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A compressor "compresses" the signal that your guitar produces by normalizing the dynamic range of the audio input signal based on a threshold value. This effect is used virtually everywhere in recording. Everything you hear in music that is produced today is compressed in some way--and it can sound anything from a subtle barely noticeable effect to a thick, ...

When you ask this question you are going to get 99% opinion because it is completely subjective. Plenty of people out there (like myself) absolutely hate multi-FX rigs, while others swear by them. There's no real scientific reason to pick one over the other, but here's a quick match up between their basic features: All-in-One Pros: Takes up less space; ...

A talkbox is a small, self-contained amplifier and speaker assembly. There's a tiny little speaker in it and the speaker, instead of moving air in a room, moves the air in a plastic tube that it's sealed against. You run your guitar in to the talkbox and the plastic tube you insert in your mouth. So your mouth becomes a resonant cavity for the guitar sounds ...

Every effect pedal, when on, runs your guitar's signal through its effect circuitry, which produces the altered signal. Fine. But what about when the pedal is off? Doesn't your guitar's signal just pass through the pedal unaffected? Actually, in many (most?) pedals, the answer is no. For these pedals---which include everything made by DOD, Boss, Ibanez, ...

In order to properly answer this question we need to identify that in the world of guitar effects there are three distinct ways to produce distortion (or clipping): overdrive, boost, and fuzz. Each has it's own unique characteristics. In addition, let's consider the three different ways to run a pedal + amplifier overdrive configuration: clean amp + pedal ...

I know both Steve Hackett and Robert Fripp. I have interviewed them for articles I published in guitar magazines. You are asking about an unusual effect that requires special equipment. To get the sounds you described, early in their careers, Steve Hacket and Robert Fripp used the hand-held electro-magnetic bowing device called the EBow. Later on they used ...

"Digital" means that the signal from your guitar is first run through an A/D (analog to digital) converter to translate it into a digital signal (meaning a series of 1's and 0's). The effect then performs computations on that digital signal, altering it somehow. In this regard, it's no different from a computer---in fact, a digital effect is just a ...

Quite possibly one of the best ways to remove muddiness from your overdriven tone (regardless of what chords you play) is through the use of a compressor. If you don't know what one of those is, check out this question. If you think you know what one is, you probably don't, and you should check out this question =D. I kid. In all seriousness though--JFET ...

Perhaps it was EBow. It amplifies string vibrations (using magnetic fields) providing very controllable feedback effect which allows to get very smooth and sustained sound. Also check out this video on Youtube. Although it is old it demonstrates very wide range of possibilities of this device.

There are a lot of opportunities for EQ in the long signal chain between your pickups and the house sound: Your guitar's tone knobs, the tone knobs on your effects pedals (when engaged), the EQ on your amp, the choice and placement of the mic on your amp, the EQ in the channel strip on the house board, the main house EQs, and maybe some others I'm not ...

People use Wah in lots of ways; for me I find that the most effective way to use it is to wah with the feel of what your doing. I have seen many people just rock back and forwards on the things at the same speed (usually fast) no matter what they are playing, that what you don't want to do. Remember its an expression pedal. Here's a few examples: If your ...

I feel a bit silly writing a new answer when Jduv's is so good, and so well received, but I'm going to anyway partly because I want to use simpler terms, and partly because I have a point to make about attack. Imagine you had a signal that was sometimes too loud, and sometimes too quiet. You'd deal with it by turning the volume down when it's too loud, and ...

It is useful because it allows you to add effects to your sound after it has been through the amps EQ and pre-amp; What this means; the pre-amp can do its magic on a clean signal from your guitar; before effects are added. Adding effects which boost(overdrive/distortion) the signal into the effects loop can be dangerous for the amp, as the signal has ...

What's difference between positions of these pedals? I'd say the more traditional approach is delay -> reverb. Reverb being used in this context to create "space" and delay being used to, well, repeat things (as opposed to using the delay with a short repeat time to create a bigger sound). An example of this approach would be something like Godspeed! ...

Bring your own guitar to the shop! And preferably play the effects through a similar amp as you have at home. If you are going to buy a digital Multi-effect I would try them out in the same situation as you are gonna use them. For example if you mostly will be sitting at home playing with earphones, thats how you should try it in the shop as well. Many try ...

One easy way: Use a sustain effect processor (Glossary of Guitar Effects). A sustain effect just saves the highest volume you played and raises the volume gradually as the tone from the guitar decays, thus effectively sustaining the volume at an equal level or at least a slowly decaying level in the dry channel. Other Tips: Use a good guitar. Bad guitars ...

There's no reason not to try an effect if you want to. Sure, some kind of effect might mask some bad habits (reverb and delay might sort off mess your timing), but distortion for example is almost like playing another instrument, and if you're into punk/rock, the sooner you try it the better. You will have to figure out ways to mute the strings and reduce ...

Compression Compression is used to reduce the dynamic range of a signal. It can be used at the top of the amplitude range, to reduce the volume of a specified range of inputs, or at the bottom of the amplitude range, to increase the volume of a specified range of inputs. A more in-depth description can be found on this question: What Does a Compressor ...

Boost Boost is an effect which boosts the volume of an input signal, in order to assure that the amplifier is driven beyond its regular dynamic range and thus will produce clipping and thereby distortion. Boosts are very useful for tube amp players who wish to increase the gain on their amplifier without having to modify the tone the way a traditional ...

Gate / Noise Cancellation A gate filters silences the output if the input signal is quieter than a configured level. Noise Cancellation is a common application of a gate. By setting the cutoff level to a level that is louder than the buzz and noise when no note is being played, yet quieter than the quietest note that you will play, it suppresses the buzz ...

In my experience, this is a problem inherent in heavy distortion. I'd suggest one of two things: You can decrease the amount of distortion, letting the notes you play come through a little more cleanly. You can play fewer notes at a time. Most chords only need three or four notes to be clear, and generally higher notes will punch through distortion more ...

First off we should understand that the nature of a plucked string is to decay exponentially. There fore sustain on a guitar string is literally impossible without some sort of electronic enhancement. Before I suggest any of a number of ways to create sustain, let's examine the contributing factors that allow some guitars (electric or non-electric) to ...

Pedals won't get you 100% there. Lots of people obsess over gear thinking that "this badass Zvex pedal will make me sound like Matt Bellamy." While artists tend to have a standard arsenal for particular genre's of music, your technique is really what makes your music shine. I spent years trying to nail down "my sound" and I ended up disappointed with nearly ...

There are several power supplies on the market! Many people say you need these to get the best sound out of your pedals but I think that the only reason to get one is the one you described in your question. After checking the Empress effects homepage I think this one would be enough for you: Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus Universal Power ...

<opinion> First off, good choice on Empress. They build some high quality effects--although I dunno about running an all empress board :D--Seems a little thematic to me, but totally cool.</opinion>. Ah the power supply question. Everyone needs them, nobody wants to pay for them--so they resort to wall warts and daisy chains. Let me be the first ...

It really depends what you want tone wise, I have a Blackstar HT studio in my home recording rig with a SD-1 in front, it sounds great, though I do tend to pile that onto the amps gain to get the tone I want. A tube screamer(Bad Monkey or TS-9), would be equally good if slightly different (slightly smoother with an EQ on the Bad Monkey also). There are a ...

This is a very localised, specific question so out may be closed, however a general answer is that you would just use the compressor in the normal signal chain: -------- ------------ ----- ---------- |guitar|---|compressor|---|amp|---|speakers| --------   ------------   -----   ---------- Your other option is to put it in the effects loop but ...

You are describing a loop pedal. All the major effects brands make loop pedals, with Boss arguably being the brand leaders with their Loopstation range. Loop pedals vary in complexity. The simplest ones just let you record a short loop, and overdub more layers as it loops. More advanced (and expensive) loop pedals have features such as: recording and ...

There are many factors that can cause the loss of frequency response problem. Long cable runs can affect frequency response if the cables are not good quality. The longer the cable, the more resistance, capacitance and/or impedance can kick in and mess with the signal. Dirty plugs/jacks/volume pots can cause problems too. Chains of effects, or poorly built ...

It theoretically does not matter. Effects that are "linear" do not depend on order. Both reverb and delay are linear(in fact, reverb is a type of delay). Therefore the issue depends on the details. Pedals are not perfect and some different orders could potentially produce different results... but generally be close. Here is a scenario where order matters. ...