What Order Should My Pedals Be In? - Article by Josh Bates
One of the
questions frequently asked at Humbucker Music concerns the
arrangement and order of effects pedals. This is a very
valid question, especially when there are a lot of pedals in
use. Many people, even several pros we've dealt with, are
surprised by the importance of proper pedal board signal flow.
Improper arrangement of pedals can make even the most
impressive pedalboard your worst enemy.
Naturally, pedals react quite differently according
to what input is being fed into them.
Pedal arrangement can be a fun process and can inspire new sounds when tired of the same setup. It is a pretty large topic to address, and although there are a few basics that can get someone headed in the right direction, I'm going to attempt to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time and concentrate on some more common situations and set ups. Please keep in mind that pedal order can be a subjective thing and largely based on opinion, especially since tastes can differ and change. There are a few rules to pedal order, but I still encourage anybody that reads this to experiment with your own sounds and arrangement and not to be worried about a "wrong" order. I've come up with a lot of different and interesting sounds by changing the order of pedals. My hopes are to provide a guideline and describe what I've learned and noticed about effects order.
Let's start with what an effects pedal does. It's doesn't just affect the tone of your guitar. It affects your guitar tone *AND* every pedal before it in the chain. Take for instance the following simple scenerio: You have a reverb pedal and a distortion pedal. Ideally you would want to add reverb to the already distorted sound, and not distort the guitar *and* the reverb. It's likely you'll end up with a more jarbled or muddied sound if you distort the reverberated signal. Another example: Plug your guitar into a wah pedal then into an overdrive pedal. What I've noticed in this instance is that the overdrive sounds muddy with a lot of mid-range and the wah is harsh. While this could be cool for some uses, it is not a sound that I'm after. Now try running the overdrive before the wah. What I've experienced is a more pleasant engagement between the two. The overdrive has more clarity and definition and the wah is smoother.
Pedal arrangement can be a fun process and can inspire new sounds when tired of the same setup. It is a pretty large topic to address, and although there are a few basics that can get someone headed in the right direction, I'm going to attempt to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time and concentrate on some more common situations and set ups. Please keep in mind that pedal order can be a subjective thing and largely based on opinion, especially since tastes can differ and change. There are a few rules to pedal order, but I still encourage anybody that reads this to experiment with your own sounds and arrangement and not to be worried about a "wrong" order. I've come up with a lot of different and interesting sounds by changing the order of pedals. My hopes are to provide a guideline and describe what I've learned and noticed about effects order.
Let's start with what an effects pedal does. It's doesn't just affect the tone of your guitar. It affects your guitar tone *AND* every pedal before it in the chain. Take for instance the following simple scenerio: You have a reverb pedal and a distortion pedal. Ideally you would want to add reverb to the already distorted sound, and not distort the guitar *and* the reverb. It's likely you'll end up with a more jarbled or muddied sound if you distort the reverberated signal. Another example: Plug your guitar into a wah pedal then into an overdrive pedal. What I've noticed in this instance is that the overdrive sounds muddy with a lot of mid-range and the wah is harsh. While this could be cool for some uses, it is not a sound that I'm after. Now try running the overdrive before the wah. What I've experienced is a more pleasant engagement between the two. The overdrive has more clarity and definition and the wah is smoother.
When organizing my
pedals, I first determine the purpose of each pedal. To help,
here is a basic categorization of pedal types and their purposes:
- Signal conditioners - Pedals that only alter the general sound by increasing gain and optionally changing the EQ. Includes preamp, overdrive, boost, distortion, fuzz and compressor pedals.
- Filter effects - Pedals that adjust the frequency response by enhancing, notching out, or shaping the frequencies in certain ranges. Includes wah, envelope filter, and EQ pedals.
- Volume/Level effects - Pedals that cause changes in the overall signal by increasing or decreasing level, or controlling certain peaks. Includes volume, tremolo, and noise gate pedals. A compressor could be considered in this category because of its volume control and ability to smooth peaks and valleys in a signal.
- Modulation effects - Pedals that modulate the original sound by introducing several signals to interact with the others in order to produce frequencies otherwise not present. Includes chorus, flanger, phase shifting, and rotary simulating pedals. Vibrato could also be considered in this category.
- Pitch related effects - Pedals that alter the pitch of the signal by adding octaves or bending the pitch. Includes octave and pitch shifting pedals such as a whammy. Vibrato could also be considered in this category.
- Echo and time-based effects - Pedals that simulate the original introduction of the sound by copying and repeating the sound or through an echo effect. Includes delay, reverb, and echo pedals.
Now that the pedals
are categorized, I'll go over a very basic pedal layout, an arrangement
I have found to typically work best, guitar being the start of the
signal path and the amp being the end.
Guitar --> Signal conditioners --> Filter effects -->Pitch related effects --> Modulation effects --> Volume/Level effects -->Echo and time-based effects --> Amp
I have found these types of effects to
work together the best in this arrangement, each pedal performing
naturally and acheiving a smooth and desired sound.
When any overdrives
or distortion are first in the chain, the overdriven sounds
will be more natural and unaffected than if they were
elsewhere. This also helps to prevent other effects being
driven too hard, like unnecessarily dirtying a delay signal by having
the overdrive later in the chain. Filter effects are more
lively and resonate more clearly in this position. Pitch
based effects seem to do well here because overdrive pedals already
create more pitches when engaged (think of all the harmonics or
overtones they can add) so having the pitch related effects
afterward help things to stay more controlled. Having a
volume or pedal in this position works well
when doing swells with delay or reverb pedals or even with overdriven
sounds. The volume pedal allows the swells to sound more
organic and actually swell, instead of sudden, "nothing to all" volume
swell. When playing with delay or reverb, putting the volume
pedal in the heel position would not kill the echoes (this
would be like turning the amp off while playing) as
it would in another position, but instead the sounds would
naturally decay. Having modulation effects in this
order helps the sound to be a "chorused overdrive" or "phased
distortion" or a lead part with a hint of flange, instead of distorting
the modulated sounds. Having reverb and delay effects last
in a chain helps to emulate the sound of playing in a
larger room, typically a desired affect when using delay or reverb, and
the delay and echoes sound much cleaner and articulate when in this
position.
When arranging pedals in this order, I have spent a lot of time with the specific arrangement of pedals within a category. I have different overdrives, different modulation effects, different volume effects and different delays. Arranging within a category can prove to be tedious but well worth time spent. I have found that I like the stronger gain pedals first, like distortions or fuzz pedals. Following these, I like overdrive and boost pedals. I like boost pedals last in the signal conditioning category, so I can boost any other gain pedal or just the original signal, and it still works well.
When using a
compressor, I've noticed a
large difference in sound when varying its
placement. I have to consider what type of sound I'm aiming
for before settling on a home for a
compressor in a chain of pedals. For a more dynamic,
rock and roll sound, I've found the compressor works best at the start
of the chain. This helps the overall sound to breathe a bit
more with the introduction of other pedals in the signal
path. The compressor is working less hard, allowing slight
changes in level and the sound is very lively, which I like a great
deal. The compressor serves just to even things out, the
overdrives are very focused and detailed, single notes sustain well and
delays and reverbs ring out more. To change things
up, I have added the compressor after pitch related effects and before
level and volume effects. This adds more sustain to the
overall sound and the compressor is doing more
compressing. Fewer changes in volume when introducing new
effects and less dynamics. Having the compressor at the end
of the chain helps to achieve a great country sound.
Everything is very tight and "squashed" in a good way. Notes
are very clear and even and lots of sustain.
As stated at the start of the article, I like wah best after overdrive, (first in a group of filter effects because it works closer to the overdriven sounds) for a richer, smoother tone. However, having a wah before overdrive or distortion can make some pretty interesting frequency responses and may be more desired than the smoothness of having overdriven sounds first. A classic example is Jimi Hendrix. He ran the wah first and, even it's just me, I thought he had some really killer wah tones. I definitely wouldn't stray too far from the start of the chain; there may be too many weird frequency spikes and I can't think of many fans of that kind of sound.
I commonly place volume last in it's
category, right before delay and reverb; I've found it most
natural when fading out sounds or doing swells. I
place echoes before delay and reverbs after delay, it seems like this
brings out the most ambience and the fullest sound.
When running an EQ
pedal, I've found it works best if it is placed directly after the
effect that is being EQ'd. If it is working on the overall
sound, it seems to work best after modulation effects or right after
volume effects. The same can be true for
noise gates. They seem to be the most friendly right before
or even after time based effects, but they can also work well right
before a really noisy pedal, like fuzz or wah.
Remember, that
these are all suggestions and what brought me to these conclusions for
myself was experimentation and patience. For the best
results, set aside some time for adjusting the
order and enjoy the time spent. An arrangment other
than what has been described can prove to be very satisfying, even it
isn't conventional.
Josh Bates
Humbucker Music
