Another Brick In The Wall solo preset : Preset 5 note E1 delay 3.4 and 5.8. Spring reverb at 7. 0 and 6.9. Thanks. Update Worked but used a Floyd Rose guitar in position 2, volume and tone at the max. Then went to a Behringer eq then to a Behringer chorus then to 2 Spartan toy speakers. May have even sounded better then the record! Note U5 to U8 are SRV patches. U9 and u0 EVH patches. u8 is 80's Chorus if you want to try out Big Log by Robert Plant.
Same. I got the one with the expression pedal and I love it. Haven't had it for 5 1/2 years since my move to NYC but finally got a lot of gear shipped recently. Plugging her in soon tonight.
It has an inbuilt tuner. I used one for a couple of live gigs and rehearsals when you don't want to take a lot of gear. It did a fantastic job. Small and easy to carry. Great display on a dark stage. Highly recommended.
I used this pedal for two years so far, really like how flexible it is, I used to play live in small bars, and works like a charm, Thanks for sharing Taylor!
I use it as a clean preamp on the AC30 set and to pratice with phones.The rotary is really great, the chorus is cool, the delay is really ok and the reverbs too.
Thanks for the review. I picked up a used one a few months ago and I couldn't be happier with it after I made some presets that sound good to me. Making the presets isn't ideal, and editing them is less ideal, but when you find a good sound, it's easy enough to save it with some practice. I also write down the settings as I create a preset so I have an idea of where I was in all the settings' values if I do want to tweak one. I just bought the bass version last week and it's just as good for getting some decent tones and recalling them quickly with presets. I found some information scattered online that supposedly identifies all of the amps and cabs for the G1 unit, but I have yet to find that same information about the B1 (bass) unit. Anyway, it was a real surprise and treat to see you work on the G1 and it's the best $50 I've spent on a multi-effects unit in a long time.
I've had this unit for a few years and it was definitely a decent unit for practice using head phones. And I also have the bass version which is just as good. Great value for money
I adore this little thing - with the expression version (the IIG) its bloody amazing. 'Made in Japan'... hmm. It sits in my rig... the Line6 M13 gets used.. less. I am constantly banging on about how good this thing is. Great review. SUBSCRIBED
Can you use this only for effects? I run a tubescreamer into my amp for my main tone and 'preamp' sound. Is it able to run without amp sim and cab sim and just as effects ?
Hey dude, amazing video! I'm getting back into guitar and my friend recently gifted me this pedal. One thing I never get right is the bass/middle/treble situation. Do you have any videos or tips on how to get it right? I normally have bass on silent as I live in an upstairs box room.. but I'm moving out shortly/may get a pair of headphones purely for music playing. Any tips would be appreciated ! (I normally fingerpick acoustic but feel like it's time to get back into metal! |m|
I have the one with the little expression pedal, it's great for messing around at home. I don't think I'd wanna use it on a gig because it's too fiddly (maybe I could just set up like a few sounds in the user section and use those though). I'd like if it had separate stomp switches for a few presets that you could access on the fly. I haven't got around to try recording with it but I feel like it'd be fun. For the price, it's awesome though.
had this pedal for a year roughly around when you made this video, I know its been an year but do you ever find that the volume is much louder when u turn it on than before u turned it off?
Hi, been using the version with expression pedal for several years now. Never noticed any change in volume during any kind of session. But… mine cuts out the volume for like a few seconds once randomly almost any session. Annoying, but i manage to live through that few seconds for years now. :D
@@319isthename my comment really didn’t age well. So I realized the reason, so the setting i usually use is 34 and 35 in blues and U1,2,3,4 for my own custom sound. So the reason why it would change is because the drive and value nob wouldn’t be the same as the setting. So when if i change it and turn it off and on again, it would revert back to the previously saved drive and value. And i just recently learned how to save the User settings. Like why is it for 1 second not 4 seconds like other settings.
@@kb_diff638 aaah well, that explains. Nice to know that you discovered that in the meantime! Working on the settings needs some study. I remember really having to commit to get the procedures right… enjoy your unit!
Well done video, & I agree about an Off switch & "chicken head" knobs, but is this device only for metal heads? I'm more of a rockabilly Travis-picker, playing a semi hollowbody electric with flatwound strings. I'd like to hear some of the less assertive tones available.
About Vox, I have an old valvetronix, always thought it soudned not so good, until I plugged a good hedphones, turns out that its just the speaker that sucks, amp is pretty decent
Good little device! Not surprised though. I was shocked back in the day when VOX came out with the valvetronix amp. They werent great for metal due to the small speaker. But anything clean or with blues style overdrive they sounded like a legit tube amp. So its cool to see this has great metal tones.
Good efects. I've got it since a couple of years. The manual is not so good. And I've find sometimes the sound dissapears for a short period, less than 1 second.
Not bad for what it is for the price. Best bit of cheap gear I still use is a Muslady MU100, identical to the Mooer version. You can get either for under 100 bux and it has plenty of great amps and effects. The Presents are basic, but can be set to sound good. Can run on AA batteries too. Also it includes a half decent drum machine, 3 minute looper and expression/volume/wah pedal.
I had the Vox VT 150 like 13 years ago and it was a great amp very versatile. And then I moved to the floor model one of the more expensive ones. And I've always wanted to get one of these because it just looks so. Amazon have them for a while but I don't know if they're discontinued or what now.
Ordered one a year ago,in my opinion took to much time to get decent sounds,you really have to dig in the manual,one big issue for me was the lacking of a true bypass,great demo though,i guess i should have invested more time in the Vox.
I had the tone lab Le.. I think it was. They had the tube right in the floor model. I just picked up a Vox valvetronix VT 40 X. I forgot how great these amps sound. With the tube in the power section it has something that you can't really find another modeling amps.
I’m not to big on digital or simulated (not sure what the correct term is) but this video definitely intrigued me! Sounds really good! Huge fan of the channel taylor 🤘🏼
In Program select mode, press the EDIT button. You will enter the Edit mode and the EDIT LED will light up. Move the CATEGORY selector to [CAB] and press both the PRESET UP and PRESET DOWN buttons simultaneously, the display will indicate "oF".
I did. All the presets are just different Cab/amp and effect combinations that you can select through the edit function. I thought the metal preset sounded the best,
Huh... this reminds of Korg Toneworks (Vox Tonelab - they were basically the same thing rebranded) I had like thousand years ago and I remember that it wasn't half bad. I used it for home playing into headphones and it could do some pretty decent tones.
🤣 I was thinking the same thing. I’m pretty sure I made a joke about it, but I had to cut so much fat from this video that I missed it and cut it out 😢
La d"mo est mauvaise...il n'y a que des sons saturées alors qu'il y a des légers crunch ou sons clairs possibles...cela ne met pas en valeur la pédale c'est dommage
Great demo...now they will go up in value on resale market..Very very useable...the cleans are better than they should be. It's the Valvetronix algorithms in a pedal. The AD30VT was just killer....dammit wish I hadn't traded it...
I bought 4 units, chain them 2 x 2 (to get chained distortion x2). . . it had the very good OLD Metal Planet distortion by ROCKTRON (long discontinued) which i can no longer buy as individual unit ! . . . great vid !
I really wish vox would just dive into their versions of Badcat, Matchless, and some of the dr z stuff Instead of relying on the AC series as their “flagship” amps. Theyre pretty capable of making high gain stuff so it could be cool to see a higher gain vox amp.
I owned a Vox AC15VR for a hot minute and it had a "metal" channel that sounded similar to this. It's weird that Vox tried to cater to metal musicians for a bit. Unrelated, have you seen the new Mooer Preamp Model X and Cab X2? Crazy possibilities! I'd love to see a review if you can get your hands on one or the other
I’m trying to understand if the Mooer Preamp X model is kind of a simpler Preamp Live (no boost, no phones, no xlr output). Because it’s like the price of two microreamps and I was going to buy a Mooer 009.
The cabinet emulation in my StageRight/Monoprice guitar pedal powered active DI sounds better than that, and it was $30. Then again, the cab emu on that thing sounds better than the ones in my Zoom pedal and the Behringer GI100. The cab emulation in that thing is shockingly useable. It's the Purple one; there are two revisions, with the main difference being non-essential component choices on the circuit board and the branding/printing of the aesthetics on the outside of the metal chassis. There are clone items from brands like Ammoon, if Monoprice or Amazon are out of stock. That said, devices like this sound a lot better through an external IR loader or a regular old mic'd cab.
Минус в том, что овердрайв нельзя использовать перед усилителем. У меня была эта штука, я не особо доволен. Но был большой плюс, там можно было использовать батарейки и брать туда где нет электричества.
I have it since was released .. there is a some magic in the sound ("black" magic) ... If someone was on concert in small scene of underground metal band ... will know what I mean \m/
..Yes i like power switches on my gear/pedals etc. Yes I love the chicken head knobs.. I wish a majority of my knobs with chicken headed lol. Cool pedal..
I had this pedal for like 3 years. What I like: Clean and high gain sound. What I don't like: Overdriven sound Can you guys help me dial this thing to get edge of breakup tone?
I know lol. I've been doing a lot of drilling, and primarily all guitar lessons are in e standard, so I've been playing in it a lot lately. Don't worry, I'll have more chugs soon.
I can't figure out how you're making this thing sound so good, i just bought one and no matter what I do, it sounds like a cheap pos. Hiw on earth are you getting authentic, punchy, high gain metal tones out of it? I just can't get any worthwhile tones out of it. Incredibly disappointed with this thing.
The trick I've found with these kinds of pedals is to run them in the fx loop and not through the front of an amp. If you hit the preamp section of your amp with a ton of gain and effects it amplifies the effects and makes the sound a muddy mess. Going through the fx loop takes your preamp out of the equation.
Another Brick In The Wall solo preset :
Preset 5 note E1 delay 3.4 and 5.8. Spring reverb at 7. 0 and 6.9.
Thanks.
Update
Worked but used a Floyd Rose guitar in position 2, volume and tone at the max. Then went to a Behringer eq then to a Behringer chorus then to 2 Spartan toy speakers. May have even sounded better then the record!
Note U5 to U8 are SRV patches. U9 and u0 EVH patches. u8 is 80's Chorus if you want to try out Big Log by Robert Plant.
Had this pedal for 6 years still using its awesome sounds great value well done for highlighting its potential!🙂
💪
Same. I got the one with the expression pedal and I love it. Haven't had it for 5 1/2 years since my move to NYC but finally got a lot of gear shipped recently. Plugging her in soon tonight.
hey can i contact you for some questions abt it ?
@@kennethpogue718 it was My first multiefects 7 yrs ago i didnt know how to used so i said a "friend" that help me sold it but he steal it
It has an inbuilt tuner. I used one for a couple of live gigs and rehearsals when you don't want to take a lot of gear. It did a fantastic job. Small and easy to carry. Great display on a dark stage. Highly recommended.
Awesome pedals in a box cool grab an go
Best multi-effects pedal ever. The only thing it's lacking is a backwards echo.
I used this pedal for two years so far, really like how flexible it is, I used to play live in small bars, and works like a charm, Thanks for sharing Taylor!
Vox was line6 before there was a line6.
I use it as a clean preamp on the AC30 set and to pratice with phones.The rotary is really great, the chorus is cool, the delay is really ok and the reverbs too.
I liked the effects as well, but I just cut that section out unfortunately... I had an audio issue that ruined that section of the video.
Thanks for the review. I picked up a used one a few months ago and I couldn't be happier with it after I made some presets that sound good to me. Making the presets isn't ideal, and editing them is less ideal, but when you find a good sound, it's easy enough to save it with some practice. I also write down the settings as I create a preset so I have an idea of where I was in all the settings' values if I do want to tweak one. I just bought the bass version last week and it's just as good for getting some decent tones and recalling them quickly with presets. I found some information scattered online that supposedly identifies all of the amps and cabs for the G1 unit, but I have yet to find that same information about the B1 (bass) unit. Anyway, it was a real surprise and treat to see you work on the G1 and it's the best $50 I've spent on a multi-effects unit in a long time.
I’ve owned this thing for about three months and you are the best teacher I’ve had with this pedal. Thank you!
Glad he went through the cab and amp settings.
What's that badass riff at 5:50 from? I feel like I heard it before
How do I adjust the patch volume for a particular patch ?
What song did you play at 1:56?
I've had this unit for a few years and it was definitely a decent unit for practice using head phones. And I also have the bass version which is just as good. Great value for money
I agree, I’m really interested in their larger floor board from this generation that has the preamp tube now
I think where the Stomplab shines is clean tones. Love the clean sounds out of mine :J
I adore this little thing - with the expression version (the IIG) its bloody amazing. 'Made in Japan'... hmm. It sits in my rig... the Line6 M13 gets used.. less. I am constantly banging on about how good this thing is. Great review. SUBSCRIBED
Can you use this only for effects? I run a tubescreamer into my amp for my main tone and 'preamp' sound. Is it able to run without amp sim and cab sim and just as effects ?
Yep just turn them off
can i use some different external expression pedal with the stomplab 1b or 1g ?
pls can someone tell, i cant find on internet if we can do that or not
Hey dude, amazing video! I'm getting back into guitar and my friend recently gifted me this pedal. One thing I never get right is the bass/middle/treble situation. Do you have any videos or tips on how to get it right? I normally have bass on silent as I live in an upstairs box room.. but I'm moving out shortly/may get a pair of headphones purely for music playing. Any tips would be appreciated ! (I normally fingerpick acoustic but feel like it's time to get back into metal! |m|
buy this and a mooer radar and riff on all the haters
That'd probably work! I have a cab pedal I need to demo here soon, so maybe I'll get this back out and try that.
@@TaylorDanley we need more cab pedals!
@@TaylorDanley IRs make a STUPID big difference in tones, so you should for sure try it on a random video lol.
With the Joyo Californian after & Boss Ge7 before,it becomes even more powerful.
@@juanforrester2283 I'm interested, so you use Joyo as cab sim and turn off the cab on vox?
I do pub gigs. It's built like a tank and you can quickly dial in some great tones. A great workhorse and well worth the money.
Can you use this as a stomp on/off type setup for effects only?
In the user options u can turn everything off and have reverb, flanger, delay or whatever u want
@@dowhat5151 Thanks!
I have the one with the little expression pedal, it's great for messing around at home. I don't think I'd wanna use it on a gig because it's too fiddly (maybe I could just set up like a few sounds in the user section and use those though). I'd like if it had separate stomp switches for a few presets that you could access on the fly. I haven't got around to try recording with it but I feel like it'd be fun. For the price, it's awesome though.
I love this pedal. 50 bucks and i have over 100 different preprogrammed and i can make my own tones too. Has a tuner too. Cant beat it.
had this pedal for a year roughly around when you made this video, I know its been an year but do you ever find that the volume is much louder when u turn it on than before u turned it off?
Hi, been using the version with expression pedal for several years now. Never noticed any change in volume during any kind of session. But… mine cuts out the volume for like a few seconds once randomly almost any session. Annoying, but i manage to live through that few seconds for years now. :D
@@319isthename my comment really didn’t age well. So I realized the reason, so the setting i usually use is 34 and 35 in blues and U1,2,3,4 for my own custom sound. So the reason why it would change is because the drive and value nob wouldn’t be the same as the setting. So when if i change it and turn it off and on again, it would revert back to the previously saved drive and value. And i just recently learned how to save the User settings. Like why is it for 1 second not 4 seconds like other settings.
@@kb_diff638 aaah well, that explains. Nice to know that you discovered that in the meantime! Working on the settings needs some study. I remember really having to commit to get the procedures right… enjoy your unit!
Well done video, & I agree about an Off switch & "chicken head" knobs, but is this device only for metal heads? I'm more of a rockabilly Travis-picker, playing a semi hollowbody electric with flatwound strings. I'd like to hear some of the less assertive tones available.
Hi, would this work if conected directly to active studio speakers just guitar -> stomplab -> active speakers?
About Vox, I have an old valvetronix, always thought it soudned not so good, until I plugged a good hedphones, turns out that its just the speaker that sucks, amp is pretty decent
Really speaks to how much difference a quality impulse response, or a proper cabinet and microphone setup, can make for these digital models.
I just got one and I think I’m going to have to print out the owners manual and have a sit down with this pedal.
You should try the Tonelab series. It's like the stomplab on steroids
Good little device! Not surprised though. I was shocked back in the day when VOX came out with the valvetronix amp. They werent great for metal due to the small speaker. But anything clean or with blues style overdrive they sounded like a legit tube amp. So its cool to see this has great metal tones.
Good efects. I've got it since a couple of years. The manual is not so good. And I've find sometimes the sound dissapears for a short period, less than 1 second.
I used this at a big gig... it cut through a peavey 6505 on the other side and full on stage PAs... so yes this unit works for live work.
Not bad for what it is for the price. Best bit of cheap gear I still use is a Muslady MU100, identical to the Mooer version. You can get either for under 100 bux and it has plenty of great amps and effects.
The Presents are basic, but can be set to sound good. Can run on AA batteries too. Also it includes a half decent drum machine, 3 minute looper and expression/volume/wah pedal.
I had the Vox VT 150 like 13 years ago and it was a great amp very versatile. And then I moved to the floor model one of the more expensive ones. And I've always wanted to get one of these because it just looks so. Amazon have them for a while but I don't know if they're discontinued or what now.
Ordered one a year ago,in my opinion took to much time to get decent sounds,you really have to dig in the manual,one big issue for me was the lacking of a true bypass,great demo though,i guess i should have invested more time in the Vox.
Not to add to your list of things to buy and check out but I would be interested to hear what you think about the Vox Cutting Edge
Well, after this I'm certainly not overlooking Vox anymore. Can't believe I never heard of these pedals!
They honestly just need to bring back the Tonelab. Those were superior. These still aren't bad, but those tonelabs were unbeatable.
I had the tone lab Le.. I think it was. They had the tube right in the floor model. I just picked up a Vox valvetronix VT 40 X. I forgot how great these amps sound. With the tube in the power section it has something that you can't really find another modeling amps.
"Taylor Danley King of Dialing TONE!!!!!!" Bad ass video brotha!
💪💪💪
I’m not to big on digital or simulated (not sure what the correct term is) but this video definitely intrigued me! Sounds really good! Huge fan of the channel taylor 🤘🏼
Awesome thanks for dropping in! 🙏 yeah this thing surprised me quite a bit!
Hola que buen video. Gracias
Te hago una pregunta: ese mismo procesador con expresión se maneja igual?
Hi! How do you turn off the cab sim? I can't find it anywhere . Thank you!
In Program select mode, press the EDIT button. You will enter
the Edit mode and the EDIT LED will light up. Move the CATEGORY selector to [CAB] and press both the PRESET UP and PRESET DOWN buttons simultaneously, the display will indicate "oF".
Did you try any of the 'hard core' settings?
I did. All the presets are just different Cab/amp and effect combinations that you can select through the edit function. I thought the metal preset sounded the best,
Huh... this reminds of Korg Toneworks (Vox Tonelab - they were basically the same thing rebranded) I had like thousand years ago and I remember that it wasn't half bad. I used it for home playing into headphones and it could do some pretty decent tones.
Hi Taylor! Since we're talking portable and cheap amp modelling. What do you think of Nux Mighty Plug\Air?
I'd definitely watch a video on it from you
I'm not familiar with it, but I'll check it out!
¿Can i conect the vox sl1g with another analogy pedals?
Of course! sounds great :)
Hell yeah it does. Sounds pretty darn good \m/.
What amp are you using?
Effects return on katana mk2
@@TaylorDanley thank you
Beauty in brevity “metal” preset name: h8
🤣 I was thinking the same thing. I’m pretty sure I made a joke about it, but I had to cut so much fat from this video that I missed it and cut it out 😢
This amp and distortion is as good as my HX Stomp.
La d"mo est mauvaise...il n'y a que des sons saturées alors qu'il y a des légers crunch ou sons clairs possibles...cela ne met pas en valeur la pédale c'est dommage
This is pretty much all you "need." People spend way too much on gear
Great demo...now they will go up in value on resale market..Very very useable...the cleans are better than they should be. It's the Valvetronix algorithms in a pedal. The AD30VT was just killer....dammit wish I hadn't traded it...
Cool video, unrelated but since you like horror I recommend the film "The Babadook" watched it yest and it was great
Oh I love that movie. Super original!
pushing too much od on an already overdriven the wattage makes the low end disappear or "breakup"
I bought 4 units, chain them 2 x 2 (to get chained distortion x2). . . it had the very good OLD Metal Planet distortion by ROCKTRON (long discontinued) which i can no longer buy as individual unit ! . . . great vid !
This is actually pretty great dude. Wow
I really wish vox would just dive into their versions of Badcat, Matchless, and some of the dr z stuff Instead of relying on the AC series as their “flagship” amps. Theyre pretty capable of making high gain stuff so it could be cool to see a higher gain vox amp.
I agree. Much prefer if if gear has a power switch. Drives me crazy when there isn't one...
70 euros new for this it's pretty impressive, just the effects worth it. Very decent tool for experimentoing, practicing recording...
I owned a Vox AC15VR for a hot minute and it had a "metal" channel that sounded similar to this. It's weird that Vox tried to cater to metal musicians for a bit.
Unrelated, have you seen the new Mooer Preamp Model X and Cab X2? Crazy possibilities! I'd love to see a review if you can get your hands on one or the other
Yes, I'll have both on the channel soon!
I’m trying to understand if the Mooer Preamp X model is kind of a simpler Preamp Live (no boost, no phones, no xlr output). Because it’s like the price of two microreamps and I was going to buy a Mooer 009.
I hear you on the power switch
Glad it's not just me!
Yea, I’m the happy owner of one. Its da bomb for me.
The cabinet emulation in my StageRight/Monoprice guitar pedal powered active DI sounds better than that, and it was $30. Then again, the cab emu on that thing sounds better than the ones in my Zoom pedal and the Behringer GI100. The cab emulation in that thing is shockingly useable. It's the Purple one; there are two revisions, with the main difference being non-essential component choices on the circuit board and the branding/printing of the aesthetics on the outside of the metal chassis. There are clone items from brands like Ammoon, if Monoprice or Amazon are out of stock. That said, devices like this sound a lot better through an external IR loader or a regular old mic'd cab.
🤔For some reason I always picture people who wear scarves indoors as the Vox user base...
🤣🤣🤣
Definitely yes to chicken head knobs. I replace witches hats every time it's possible. Good review, I think I have decided to go ahead based on this.
An on off switch just makes sense. I prefer gear that has one.
Минус в том, что овердрайв нельзя использовать перед усилителем. У меня была эта штука, я не особо доволен. Но был большой плюс, там можно было использовать батарейки и брать туда где нет электричества.
Great for a beginner looking for inspiring tone
Agree!
I am expecting this to sound pretty good.
💪💪🥳
Купил это чудо пару недель назад. Звучит очень круто на моем Orange 20.
I never understood the lack of power switches unless it's just one more thing to wear out. If so...make more bullet proof!
I have it since was released .. there is a some magic in the sound ("black" magic) ... If someone was on concert in small scene of underground metal band ... will know what I mean \m/
Great review. I bet this educated alot of new and old owners.
Boost it with an overdrive
It needs one. Surprised a little that you can’t use one of the built in ODs in front, but what are you gonna do it’s like a decade old 🤣
@@TaylorDanley it sounds decent
Yes on chicken bro, for feel and looks, thanks for everything Taylor.
I expected this visitor be from 6 years ago not six months 😲
Wow...doesn't sound too bad for 8yr old technology!
Right? I was shocked.
..Yes i like power switches on my gear/pedals etc. Yes I love the chicken head knobs.. I wish a majority of my knobs with chicken headed lol. Cool pedal..
You and me both!
Surprising! Pretty good for the price.
Agreed!
Make one using a Digitech
That sounds damned good for what it is.
vox stomp lab 1a+1b is perfect , dude
I had this pedal for like 3 years.
What I like: Clean and high gain sound.
What I don't like: Overdriven sound
Can you guys help me dial this thing to get edge of breakup tone?
I am shocked
I picked up a used stomplab IIG for 50 bucks about a month ago. Nice units
Vox makes (or made at least) some cool modelers!
Thanks!
Yup
Sounds super weird to hear yours riffs in this higher tuning.
I know lol. I've been doing a lot of drilling, and primarily all guitar lessons are in e standard, so I've been playing in it a lot lately. Don't worry, I'll have more chugs soon.
There are people who don't agree with you?? They should be punished.
I have this Vox..its great!
Okay, the other cabs sound better. That first one was atrocious though.
Hail the powerswitch
cool little unit.
I agree with you. :D
Test zoom 3gnx
H4 (UK metal) looked like a Zoom 505 II
I can't figure out how you're making this thing sound so good, i just bought one and no matter what I do, it sounds like a cheap pos. Hiw on earth are you getting authentic, punchy, high gain metal tones out of it? I just can't get any worthwhile tones out of it. Incredibly disappointed with this thing.
The trick I've found with these kinds of pedals is to run them in the fx loop and not through the front of an amp. If you hit the preamp section of your amp with a ton of gain and effects it amplifies the effects and makes the sound a muddy mess. Going through the fx loop takes your preamp out of the equation.
I used to like mine but idk it sounds dinky imo