Your Pedal of Choice : Chorus Pedals

I use modulation effects - often chorus - on just about everything I record,/QUOTE]

Really? I'll have to take a closer listen to some of your stuff. I remember a bunch of mixers used to use the old "symphonic" effect from the Yamaha SPX series for the same thing, but I have never thought of trying that with regular old chorus effects... I may have to give it a try.
 
I use modulation effects - often chorus - on just about everything I record,/QUOTE]

Really? I'll have to take a closer listen to some of your stuff. I remember a bunch of mixers used to use the old "symphonic" effect from the Yamaha SPX series for the same thing, but I have never thought of trying that with regular old chorus effects... I may have to give it a try.

I used to run a pair of SPX 90s, an Eventide H3000, and a TC M5000 as my primary effects back in the day. I had some Lexicon boxes, too, but I mainly used those on drums to create a little space. On vocals I loved the H3000 reverbs.

Mostly I run modulation on guitars, a little on bass sometimes with parallel processing, and I use modulation on keys, but everyone else does that stuff, too.

I sometimes use filters with LFO modulation on drums, again, processed parallel, but it depends on the track. If you listen to the track I posted that I did for Cadillac on your studio monitors you'll hear the modulation on the three guitar tracks. I didn't modulate the strings or piano, but there is filtering on the drum track. I don't remember what else is in there.
 
The Mod Factor sounds a little less "digital" to my ear, and that has always been the case with Eventide algorithms.

I have heard the Strymon and it's very nice, too, though it's a little less organic to my ear than the Eventide.


Interesting. I feel the opposite way. I bought a ModFactor and I thought it was just o.k. I agreed with the Strymon stuff more. I've owned an Ola, a Flint and I wan to get a Mobius. The "Undulator" on the ModFactor was a great effect, though...
 
I've used many chorus pedals through the years. I recently got rid of a Wampler Nirvana because the name just doesn't have a good "meaning" for me. Look up "Nirvana" and decide for yourself. I actually bought a cheap Electro Harmonix Small clone that suits me just fine. Price was not an issue when I made this purchase. It just sounded better that the 3 or 4 other ones the store had.
 
MXR Analog Chorus. Simple as hell to use, sounds great and has a very responsive level control unlike other chorus pedals I've had in the past. Oh, and it looks cool on the board. So there's that...
 
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Not really a chorus guy so to speak. I like using phasers more, though I like the rotary sounds on a rotovibe and similar effects. I've been using the Eventide modfactor, curious about the Mobius but not enough to drop the coin to find out. The Modfactor, some days I really like it, others it leaves me a little cold. I really haven't played around with it enough, I guess. I need to have a midi/multi device type pedal to cover everything though. I just wish someone could nail the phase 90 sound in one of these devices. Never quite there.
 
Interesting. I feel the opposite way. I bought a ModFactor and I thought it was just o.k. I agreed with the Strymon stuff more. I've owned an Ola, a Flint and I wan to get a Mobius. The "Undulator" on the ModFactor was a great effect, though...

Yeah, this stuff is very, very subjective, no doubt about it. And I can't argue with you, at that level of quality, it's really just a matter of "pick one, they're both very nice pedals."

I do like the Strymon stuff, don't get me wrong! It's up there with the Eventide, so I think it's a matter of how they're flavored. For example, I like rotary effects quite a lot due to my work playing organ for many years. The Strymon has a beautiful rotary effect, for example, but it doesn't really sound like a Leslie Speaker, while the Eventide is much closer - it sounds closer to a Leslie minus the mechanical noise. The filter emphasis is different, there's less high end openness like you find on a real Leslie, the doppler effect is more pronounced. I've recorded a lot of Leslie speakers, so there's stuff I listen for.

I find that (as with analog gear) digital gear from every manufacturer has a "sound."

Strymon gear has a very neutral frequency response. It's almost like "your guitar magnified cleanly plus this effect." I'd call it very hi-fi. Hey, that's a great thing in the right hands!

Eventide effects have a lot going on in their algorithms. Your guitar sounds perhaps less hi-fi than it does with the Strymon stuff, and the effects more or less take over. But it's a matter of design preference, not skills of the algorithm makers - it's more like close-miking vs. room miking.

Room miking is going to give you a little less hi fi sound, on the other hand it's natural sounding. Eventide tends to use a lot of filtering and frequency emphasis to have the effect change the sound of the guitar.

Either approach is great. It's a matter of how you like your sound carved. If it's "I want my guitar to sound like my guitar only with an effect," I say the Strymon stuff is the way to go.

If it's "I want the effect to create something different than my guitar sounds," it's hard to beat the Eventide gear.

Which is better? Well, there isn't better (though there's what works better for your musical vision as opposed to mine).

There's just different.
 
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The key factor here is where do you plan on running it in your signal chain. If you're going in front of an amp and plan on using it on dirty tones I would go with a Boss CE-2, Boss CE-3, or the current MXR Stereo Chorus (M134). If you're going to run in the loop then I'd use a Strymon Mobius, Eventide H9, or Eventide Modfactor.

The Strymon Mobius is the coolest modulation pedal on the market right now. It can literally replace all your modulation effects because of how you can route it. Here are your options:
1) Mono/Stereo in front of the amp(s)
2) Mono/Stereo in the amp loop(s)
3) In two separate parts of your signal chain.

It's option #3 that allows you to replace all your mod effects. It has a switch setting that allows you to use the two ins/outs as separate points in your signal path. So mine is set to run one side in front of the amp and the other in the loop. The reason this is so helpful is that you can run phase shifters, vibe, tremolo, and such in front of the amp where they typically sound best and still run chorus and flanger in the loop where they usually sound best. Other units have all the sounds but they don't have that kind of routing flexibility so you have to compromise. So while the Mobius is expensive, it literally replaced 3 other pedals and added way more capability. And it sounds f**king fantastic.
 
Phillybri, which MXR, looks like they have 3 different ones.

The M234 Analog Chorus

AnalogChorus-11.png
 
Besides country dudes, who really uses a chorus pedal? And what kind of stuff do you use it for?
I use mine for random parts in songs, solos, stuff like that, just to change up the tone for part of the song so things don't get too monotonous. The problem that I have with a lot of pedals is I tend to go for extremes, which means if I use the same sound/pedal over and over it can start to wear on the audience. So, then as I write songs, I start carrying around yet another pedal on the pedalboard for one or maybe two songs I may or may not play that night.

Enter multi-fx pedals. I was attracted to the Line 6 stuff because it's cheap and sounds decent. Two problems though. First, even with the M5 which is two buttons, I hit them both at the same time. Instead of turning off the effect, I turn on the FX selection thingy, so then it's like two or three more things, and I'm trying to hit this button, then that button, all while playing and singing and trying to put on a show. This happened at all three shows I used the Line 6 stuff. Second, all the modulation stuff with the M5 has a darker blue background with tiny black text saying what #/effect is selected at the moment. I can't tell at a quick glance what effect I'm about to turn on. It had all this stuff I don't need, like a tuner, distortion, delay, reverb, etc.

That's why I decided to spring for the Mobius. I can do lots of more extremes and have a variety of sound the audience won't tire of. The big number on it makes it easy for me to know what I'm about to turn on. Plus, I have distortion and delay and tuning and octaves covered, all I want is a bunch of modulation choices and that's all this pedal does. Finally, with one pedal, you can rout through it before you get to the amp AND rout through it AGAIN in the FX loop, and program which FX come before the amp and which FX should go in the FX loop, which is GENIUS. I have only begun to imagine how I can run this thing.

So, all this explains why I shelled out big bucks for a dang pedal.
 
I use the TC SCF for my fretless bass rig...love using it to add color, and, yes, to help with my shoddy intonation...use another SCF for its flange for my guitars and love that, too.
 
Yeah, this stuff is very, very subjective, no doubt about it. And I can't argue with you, at that level of quality, it's really just a matter of "pick one, they're both very nice pedals."

I do like the Strymon stuff, don't get me wrong! It's up there with the Eventide, so I think it's a matter of how they're flavored. For example, I like rotary effects quite a lot due to my work playing organ for many years. The Strymon has a beautiful rotary effect, for example, but it doesn't really sound like a Leslie Speaker, while the Eventide is much closer - it sounds closer to a Leslie minus the mechanical noise. The filter emphasis is different, there's less high end openness like you find on a real Leslie, the doppler effect is more pronounced. I've recorded a lot of Leslie speakers, so there's stuff I listen for.

I find that (as with analog gear) digital gear from every manufacturer has a "sound."

Strymon gear has a very neutral frequency response. It's almost like "your guitar magnified cleanly plus this effect." I'd call it very hi-fi. Hey, that's a great thing in the right hands!

Eventide effects have a lot going on in their algorithms. Your guitar sounds perhaps less hi-fi than it does with the Strymon stuff, and the effects more or less take over. But it's a matter of design preference, not skills of the algorithm makers - it's more like close-miking vs. room miking.

Room miking is going to give you a little less hi fi sound, on the other hand it's natural sounding. Eventide tends to use a lot of filtering and frequency emphasis to have the effect change the sound of the guitar.

Either approach is great. It's a matter of how you like your sound carved. If it's "I want my guitar to sound like my guitar only with an effect," I say the Strymon stuff is the way to go.

If it's "I want the effect to create something different than my guitar sounds," it's hard to beat the Eventide gear.

Which is better? Well, there isn't better (though there's what works better for your musical vision as opposed to mine).

There's just different.


That's a great way to put it! Like always, your posts make this forum a better place.
 
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