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Effects Explained
An introduction to effects
Effects are almost universally used on
electronic instruments to shape or change the sound of the instrument. One of
the most commonly and often most effected electronic instruments is the electric
guitar.
If you plug an electric guitar straight into the clean channel of your amplifier
- and turn off any onboard effects such as reverb that your amp may have, then
you will notice that the sound produced is not the most exciting or inspiring
guitar sound. You will almost never hear a totally clean (a pure guitar sound
without any effects or distortion) guitar on a modern recording.
This means that if you are wanting a modern sound then you need to get an
understanding of the different types of effects and what they will do for your
tone.To start with you need to
understand the basic principle of effects. You plug your sound source (eg
guitar) into the input of your effects box, and then take a lead from the output
to you amp. You can chain as many effects as you want in whatever order you want
to get your own signature sound.
Some amplifiers have what is called an effects (or FX) loop, which is an output
from your amp which has a 'send' and 'return'. If you want to use the effects
loop, then you plug into your amp as normal and the signal goes into the pre amp
- where any overdrive and EQ settings are applied. The signal is then piped out
of your amplifier through the 'send', into your effects box and brought back
into the amp via the 'return'. This effected signal is then piped to the power
section of your amp where the signal is boosted and piped off to your speaker.
There are very many different types of effects, but they can general be grouped
into a few main categories:
Dynamic When people refer to dynamics they are talking about the volume,
and more specifically the change in volume of your sound. This is sometimes
referred to as the dynamic range.
Modulation Modulation effects change the sound, usually changing over
time, creating sweeping or radical changes depending on the settings and the
particular effect being used.
DelayDelay, or echo, is when the original signal is delayed in some way
and then fed back into the signal creating an echo effect. Delay effects are
also the basis of many modulation effects as the delayed sound can interact with
the original creating some unusual effects.
Effects Units
You can get effects units in many different guises - one of the first and most
common is a single effect in a rack unit (studios, live sound rigs) or as small
floor mounted boxes most often used by guitarists (often called stomp boxes due
to the fact that you stand on a switch to engage/ disengage the effect). Another
common form for guitarists that is starting to make more and more sense is the
multiFX unit. These are single boxes that allow you to process your sound
through many different effects simultaneously - equivalent in some ways to
having many stomp boxes chained up. However the price of a multiFX unit compared
to a bunch of stomp boxes is enormous. And this combined with the fact that
multiFX units usually include a digital tuner, headphone output and power supply
means that for the cost conscious musician they are almost certainly the best
bet...
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