sergiodeblanc
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My pedalboard sucks and needs to be lit on fire.
Messin' With My Pedalboard - Are We There Yet?
- Thread starter László
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Personal pyrotechnics mounted on a pedalboard. :rock: You are friggin' brilliant! :beer:
I think we've given short shrift to most of the modulation and ambient effects. So let's discuss.
Phaser and Flanger: I don't use 'em. Never have. I can't figure out what they're for, unless you're doing psychedelics, in which case I suppose the come in very handy. But then, anything does when you're doing psychedelics.
Chorus: I prefer analog choruses, but the digital ones are so good that I don't mind going digital on the rare occasions when I need chorus.
Leslie Speaker: The Eventide version sounds good. First one I've actually liked. This is an effect I do use.
Tremolo: I like mine analog, though it's not that big a deal. I have a Suhr Jackrabbit, does a great job and has tap tempo. I used a Fulltone for a long time, also a great sound, but the Suhr is more flexible and it's quieter.
Univibe: I'll only use a photocell analog version. The rest aren't worth doo-doo. The Fulltones float my boat.
Pitch effects: Again, Eventide.
Octavia: People who aren't Hendrix can figure out how to get good sounds with these? Cool, because I can't.
Guitar synths of various stripes: Sorry, my synths come with keys.
Delay: Yes.
Reverb: Rarely.
Filters: Love them. But I use them more in post production than while tracking.
sergiodeblanc
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Yeah, I thought so too until this happened:
I use 'em all the time, but then again there is your point about the whole psychedelic thing.
Disco, funk, reggae, new wave, dance music.... I can't imagine not having them! Chorus on the other hand is my least used mod effect, and only used sparingly on bass and vocals. Everybody is different.
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In my case, it may just be a matter of ignorance as to how to use them properly. I've never been able to figure 'em out. As I mentioned, same with the Octavia type pedals. Fuzz and octave up? I dunno how.
sergiodeblanc
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I can't help you with Octavia/Fuzz octave up stuff... I'm lost too.
I was told to roll the treble off the guitar, using the neck pickup. I tried it with several guitars, and couldn't get a cool tone. I had a Fulltone Ultimate Octave, the fuzz sounded great with the octave off. So I tried an Octafuzz, same issue. I could get the octave tone, but it wasn't very cool. Maybe it was my amp. I tried a Chicago Iron pedal too, same deal.
So I gave up.
I have flanger and phaser on my H9. If you tell me how to use them, I'll give them a shot. I mean I get the whole jet plane sound thing. I want to know how to really integrate them into a guitar tone.
EDIT: I just went and looked at some instructional videos on how to do use phaser and flanger, and interestingly enough, one of my favorite guitar tones of all time, the tone on The Cure's "A Forest" used flanger. I think they also used it on some of the cymbal hits. So now I'm gonna do some work with it.
Also I'm listening to some tasty phaser stuff before a distorted sound, and it can be pretty cool. So there's that.
Therefore I hereby reverse myself, and officially change my mind. :top:
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And now we know for sure...the Devil wears Prada.Yeah, I thought so too until this happened:
sergiodeblanc
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The archetypical tone that comes to my mind with the whole fuzz/octave thing is the solo in "Fool In the Rain" or a live version of "Heathen" by Zeppelin and The Wailer's respectively... I've tried a million times to find a tune/project where that was within the context of the song, and it hasn't happened for me yet.
"A Forest" by The Cure is my definitive example of how I use a Flanger, you couldn't have picked a better song for how I believe it is best used. Heavy on the depth control, easy on the regeneration, and slow on the rate: it's a moody sound for repetitive, rhythmic self-loathing, in the best way! My favorite Cure song from my favorite album by them, check out the chorused bass and NO HIGH HATS!!!! in the drum programming. Using flanger for drum breaks and drops in dance music drums is super-common if you high-pass filter the kick drum out too, give it a try instead of, or in addition to filter effects that you may normally reach for in those occasions.
Phase kills on those "little guitar" parts I am always talking about, think of GQ's "Disco Nights" or Oliver Cheatham's "Get Down It's Saturday Night" and those guitar lines that just kinda "shadow" the bass lines in all reggae music; perfect opportunity to use phase and give them a little movement while not going all "1980's" on music with chorus. I spend some time thinking about what technology was available to the artists of that time when I think of "copping tones" from certain time frames of mass popularity and cultural impact that clients are always trying to describe to me... Just try to play "Who's That Lady" and solo without phaser! Way less fun.
And now we know for sure...the Devil wears Prada.
:beer: Yeah buddy! (actually Christian Louboutin, but... :girl: )
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sergiodeblanc
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Hope they come in handy! :beer:
Dude! They will!
The odd thing is that the Eventide gear I've been using for quite some time has phaser and flanger, and I've more or less ignored them. Same with that TC box I had a while back, the Nova System. In fact, come to think of it, I had a Fulltone Choralflange and never even tried the flanger. Weird, huh? I just couldn't imagine what I'd use them for, since I don't play Itchycoo Park.
sergiodeblanc
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I'm not familiar with the stomp boxes from Eventide, but I've spent a ton of time with their "H" series processors which I believe share the same algorithms, and the stock presets for those effects always had too much going on in them... So make sure you check out the waveform they're using in there and switch it to sine or triangle rather than their exponential waveforms, and be sure to fiddle with the regeneration controls. Too deep of a setting on the regeneration (+&-) makes them sound less "classic swoosh" and more "modern-blowing through a straw/slide whistle" kinda way which was usually a common complaint.
Try 'em on keyboard sounds too! Phase on clavinet, rhodes, and even B-3 is very 70's sounding and great for prog and reggae stuff!
I do use processors on keys and synths. The Eventide effects presets are set thick, no doubt, to show what they can do. But on the H9 they're a breeze to adjust, much easier than the menus of the H3000 and progeny.
With the H9, you simply call 'em up, and dial 'em the way you like them on your iOS device. No getting on your hands and knees to adjust, and all the controls for each part of each preset are right on the screen. Make the adjustment, save the preset (takes one second, no menus to fiddle with) and you're done. Also each preset is designed to work with inexpensive expression and momentary switch pedals, and what gets adjusted there can be easily tweaked, too.
The IOS app is free, and it even has a "ribbon controller" that you can move with your finger and assign to parameters to experiment with what you'd do with an expression pedal.
It's an absolutely brilliant design that makes the H9 the perfect pedalboard device. At my age, it's really, really hard to bend over with a guitar on to adjust a pedal parameter. This is so nice!
Well guys, as my post above hinted, after many years of procrastinating, I decided to put a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo in the studio to use with my guitars, amps and pedalboard.
I am so glad I did!
I haven't worked for more than a few minutes with a tape echo since the early 70s.
Sure, you can get echo...echo...echo...with digital stuff and bucket brigade analog stuff, but this thing is in another league in terms of having a beautiful tone. First of all, it's built beautifully, hand-wired in the audio path, and works so smoothly that I couldn't be happier with its quality level.
What really makes this thing different sounding from a digital reproduction of a tape echo is simple: it's the preamp, mostly, combined with the way only tape gradually saturates. The preamp sounds gorgeous, sweet, and creamy. The tape adds that thing that only analog tape does. Through the DG30, everything sounds larger than life, but rounded and creamy. No digital pedal does this, not the Strymon, not the TC, and not my Eventide. Yes, they do really nice things, and they're all awesome, but they're not this.
Huge thumbs up!
Yes, I will do some clips in the next few days once I get some time.
I am so glad I did!
I haven't worked for more than a few minutes with a tape echo since the early 70s.
Sure, you can get echo...echo...echo...with digital stuff and bucket brigade analog stuff, but this thing is in another league in terms of having a beautiful tone. First of all, it's built beautifully, hand-wired in the audio path, and works so smoothly that I couldn't be happier with its quality level.
What really makes this thing different sounding from a digital reproduction of a tape echo is simple: it's the preamp, mostly, combined with the way only tape gradually saturates. The preamp sounds gorgeous, sweet, and creamy. The tape adds that thing that only analog tape does. Through the DG30, everything sounds larger than life, but rounded and creamy. No digital pedal does this, not the Strymon, not the TC, and not my Eventide. Yes, they do really nice things, and they're all awesome, but they're not this.
Huge thumbs up!
Yes, I will do some clips in the next few days once I get some time.
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toothace
Zombie Thirteen, DFZ
I thought you only did clips if someone sent you a purchase order?
:beer:
:beer:
I thought you only did clips if someone sent you a purchase order?
:beer:
It's true. I'm paying myself to do some.
