaged.

In the above screen shot the mix on the delay and reverb are 100%

In this one, chorus 2 and also delay and reverb have mixes at 100%, another way to accomplish the same thing would be the screen shot below the only difference is I would be using the mix control on the chorus 2.

If you are wondering why the separate chorus in the reverb path I use to do this on another device I had and I use to do this to thicken up the reverb a bit the second chorus was always set a bit different from the primary chorus. I don’t find this need with the AF.

John

 

[yek]

My personal "parallel effect" checklist:

* use Mute In or Mute Out for bypass mode. This will avoid the volume raise when placing fx in parallel paths.
* set Mix to 100%. This will avoid having two direct signal paths.
* use Level to dial in the desired effect level.

This goes for the very first parallel block. Consecutive parallel blocks may have different settings, depending on the first effect.

 

[browlett]

This discussion is a great example of how "deep" the AXE FX can be. The way in which you set things can greatly vary the outcome. None is necessarily "best". You just need to see what works for you and what you're trying to accomplish. Don't be intimidated by all of it. Options are good. If you're unsure, just ask questions and try out the different things that people suggest. ...Like you're doing here.