Taming the Monster - Series and Parallel Routing

Thanks for the video, Scott! A 2-hour tweak session immediately followed as I got home. :) Especially the notion of certain effects not really making much sense when put in series (chorus/flanger/phaser) has made me reconsider the layout of my presets. I'm now closer to building a single preset that covers all my clean sounds in a smarter routing, utilizing some of the things you explain in your video. Nice!
 
Hi,
I do not understand why you prefer to put the effects before or after the cab.
The video is excellent and I thank you for taking the time to realize it.
 
Hi,
I do not understand why you prefer to put the effects before or after the cab.
The video is excellent and I thank you for taking the time to realize it.

100% subjective taste and what you are going for. Try it for yourself and determine the 'A/B' test for you - 'better or worse' after you try two things. Choose better. Done. ;) :D
 
Hi,
I do not understand why you prefer to put the effects before or after the cab.
The video is excellent and I thank you for taking the time to realize it.

I was playing around with this last night. According to the wiki, time-invariant effects can be placed before or after the cab. And I thought there was no difference when I heard it before....but last night it was different. You know the difference between hearing effects coming through your guitar cab, and hearing your mic'd sound out of a PA with effects applied in the PA stage? Exactly that. In simple terms, the first one sounds 'localised', whereas the latter sounds big and spacious. I haven't decided which I prefer.....
 
Great lesson. You have oppened a world of posibilities for routing effects. Could you post the patch you used on the video, so i could continue exploring this concept . Thanks a lot
 
Great lesson. You have oppened a world of posibilities for routing effects. Could you post the patch you used on the video, so i could continue exploring this concept . Thanks a lot

I will post the patch; I'm stalling waiting for Cab Lab to go live so people can mix the IR's up I use. It's, IMHO, an essential ingredient. Good news is that it will not be long now... ;)
 
Great vid thanks. Is parallel routing good for eliminating mud if I run a drive parallel to the amp block?
 
Great vid thanks. Is parallel routing good for eliminating mud if I run a drive parallel to the amp block?
Yes or no; it depends. Sometimes it does, sometimes not. It does open doors to allow for creative ways to rethink the typical serial paths and allows for more flexibility and versatility. It's not a fix-all or magic thing. Parallel bussing/signal processing is an age=old studio trick used for many decades.
 
might be worth noting that scott defies convention by placing modulation blocks, like chorus, phaser etc in parallel. i think most people agree that they should be in series.

+1

The thing that might really confuse the hell out of people is that even when those block are in series, the effects are still in parallel. Anything that is mixed with a dry signal (chorus, flanger, phaser, delay, reverb, etc.) is technically a parallel effect. The parallel dry path is simply inside the block as opposed to using shunts outside of it. In physical pedals and processors, the dry path can suffer from additional noise or tone sucking. In the Axe II the paths are all digital, so there's no difference in sound quality at all, just different level and routing options.
 
Great vid thanks. Is parallel routing good for eliminating mud if I run a drive parallel to the amp block?
That would ADD a distorted tone (based off a direct dry :| ) to an amp tone. That's pretty different than how a drive is normally used.

No rules, just options. But be careful not to try to reinvent the wheel just to reinvent.
 
Thanks for taking the time and effort to do this! Much appreciated! Informative and nicely presented! Kudos!
 
Absolutely true. I approach it more as a mix engineer than guitarist by choice.
After watching your video Scott I was making a new preset yesterday all effects pre. at the end of my chain I placed a pitch and flange in parallel. When I turn those effects off I loose sound, but when I change Bypass Mode from mute fx out or mute out to thru I get sound. I only have those (3) options. In the video you say to place anything but thru when in parallel. Using FX8/4 (CM). Mix is at 100%.
 
After watching your video Scott I was making a new preset yesterday all effects pre. at the end of my chain I placed a pitch and flange in parallel. When I turn those effects off I loose sound, but when I change Bypass Mode from mute fx out or mute out to thru I get sound. I only have those (3) options. In the video you say to place anything but thru when in parallel. Using FX8/4 (CM). Mix is at 100%.
Can you upload this preset? The FX8 may be different in parallel setup, but I'd like to check a few things.
 
Can you upload this preset? The FX8 may be different in parallel setup, but I'd like to check a few things.
Thanks for responding Chris.
Its nothing special just a flange & pitch in parallel (pre) blocks 6&7 on my FX8. I have since change to all in series now.
 
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