A problem with my pedal setup.

I have a DigiTech modeling pedal that is supposed to be connected to the amp thru the effect loop and not the main input.
I also have a couple pedals I just added that of course connect thru the main input of the amp.
Is it OK to connect the new pedals (Boss CS3 and TC Electronics Flashback Delay) in series with the DigiTech and use the effects loop input or do these type of pedals HAVE to be connected thru the main amp input?
Thanks for any help
 
Dave

   yeah best to avoid that...
 
I just wasn't sure if there was some impedance mis-match or something that would damage
either a pedal or the amp. I don't know much about that stuff.
I wonder why the documentation on the modeling pedal says to connect it thru the effects loop?
It also has a switch on it to change if you are plugging it in direct to an audio interface and bypassing an amp all together.
As long as the end result of plugging here and there is nothing more than the sound quality vs the stinky smoke, experimenting is good...
 
 

What type of effects loop does your amp have? Series or Parallel? This is important. My amp has both,therefore different effects go in different loops.

@ Dude Ivey - Man I have no idea if it is series or parallel.
 
@Danny - Great explanation Danny. I did not know any of that stuff.
      The analogy to the track/bus send in SONAR brought it all together.
      Given the fact I have to plug my guitar in SOMEWHERE, and the recommendation
       for the modeling pedal is the effects loop, along with your recommendation for the delay
       being there, I guess the compressor just has to fall in line and go there as well.
 
This does lend itself to another question though. For you guys that have huge setups with
lots of pedals and such, how do you handle the 'where do I plug it in' situation given the
guidelines you mentioned above Danny?
Certainly there are mixtures of pedals, distortions, delays, reverbs etc in a lot of people's
rigs. How can you possibly follow the guidelines mentioned above with that combination?
Perhaps you don't and it's just the 'experiment and see where it sounds best' principal.
 
Thanks for the input. Always appreciated.
 
Dave 
 

No alcohol involved, hell not even any weed, and I was purely switching pedal order & playing/listening, so I guess you could argue my results weren't entirely objective, but I had a fun time!

Well I can't speak

dxp
@ Dude Ivey - Man I have no idea if it is series or parallel.
 
@Danny - Great explanation Danny. I did not know any of that stuff.
      The analogy to the track/bus send in SONAR brought it all together.
      Given the fact I have to plug my guitar in SOMEWHERE, and the recommendation
       for the modeling pedal is the effects loop, along with your recommendation for the delay
       being there, I guess the compressor just has to fall in line and go there as well.
 
This does lend itself to another question though. For you guys that have huge setups with
lots of pedals and such, how do you handle the 'where do I plug it in' situation given the
guidelines you mentioned above Danny?
Certainly there are mixtures of pedals, distortions, delays, reverbs etc in a lot of people's
rigs. How can you possibly follow the guidelines mentioned above with that combination?
Perhaps you don't and it's just the 'experiment and see where it sounds best' principal.
 
Thanks for the input. Always appreciated.
 
Dave 
 

Well I can't speak for everyone in this situation, but most guys have a few different signals flowing through their rigs. When I use my big rig, Goliath, everything goes through a Bradshaw Switching System. I have my "front end" which would be like the front of your amp, then I have my "loop" but the Bradshaw doesn't have just one loop...it has several channels as well as several loops. I don't want to confuse you with that thing though.
 
As far as mixtures, all my dirty effects go in my front end. Meaning, both of my pre-amps. Digitech 2101, a Tri-Axis and an old Rocktron Chameleon for back up. I also have a few Boss compressor sustainer pedals that are in this same chain because they boost a little when needed. The cool thing about the Bradshaw is, you press one button and it controls what effects are present in that patch as well as what will not be there. So I leave those compressors on at all times. They run through 2 channels of the Bradshaw. When I click a patch that uses them, their channels open up.
 
I run my pitch transposer (intelligent) in the front end as well. The reason being, to me this is like another guitar. It needs the dirty signal and it needs a lot of it. This thing in my effects loop would require me to turn up the inputs on it which would bring in hiss. In the front end part of my chain, this gets the signal it needs and I don't need it to be in stereo. I can always use imaging effects in my loop to simulate stereo if I need it.
 
All my delay effects, verbs, sampler, unintelligent pitch transposer (this one doesn't need the signal like the intelligent one needs. Tuning and signal boost is super important on the other one...with this one, it doesn't need any of that...totally different animal) phaser, flange, special effects. I want all these effects to be clean. Now let's look at it another way.
 
Everything I've said above is NOT the case when I play with my Van Halen tribute band. Eddie didn't use a loop in the old days. All his effects went right in line in the front of the amp. So that's what I do also when I use that rig. This makes my delay, flange, verb, phaser a bit dirty...but it's supposed to be that way because that was part of Ed's sound.
 
Knowing where to put things is trial and error. The same as me telling you "ok, this is the order I would use" if you listed all your effects. You may try something different than I suggest with one pedal that makes a drastic difference for you in YOUR particular situation, know what I mean? Like for example...anyone that puts a Wah last in the chain will experience a wah/volume effect that sounds terrible. The sound will wah, but it will also change volume and sort of disappear in the mix.
 
If you put the wah FIRST in the chain and everything else after, when you wah the sound, only the sound "wah's" and will NOT change in volume to where it disappears. Your volume will stay the same all during your "wah" time which is the way *I* personally prefer my sound to be. With order/arrangement, it depends what you want to do. Do you want to delay your flange or flange your delay? Do you want to distort your effects, or effect your distortion? This is where the order of where you put things comes into play. I like my distortion first....followed by a compressor to keep it tight...or vice versa depending on the compressor used, followed by flange, chorus, phaser, delay then verb last so the verb packages it up. That's if I were running all my stuff in the front end.
 
For the hybrid of front end and effects loop, the same as above but all the stuff that isn't distortion/eq/wah/boost/compression would be in the loop. You just have to experiment and see what makes the most sense to you as well as what sounds the best in your set up. There are no right or wrongs other than to me, a wah last in the chain is wrong because you lose volume. Everything else...experiment and have fun. This is how unique sounds and players inspired generations. :) 
 
-Danny