FX preferences: digital & analogue; stompboxes & multiFX

FX:
My favorite subject, as you may well know if you read this blog....but I am not worried whether or not this blog is read now or not, it's just nice to have somewhere to vent and discuss these things I like, even if it's just me and the blog wall!
For the past two days I unplugged all my single effect stompbox type pedals, just to see what life would be like if i only used my BOSS VF-1 24bit multi-effect processor, which is a half rack orange box that is amazing....however it's difficult to tweak settings on the fly, even with Midi controllers like my Behringer FCB-1010 midi pedalboard.
I was sending my guitar signal into the VF-1, then the ART tubeMP preAmp, and then the DBX163x compressor, and the final result was a vivid, real tone on all patches i made...where i set the virtual amplifiers and played with delay's & pitch shifters...all in all it's great, as long as I have time to fiddle.
Today, i plugged the stompboxes back in and took the Boss VF-1 out of the signal chain...
leaving me with :
guitar->electroHarmonix Qtron envelope filter->danelectro FUZZ->BOSS DS-1 distortion->danelectro DRiVE->Boss rc-20xl loopstation->recording rig

NOW, for playing live, improvised stuff, this is the way to go....of course you need to fiddle with volume settings on everything prior to performance, but once that's done, you can drift away into your musical la-la land, using your feet to turn off and on pedals as your jam progresses...building up swells, and fading away...it's just so darn natural feeling..

The quest for tone goes on, and I am busy today fiddling about, making loud noises, and distorting the nature of sound...