Gigging/Function band Multi FX users - Help!

PaulMH

Full size BOSS GT-1000 is a great option as a practical multi fx, straightforward switching, not too big or small, can be as simple or as complicated as you want and in practice gets pretty close to individual effects into an amp, for me anyway! 

Voxman

I gig in a covers band.  The problem with modern MFX units is that they are all pretty complex with too many options and are heavily menu driven, which makes setting up and live tweaking cumbersome.  When I play live I just want things to be as simple as possible. Although I have a Pod Go I only use it live when I have to travel light (eg on the tube) and am going through the front of an unknown front of house amp.  Amp/Cab are disabled and I only use it in stomp mode set in one patch as a stomp pedal board. 

 Otherwise, I gig with a Vox Tonelab LE (or SE) either straight through the FOH PA, or through my Headrush powered speakers.  The Tonelabs are old tech, no IR's, limited amp, cab & FX options, no fx loop, but they are built like tanks, have real knobs/dials to tweak in seconds, and the valvereactor circuit design that utilises a 12AX7 effectively as a power tube still gives a valve like tone & feel that holds up really well even against most modern MFX.  Very simple to set up, and with a free simple edit software I set up my patches in gigging and song name order. In a typical set of 30+ numbers i'm probably only using 7 or 8 different tones so many patches are the same, but this way I don't have to think or tap dance - I just hit the next patch eg Brick, Sultans, Honky Tonk, Money4-0 etc. f the orders changed, it's easy to find it by patch name (on the song sheet I write the patch number). 

I've tried loads of MFX stuff inc Boss GT1000, Boss GX100, Pod Go, Zoom G5/G5n, Boss GT100, Valeton GP200 etc and I've simply found nothing else that has the right mix of good tone & feel and ease of use.  I tend to use the TLLE now as its more compact, but the larger TLSE has A/B switching (different amp/cab in the same patch) & two expression pedals which can be very helpful live.  

Here's a clip of the TLSE live straight through FOH:


TLLE through Headrush FRFR108


Pod Go (stomp mode) - had to travel by tube to Spice of Life in Soho going through the front end of the house Blackstar amp miked to the PA.
https://fb.watch/s0A0mg9b--/

Trude

I sing lead and am the sole guitar in a multi-genre trio. I run everything from a Boss GT1000 Core, triggered from my OnSong app setlist. At a pinch I could gig with just my main patch, but with the Stompbox feature it's easy to create global FX blocks that you can use throughout your patches and once you decide which patch you trigger from each song, it's set and forget. Very easy to re-order the set at any time.

Example, when I select Don't You Forget About Me, I get a ridiculous long delay on my vocal, big spacey delay on the guitar and a synth pad on my SY-200. It sounds immense, but would take ages to select all that manually. Then next song could be a 50s number with slapback delay on the vocal, spring reverb on the guitar and an organ or strings on the SY etc.

Takes a bit of setting up and forward thinking, but I'd rather do the clever stuff before the gig and then just press one switch to go from song to song when I'm on stage!

The full fat GT1000 also has the Pedalboard mode if you ever fancy a more old-school approach 

Stratavarious

I used a Boss GT100 for function work - 3 or 4 banks of 4 variations covered anything but then moved back to the 4 channel DSL with pedal beating decent crunch and drive and really just need the 6 button controller and a delay and a modulation (phase 95 or chorus or Univibe depending if 80s or classic rock night) to cover anything.

The trick was tap tempo and an upgrade to a Boss DD200 (from a DD7) which has 4 patches and an external tap tempo. Just enough for light analog delay, a U2 type dotted and couple of special delays.

Plenty of classy acts sound great just with a older Boss Multifix like an ME50 or 70.. very intuitive.

Travisthedog

Trude said: hi

I sing lead and am the sole guitar in a multi-genre trio. I run everything from a Boss GT1000 Core, triggered from my OnSong app setlist. At a pinch I could gig with just my main patch, but with the Stompbox feature it's easy to create global FX blocks that you can use throughout your patches and once you decide which patch you trigger from each song, it's set and forget. Very easy to re-order the set at any time.

Example, when I select Don't You Forget About Me, I get a ridiculous long delay on my vocal, big spacey delay on the guitar and a synth pad on my SY-200. It sounds immense, but would take ages to select all that manually. Then next song could be a 50s number with slapback delay on the vocal, spring reverb on the guitar and an organ or strings on the SY etc.

Takes a bit of setting up and forward thinking, but I'd rather do the clever stuff before the gig and then just press one switch to go from song to song when I'm on stage!

The full fat GT1000 also has the Pedalboard mode if you ever fancy a more old-school approach 

Whats OnSong?

Musicwolf

Travisthedog said:

Trude said: hi

I sing lead and am the sole guitar in a multi-genre trio. I run everything from a Boss GT1000 Core, triggered from my OnSong app setlist. At a pinch I could gig with just my main patch, but with the Stompbox feature it's easy to create global FX blocks that you can use throughout your patches and once you decide which patch you trigger from each song, it's set and forget. Very easy to re-order the set at any time.

Example, when I select Don't You Forget About Me, I get a ridiculous long delay on my vocal, big spacey delay on the guitar and a synth pad on my SY-200. It sounds immense, but would take ages to select all that manually. Then next song could be a 50s number with slapback delay on the vocal, spring reverb on the guitar and an organ or strings on the SY etc.

Takes a bit of setting up and forward thinking, but I'd rather do the clever stuff before the gig and then just press one switch to go from song to song when I'm on stage!

The full fat GT1000 also has the Pedalboard mode if you ever fancy a more old-school approach 

Whats OnSong?

https://onsongapp.com/

I use a Windows based programme called Cantabile.  Cantabile handles playback of our backing tracks in sync with MIDI tracks as well as other 'bindings'.  Upon loading the next song in the set list the bindings send MIDI Programme Change (PC) messages to my Helix to select patches, and Continuous Change (CC) messages to alter fader levels on the digital mixer.  The MIDI tracks are used to change Snapshots on the Helix at the right spot in the song and to trigger the lights via MIDI to DMX.

At the end of each song the software loads the next number, draws up the appropriate Helix patch, sets the lights to the between numbers scene etc.  As soon as we're ready to go I just press the play button on my Stream Deck (or the record button if I'm recording the show) and off we go.

To reorder the set list between shows I just drag and drop songs in Cantabile, the Helix and Lights just follow.  Same if we decide to skip a song whilst on stage.

Roland

Onsong is an App which manages song related data: Lyrics, Chords, Midi data. Look it up in the App Store. There are several similar Apps.

Gulliver

I've not read the whole thread, so apologies if this has already been covered.

I sing/play guitar in a 3-piece band, so there's a lot of sounds I use, and need to use while singing.  I was pretty good at tap-dancing, but buying a Boss ES-8 was an absolute game-changer. with MIDI it also allowed me to take fewer pedals to gigs on the board. Instead of separate chorus, flange, univibe and tremolo pedals - I just have a Strymon Mobius doing it all.  Do I like any of the individual sounds? Not particularly. Are they good enough for me to have a good time with. Definitely.  I also changed my main overdrive for a Jackson Audio Optimist and use MIDI to switch sides of the pedal on/off so that's one less thing to think about too.

Depending on the gig, depends on how I will use the switcher board:

For scratch or dep gigs/jams - I have 4 core sounds on footswitches 1-4: Clean, Crunch, Lead, Lead with Delay.

I then have other footswitches to bring in/out other effects - so I have one set up for modulation (chorus on clean, flanger on crunch and lead) one for tremolo, one for autowah/filter, one for a boost.

For gigs with my band, I have a bank per song, and a patch saved for each section of the song, so 1 is Intro, 2 is Verse, 3 is Chorus, 4 is Solo/Mid 8 etc.   This allows me to have huge changes in sound, with only one foot press - so I can focus more on playing and singing.

It's a big investment (mine cost me £400 used, plus about £100 in cabling) but the time and stress it's saved me when gigging is enormous. 

The other downside (besides cost) is that the ES-8 Editor (useful for making, saving and organising patches) only really works if you use the proper Roland UM-ONE USB MIDI interface - most 3rd party ones don't work. Not sure why, but don't try and cheap out - buy the OG and have it be usable all the time.