Are you interested in digital effects? These effects have come a long way from their early days in the 80s when they just weren’t that good. You now have full digital effects boxes that do almost everything imaginable. These effects can recreate classic sounds as well as create many modern ones too. So should you use digital effects?

Cost
Stomp boxes can run you a lot of money and each box only does one thing. For example a $100 distortion pedal only makes distortion and nothing else. A digital effects box for example may cost a bit more say $150-$200 for a good model but this does a lot and gives you good value for your money. For example one good digital processor can do distortion, delay, reverb, flange, echo, tune your guitar, and so on. These digital effects give you good value for your money. If you tried to get all this in just stomp boxes you would spend a ton of money. A stomp box gives you one or two main sounds but the digital effects box is the jack of all trades and gives you more value for your money.


Sound
Digital effects today sound quite good and they are nothing like the terrible ones form the early days. Most regular people simply can’t tell the difference between a stomp box and a digital effect. As a guitar player you probably can and the sound is really a preference. You may enjoy the sound of digital effects or you may hate them, it’s all a matter of opinion. The only way to know is to try a digital effect out and see for yourself


Versatility
Digital effects allow you to be very versatile. For example, you don’t have to lug around a pedal board or sort through a bunch of pedals to find one sound. With a digital effect you can click a button and save a preset and use that preset whenever you need it. There’s no need to fiddle with buttons once you have a preset. Many digital effects come with preloaded presets that are quite good and some allow for sharing of presets among users. Many digital effects can even recreate the sounds of famous rock stars s you have a recreation of their sound such as the “brown sound” of Eddie Van Halen or the bluesy feel of Stevie Ray Vaughan or the feel of 60s amplifiers. Digital effects let you create sounds now without the hassle to buy the actual gear used to create the original sound.

Recording
Digital effects allow you to do something else, they allow a beginner to begin recording right away. With simple software you can start recording your own songs without the need for expensive gear, tons of amplifiers, and a huge array of effects. If you want to get your songs out there without expense then digital effects can help you get the sounds you want now.

Digital effects are a great option for you as a guitar player and a combination of digital and regular analog is the best options. You should really have no fear of digital as there’s a wide array of excellent tones you can use right now.