It worked really well, the best way would probably be to take the on board switches out of the equation, and just have it exclusively controlled by the foot switch - I might try that this week, as I’m off work with COVID.
Back when I worked on analogue kit with outboard kit I’d bring the FX return back to a spare channel on the desk - reason being was that I could eq the reverb (for example) to suit the song, also gave options for panning effects.
These days I group the effects in with the source material (brass tracks with brass reverb etc), as it’s just easier to mute or solo the group and not have to find where the extra returns are.
I've done this sort of thing before - I use a DI box in front of the pedalboard, then take a DI feed with my overdrive units on it. Producer can chop and change, and as a player I can have more fun with a bit of filth.
Just had a quick play with this in Cubase on some DI’ed bass tracks - it’s really very good; an excellent software version of the BDDI.
Well worth at least $5 of anyone’s money.
Not necessarily 'cheap', but good quality part bought from wherever I can find a good deal, and then lovingly hand bodged crafted into playable instruments.
Dave Hall VT1 DI EQ. I use it as a preamp for live (it feeds my power amp and cab), and it’s got a great DI for recording and home practice. It’s also got a line in and headphone amp built-in. It’s not a ‘squeaky clean’ hi-if sound, but it’s great for everything from gentle tube driven tones up to Lemmy-esque filth.
Awesome piece of kit.
That should be relatively easy to do, just toggle the potentiometer in and out of the circuit with a fixed ‘no drive’ resistor across the other half of the switch...