Exactly what do i need to incorporate effects boxes?

[gflippo]

Alright, I am looking for a definitive answer concerning what equipment I would need in order to use effects pedals with my saxophone. I am somewhat new to the gigging experience but am looking for ways to add creativity to my sound like many others who play funk. After a lot of research in the area, I am still somewhat confused as to exactly what equipment I would need in order to use effects boxes. Can I simply run my mic (an AKG D 409 clip-on) through pedals and into the PA, or would I need additional equipment? I would be very grateful if someone could offer a simple explanation to my question. Thanks.

[MS]

Don't know if the answer is going to be so simple.

A microphone has to go into some kind of pre-amp (like a board channel) and parallel effects in the channel effects loop. These would be controlled at the sound board.

If you have a sax rig on stage (Small mixer and perhaps powered monitor or a keyboard amp) you can run your effects there and send a line out to the main mixing console for the house mix. This is probably safer unless you work with a really good sound man.

Most effects units are either line level (pro PA kind) or guitar kind. A Low-Z mike directly into a guitar effects pedal will have screwy EQ because of impedance mis-matching. A half baked possibility is to but a Radio Shack microphone transformet from Lo-Z to high into pedals.

Some kind of mixrer with an effects loop will be your best sounding bet. Good luck and have fun.

[bohosheets]

The main saxontheweb site has a comprehensive article by Ken Fink on this subject (complete with diagrams !) :

http://www.saxontheweb.net/Fink/ElectronicEffects.html

[MS]

Thanks bohosheets. I just read the article, and it's a good one. Thanks again.

[magnus ver magnusson]

What would y'all say is a good (preferably analog) chorus to use in stompbox form for the sax? I'd like to use that along with a delay box with tap tempo ability in an effects loop.

[Balladeer]

I just read that article, too. It is very informative.

As someone who has been doubling on electric guitar for 31 years and who played electrified sax from 1970-74, I have a fair amount of experience in this area. When I played electrified sax, I did not use a fine setup as described in Ken Fink's article. I had a microphone that screwed into my mouthpiece. From the mic, I could run to many guitar-style effects and on to an amp. In my case, I used an effects unit called a Hammond Condor to get the sounds of different brass/woodwind instruments plus the ability to play in 3 octaves at once. From the Condor I ran to a regular, guitar, Vox Crybaby wa and on to an Ampeg V4 with 2-pair of Electro-voice 12" SRO speakers. Needless to say, I could blow lead guitar players away at outdoor gigs with my sax. Bands that I worked with often lacked keyboard players. So, I would emulate the string and orchestra parts on sax using octaves and reverb (Yes and Moody Blues). The wa-wa came in handy for stuff like Zappa (Chunga's Revenge) and Sea Train's "13 Questions" where I played sax with a wa instead of having a violin.

To use less expensive guitar style pedals you will need to transform your mic's signal to high impedance. Rather than an analog delay, for sax I recommend a digital delay like something from Boss or Ibanez. You can buy a special AC/DC adapter cable splitter for about $14 that will let you power as many as 5 of these pedals with one AC/DC adapter (commonly called a wall-wart). For a mic'd instrument you will need to have the pedal powered fully to get a good effect - batteries run down quickly with these pedals. You should definately buy used pedals. Save your money for the deluxe setup later on. You can chain several pedals together with short, guitar cables available at places like Radio Shack (or make your own). From the last pedal, have the outbound signal go back thru a XLR tranformer to get back to low impedance. Then run into the PA as you normally would.

The best effects for sax are chorus and echo. With chorus you can get a sound like multiple saxes played in unison. Do you remember the sax sounds on INXS or Hall & Oates "I Can't Go For That"? Just a little chorus and echo will give you that sound.

Good luck.