I'm in the process of putting together my first rack and I'm to the point where I'm considering effects. I primarily want effects like reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, and phaser. Maybe some overdrive or fuzz for some light distortion.
My thought is that it's better to use pedals for effects, so I have more rack space for synth stuff---modulation, oscillators, utilities, etc. If I can keep all my effects relegated to pedals and interact with them with 1 module like a Strymon AA.1 or with the Intellijel 1U Pedal I/O, that would be the best way to maximize rack space.
But is that best from a workflow perspective? It seems like using pedals could prove problematic if I don't want all my effects in one chain. Like if I want reverb in one part of my patch, delay in another, and chorus in the third, then pedals seem like a lot more of a hassle than just having everything in a rack. And by the time I'm buying power supplies for pedals and modules to interact with them, maybe it's all the same cost in the end just to buy more rack space when I need it to house the effects? It would also eliminate the headache of putting hot synth signals into cooler pedal signals and vise versa.
Are using pedals as the primary way to incorporate effects into your patches a good idea, or is it better to just get effect modules to put directly into your rack?
[link] [comments]