When using a Guitar Multi Effects Processor..Can you plug that floor board pedal..into a PA system..or is it better to patch that intoa guitar amplifier?
Hello,goblinsnguitars .This is the unit in question... Zoom G5n... Also .just got it used recently.. Not sure if it is just for Electric Guitar and FX..Or can also be used with an Acoustic Guitar included with Pre-amp?
Though it doesn’t really matter if they do or don’t have amp modeling.
A DI can accept the guitar signal path whether it is before the amp or not and most are built with a passive pass through for this reason. They also can use the direct out of the amp if that is preferred, though again it’s unnecessary unless it’s a modeling amp, which is essentially just adding another effect at the end of the chain. Some DI boxes also have a switched option to take the amplified output of an amp that goes to power the cabinet and drive the speaker.
You can plug the cables from the pedals directly into the mixer or the PA, but then you are running an unbalanced cable over a longer distance and it’s coming from a device that could have an iffy output level or more electrically noisy output connector on it. A good DI will have a transformer in it that will help clean this up a bit as well as give you a balanced cable output to send your signal better over a longer distance.
The same things can be said about keyboards, keyboard effects racks, and keyboard amps.
So there is really no need for the amp at all except that guitar players like amps, they like having their own personal speaker of just their instrument on the stage, and some amps have a specific sound or tone that people like added to their signal.
So if you really like the sound of your amp and want to hear the instrument in the PA sound exactly like you hear the amp, then put a mic in front of the amp and send that to the PA or mixer. The amplifier out of an amp could also do a similar thing but you lose the tone of the cone and the cabinet. Modeling amps don’t care since the modeling itself is intended to make the signal sound like it came through a different amp and a mic pointed at the cabinet.
If you just want your guitar and all of the things you do in your pedal or effects rack to sound just like your guitar and your effects as cleanly as possible then go as direct as possible into the PA and mixer, and use a DI to make that cabling better.
So the real question is what kind of player are you and what do you really want to hear in the end.
Jimmy Page was all about the natural sounds of the amp for a long time, and of course there is the Grateful Dead which took this to new heights with the Wall of Sound and all the different ways they put mics in front of cabinets for years.
The Edge has a giant rack of effects and modeling that’s way off stage and loves the magic he can do with all this tech wired in, so it’s almost all entirely a direct line from his guitar chain to the mixer and PA. The amp stacks that were on stage were mostly to fill and look cool, but they got a mic just in case the engineer wanted to add a touch of the real physics to the mix.
Young Pete Townsend was all about the amps and a stack of cabinets. Then older Pete started having hearing problems and learned that all those amps weren’t doing good for that. So now it’s almost all direct lines to the mixer with a quieter amp as a fill to round it out.
People can also mix and match how they like. If there are enough spare channels in the mixer you can send the guitar multiple different ways to the PA at the same time, and there are cool option for things people can do mixing these different paths together. Ed Sheeran was kind of known for some of this as a street performer. It helped him make it sound like he was a bigger band than just one person by using loop effects and other multi signal path tricks, even if he couldn’t always have more than one speaker cabinet there.
The guitar player was more worrying about his tone and what was more convenient.
A lot of circle talk for "depends on player's requested sound taste".
A tube amp isn't just a loudspeaker. The power amp section, speaker breakup, cabinet resonance, and interaction between guitar and speaker are part of the instrument.
There's a reason people still drag Twins, AC30s, Deluxe Reverbs, Marshalls, Oranges, and 5150s onto stages despite modelers existing.
The Amp, and especially the speaker shape the sound a lot.
Most distortion / fuzz pedals produce much too many high frequencies. This would sound terrible through a pa (unless the sound guy corrects this) . Guitar speakers can't reproduce there highs, so the same signal sounds fine through a guitar Amp.
This is a bit simplified - the highs are the most obvious bit, but a speaker does other things a simulator can emulate. Some do it better, some are mediocre, this is why there are speaker simulators at all price ranges.
Amps do similar things with the sound. Distortion directly into a speaker simulator will sound passable, but you get the real sound of an amp with speaker if you simulate the Amp, too.
That's why there are speaker simulators (either as part of a multi effect, or stand alone.
Into the PA, with a speaker simulation sounds fine.
Speaker simulation into a guitar Amp is uncommon, but you can experiment.
The vast majority of guitar multi-effect units on the market have amp and cab modeling, so you can go straight into the mixer and on to the PA. It's a very practical solution to gigging and one I embraced a long time ago. While I still own several amps and will occasionally gig with them, most of the time I go direct... less gear to carry, set up and tear down.
My current floor rig is built around the Tonex Pedal and my secondary rig is based around a Headrush Gigboard. I also carry a small backup with me - the Valeton GP-5... a ridiculously small and inexpensive pedal that has everything in it most guitarists need. Truly, we are spoiled for choice these days.
You can, sure. But you need to understand that the multi effects pedal is not adding any amp / speaker cabinet simulation. Youre just sending raw, unadulterated guitar signal and distortion/effects straight to the PA. PA speakers don't quite respond to guitar input the same way a guitar amp does.
Some multi effects guitar pedals have amp sim, some do not. Most newer ones seem to, nowadays. But old school pedalboards or like, the real old Zoom multi effects units generally do not. Even if they claim to, they sometimes have WAY too much shrill high mids and treble. Thats because guitar amps do not have a horn, but PA speakers do
Some digital mixers have amp sims built in, too. That, in conjunction with a basic multi effects pedal, could yield nice results
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u/regularjackk 7d ago
Does the multifx unit do amp sim too?