SETTING UP YOUR FX UNITS

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Before you begin to program your unit you need to have it properly connected to your guitar amp or mixing desk/recording machine. If you’re using a guitar amp, this should be set up for a good clean sound and you can plug your multi-effects unit into the input socket. The idea is to use your multi-effects unit to create and shape all your guitar tones and use your amp simply as an amplifier. If your F/X machine has a speaker/amp simulator this should off unless you’re plugging straight into a mixing desk/recording machine in which case it must be switched on. If your machine has several types of simulator, run through the presets to find a sound which is close to what you want. If you plug into a mixing desk without a simulator your distortion sounds will be horrible. The first thing I do is to program my lead sound. I need a sound which is big, full & clear, with enough grind to enhance artificial harmonics and plenty of sustain. The problem with most multi-effects units is that the presets can sound really impressive but tend to have loads of echo or reverb which can lead to your guitar sound not cutting through the rest of the band or mix. Step 1: Find a preset which has the kind of distortion character you want and then turn off the reverb/echo/chorus/flange/eq/& compression. You should be left with the distortion and, if applicable the simulator. At this stage you may want to look at your input/output gain. Some machines don’t have adjustment for input gain but where they do, follow the instruction manual to adjust it to the optimum setting. Your output gain is your master volume and should be adjusted so that the volume is roughly the same as when you bypass the effects. If you’re using a guitar amp, you should have roughly the same volume as if you were just plugging your guitar in normally. Refer to the manual to find out what master level is considered “Normal”. Step 2: Set the amount of drive (Overdrive/Dist) so that you get the amount of sustain you want. You’ll find that the more drive you have, the less clear the sound so there is usually some kind of tone adjustment to compensate. Then use the Drive level control to adjust the volume. Some units call this a pre-amp and have controls such as volume, tone and master as you would find on a conventional guitar amp. Use all the controls available in this section to shape the sound to your requirements. If you can get close to the sound you want then great but you might find it sounds a bit “dead”. Turn the Reverb on and adjust the reverb level so that it just takes off the deadness. If it doesn’t sound quite right then there are a couple of extra things you can adjust. Step 3: Compression is not always an option but if you need more sustain then try switching this on. As with the distortion you may find that the more sustain you have the more muddy the sound and once again there is often a tone adjustment in the compression module. Beware though, unless your guitar has great pickups then you may get some squealing at high volumes due to this extra gain. I never use Compression with Distortion as I feel it's OTT. I only use Compression on clean sounds to make picking more even and make strumming sound more funky. Step 4: If the tone isn’t quite right, having adjusted the tone on the drive section then try playing with the simulator. Most modern units have more than one setting to give different tonal characteristics. Step 5: If this still isn’t enough, and ONLY if, switch the EQ section and experiment with that. EQ: It helps to understand what frequencies affect certain notes. The way I look at it is the Low E string is around 80Hz. E on the D string is around 160Hz and the High E string is approx. 330Hz. If you want to emphasize higher notes, the E on the 12th fret of the top E is around 660Hz. The idea is you double the figure for each octave. When you’re boosting (+) or cutting (-) you are amplifying or attenuating whichever frequency you’ve chosen. A 6dB boost is equal to making that note twice as loud. A 6dB cut is equal to halving the volume of that note. You will find that the notes either side will also be affected. The highest fretted note on a guitar then would be 1320Hz or 1.32kHz. You may wonder why EQ adjustment goes much higher. Each of these notes is made up of the fundamental - the pure note at the frequency I’ve mentioned and a series of harmonics at higher frequencies. It’s the harmonic part of the note which reaches up to the higher frequencies such as 5kHz or 8kHz and adjusting these makes a significant difference to the character of the overall sound. It’s worth noting that our ears are most sensitive at 2kHz, so if you can use the 2kHz adjustment as a volume knob! Careful though as it’s not a very pleasant sound if its boosted too much although it will cut through the mix in a band situation. By cutting some of the mid frequencies between 400hz and 1kHz you can create that famous Metallica type of grind. Cutting one particular frequency can have a similar effect to boosting another particular frequency. At the end of the day you need to experiment and use your ears to decide what sounds good but it pays to know some of the ins & outs to take some of the guesswork out of it. Once you’ve adjusted the EQ you need to check whether the guitar has become louder or quieter. If it has, use the overall EQ level control to balance it up. I personally use the EQ simply as a convenient volume boost for my solos where there is little or no EQ adjustment but the level is set to +4dB so I get a boost of just over half as loud again. Reverbs/Delays/Chorus/Flanger/Pitch Shifters/Harmonisers: These are things which add the “Icing on the Cake” to your guitar sound and you will find the presets on your machine will provide you with very good examples of what you can achieve. Most of the settings I’ll be giving you are for going straight into a mixing desk as I haven’t owned a guitar amp for years. However, these sounds should work reasonably well with an amp - you should turn off the simulator when you do this. To be honest it doesn’t sound too bad if you use the simulator, the sound just won’t have as much edge.

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