Multi-effects devices are usually next on the list after buying your first multi-track. It's hard to imagine recording without them, yet they've only been around for about ten years. Bob Dormon sheds some light on these small objects of desire...

The passing of time certainly offers new developments, but in some cases you can't beat a great idea, only refine it. Yamaha's SPX 90 was, and still is a great idea. When it was first unveiled, the industry found it hard to believe that a 1u rack unit was capable of doing so much, and for only £629. These days, its successor the SPX 900 certainly isn't alone in its field, but the original SPX 90 still gives you an idea of what to look for when shopping around for a second-hand multi-effects device.

I chose this now discontinued golden oldie to be fair to other manufacturers, who provide a magnificent range to match every budget. However, if anyone does think that to spotlight a nine year old effects device is unfair competition, then all I can say is you've had plenty of time to catch up!

Welcome to the machine

Why might you need a multi-effects device? Well, usually that question is answered by two things:-

i) your recording needs.
ii) how much money you have to spend.

Simply, a multi-effects device offers more 'bang per buck' as our colonial cousins might say. While more expensive dedicated effects devices such as delays and reverbs offer classy textures and a sonic purity that is beyond the grasp of many budget devices, what a multi-effects device can provide is a complete paintbox, enabling you to tint your sounds with a variety of colours, rather than being stuck with just charcoal or pencil.

To hear first hand what this means, then check out this month's Re:Mix CD Effects Tutorial, part II. All the sounds were in some way 'effected', by an SPX 90 effects program. In essence, what a multi-effects device should offer is not only a number of reverb programs (or algorithms), but delay effects, plus chorus flanging and phasing. Also pitch change (or harmoniser) and panning treatments. Frequently, a compressor and a noise gate are among the available algorithms, while some devices offer distortion effects for guitars, aural exciters, equalisation and basic sampling. Today's models offer further sophistication, in that you can feed a number of effects into each other. For example, with say a guitar, you can add chorus, then some echo, and finish off with a dab of distortion, all within the same box. Thus the device becomes a true multi-effects unit, in that it can create a number of effects simultaneously, rather than just having a number of individual effects to choose from.

Parameters pay

Part one of this series of effects tutorials, back in the February issue, included methods of creating effects using a simple digital delay. Sometimes, no matter how much tweaking you do, the sound you're after escapes you. It may be due to inexperience or certain limitations of the equipment you're using. With a multi-effects unit, you're given the opportunity to just prod and play, as all the work has been done beforehand.

You want chorus? Then select your chorus program. Fancy a stereo echo? Well, it's there too, the only thing you have to remember is that some adjustment may be necessary to get the echo timing right. The same goes for reverbs. They sometimes need modifications to the decay times or room size, but it's simple enough once you start. That's usually the biggest hurdle for anyone new to this type of technology. Making your own adjustments is precisely what you need to do, to knock these treatments into shape so that they complement your music. Preset programs are a great first step, but if you don't personalise them, they can often draw attention to your music in an undesirable way, simply because it sounds weird not wonderful.

On the more versatile effects devices, the functions you need to adjust are frequently found under the 'parameters', or 'edit', headings. Indeed, what you alter are the parameters, namely particular stages in the effects program or algorithm that can be adjusted. What keeps the bashful from investigating further into the workings of effects units, is the concern that they'll bugger it up and lose their favourite preset program.

The SPX 90 — like many of its current contemporaries — has all its preset programs stored on a ROM chip. This is a permanent record of the factory program settings, which can't be erased. What you can do is use the preset programs as a template, and then store your adjustments in the user memory locations. Whatever you do, the original preset programs can't be lost, and will always be there in the morning... provided you haven't been burgled.

Bob Dormon would like to thank Phil Strongman for wearing tape op's hat during the preparation of this month's effects tutorial.

Bob's multi-effects tutorial features the combined talents of Yamaha's SPX90 (an overnight sensation when it first appeared in 1986) and his Irish wolfhound mongrel Si Si (never less than sensational).