Seriously considering digital multi-effects: modulation content.

OooooOOOO just found out about the Line 6 M5.  That may do the trick!

that looks like a Korg G4 not a Line 6 on his board.  I was looking for more than one modulation type,  the G4 does only the leslie/rotating thing.  The reason for the Line 6 stuff is that you get trems and other modulations as well.

The M9 looks great for this purpose too... or perhaps even an MM4?

The M5 is hideous, M13 is rather large but I've had an M9 since they came out and I'm very pleased with it. Being realistic, there are numerous effects these things ALL come with that nobody will really "actually" use. Maybe some who are into more soundscape like music. And those weird effects might come in handy from time to time. In all honesty, I use mine for the reverbs (pretty decent) and delays. I like to set up a few delays including stereo and regular, then a reverb. I never really cared for the so called multi effects units, but the M9 if you have the room on your board is a great piece. I downsized to a small board (wah, od, comp, m9) 2 years ago and it has gotten a lot of use.

Side note: Also comes in handy for a drive, delay and reverb unit for practices and even small get togethers with a minimalist approach. Or if using someones else's amp, this will help put more of your own identity back into the tone.

For recording, on a budget, digital is te way to go, and if you know what you are doing you can get a rather good recording quality.  Check out the songs on my band's page: theliquidkitchen.net.  All instruments are the old rackmount POD and even the drums were replaced.  Not the best quality but the average bear would be hard pressed to know it is all digital. 

Yeah, I am ok with the digital world, just have been avoiding it for live use.  So to me it isn't the analog to digital hurdle... it is the wanting to find the right box (tone, ease of use, price), for the right price.

I recently purchased a Line 6 M13. Yes, it's digital, but I A/B'd it with my Fulldrive 2 and tweaked the M13 until it sounded pretty much indistinguishable, and then did the same for another pedal.

Yes, it's digital, and it may not give you 100% of the tone of an analog device. But for me, the benefits far outweigh the negatives. For example - I can have several tempos of delay, depths of reverb, levels of drive, volume, and anything else, on tap with a M13. No more bending over to change the settings on my delay pedal for each song. Plus - it's kind of like having a bradshaw system, in that you can hit one switch and go from clean-chorus-reverb-vibrato to overdrive-phaser-delay-etc. Try doing that with a traditional pedalboard. So if you want a huge variety of sounds, and a super easy time gigging, something like this is great.

As for the tone factor - I've been playing a long time - and have spent way too much time listening to something in a quiet room, tweaking every nuance of tone to "perfection" - only to have that miniscule detail completely lost when playing live. So for me, the small difference in tone, which gets totally lost in most mixes anyway, is totally worth all of the features of a M13. And honestly, I think for many of us, the analog/digital is something we hear with our eyes more than our ears, if you know what I mean.

Yep, I was going to suggest either an M9, an  MM4, or perhaps a Roger Linn Andrenalinn?