FX Loop :: Connect Guitar Pedal Effects to Mixer :: Aux Sends Aux Returns :: Mixer Effects Loop

In this video I connect a guitar effects pedal to an analog mixer using the AUX SEND/RETURN to create an FX LOOP. You could connect a variety of different Effects (FX) devices or sound processors this way.
Connect AUX SEND to FX INPUT and FX OUTPUT to AUX RETURN
This creates the FX "LOOP"
In the video I am using a MONO effect, but you can also connect STEREO effects by using both the L and R AUX RETURN.
***NOTE: Some guitar pedals will not handle a line level signal well. It may distort or sound poor, and it could cause damage to certain older pedals. You may be able to compensate by decreasing the level sent to the pedal by adjusting the AUX SEND so that the signal is no longer overloading (clipping) the pedal. If this does not work, then you will need a reamp box to connect your guitar pedal.
Equipment:
Mic: Shure SM57
Monitor/Speaker: Peavey PR10P
Mixer: Behringer Xenyx X1204USB
FX pedal: MXR Analog Chorus M234

[@travishanson166]

I will have to give this a try. I have an extra mixer i use as an fx bus, so id have up to 16 individual channels i could use to layer fx.

[@DavidSheltonKCDJUnique]

100% detail all the way. I need that for my mixer.

[@urbannpa]

Thank You and Thank You for getting right to the point.

[@aaron26blaz]

Thanks for your videos -- My mind has been spinning trying to figure out mixing w/ looper and fx and you do a great job of explaining it.

[@oftheheron]

The video I watched before I found this one didn’t help me out really. I’m glad I found this one, your video helped me tremendously. Thank you.

[@57RickH]

I've discovered you get real interesting sounds when you use the effects with the panning control turned hard right or left 🔊🔊

[@stefanb664]

Awesome great idea to connect more effekt pedals together. For example a stage-mixer for live performance, or homeband-session into another mixer with other instruments and devices. Thank you for this infotutorial. Regards from germany

[@PBHorrorGaming]

Cheers

[@nigelrogers8690]

Great tutorial 👌🏾 thanks for sharing 🙏🏾

[@tagertyoung]

Now I know. Thank you for doing this.

[@jacealbine]

Exactly what I needed. Thanks!

[@fairweatherfriends.]

What up Kev. I got here cause I had an idea to run my synths into a mixer and use inserts for the pedals I use with synths. That way instead of only having one synth hooked up to my pedals, all synths have the option. All while keeping my stereo synth signals. Anyway I searched on you tube and this is the closest I found. I seem to be the only one who has considered the multiple synth idea cause it’s nowhere online. But yours is the closest! Good to see you still doing it. ( btw when doing chorus on vocals it almost always sounds better to turn your rate way down. IMO a slower speed is better on guitar too, but on vocals you def want it slower. Cause then you get that fat and smoothing sound without it being so shaky and obvious 😉 )

[@Artemago]

Hey friend!!! HMU if you still have my # Using a mixer to get all your synths thru the same pedal chain should be no problem.

[@Yosser70]

Exactly the same reason I’m here. My mixer has 2 AUX sends and a FX for on board effects so I can run 2 pedals into the mixer and have the on board as well :)

[@abelgeovannygarcialopez3941]

Incredible, you are a master, greetings from Nicaragua, Central America, I wanted to know how to connect an RC-300 to the 1202fx console and make all the channels LOOP, using the FX, but without losing the effects of the console, just bring the loop signal to the console, I don't know if I make myself understood, bring the loop pedal signal to the console, but continue using the effects of this same console, I would appreciate your help

[@alwilson6490]

very helpful-- thanks

[@pacemakercommunications]

Excellent video, thank you!!

[@salehalkwarit8511]

this was helpful thank you

[@JakeStrange66]

I've never been able to get this to work for me. I'll try it again going by what this video says to do, but it looks just like every other video says to do.

[@Artemago]

You can do it

[@y4nic519]

ooooOoooo yeah man we got that chorus going ooon

[@vegabonzo73]

So how would you connect say like four pedals up? I’m trying to do that. One pedal seems to take up everything available on the board.

[@Artemago]

Hook them up as a chain

[@HyeokKIM]

Is it because it's an analog chorus or is there no peak signal? Looking at the specifications, this product also had a high impedance input. I wrote this with google translator. Because English is not my mother tongue.

[@NotaYTOficial]

I'm stupid I was using the stereo return 😂 ty

[@p3tari]

hey thanks for posting this man. I was surprised to see that you could do this without a reamp pedal. You mentioned that some fx pedals do just fine with line level, and that it's something we could just test out for ourselves. Let's say the pedal doesn't do well with line level signals. What happens/ how do you know if you'll need to use a reamp pedal with it? I have a reamp pedal, but minimizing the number of things in the signal chain would be great. It would just make things more convenient, save on time, and reduce the number of cables that I already have all over the place if I didn't always have to use a reamp. Thanks again!

[@Artemago]

Most newer pedals will be just fine. Symptoms will affect sound quality such as distortion, noise, artifacts etc. If it sounds good, then it’s likely ok. Consider that preamped (active pickup) guitar signals which are near line level can be input into a pedal usually without problems.

[@VitorLA-nz8de]

U use reamp as the last device in the pedal chain? Or as the first? No need for a direct box?

[@The_Audio_Phoenix]

Sweet If I'm understanding this I right I can use this to create a Wet/ Dry Rig Or even a Wet/ Dry/ Wet Setup using stereo pedals. Is this right? If so this is pretty insane and could save me thousands. Thank you!

[@Artemago]

I’m not that familiar with WDW, but from what I can gather online, it appears so. FX loops on mixers are parallel to the dry signal. And remember that all outputs of a mixer are line level. I assume you will run the line out of your amp to the mixer through which you will apply a stereo FX loop. But where do you plan to send the output of the mixer?

[@user-xj5dj5lp3y]

I put a nux m30 into the line into a line aray and sounds terrible. But sounds great into a valve amp. Any ideas

[@Artemago]

When plugging into line array or other powered speaker that is not a guitar amp, try changing output mode to studio direct.

[@beckadeth]

I have a q1202 and it doesn’t have a return that I’m aware of. How do I get my pedal to work?

[@Artemago]

You are correct. The 1202 does not have a designated FX return. In this case you will have to run the FX return into an open channel and use this channel as a bus (use mono/L input or both L and R for stereo FX on channels 5/6, 7/8, 9/10, or 11/12). But be sure not to send this channel back into the FX, i.e. turn FX all the way down on this channel, as you only want the FX to go into the mains. You can then mix this effect into the mains with the level knob for this channel.

[@Artemago]

I will be making a video soon where I run FX this way through a Xenyx 502 and it has no FX or AUX sends.

[@beckadeth]

@@Artemago thank you

[@docdoghouse2305]

impendance is not matching, you should use a passive DI box in between.

[@VitorLA-nz8de]

Plugged before or after the chorus ?

[@rohitvarun170]

Hello Sir, Watched couple of your videos multiple times and it's very informative. I'm trying to correlate concepts from your videos to achieve something. I have an idea of looping 3 instruments (guitar, keyboard and a drumpad). Need a mic for vocals, looping not necessary. My lekato looper is on the way from the states to India. Currently I just have a cheap Chinese B4 mixer with 2 XLR and 3/4 stereo. No FX or Aux Sends. How can I achieve multiple instruments looping. It's a new mixer I got to experiment. Can return and upgrade to a little better behringer one. Budget can go upto 100 USD maximum. I'm still exploring, with this idea and goal in mind. What do you suggest. May I have your email ID please, If that's okay.

[@jamesmitchell2804]

I purchased a PodGo which has tons of differnt presets, tones and affects. It even allows you to create and store your own. Whats the best way i could connect it to my 12 channel Yammaha mg166cx mixer ?

[@Artemago]

There are so many different ways to hook it up. The best way will depend on how you intend to use the PodGo. Many questions follow here. What are your intentions? What do you wish to accomplish with the pedal? Are you only processing guitar signals? Do you wish to process signals other than guitar signals through the pedal? Do you wish to use it as an external FX processor?...etc. You will have to know your intention and goal before deciding on a connection method. The MG166CX has a quite nice sounding FX processor built into the board that you can use. Have you tried these FX?

[@jamesmitchell2804]

My intention is, instead of using a half stack and head for playing guitar through, I want to run the PodGo through my mixer and play the sounds through 2 Mackie powered speakers. The problem is I don't know how to seperate the vocal channel from the 2 Mackie powered speakers. Plus I have 1 powered monitor speaker in front of me so I can hear. It's as if all the equalizer settings come through all 3 speakers. My guitar has volume, treble and base knows, the mixer has volume etc and the settings on my Podgo has the same. Not sure which one should be the main source of all these tones ? It sounds muddy and annoying. Lol

[@Artemago]

@@jamesmitchell2804 I see. In that case, I would plug guitar into podgo, then run main outputs (or output if mono works for you) from podgo to mixer stereo channel 13/14 or 15/16. Then connect Main outputs from the mixer to your Mackie speakers and connect the Aux 1 send to the monitor. Also, you will need to set the main output to line level on the podgo under global settings-->ins/outs. I don't understand what you mean by separating the vocal from the mains. Where do you want the vocals to come out of, if not the mains? EQs: center the guitar channel EQ on the mixer and use as correction only. Use EQ on the podgo and tone knob on guitar to dial in the tone you desire. Gain staging is an important concept when interconnecting different devices with differing output levels. As a general rule of thumb, we want to maximize volume at input without clipping, and control/limit output to suit loudness requirements. In other words, turn guitar volume all the way up. Then, press PFL on guitar channel on mixer and adjust volume from podgo until meter reads >0

[@jamesmitchell2804]

Wow i did what you said and everything sounds amazing. Thank you so much.

[@pevsfreedom]

For an electric guitar with a full pedal board, could you plug the guitar thru the pedal board as you would, then have it all go thru a direct inject box and then go into the mixer? Or is the re-amp box the best bet? Thanks.

[@Artemago]

If you are only wanting the FX on the guitar, then come out of pedal board into DI then into any Mic input on mixer. If you want to apply the effects of the pedal board as an FX chain to multiple channels, then hook it up as in the video with the loop being the pedal board.

[@pevsfreedom]

@@Artemago Thanks. I am curious, if you can go guitar direct in (line/guitar switch) on like a Tascam (DP24) like I'm looking at, then I am curious on the purpose of the DI unit, because isn't it still the unbalanced high signal going in (guitar>pedalboard>mixer)? Or is the DI only if you don't have a line/guitar switch (I didn't notice in the video). Thanks!

[@Artemago]

If you have a line in/guitar switch then you can use that. The DI converts an unbalanced instrument level signal into a balanced mic level. My mixer does not have a guitar switch for the line in, so I cannot plug in an instrument level signal into it. If you plug an instrument level signal into line in, you will find that the signal will not be loud enough.

[@pevsfreedom]

@@Artemago Thanks! That cleared up a lot for me.

[@marksobkowiak9959]

Can I use both 1\4 & rca returns on a single channel @ the same time ?....The 1\4 for a reverb processor & the rca's for a media player

[@Artemago]

Usually only one works at a time. but you can certainly try

[@marksobkowiak9959]

Thanks Papi, I'm just running each on it's own channel...Thanks for your response

[@Artemago]

That’s best!

[@timothywiley6334]

YES

[@altarabconcarigno]

with this mixer. if i want to do a second send-return, is this controlled by the FX knobs? how can I do 2 different connections as the one you made here?

[@Artemago]

This mixer has 2 Auxiliary channels; one is AUX 1 and the other is FX (AUX 2). Each of these channels have designated sends and stereo returns. So, yes, you can certainly run Aux 1 to one device and FX/Aux 2 to another. However, if you use FX channel as an Aux channel-you connect something to the FX send-then the internal FX will be bypassed. In other words you cannot use the onboard FX and AUX 2 simultaneously.

[@altarabconcarigno]

@@Artemago thanks so much! i use this a lot. if i could have 3, or 4 aux send-returns on a small mixer that would be so so so good. any advice on the smallest mixer to have 2+ aux send -returns?

[@Artemago]

Interesting question. I’ve not seen any small mixer with more than 2 Aux channels. I have no recommendations, sorry.

[@Artemago]

Why do you need so many?

[@altarabconcarigno]

thanks so much @@Artemago ! and what about just 2 aux? what's the smallest you've seen?

[@VitorLA-nz8de]

The reamp goes in the final of the pedal chain or in the beggining?

[@Artemago]

The ideal signal path would be: Mixer->reamp->pedals->DI->mixer

[@VitorLA-nz8de]

@@Artemago DI = direct box?

[@Artemago]

Yes

[@VitorLA-nz8de]

@@Artemago some devices are direct boxes and reamps (2 in 1).. in this case how would be the order ? 😅😅

[@VitorLA-nz8de]

@@Artemago if the device is a direct box and a reamp at the same time.. it’s just shitty or its a nice solution? In this case which order would be the chain pedal ?