Active Band Man Chats - Counting the Number of Times I Stepped on an Effects Pedal During a Live Concert

What are we doing today?

This time, rather than just talking, we are conducting an investigation!

An investigation?

Research!

No, you just switched it to English. So it is an investigation. Of what?

How many times do you step on your effects pedals during a single live show?

Uhh what?

Like… how many? Stomping?

Is that even the right English translation…?

I actually counted! By the way, here’s my pedalboard!

This is the board you use in your band The Showers, right?

Yep! It’s arranged by tuner, distortion, synth effect, and booster. Which one do you think comes out on top?

Alright, shall we begin? The research.

It’s a 10-song setlist including the encore. I counted how many times each effect pedal was pressed.
Numbers are total counts
Not counting times it was turned off
Also not including the tuner, which is stepped on between every song

Hm… I don’t really get it, but… I think I understand. Kind of.

Alright then, the live show is starting!

Huh?

“We’re The Showers! Jaaaan!” [Distortion ①]

“Our first song today: ‘M1. Kizu ga Zukizuki!’” [Booster ①② (solo & outro)]

“Next up, ‘M2. Near-Future Car Race!’” [Booster ③④ (solo & outro)] [Synth ① (solo)]

“Instrumental! ‘M3. The Showers in Motion!’” [Distortion ② (solo)]

“Here’s a new song! ‘M4. ROBOT!’”

“Next is ‘M5. Melody of Youth!’”

“Here’s another instrumental! ‘M6. The World of The Showers!’”

“This is a song I wrote for our leader! ‘M7. Ah, Sparkling ☆ Starlight’”

“Last song of the main set! ‘M8. Youth A-Go-Go!’” [Booster ⑤ (solo)]

“Encore time! ‘en1. Moonshadow Thief!’” [Distortion ③ (last chorus)]

“One more! en2. Barefoot Gift!”

How was that!?

How was that? Uh… good work, I guess.

According to the investigation: distortion was used 6 times.

I mean, looking at it, it’s on for basically every song. Couldn’t you just leave it on the whole time?

Gah! You noticed. Yeah, for The Showers, most songs are distorted from the basic tone. Clean is only used occasionally. For the clean songs, it’s usually: step on distortion in the chorus, then kaboom!

True that.

And the booster was used 7 times.

So basically, it’s used to boost the solos. But there are songs where you don’t use it, right?

Yeah! Since I have to get back to singing right away, I try to get by using distortion only as much as possible!

“Get by”…?

By controlling the picking dynamics. I just play the lead parts harder and make it work!

Oh! That’s a very “guitar-vocalist” kind of approach.

“Kind of”? When I really need more volume, that’s when I step on the booster!

I see. And… the synth was only used once?

I bought it just for that one-time use!

That’s totally not worth the money to buy that! …but yeah, that’s a pretty common story.

Indeed! That’s what you call a “special-effect gadget”!

Can’t deny it… those special-effect sounds don’t really work more than only once during a show.

So, to summarize…
3rd place: Synth — 1 out of 14 times!
2nd place: Distortion — 6 out of 14 times!
And the glorious 1st place goes to—!

“Glorious”…? Really?

Of course! It was stepped on by yours truly the most, you know?

“Got stepped on”… that has a different nuance… (laughs)

Booster! 7 out of 14 times! It accounts for a full 50% of the total! A huge market share!

“Market share,” huh? (laughs)

It’s monopolizing the Kizuhiko market!

If you say so… (deadpan)

It’s monopolizing the bottom of my foot!

If anything, that sounds more like an oligopoly.

And what about you, horry? What about If you played the same setlist?

Me? …It’d be over really fast, I think.

Let’s hear it, then.

During the solo in “The Showers in Motion”, I turn on overdrive—so that’s ①.

Oh! So you do crank the dirt, huh? And then?

That’s it, I said.

Come on, you need to step on more pedals!

With The Showers, that’s about it. I basically leave it on the whole time anyway.

Wah wah is great! Since every time you press it down counts… you could rack up a ton of points!

No no… that counting method is clearly wrong (laughs).

True (laughs). But the more you step on them, the more you get your money’s worth!

Oh really? No, wait—that’s wrong! If I leave it on the whole time, I’m actually using the effect more efficiently, really I am getting my money’s worth!

Huh? That’s the angle you’re taking?

You know how they say leaving the AC on costs less than constantly turning it on and off? It’s the same logic!

Ugh… that’s a fair point. But you like effects pedals, right? Step on them more!

Well… yeah, I do like them… but if I say I “step on them because I like them,” that gives it… a different kind of nuance, so I’ll just stick with this amount (laughs).

And so, here are the results of today’s investigation! A bassist steps on pedals only about one-sixth as much as a guitarist!

Huh? You’re summing it up like that? That just happened to be the case with our setlist. Obviously it changes depending on the setlist, the band, and the individual player!

(Ignoring him) Yes, and everything is…

For love!