How do you "save" your pedal knob settings?

[Oinkus]

I don't , I use my ears.

 

[William Cairns]

I don’t play live, so the only pedal that I’ve ever been nervous about the settings being changed is my original big box Q-Tron. It took forever for me to dial in the exact sound that I wanted for my bass, and I was super paranoid they would change, lol. Envelope filters can be like that it seems. So, I wrote them down in a notebook.

they did eventually get changed, but when dialed back I never seemed to get the exact sound back (but that’s probably my imagination)

 

[bluesky636]

After I dial in a pedal on my board I pull the knobs and replace them at 12:00.

How do you keep the knobs from turning while you remove and replace the knobs?

 

[Steved65]

Amp and pedals are adjusted based on each venue so marking a spot isn't practical. I tend to zero out every knob on amp and pedals while I set up and dial them in real quick when I fire the amp up. Doesn't take more than a minute or two.

 

[Cb]

How do you keep the knobs from turning while you remove and replace the knobs?

with boss pedals i dial it in, then carefully pull the knobs and install them at 12:00, verify the settings, and occasionally readjust them.

for something like a zen drive with set screws, I dial in a knob, note it’s position relative to 12:00 (if the level is at 10:00, I’ll need a 2:00 clockwise move).

I use 8 pedals, so It helps to be able to check them at a glance to see what’s moved from 12:00. years ago I read an article about mechanics rotating the gauges in a race car so the needles pointed at noon when everything was copacetic.

 

[NotMyTempo]

I can do that too. This thread particularly applies to people doing shows, where a chain of 10 pedals might easily get knocked around, and while the difference between 1:00 and 1:30 on one knob might be imperceptible on a stand-alone pedal, that difference could be multiplied out to an entirely different atmosphere with 22 pedals after it. Finding that one slight tweak might require fine twiddling of 137 knobs (which is more likely to throw things off worse) is a luxury one can't afford allotted five minutes for sound check.

I like to isolate everything from the venue as much as possible, only have a 10-band IQ to dial in during sound check - but even then the microtonal scales I settle on during performance will end up somewhat in interactive response to what the venue space IR likes.

Yeah 22 pedals would be quite a lot to manage in a live setting! I typically just plug in and play and worry about dialing in the amp. Like you, I prefer to get delay/modulation set up at home and stick to those settings. I only fiddle with my drive pedal live, maybe delay. I’m also just rocking 3-4 pedals live so definitely don’t have the concerns of affecting too much later on in my chain.

I prefer to save the tweaking for the comforts of my own home.

 

[SubApathy]

After all the settings are set, I take a picture of the board. If anything gets messed up, I can simply look at the picture and make the necessary adjustments.

 

[Ja2854]

Take pictures and save them into One Note on my phone. It autocrops the images into "pedal shape" so it's convenient and I just save them I whichever song folder they apply to. Some of mine are midi which helps but if they aren't then the pics work just fine.

 

[Non-rabbit]

I use some graphic, text, or even the on/off LED on the pedal as a reference point. Sometimes I cut little wedges of scotch tape and stick them on the pedal too. I also take pictures and even write stuff down using clock times for knob positions in a notes file on my phone.

 

[skiltrip]

I just learn the pedal, so at a glance, I already more or less know where the knobs need to be for a given sound.

 

[chanley]

I'm 99% at home, about 10 pedals, only 2 are digital. the reset are analog and fairly easy to dial in what I want. BUT, there have certainly been a few times where I was playing out and during setup, had to take a few extra seconds because a knob got moved in transit.

 

[Honey I shrunk the mids]

I take a lot of photos of my settings for different projects. I just create an album and keep them organized by band / session.

 

[billbfoot]

Whenever I’m working on songs I have my iPhone recording (voice memos). That allows me to re-evaluate my music and see what works and what doesn’t. When I record I also talk about what settings/pedals/guitar/amp I’m using so that it’s all right there with the song idea. I also take pics of settings, and since the recordings have date/time stamps on them, they correlate with the pics time stamp.

I’d like to find some stickers to mark pedal settings that don’t permanently adhere to the finish. I’ve tried artists tape, and painters tape, but they all leave residue after being on there long term.

I do this, too… will go back and match the dates of pics and voice memos (if recorded).

 

[JesterR]

With my magic power of human memory I can restore them.

But, again, one of the main point to have pedals, that you can easily adjust them, depending on situation, without menu-diving.
Honestly, can not deal with presets, because they literally sounds crappy on the next day, and it's hard to adjust them a bit, without visual representation, what is going on.

 

[stargazer747]

I’m a set and forget player, I find the sweet spot on my pedals and amps that work for both clean and crunch tones then I snap a picture with my smartphone to save for future reference.

 

[RBH]

Maybe I'm old school - but I learn how things work, it's just the nature of analogue gear.

 

[Lolaviola]

Kudos to you guys with great memories, but it seems like a good question. I use the aforementioned white-out trick.

 

[O.J.]

I don’t play live, so the only pedal that I’ve ever been nervous about the settings being changed is my original big box Q-Tron. It took forever for me to dial in the exact sound that I wanted for my bass, and I was super paranoid they would change, lol. Envelope filters can be like that it seems. So, I wrote them down in a notebook.

they did eventually get changed, but when dialed back I never seemed to get the exact sound back (but that’s probably my imagination)

Not your imagination, that's standard procedure for envelope filters!

 

[joebloggs13]

The only pedals I have trouble remembering the settings on are the Strymon small boxes...because of their secondary functions. My other stuff are easy to set up quickly.

 

[BricksnBeatles]

I make printouts to reflect the positions of the knobs for different songs that I record.