Behringer FX600 Digital Multi-FX

[duhvoodooman***]

While shopping for a Behringer clean boost pedal on eBay, I noticed that the seller I was checking out also offered Behringer's new FX600 Digital Multi-FX pedal, introduced just this past year. The pedal offers digitally-based versions of six classic effects: flanger, chorus, phaser, delay, tremolo and pitch shifter; see the image below for the pedal's overall design & layout. I already had 5 of these 6 effects (all but the pitch shifter) in my existing collection of pedals and amps, but at $22 + shipping, I just had to check it out and see what you get for less than $4 per effect! I received it just before Thanksgiving, and here are my preliminary impressions:

First, the physical construction--this is a simple rectangular casing with a hinged foot pedal at the front, and four control knobs at the back, recessed below the level of the pedal piece, to protect them from getting stomped or kicked. The casing is plastic, but it's a good, tough ABS enclosure that should stand up to reasonably heavy use, I would think. Definitely not a Boss or Digitech mini-tank, though. The pedal is powered either by a 9V battery (mounted under the removable pedal piece, like so many stomp boxes) or with a standard 9V center-negative DC adapter. The adapter jack is conveniently located on the front of the pedal and not down along the side. I have several Behringer pedals now, and they're all laid out this way. One last, rather cool feature--the FX600 has dual inputs and dual outputs, for players who want to go wild with stereo effects.

If you're looking for high quality effects with great sound and flexible controls, pass on this pedal. It should come as no surprise that you're not going to get that for $22. The layout is pretty basic--the four knobs give you a selector for the 6 effects, a level control, and two knobs that control the individual effects, labeled PAR 1 and PAR 2. (PAR = parameter, I would assume.) In general, since these are time-based effects, the knobs control the effect cycle rate and the effect depth. While this is fine at a basic level, I generally like more control than that. But what can you expect at this price?

The selector knob moves smoothly between the 6 effect types, but doesn't have "detents" delineating the six positions. But pay attention to the markings on the casing, and you'll have no problem getting the effect you want. The other 3 knobs also function smoothly and without noise. The bypass seems to work very well; I don't hear any pops or scratchiness, and the pedal doesn't audibly "suck tone", at least to my ear.

As far as the sound of the effects themselves--none are what I'd call great, but range from rather poor (the flanger) to pretty good (the tremolo, phaser and chorus). Obviously, you have to play around some with the rate and depth controls to get useable sounds, but they're in there, for the most part. The delay is fairly limited in what you can do with it (for instance, you can't roll back to a single repeat) and the max. delay is only about a second. The pitch shifter is kind of fun to fool around with to get a two-note harmonizing effect, but this doesn't seem to me to be a widely useful effect. But these are obviously my subjective opinions--YMMV.

The other main drawback of the pedal is that it definitely tends to have that synthetic digital character to the effects it produces. This is more noticeable on some effects than others, but overall, it definitely lacks that analog warmth that more expensive/vintage pedals are prized for.

Still, even given these drawbacks, I think this little sucker is pretty amazing for $22. Seeing as how you could easily spend $500 - $1,000 on individual high-end pedals for these six effects, to even get into the ballpark for this price is fairly astounding. Even with its limitations, you can have a lot of fun twiddling the knobs and seeing what sounds you can produce with it.

So who should consider buying one? Well, if you're new to effects pedals and just want to try out some of these effects without making a big investment, the FX600 could be the perfect answer. Or if you want to fill in a couple of "holes" in your pedalboard for cheap, until you can afford something better. Need a cool "stocking-stuffer" for a young player? The FX600 would make a good one. No, it's not going to replace your MXR Phase 90 or your Boss DD-3, but it certainly has its uses, especially at this price!

[Adrian30]

DVM,
Thanks for this great review!

[Spudman***]

Nice review and much appreciated.