Level

The level family holds two types that manage the finished signal as a whole rather than shaping its tone: a volume pedal is a continuously variable master level control operated by foot, and a looper records a passage of playing and plays it back on a repeating cycle. Neither adds a tonal character of its own the way a drive or modulation pedal does — a volume pedal changes how loud everything already present is, and a looper simply replays what it captured.

The types in this family

• Volume pedal (rank 120): At the end of the effects a volume pedal is a master level that fades everything, tails included. Before the delay and reverb it becomes a swell pedal — see the alternative.
• Looper (rank 130): A looper at the end records exactly what the room hears, so a loop plays back with the tone it was played with.

Where it sits in the chain, and why

A volume pedal at the very end of the effects chain works as a true master control, fading everything — including delay and reverb tails — together as one signal. Moved instead to a point before the time-based effects, the same pedal becomes a swell pedal: the note fades in and its echoes and reverb tails survive the fade rather than being cut with it, a distinct, commonly used technique rather than a variation on the master-volume placement. A looper sits at the very end of the chain, after even the volume pedal, so what it records and plays back is exactly what the room would have heard — placed earlier, it captures a passage that has not yet received the board’s own reverb and delay, which cannot be added back to an already-recorded loop the same way.

Power notes

A simple volume pedal is often a passive, mechanical device requiring no power at all, though active buffered volume pedals do exist and draw current like a buffer. A looper, by contrast, is a memory- and processing-heavy digital device and typically draws noticeably more current than most other pedals on a board — check its specification carefully before assuming it can share a modest output with several smaller pedals.

General guidance for the family, never a specification for any individual pedal — always confirm voltage, polarity, current draw and isolation from the maker’s own documentation before wiring a real board.

Every rank and reason above is quoted straight from pedal-chain-planner.js's PEDAL_TYPES — the same taxonomy this site's chain planner runs and docs/gearwarrior-pedals-contract.md documents. No second table.