Recommended Signal Chain/Pedal Order for Line 6 Effects Modeling

[smacar01]

I'm new to modeling amps, effects HW, and tones. I have a Amplifi TT and Spider V 60 MKII and a PowerCab and looking for some guidance.

 

When creating my own tones, or modifying presets, or downloads, what's the recommended order or signal flow, if any. I've seen "recommendations" on the web from trusted sources like Sweetwater below that say: 

• Filters and EQ — wah, auto-wah, graphic, and parametric EQ
• Compressor — FET, opto, VCA, tube, or digital
• Boost — clean boost and/or buffer
• Gain — overdrive, distortion, fuzz, etc.
• Noise Gate — placed at this point in the signal chain because gain pedals are usually the noisiest
• Volume Pedal — placed at this point in the chain to control the level feeding the amp without affecting the amount of input to gain pedals
• Tuner 
• Modulation — phase shifter, tremolo, chorus, flanger, rotating speaker simulator, etc.
• Delay — analog, digital, tape, etc.
• Reverb — hall, room, spring, plate, etc.
• AMP (FRFR) 

 After all that they say "experiment"!

 

But the presets on the Spider and Amplifi TT all vary in signal chain order with the Amp/Cab in various places in the chain.  

 

What works best for classic R&R and R&B sound?

[pianoguyy]

Ask yourself, do you want to distort a clean echo or echo the distorted sound. 

 

It is music, there are no rules. But, there are millions of tried-and-failed things that have come before... so why bother doing them.

As there are also "this works" methods you want to use. That's how we come up with things like the Circle of Fifths. It works, try it, start here always. 

 

But, in the 1960s, Jimi Hendrix took that ugly, disgusting, and annoying ear splitting sound we called feedback, and he made it his lollipop. At the time, the rule was "feedback=bad", but he broke that rule. He tamed it and made it part of music history.

 

 

All that to say: 

The list that is a good place to start. But the specific sound you are looking for may need to switch it up. 

[pianoguyy]

Separate post, not a continuation of the first

 

 

On 2/28/2025 at 1:26 PM, smacar01 said:

I'm new to modeling amps,

A lot of new users (myself included) get lost because they look at 1000 options in the unit and they feel overwhelmed. 

But instead, to become familiar with the concept of virtual amps/fx/etc, you should be comparing it to the physical amps/fx/etc. 

 

Try to recreate your physical rig using a virtual rig. If you never used a "Tron Up", don't use it now. If you never used a Peavey 5150, don't use it now. 

If your 1983 rig was guitar-wah-distortion-amp, your virtual rig should be guitar-wah-distortion-amp. 

 

This brings down the drama to something more manageable. You are familiar with physical X, use virtual X.

The 1000 options in the unit can be thought of as "The Music Store". In the physical world, we stress over which of the 1000 options to buy, but only buy a handful. In the modeling world, you have the 1000 options from the store (the device), but only need to buy a couple (patch design). 

 

 

 

Once you get the hang of that, then you can start with "what if I add this" or "what if I Switch that" and the always famous GAS - I never owned a Fender Twin, nows my chance to use one.  

 

[pianoguyy]

Using these three for examples: 

On 2/28/2025 at 1:26 PM, smacar01 said:

• Noise Gate — placed at this point in the signal chain because gain pedals are usually the noisiest
• Volume Pedal — placed at this point in the chain to control the level feeding the amp without affecting the amount of input to gain pedals
• Tuner 

 

I would put a tuner before the volume pedal. WHY? Because I can turn my volume off and still tune. There's some more technical reasons, like a volume pedal amplifying certain frequencies that may or  may not drive the tuner bonkers. But muting to tune is the primary reason.  

 

And noise gate???? 

I wouldn't put it before a volume pedal because when the gate activates and shuts off sound, if you have the volume pedal up, it will be a much more noticeable hard break.

 

 

That doesn't make them wrong. And I am certainly not wrong.

But it shows how rules aren't rules as much as they are suggestions. The different ways one uses a NG or VP can alter where you place them.