Anyone abandoned individual pedals and gone back to a multi-FX?

ICBM

I'm think of doing. I'm contemplating buying an old Boss GT-5.

I hate building/rebuilding pedalboards.
I hate not being able to change something - even just the order - without having to rebuild my pedalboard.
I hate metal click footswitches (OK, I could build an all-Boss/Ibanez/DOD board).

I'm beginning to find the current 'retro' type effects boring and I long for non-rock sounds. (AKA I like Mike Oldfield .)
I want to love digital sounds. I firmly believe they don't sound crap, they're just being used wrong. Not that I've ever been happy with them before…
I like being different for the sake of it .

Should I go down the push-button-editing rabbit hole again?

Sporky

I did and I am very happy - though I went Helix.

I've never used a GT-5 but I loved my VG-88 which I think was about the same era.

However, if you really want a full-on warren get a UD Stomp. For a box that only does modulated delays it is astoundingly complex.

John_P

Yes (more than once).    
Ladt year I used a GT5 for a while and thought it was very good,  amazing for the price they go for.   
I used it in 4cm to control an evh and provide effects,  super easy to use and sounded fine.   I only sold mine as I had moved on to an fx8 which was better but then it should be.  

Heartfeltdawn

I integrated and things were blinking marvellous. 

http://i.imgur.com/pEVKqz4.jpg

guitarfishbay

Honestly I think if you know what you want to achieve, and find a unit that sounds good enough to you, then do it.

Over tweaking stems from 2 main issues. 1. Not being happy with the tone, the only solution is to buy a unit that sounds good enough, or to go back to pedals. 2. Not knowing what you want to achieve in the first place - usually this is the one that causes problems... This is when less is more. Personally I generally know what I want, so for example if I want to apply high pass and low pass filters to my delay repeats I'd like to be able to do that rather than be stuck with a simple tone control.

Heartfeltdawn

^^
Later on, I actually had two SMMHs, one before the GT3 and one after. After the second SMMH came some stereo delays and more reverbs. At one point I had a three amp setup, stereo delays on two of the amps, reverb on the middle... that was my Verve-style rig

I love the Boss GT-3 and I want to buy one this year. Haven't really had a pedalboard this year but next year I will. 

octatonic

I have an FX8.
I can use it with guitar and bass and easily switch rigs and scenes.
It is awesome.

I still have a regular pedalboard for times when it isn't appropriate to take a multifx unit.

GavRichList

See, I had a GT3 and thought it was shite, but the ME50s sound suprisingly good. 

Heartfeltdawn

Sporky said:

However, if you really want a full-on warren get a UD Stomp. For a box that only does modulated delays it is astoundingly complex.

There is no pedal out there that I have used that is more complex. Ridiculous pedal in every way, some astounding sounds, but ye gods is it hard work going through the manual. 

Sporky

Heartfeltdawn said:

There is no pedal out there that I have used that is more complex. Ridiculous pedal in every way, some astounding sounds, but ye gods is it hard work going through the manual. 

Even with the PC editor I still never understood how one glorious shimmery reverb was built.

Drew_TNBD

Really happy with the Helix. Okay, so I flip gear more than I flip burgers... usually. This one is mos-def a keeper. I prefer the sound and accessibility of the Helix over the Kemper and Fractal stuff.

For effects, I think digital is pretty hard to ignore these days. They sound great whatever you buy, even the lowly Zoom G3 sounds pretty farkin' amazing compared to the old days. S'all about workflow - if you don't like menu diving and drowning in options, avoid the Fractal stuff. If you like simplicity and only need delays, you could get a Boss DD500, Korg SDD3000 or Vox Delay Lab, or something by TC. If you need more than that then you're looking at a proper multi.... If the Helix is too much scratch for you, try the Boss GT-100. Pretty good unit that one.

ICBM

Sporky said:

I've never used a GT-5 but I loved my VG-88 which I think was about the same era.

Yes, or maybe slightly later. I never tried the VG-88 - I had a VG-8 on extended trial when I worked for a Roland dealer, but I found it frustrating to use and didn't buy it. Apparently the 88 addressed some of the problems with it.

For many years my main sound generation unit was an SE-70 - which is the generation immediately before the GT-5 and doesn't have COSM - which I still have and occasionally play around with. In many ways the GT-5 would give me much of what's good about the SE-70 with added foot-control flexibility, which is the main area it falls down slightly in.

The GT-5 addresses both that and the lack of effect-order control on the SE-70, while fixing the problem with the ME-50 - which I've owned two of - no manual control over a preset patch. It also sounds far better than I remember them doing. (Is this an indication that the world is going to hell in a handcart, or a worrying sign of aging? ) And it's only £100…!

stratman3142

I went from individual pedals to a GT6 with a couple of drive pedals in the FX loop because the built in drives and ampsims aren't at all to my liking. Apart from the drives and ampsims, I like the GT6 sounds. It blows away my ME-80 which I'll be selling soon.

I've not tried a GT5 but I think there's a possibility that the GT5 might be analogue, so the drives might be better than those of the GT6.

ICBM

Drew_TNBD said:

For effects, I think digital is pretty hard to ignore these days. They sound great whatever you buy, even the lowly Zoom G3 sounds pretty farkin' amazing compared to the old days.

I had one and didn't like it at all - it just sounded bland and artificial. I did like the B3 bass one though… until I went back to individual Boss pedals, which sound much better.

stratman3142 said:

I've not tried a GT5 but I think there's a possibility that the GT5 might be analogue, so the drives might be better than those of the GT6.

The overdrive/distortion is analogue and the 'amp' preamp is COSM, according to the manual. Best of both worlds - or neither? I haven't tried it enough to tell yet.

What's odd about COSM is that on the ME-50, all of the drives are shite except for the 'Natural OD' which is really good and was very nearly indistinguishable from my Mesa V-Twin...

professorben

Yep a few times, first was for a Vox Tonelab Le. 

lasermonkey

In my second band I dumped all my analogue pedals and used a Quadraverb GT with an X-15 foot controller. It did make life an awful lot easier.

 The last band I played in I went back to pedals, as I needed to do a lot of in the fly tweaking.

 Although I do have a pedalboard, I also have a rack setup which comprises the Quadraverb GT, a pair of Boss SE 70s (I love 'em to bits!), a Roland DEP-5 and a Delatalab DL4 DDL. I could happily use either setup though ideally, it would be a combination of both.

Heartfeltdawn

Sporky said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

There is no pedal out there that I have used that is more complex. Ridiculous pedal in every way, some astounding sounds, but ye gods is it hard work going through the manual. 

Even with the PC editor I still never understood how one glorious shimmery reverb was built.

Ditto! Yamaha deserve special credit for baffling me. I can program old rack units blindfolded, stuff like the MPX1 is simple, likewise programming a Boss GT-3. The UD Stomp was on a different planet but still made more sense than the installation instructions for a Yamaha O1X audio interface and mixing unit.That remains the only piece of computer hardware I have ever given up on and returned to the seller because I had no idea how to get the damn thing working. I even farmed it out to a couple of techie friends: no joy there. 

Heartfeltdawn

ICBM said:

Yes, or maybe slightly later. I never tried the VG-88 - I had a VG-8 on extended trial when I worked for a Roland dealer, but I found it frustrating to use and didn't buy it. Apparently the 88 addressed some of the problems with it.

For many years my main sound generation unit was an SE-70 - which is the generation immediately before the GT-5 and doesn't have COSM - which I still have and occasionally play around with. In many ways the GT-5 would give me much of what's good about the SE-70 with added foot-control flexibility, which is the main area it falls down slightly in.

The GT-5 addresses both that and the lack of effect-order control on the SE-70, while fixing the problem with the ME-50 - which I've owned two of - no manual control over a preset patch. It also sounds far better than I remember them doing. (Is this an indication that the world is going to hell in a handcart, or a worrying sign of aging? ) And it's only £100…!

Absolutely not a sign of madness. I had a pedalboard costing over four grand at my worst point. Moving down to drives, compressor, the GT-3 and some delays cost under £300 and I spent far more time playing and far less time messing about. £40 that GT-3 cost me. Absolute bargain. 

menamestom

ICBM said:

Drew_TNBD said:

For effects, I think digital is pretty hard to ignore these days. They sound great whatever you buy, even the lowly Zoom G3 sounds pretty farkin' amazing compared to the old days.

I had one and didn't like it at all - it just sounded bland and artificial. I did like the B3 bass one though… until I went back to individual Boss pedals, which sound much better.

The opposite of me then, I liked the G3 but find most modern Boss pedals bland and artificial
To be fair I didn't use the drives or amp modeling in the G3 and I do like a lot of the classic pedals.  It's mainly the modern Boss modulations that I have the issue with.

monquixote

If you want something inexpensive, but decent then I'd suggest trying the GT-100.

I was very impressed by the one I had (though the amp modelling is shit). You can also do a nifty trick by putting a decent analogue drive pedal in the loop. You can then get lots of different sounds out of it by changing the pre and post gain, moving the loop and applying EQ. 

guitarfishbay

The ODB3 is awesome.