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LOUP GAROU
By: Stefan Leonhardt
Summary:
What is the effects loop? And what are the basic rules about the order of effects you are using. This article will try and spell these things
out for you.
Topics: amps and efx
Most amps today have more sockets than just “input”. Chances are, your amp also has two labeled “send” and “return” – the Effects Loop.
What’s it good for other than a feature that might give the salesman more to talk about?
Well…
The signal that “travels” through your amplifier normally takes the following route: Input – Preamp with EQ section (generally responsible
for sound and – if you want – overdrive) – Power amp (generally responsible for volume, although with tube power amps the sound is also
shaped).

All well and good, the problem is that some effects (modulating effects like chorus or delay effects like delay and reverb) work and sound
better if they come after any distortion or gain that is applied to your guitar signal. For example, it would not sound too good if you put the
reverb before the overdrive. Why is that so? In short, you want a reverb on your overdriven signal, not an overdriven reverb.
There are some basic rules that “govern” where to put effects in the signal chain (I’ll add more specific information in later articles when
talking about the specific effects):

1. If the effect modulates the signal, put it after any preamps or overdrive/distortion boxes.
2. If the effect boosts the signal, put it before overdrive (a compressor for example).
3. There are no rules! Break them, experiment!

Now without the effect loop, all you can do is put your effect boxes between your guitar and the input of the amp. If you use an
overdrive/distortion box for your sound and not the amp’s “hot” channel, all is well as long as you remember to have the
overdrive/distortion among the first effects your signal travels through, in most cases before effects like chorus, delay, reverb, flanger etc
(see text above).
But if you use your amp’s overdrive channel, you get the problems described above (the effect box with the delay now comes before the
overdrive). This is where the effect loop comes in. The guitar signal comes from your amp’s preamp and through “send” goes into those
effects that should be put behind any overdrive. The signal comes back into your amp through the “return” socket. There are little switches
inside these sockets that make sure the signal goes to the right place, depending on whether a cable is plugged in or not. Therefore, you
should have all the stomp boxes that should come before overdrive between your guitar and the amp’s input and all the boxes that should
come after overdrive after your amp’s preamp in the effect loop.

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“Ok, but I’ve got a multi-efx unit – what can I do now?” (Please note that in my eyes, something like a POD is just a sort of multi-efx:
different effects – overdrive being an effect – and a way to save the parameters and sounds)?
If you want to use your amp only to amplify the great sounds you’ve programmed into your multi, you don’t want the signal to pass the amp’s
preamp because the preamp EQ section will color that sound. You want the signal to go straight to the power amp. So the signal path is:
guitar – multi efx input – multi efx output – amp “return”. Remember to switch off the multi-efx’s “speaker simulation” – you don’t need it,
your amp has a guitar speaker, so why emulate one in addition?
If you want to use your amp’s sound, things get more complicated.

a) easy way of doing it: Use your amp’s clean and overdrive sounds and the multi-efx only to provide the effects that should come
after overdrive/distortion. Put the multi into the effect loop.
b) But I want the full monty: I want to use the overdrive sounds of my amp and my multi and the effects of my multi-efx that
usually come before overdrive (compressor for example)! Gulp … just hope your multi-efx has an effect loop, too. The signal path
then is: guitar – multi – efx input – multi efx “send” (the signal has now passed the effects that should come before gain and the
multi’s overdrive section) – amp input – amp “send” (the signal has now passed the gain section of the amp) – multi-efx “return”
– multi-efx output (the signal has now passed the effects that belong after the gain stage) – amp’s “return” – the signal now
“reaches” the power amp.

Try it, but remember to turn the volume down before you switch everything on – you might have to adjust quite a bit of controls to make it
work (the volume and gain controls of your multi’s effects, the input sensitivity of the multi …)
Some amps have a series others a parallel effect loop. With a series effect loop, the guitar signal (=your sound) comes from the preamp of
your amp, “leaves” your amp through the send jack, runs through the inserted effect and comes back through the return jack. 100% of your
signal goes through the effect. Many people have found that their sound suffers (great tube amps and – perhaps cheaper – digital effects =>
maybe loss of sound).
The solution was the parallel loop: with the control, you control how much of your original signal leaves the amp and passes through the
effect. The “remaining” signal stays in your amp, preserving much of your sound, and is “joined” again by the signal coming back from the
effect, now with effects on it. So you can mix the dry (without effect) and the wet (with effects) signals, but keep in mind that you won’t
hear much of the effects if you only put a tiny part of your signal through the effect box. The effects in the loop should be set so that they
let out no original signal but 100% effect signal. You decide with the parallel effect knob how much effect you want.
Hope you’re still with me next time when we start talking about the individual effects.

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