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With all the gear out there, and so many pedal to run everything through, how do you decide what to use on a song?

I've started some mild home recording, just for fun, but the song I'm recording right now sounds fine with whatever I put it through. I've tried thick, bass-y fuzz to a squealing oscillating fuzz and it all sounds just fine. It even sound nice with delay

I'm sure I'll find a solution eventually, but what do you guys do? I've seen some massive pedal boards on here, and I've got to wonder how you sift through all of them to find the right sound.

To be honest, it boils down to time with the units and knowing what they do. It's instinctual after a while - "I need this sound, I'll reach for these three pedals" and start wiring them in without thinking.

An example is if i want a particularly ugly octave, I know that I can run any one of a dozen octave fuzzes into each other, including in parallel in the stereo loop if needed.

It's like knowing what colors you have in your palette as an artist; after a while you don't have to look at the color wheel, you just know what blues you have and how to blend it to make it happen.

What helps during the learning curve is to take copious notes, including a quick digital photo of your settings if they're analog dials etc, on any tracks you record or screw around with, so you know how to get there in the future.

Keep all the pedals in the chain and play the songs different each time.

Simple. Record the song three-however many times with different effects one each then mix them together.

But really, if you can't decide on one sound, combine them and see what happens. Another thing to do is if you have different guitar parts to record you can save a certain effect for the lead line, etc.

But as said before, it's all about spending time with the effects and knowing what pedal does what and how it effects the mood of the song.

I always write songs unplugged and then plug in and start to mess around with my pedals, I usually know what kind of sound I want, depending on what type of song it is. I.e. I use a Ts-9 on a blues/rock song not m boss metal zone, since ya know it's a blues. So that's that. Usually having another bandmate around is good, so they can comment and then that helps them pick which pedal(s) they will use.

PumpkinPieces wrote:Simple. Record the song three-however many times with different effects one each then mix them together.

But really, if you can't decide on one sound, combine them and see what happens. Another thing to do is if you have different guitar parts to record you can save a certain effect for the lead line, etc.

But as said before, it's all about spending time with the effects and knowing what pedal does what and how it effects the mood of the song.

Haha, the first thing I tried was recording it with a few different settings to see which one I liked best, and when I couldn't decide I just threw them all together. I liked the sound, but it was way too cluttered for the song.

i usually just go as is. and boop it over into ableton

the good thing about post-prod effects is that they have hella flexibility and are great if you want variety over quality. not saying they aren't bad effects, of course.
and you can sorta pick and chose what sounds best without worrying about it live.

sometimes i just KNOW. there are parts that come to me with the settings already dialed. other times i have to hunt around to find the right box or combination for the best result...recently i needed a fuzz to use with the volume pedal for horn-like effects and was rather surprised that the best one turned out to be the Tone Reaper with the distortion backed off to about 40%. i can tell it's right when the playback makes the hair on the backs of my arms stand up.

Experimentation is pretty much the deal. One effect vs. the other? I will usually have a loose idea/goal/feeling for which I aim with a part of a song or the whole in mind. The loose idea guides composition and experimentation. All our gear bits are tools. As others have mentioned, understanding the capabilities of one's tools can aid experimentation and decision making. Sometimes I will have a specific goal and know how to get there quickly because I know my gear. Other times, I start broadly and try different things.

I purchase effects and other gear I think will aid my compositions. I experiment, and if I don't end up using it much, it may go up for export. A big fleet of effects doesn't mean you use them all at once. Unless it does. For me, each bit of gear in a rig has a purpose I have decided on and is ultimately there to accomplish something in the music.

Anything I'm writing, I usually write it clean to get a structure down, then run it through the effects.

For your case, I'd just record it one way, then play it differently live!

For me, writing comes the other way. I don't write a riff, and then decide what effects to use. I play around with a particular effect, and that usually inspires me to write a new riff based around that effect.

I just plug things in until I get a tingly feeling down there

My board is so simple that I have a couple "always ons" and from there if I was delay turn on my ONE delay and adjust to speed, if I need heavier drive I will turn on my internet on top of what my dirty chan may be putting out, and if I was oscilating madness which a couple of my songs call for (due to the concept nature of my bands current project with recurring themes) I will turn on my TGD. Other than that the rest of my board is taken up by utility pedals such as loops and tuners. I'm probably a really boring player when it comes to effects but I can get so many sounds out of what little I do have that there hasn't been many times where I wish I had something I don't.

Gearmond wrote:i usually just go as is. and boop it over into ableton

the good thing about post-prod effects is that they have hella flexibility and are great if you want variety over quality. not saying they aren't bad effects, of course.
and you can sorta pick and chose what sounds best without worrying about it live.

For me post-prod's have their cons too. Sometimes it's just too much to kinda have all the possibilities in the world. That's why I don't really get along with software instruments either when creating something new. Of course they come handy when I have a specific thing in mind (like I need a piano tone). When we record guitars and bass we tend to create the sound when recording. Normally all effects are done straight away except reverb for "basic" tracks (if it's not shoegazy woosh we're after).

bigchiefbc wrote:For me, writing comes the other way. I don't write a riff, and then decide what effects to use. I play around with a particular effect, and that usually inspires me to write a new riff based around that effect.

So, this.