Boss CS-3 with Single Rec - loop or out front and why

[Pig Muffin]

I am trying to learn the placement of effects and why the effect needs to be there. I am using all of the stuff I am asking about though.

 

[94Tremoverb]

A compressor should go in front of the amp, not in the loop - certainly a pedal one, it's possible that you might want to use a studio-quality one in the loop for a more refined 'invisible' compression. You want a compressor pedal in front of the amp because that's where it will be able to respond to the playing dynamics from the guitar. If you put it in the loop, on a distorted sound it will be working on a signal that is effectively already very compressed and so will either not work much, or behave erratically depending on how you set the threshold and attack.

Worse, with some types of effects loop - the Mesa loop is one, since it's a parallel loop with a crude unbuffered bypass mix - and high levels of compression, it's possible that the pedal could make the amp unstable - at best it will sound bad, and at worst (a small chance, but not non-existent) it could cause the amp to self-oscillate and possibly overstress something.

 

[Pig Muffin]

great thank you for the information.

should it come before or after my OCD out front?

guitar ---->ocd---->compressor---->amp

OR

guitar---->compressor----> OCD---->amp

or does it not matter.

 

[Chris McKinley]

Pig Muffin,

Here are some threads where I've covered this topic in great detail previously. Let me know if you have any further questions.

http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=31052&p=228172#p228172

http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=47931&p=344155#p344155

http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=43327&p=312414#p312414

http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=40317&p=290199#p290199

http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=38949&p=280486#p280486

http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=38559&p=277599#p277599

http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=38230&p=275381#p275381

http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=36476&p=262651#p262651



There are other comments here and there that I didn't reference, but these should cover most every question you'll have regarding the placement of effects with regard to both the front of the amp (between buitar and preamp) and in the loop. Hope it helps.

 

[Chris McKinley]

Definitely guitar ------>compressor -------OCD ------amp.

Compressors tend to dramatically multiply the noise floor and any artifacts produced by an overdrive will be multiplied, producing a very noisy signal.

 

[Pig Muffin]

those links are great, how do you search on this forum? Dumb question i know.

 

[Chris McKinley]

There's a link in the upper right corner of the page. In blue text, it reads, "FAQ Search Members User Control Panel". Just click on the "Search" text and it will take you to the search parameters page.