For this rig, I like having options so I have the best of both worlds. Pedals in a looper pre-gain and FX units in a mixer post-gain. This allows me to create great tones and texture without compromising my base tone. All of them can be switched out of the signal path for the pure tone or can be added for sonic pleasure.
The pedals are all in loops so they are always on and can be added with instant access switches on the midi-controller. There’s a bit of everything on the pedal shelf, I think of them as additions on my base tone. Some of them have been in the rack for many years, some are switched around. I like to experiment with the OD/Boost pedals so they might change sometimes. I have a good set of pedals in there for a variety of tone shaping. These are the pedals I am currently using: Barber TonePres, Arion Chorus, HBE Psylocibe phaser, Danelectro CoolCat Vibe, MarkL Jazzy Drive, MarkL Vanilla Sky and LovePedal Eternity. This is the only part of the rack that changes as I sometimes try out different pedals.
The post-gain section has some old and some not so old units. They are in the mixer section of the System Mix + so they are in parallel of the dry tone. The Roland RSP550 is in Mix1 and I use this mostly for some delays and chorus sounds. It has a real analog feel and tone and is a very cool unit. The GForce is in Mix2 and gets both dry and effected signal from the RSP550. I use the GForce for delays, reverbs, pitch shifting (mostly micro-pitch) and chorus. The GForce has been available for a long time and is still one of the best multi-fx units you can get. Very powerful and flexible and it just sounds great. Both the RSP550 and the different GForce fx are also switchable from the midi-controller so I can add them whenever I want/need.
The DMC System Mix+ has been out of production for a long time and it took me a while to get one. It’s like a Swiss army knife for your rack. It has feed thru’s, a DI output with cab simulation etc. I’m using 2 features from it. It has a dual stereo mixer on board with volume controls, which allows me to run the post-gain fx in parallel to preserve the basic tone. I am also using the VCA of the unit which is a midi-controllable volume control. I have patched the VCA control between pre-amp and post-gain FX and use it as overall master volume of the rack. This allows me to control the volume at all times from the EB-pedal on the board but also lets reverbs and delays trail out when I lower the volume.
