Time based effects in serial or parallel?

Thenewexhibit

Experienced
How do you guys like running your time based effects? In serial or in parallel?

I’ve experimented with both, but I feel like I get better results when in serial (after the cab block), like the effects gel better with the sound, but I’m also really bad at dialing in delays and reverbs haha. I feel like the effects in parallel produce a louder signal, but could be just because I set something differently without realizing (As a disclaimer, I do set up time based effects to 100% mix and use the level control when getting the right level with “mute fx in” for the bypass modes).
Parallel seems to be like how you would get effects in a DAW with aux channels, but in serial reminds me of as if I plugged my effects into an FX loop of an amp (but getting stereo of course if using stereo effects).

What do you guys like to use and why?
 
It depends on what sound you want, there’s no hard and fast rule.

I’m sure @2112 and @Cooper Carter have videos explaining the whys and what-fors.

The Wiki talks about it. See the Reverb and Delay sections then do a search for "parallel".

Parallel is louder because the signals are added together. Again, the above sources talk about it, and somewhere there's a table that shows how the levels mix together and if I can find it I'll add a link.
 
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I have 1 reverb block in series with my main guitar path, that adds just a touch of 'room' to my guitar tone. I prefer this to the room function on the cab block.

Everything else is in parallel. I run outboard loopers and those paths have their own effects and reverb. The guitar never hit that reverb directly. It does via a delay block in parallel.

I very much prefer as much time based whatnot in parallel as possible. It just feels more 'immediate', especially in headphones.
 
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Used to do parallel cuz I thought I didn't like reverb'd delays but I think it was placebo as parallel seemed to be the "cool" thing to do at one point. I find serial better in most cases because:
  • wet / dry mix balance is automated.
  • > 50% mix balance for an effect is possible vs 50% max when parallel to a shunt.
  • uses less blocks / cpu.
  • uses less grid real estate.
The only place I'm still using parallel is for pitch shift cuz I only like one hard panned side shifted 100% wet and route the other hard panned side around through a volume block to keep it pristine (I don't like what pitch block does when unshifted / shift=0).
 
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My delay and reverb are in series with each other (so that my delay repeats get reverbed), but I run the reverb on a parallel path for two reasons:

1) so that the reverb wet/dry mix law doesn’t mess with my dry signal prior to 50% wet
2) I prefer the paradigm of using the input level parameter on the reverb block to control how much signal is sent to the reverb. This way I can toggle that parameter up and down with channels and not affect reverb tails. If you run it in series and cycle through different mix parameter values, your tails will be affected. This is akin to an aux send in your daw which makes a lot more sense to me than messing with dry levels to compensate for mix laws, etc.
 
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My delay and reverb are in series with each other (so that my delay repeats get reverbed), but I run the reverb on a parallel path for two reasons:

1) so that the reverb wet/dry mix law doesn’t mess with my dry signal prior to 50% wet
2) I prefer the paradigm of using the input level parameter on the reverb block to control how much signal is sent to the reverb. This way I can toggle that parameter up and down with channels and not affect reverb tails. If you run it in series and cycle through different mix parameter values, your tails will be affected.
For 2) you don't need a parallel routing. The input gain parameter only affects the level sent to the effect engine, not the dry signal.

Also for 1) you could just set reverb mix to 50% and level +3 dB in series.
 
My delay and reverb are in series with each other (so that my delay repeats get reverbed), but I run the reverb on a parallel path for two reasons:

1) so that the reverb wet/dry mix law doesn’t mess with my dry signal prior to 50% wet
2) I prefer the paradigm of using the input level parameter on the reverb block to control how much signal is sent to the reverb. This way I can toggle that parameter up and down with channels and not affect reverb tails. If you run it in series and cycle through different mix parameter values, your tails will be affected.
I'm guilty of running them in parallel and using the mix knob. Haven't considered trails at all. I leave the levels alone or get crazy bloom switching channels into something really wet.

...Now you have me thinking
 
It all depends on the sounds that are your goal.

When I am feeling randy I like to put reverb before the delay in serial. It's a really cool have the sound bounce around in such ways.

Parallel reverb and delay is great too. Especially because you can group a chorus or pitch with the delay on one path and say a rotary or flange with reverb on the other.

You do so many cool things with each.
 
I'm guilty of running them in parallel and using the mix knob. Haven't considered trails at all. I leave the levels alone or get crazy bloom switching channels into something really wet.

...Now you have me thinking

Yes in most cases when running a wet effect in parallel you should ensure that no dry signal is passing through the block either when active or bypassed. So the mix should be at 100%, and use either the input gain if you want trails when turning it down, or the level parameter if you don’t.
 
It all depends on the sounds that are your goal.

When I am feeling randy I like to put reverb before the delay in serial. It's a really cool have the sound bounce around in such ways.

Parallel reverb and delay is great too. Especially because you can group a chorus or pitch with the delay on one path and say a rotary or flange with reverb on the other.

You do so many cool things with each.
Those are very much the things I do, especially rotary in there.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies! So there are a couple of things I've learned:

If I understand correclty, the Delay doesn't affect the dry signal with up to 50% of the mix value? So in that case, Delay in series (if under 50%) or Parallel doesn't matter?
And as far as Reverb goes, the dry signal is affected by the mix regardless of where it is? Am I understanding that correctly? Furthermore, how does the Reverb affect the dry signal when using the mix when in series?

Another thing I'm trying to understand as well (couldn't find much info online) is the "Input Level" parameter on the Delay and Reverb. I'm not understanding how this works differently than the mix knob when in series.

Also, I saw somebody who set up their effects to 50% mix in series, but used the "Input Level" parameter to control the amount, and then turned the Output parameter of the effects up by 3db. Is this a pretty common thing? Turning up the effect output to compensate volume? I'm just wondering if a lot of this is many ways to do the same thing?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!
 
Also, I saw somebody who set up their effects to 50% mix in series, but used the "Input Level" parameter to control the amount, and then turned the Output parameter of the effects up by 3db. Is this a pretty common thing? Turning up the effect output to compensate volume? I'm just wondering if a lot of this is many ways to do the same thing?
This gets the same effective result as putting the Reverb in parallel.

I found a tip about this on the wiki many years ago and I have been using it since then. In this case, the Input Gain performs the function normally provided by Mix.

I don't think it's well known...
 
I put delay in parallel and reverb in series.

For delay, I want my original note to always be the same volume. If kicking on the delay pedal makes the original note louder or softer, it feels wrong to me. With a conventional series setup, I would be trying to finagle the level knob so that my original note feels balanced with and without delay. Parallel makes it easy to achieve what I want there.

For reverb, I use that to soften the sound and create ambience. It needs to replace some of that original signal, so I use series.
 
For delay, I want my original note to always be the same volume. If kicking on the delay pedal makes the original note louder or softer, it feels wrong to me. With a conventional series setup, I would be trying to finagle the level knob so that my original note feels balanced with and without delay.
The delay mix control (Axe-FX II onward) is designed to make this easy in series. Dry level doesn't change from 0 to 50% mix.
 
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