For the price of one effects pedal, I can get several high-quality VSTs.
VSTs are cheaper and more powerful.
Pedals are more expensive with fewer settings and possibilities.
From a purely pragmatic point of view, I would say that VSTs are superior, but I don’t know why—something tells me I’d have more fun with simpler, more straightforward pedals.
What do you think? Are you more into VSTs or pedals when it comes to adding effects to your synths?
Not only VST but add iOS fx to the equation. For about $100 plus the cost of an iPad you can have pretty much any creative effect known to man and easily patch them together and reroute them with no hassle in a host like AUM.
That being said I still occasionally gas after Chase Bliss pedals and the physical interface and overall presentation looks fun. But I know I can replicate what these do with $10 worth of iPad FX and it makes it difficult to justify.
Hi, IMO it is not pedals OR VSTs but pedals AND VSTs. However for my taste pedals are much more intuitive and tactile feedback fun.
BTW: With a re-amping solution like Radial’s EXTC stereo you can combine DAW and pedals: EXTC-Stereo - Radial Engineering
Latency is often not as high priority on VST FX, so there is an aspect of if you want to use a thing in performing live but yeah there are pedals with bad latency so it goes both ways I suppose
For me there are some FX categories that pedals do a better job on like distortion and overdrive - I think something to do with the physics / electronics needed for distortion that makes it harder to emulate/model in software.
And if course the instability of (some!) analogue circuits adds character for any FX type - thinking of tape delays and analog choruses (and other time based FX).
For other FX categories such as reverb there are benefits for both analogue & digital - e.g. You won’t find a 100% analogue reverb unit that can load impulse responses for example so digital is the only way to go for that objective - thus VSTs or (digital) pedals are the only option.
Basically for me it’s always a combination of approaches, with practicality, interface, features such as presets / midi clock etc that impact my decision - and there are of course no rules! I’ve got loads of great tones out of IZotope Trash for example (digital multiband distortion VST - highly recommended btw!).
The latency of digital FX (whether in pedal or VST format) is certainly a consideration since mismatched latencies in your overall setup can cause phasing issues and smear your frequency spectrum unpleasantly for sure.
BUT in my experience this isn’t usually an issue to my ears and can be resolved later if you multitrack then use a phase rotator to ‘home in’ on the desired sweet spot wrt to phase issues.
+1 for using iPad as FX unit (I run Drambo with a load of FX for my hardware sound sources sometimes, with X-touch mini midi controllers and its super super fun!!) but my iPad will only allow 128ms buffer so there is noticeable latency but it doesn’t bother me much whilst jamming and can easily fix phase issues in the multitrack mix if needed.
Just can’t beat a table full of knobs to live improv with though…
Run Drambo in Aum, can have 32 buffer.
Some limitations though of course.
Are these for guitar or synths?
If it’s for guitar, I’m getting more and more towards either set-it and forget-it vs pedals with preset switching built in is useful for me.
If it’s synths, I like desktop effects over pedals but some pedals just offer an insane amount of options.
With plugins, I can pretty much do absolutely anything. Where I see pedals as an advantage, is when I don’t want to click through a million options and I just want a very narrow focus of choices to work with.
The limitations can be a creative boost.
Upfront cost of VSTs might be lower, but the resale on pedals (and rack units) is much better. And if you buy and sell pedals in the used market your overall cost is very minimal indeed.
Ooh didn’t know that! Brilliant! Thank you!
Always a quandary, Valhalla is a top product and Sound Toys destroys much of my need for vintage gear. I still have some performable FX like spring reverb, tape delay and a bbd delay. I also like the character OTO delay/reverb/bitcrusher and comps add.
Guitar and basswise I have a few PastFX boxes that are decent, parity or better updates of expensive older gear.
On a separate note I tend to avoid many Spin FV1 based devices (BAM aside) unless they push the platform. I’d like to get into programming my own for it, but I haven’t had time to get into SpinCAD as is.
Pedals/desktop form factors would be perfect if but for taking up valuable space, I get claustrophobic in my own messes (cables and routing possibilities.)
i use both and have a pretty high standard for any $300 reverb/delay pedal when vst quality is pretty high. i’ve been through loads of pedals (oto, vongon, empress, chase bliss), and the only pedals that made the cut were strymons - bigsky and volante. both sound way better than anything i have itb, the interfaces are a joy, and they work great for my dj sets, etc. i also hate the process of browsing/buying vsts with a passion, so the search was absolutely worth it to me. and my ableton reverb through a waveshaper/grain delay patches and other weird shit still have space in my workflow when i want more variety
I got rid of my external effects units cuz it just felt like a lot of work to make them work with a DAW. Having to record them and stuff… just a headache.
I liked them and they sounded great but the convenience factor just wasn’t there. I wouldn’t mind rebuying an Analog Heat+FX again down the road. Digital effects are a no-go for me though (I mean specifically an entirely digital unit). There’s just no point for what my set up is like.
I get for performances and especially guitars needing outboard effects but for me and my needs… too much of a hassle. That said, I do have a Bastl Thyme+ that I use pretty much exclusively with my Octatrack and it’s a lot of fun.
Depends.
If I want to play through the effect and react to how it’s reacting I prefer pedals. Probably at this stage latency in software is so low that I could just as easily do this into the DAW. I have had a pretty good time playing guitar into Push in standalone as well. But still there’s just something that works better for me about pedals in terms for arriving at the core sound I want to record and getting it down.
If it’s going to be a more static effect or after the fact colouring or mixing, then I think it’s gonna be unusual for a pedal to justify the hassle based on effect quality alone. Something like the Merakai maybe. So plugins usually make more sense when mixing.
I’m not sure it’s a neat either/or, both approaches shine in different contexts. Like, I bought the El Capitan plugin even though I already have the pedal, because the Echoplex mode is a sound I use all the time and beats out everything I’ve got in software, but to stick it on a send or something for a mix was just not worth the hassle. But I still use the pedal if I’m going to record wet.
Similar thing with Lossy, I liked the plugin well enough when I demoed it, but not enough to buy it, then I got the pedal in a Mystery Box and quickly realised that it’s a whole different proposition playing through it in real time. Quickly got sounds out of the pedal that I wouldn’t even have thought were possible with the plugin, even though it’s the same algorithm.
I am happy with my plugins for everything Delay/Reverb/Shimmer and crazy stuff. Arturia has some good ones so does NI and many others. And you dont bake the effects into your recordings.
Except for some analog distortion and overdrive or analog delay.
Still not sure about compression though.
After selling my ZOIA and playing with MultiFX, delay and reverb plugins, I thought: Well why not play these with a MIDI controller (mapped to a Maschine, Midi Fighter, for example) and have a hybrid version. Really playing an FX is just no fun with a mouse.
Then I discovered the pedals from Erica Synths aka Echolocator, which really has me on the edge of getting it, due to it being laid out perfectly to play it. Also, it sounds great of course. So I don’t know, if it’s a either-or question, since I would argue, I’d prefer a set it and forget it FX as VST and something I play like an instrument as hardware.