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Question: Guitar multi-effect pedals!?
Does the behringer x v-amp have decant wah-pedal, tremolo, delay, reverb, flanger, and chorus setting!? also, how does it's equalizer stack up against there single pedal equalizer!. I've also heard that they have an effect that changes the sound of the electric guitar to an acoustic guitar!. Is this true and how good is this effect if it is true!? And if anyone knows of more features on it it would be great if someone could tell me!. I've looked everywhere for a review but I can't find one, so any input would be great excluding just saying it sucks and telling why!. Thank You!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Okay, so this isn't going to be as helpful to you as I'd like, but I can share my experience and maybe that will inform you somewhat!.

I have the Behringer V-amp Pro, which is the rackmount version of the v-amp!. I purchased it because I hate Line 6, I wanted to go rack-mount for my rig to try to make gigging easier, and let's face it - I was low on cash!. =)

I don't know how much of what I've experienced matches up with the V-amp!. Since they have the same processing engine, I imagine at least some of it!.

Right off the bat, the biggest issue I had with it was switching latency!. I would be in one preset, switch to another (using the Behringer midi switch!.!.!. fcb1010 I think!.!.!. actually a great midi pedal) and there would be an audible half-second of silence before the next preset was loaded up!. That was not pleasant for me!. Basically it meant I had to time my guitar playing just right so that when I switched it wouldn't screw up the next riff, or at least how it sounded to our audience!.

I went to the Yahoo Groups forum for it, and found that the biggest culprit was the speaker simulation!. Dropping it lowered the quality of the sound a bit, but it almost eliminated the switching latency!. It had to be done!. I was playing through a decent cab anyways, so it wasn't all that bad!.

It responds well to midi switching, but it can be a little noisy!. There is a drive control somewhere that if you set to 1 it gets a lot more bawlz, but a lot noisier!. Noise is an issue!.!.!. the noise gate does help, for the cleaner settings I still had to have it on though!.!. at 3 for clean, at 7 or higher for distortion!.

The amp models are so-so!. I like the recto sim (recto head!?) and a few others!.!.!. again, danged if I remember them!. Been a while since I used it!. Lots of flavors, but without the speaker sim they aren't as distinctive as they should be in my personal opinion!. Oh yeah!.!.!. Blackface Twin was one of my favorites, a very bassy sound, great for effected cleans!.

The effects vary in quality!. I didn't like the wah, and some of the other effects were hard to figure out how to correctly configure!. I only had two ways to tweak them via the front of the box, the other tweaks I guess are only through midi or computer or some crap!. Maybe I would've liked 'em better if I had a chance to tweak them right!?

I believe I liked the chorus, flanger, and phaser!. I used the chorus most often, it was the best of the three and the best for the music I was playing!. The only reverb model I remember liking was #5, and that's because you could do synth-like ambiance and pads and swells really easy with it!.

Having a tap-tempo delay function was really nice, but it sucked that if you switched to another preset it reset!.

I didn't use the compression feature a lot, mostly because it made the signal so much hotter that I risked feedback!.

I don't remember if it had a tremolo, if it did I never used it!. There was an autowah that was kinda fun to play with, and sounded good when put on a nice subtle setting, but louder wasn't so useful!.

I think I remember an acoustic sim!. I used it a couple times, but I don't remember why I didn't use it much (maybe it was the fact that I played in a hard rock band!?)!. I don't remember hating it, but I think I remember thinking to myself that the mids were kinda wonky!. Yeah, that's soooo helpful!.

EQ was a joke!.!.!. I got three buttons, a bass, mids, and treble, and if you held down that one button the treble turned into a presence!. The problem I had was that sometimes with treble and presence I'd turn them all the way down and it didn't really do enough to dull the sound!. Presence is important to be heard in the mix, with that thing I barely needed any!.

I ended up getting a rackmount stereo EQ (behringer, none the less) and used that to help with the tone, one half of it before the unit, and the other half after the unit, after that it went into the power amp and then to the cab!.

The EQ really made a big difference for me!. I had to be kinda subtle with how I EQ'd it before the unit, I didn't want it too hot, and if I boosted too much treble I'd get "icepick in the brain" sound!.

If I remember correctly, I used the following EQ:

Before the unit +1 to +3 db around 3 khz, -1 to -3 db around 450-600 hz, and -3 or so below 100 hz

After the unit -3 to -6 db around 350 to 500 hz, +1 to +3 db around 3 khz, -1 to -6 db between 4 and 6 khz

Hmm!. Something like that!. I might've rolled off some treble before the unit to calm down that shrieking high end (ie, above 3 khz)!. The idea is to cut the "mud" frequencies (300-800 hz) and the lowest, least useful bass (below 80 hz or so) while bumping up the "volume" and "attack" frequencies (1 khz and 3 khz respectively)!. A lot of digital units have this crappy sound between 4 and 6 khz, and if you can cut a little bit of that out, it'll sound a hell of a lot better!.

Rackmount units rule, for the same price as a pedal you get waaaay more functionWww@QuestionHome@Com