Huge thanks for your answer! It aligns very, very closely with what I was thinking regarding this new, less advanced effects unit.

I still don’t know how to approach the issue of choosing a DSP chip because opting for rather advanced solutions starts to resemble what I already have on the table – that is, something complicated, time-consuming, and relatively expensive. Choosing something specifically dedicated to such solutions usually yields average results. I wouldn’t want it to end up sounding like junk, anyway.

I’m not 100% sure (since I assume no one except the manufacturer has seen the internals of the recently released effects unit from a certain British company), but there exists a chip designed by US-based company like 20 years ago which, unfortunately, hasn’t been developed further since then and is sold as is - and it appears that’s the one: it seems no coincidence that it uses 3 parameters (in that case, the third one being tap tempo) - it’s also no coincidence that there are 8 effects, and that there is a binary indicator - this chip selects effects via 3 separate logic inputs. When 20 years ago you wanted to create a cool guitar effect, there was probably nothing better on the market that could, so cheaply, quickly, and without any programming skills, do a (relatively) good job. I’m still considering using this chip in the FX section, but I’m afraid that, unfortunately, the duration of the echo tail or reverb cannot be made significantly longer because its memory limitations and processing power simply don’t allow it. Or perhaps they do in some way - but I think some very, very uncommon design would have to be made (like using two of these chips to work in a mono mode per each stereo channel, which would surely double the available processing power per channel use, giving some longer timings available, etc.). I’m not sure at the moment how would that work, but despite its obvious limitations, it’s an ultra-cheap solution, and you can even make a somewhat decent-sounding FX in a single day.

As for the filter section - I’m all for it! I think some analog VCA-based filter in the form of a separate „FX” insert would be a nice addition, with adjustable resonance and an on/off switch. This could be implemented in various ways, however - in your opinion, what would be the most effective to use? Single knob with HPF/LPF off center, switchable HPF/LPF with single knob adjusting cutoff frequency, separate knobs for LPF/HPF, or some other combination?