Gear questions

I thought I knew my gear back to front, but...

a, What effects should I put in my FX loop

b, Why do I need to know my speaker impedance (Anything to do with speaker impedance)

c, What can I do with the MIDI ports on my x4 delay

d, What difference will it make if my FX loop has 10dbu, or 0dbu buffer, or bypass.

Your Laney came with a manual, right? READ IT!

A) I used to emphaticall say "none" but if you are getting a lot of preamp tube drive then any time-based effect is good there as are moduations if that's your sound, experiement... a lot may depend on how your master volume is implemented though. If it is like a JCM800 then the effects loop should come after the master and allow you to dial in preamp drive before effects that sound better into clean power, if its like a matchless then it is post-phase-inverter and there is no real benefit to using the loop in this way unless it sounds better to you. I really like a flange in the hi-Z loop of my HC30 set to sound like a Leslie even though the HC30's master volume is a post-phase-inverter design (I rarely use master volumes in any significant way anyhow, if I want to be less loud I go to half power or play a smaller amp), the effect doesn't sound the same out front... depending on the loop implementation (and it sounds like yours has the right sort of buffering) it can be the only decent way to use LO-Z, line level 'studio' gear with your amp and guitar and get optimal gain and frequency response without purchasing some impedance matching devices to use out front of the amp's HI-Z input... this is also an interesting place to put a compressor and it gives you the option of using a studio unit instead of a dynacomp pedal (the pumpkins used alesis 3630s in the loop in this way on MCIS), try it

B) an impedance mismatch on a tube amp is straining the power amplifier and output transformer (if you want the electrical reasons, look it up, its hard to simplify and I'm no teacher), unless the transformer is heavily overspec like a vintage fender OR you are running at half power with 2 tubes pulled to halve the strain (impossible on a 2 power tube amp) you WILL blow your output transformer, the most costly component in the whole amp... if you are lucky the power tubes won't arc before the output transformer is done melting because if they do they take out the tube sockets (and if they're mounted to a PCB they take the whole amp out). As a beginner in tube electronics I strongly advise you to make sure you have a 100% impedance match between a tube amp and speaker(s) before taking the amp pout of standby. If you must be an idiot remember it is safer to run High impedance into low than low into high and that if you go low to high running 4 into say 8 is safer than running 4 into 16. But.... DON'T TRY IT KID! the fact that you had to ask that question makes me worry about your Laney, but I am glad you asked before you tried to do anything stupid. Even if you have selectable impedance on your amp and feel you can match speakers with impunity, when we get into say, celestions? The 16ohms and 8hms are built a bit different to give them a different impedance and they sound a it difference. As a rule in celestion and celestion inspired speakers the 8 ohms sound a little sweeter in the top end, but if you are wiring 2 speakers in parallel or 4 in series/parallel the damping effect of that wiring will even the playing field a bit. However, in purely series wiring or used singley I favor 8 ohm celestions, end of story. But YMMV, I have crazy ears and am a bit OCD about my amps, so my love of 8 ohm celestions and certain old tubes is maybe not worth taking seriously. Just be sure to take that 100% impedance match between amp and speaker(s) seriously, in tube amps its the LAW, Duke.

C) put it in a rack, slave it with other midi units and control their functions and presets like 1 big machine via a floor controller of course... you can probably use it as a basic preset and tap controller for another effects box with midi in too, as long as they are both TC effects they should handle midi program change data the same way... the point of this would be to change patches and set tempo on 2 different processors simualtaneously using the X4's footswitches only

D) wow, a big one.... read the manual, there's a lot to this and your amp ahs 3 fairly well-thought out options that al have a very real purpose. There are set-in-stone dos and don'ts based on the input and output impedance as well as the dBu level cominginto and from your effects units (if you are overloading an effect's input or the output sounds anemic and fizzy even with the level cranked then you fucked up), but there's also a lot of personal preference when implementing HI-Z stomp boxes for instance. Personally I like a straight up dumble-style HI-Z poweramp in and out if I am going to use an effects loop for stomp boxes, but your mileage may vary

did that help without getting too technical?