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How set is your budget? A used DirectDrive is really inexpensive and very high quality, easy to dial in; a Fulltone OCD and the new compact Barber DirectDrive both go for $130 new and are quality. The Fulltone OCD is one of the better easy-to-use tones out there, for what it's worth; there are a shitload of versions (and some changes that occurred within versions, like the change to a 500K level pot that means some of the OCD V4s have impedance issues with other pedals coming after them, while others do not). Current version is V7, I believe. My favorite is the V4, which Amazon does still have on sale, but as mentioned it may come with the "wrong" potentiometer there. DirectDrive, whether full-sized or the more recent compact one, is a great sounding distortion with a lot of range, built like a bomb shelter. Dave knows his stuff inside and out. These are probably the least expensive roadworthy boutique pedals for the job, which seems to be "distortion that can get into higher gain territory but also do the low gain thing nicely." I know it looks like your price range is more like $80-$100, but a little stretch here could get you into a whole 'nother quality tier and I think it's worth at least considering. If price is a major factor, however... I do know that EHX recently released The Glove OD, which is, for all intents and purposes, a less expensive, mostly MIC (some finishing work done in the U.S.) manufactured OCD clone - it even has an internal charge pump to run at 18V. It only costs $62.15, and ought to be better made than the Joyo Ultimate Drive, which is another OCD clone (though from an earlier vintage, the V2... which has a lot in common with the VLOD, incidentally, the Ultimate Drive is basically a hybrid between those two). I would not recommend the Ultimate Drive from a road-worthiness perspective; I would be a little more comfortable with the EHX, though I think they've had some production issues with the earliest runs of their boutique for cheap pedals.
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Mar 1, 2014 10:39
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Heads up, got a new round of counterfeit ripoffs coming from China and I don't mean pedal clones with different names. Affects several brands, so far definitely Analogman and Wampler, looks like Xotic as well, who knows the full extent but watch your rear end buying from any retailer you don't trust. Take note: Edit: More companies' products found counterfeited (poorly, as usual, look for the jacks especially as they are extremely lovely and low quality and not at all like the original gear) - Suhr, BB, Fulltone, and MXR. Agreed fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Mar 1, 2014 |
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Mar 1, 2014 10:50
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:I'd absolutely spend $130 over $80 or $100 if it meant I was getting a pedal that I was really happy with that I wouldn't want to sell immediately. Might want to narrow it down - MXR makes a great octave fuzz called LA Machine, and the rest of its fuzz tones sound great too, but you're not going to get any of the other things that drive pedals do out of it. Pick your goal and nail that first, then when you can afford another pedal and it meets some need you have, repeat. 
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Mar 1, 2014 13:12
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And I kinda dig that because having the capability of a fuzz pedal would be a hell of a bonus, although I wouldn't have the octave feature of other fuzz pedals I've seen.
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juche mane posted:Hey Agreed. Tell me about the EP booster! Can I tell you about the new Dunlop / MXR Echoplex booster instead? (talk about sitting on a name for a long time, haha) I have one in right now for review and I'm all "ohhh that's why people like these so much"  Or do you just want to know, like, what it is about Echoplex preamp pedals that people like? What's your angle I'll help, shucks! 
Agreed fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Mar 1, 2014 |
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Mar 1, 2014 16:00
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Smash it Smash hit posted:Hey agreed (or anyone else In the know), I am considering another fuzz box for my board. Didn't like any standard muff or rat with it, is there any fuzz you'd suggest to compliment a wooly mammoth clone? Here's a rundown of 12 carefully made GE fuzzes. Silicon variants will behave somewhat more predictably but sound different; still, the tone shaping and general circuit is more determinant of the sound than whether the transistor(s) used is/are GE or Silicon, and given that these are more or less the bases for pretty much every fuzz around in one way or another, I think it's well worth the time spent watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdJWv4emZdY My two recent fuzz loves, neither of which are represented there because of topological differences, are the Wampler Velvet Fuzz, which is capable of a wide range of tones but really excels at stuff in the Fuzz Face through Big Muff territory (but with way more cut in a mix, a lot more sustain... It's also got a nice switch which makes it go from more on the brighter side to more on the darker side of things, changes the gain too, very flexible pedal in its idiom of basically giving you a fuzz pedal that can do a ton of other "normal" fuzz pedal sounds and then some). The other recent love is the MXR Custom Shop LA Machine, which flat loving rules. If I had my way you'd all go buy one right now and we could all do ripping badass octave-up solos at the same time and it'd sound like poo poo because we'd all be tuned up wrong or something but who cares it's loving rock and roll just go with it The LA Machine is a Foxx Tone Machine variant, modernized for tonal flexibility, with a very sexy purple enclosure and a switchable octave-up mode that makes it effectively two pedals in one. The non-octave mode sounds completely different than the octave mode - it's thick, just a little bit gated (play hard. it wants you to play hard. do what it wants and you will have the glorious sound.) but the Tone knob gives you great control over its frequency emphasis and it does not disappear in a mix or anything, it can be quite bright if you want or it can be dark as heck. That awesome Tone control and the range on the Distortion knob give each of its modes a ton of tonal variety, much more than you'd usually expect for like $140 or so. The octave-up mode is killer, too, turns the familiar into something new. It is hand switched - little button on the face of the fuzz - there are some clones of the Tone Machine out there which put an octave-up mode on a footswitch instead, but there's absolutely no way they could have fit a second 3PDT switch into their standard enclosures, so if you want to switch it from normal to octave mode, you're gonna need to do it with your finger. That's really the only downside, in my opinion, I am in love with this thing. It sounds amazing, in either of its modes. Compared to many boutique fuzzes, it's one hell of a good deal, too. Total endorsement of this thing, it kills.
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Mar 8, 2014 21:00
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Acute Hepatitis posted:but is it better than the dano french toast? Yeah. Quantitatively so. You might like the Dano French Toast better, for some reason, but there's a pretty tremendous difference in construction quality between the two and Dunlop/MXR went a different direction with the "so exactly how close to the original Foxx Tone Machine do we want to get, here?" question. I feel like their direction was a better one, personally.
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Mar 9, 2014 00:18
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Declan MacManus posted:The best fuzz is one you built by yourself (cave, box, scraps, etc.) It's pretty awesome that it also happens to be mega easy to build most fuzzes - they're just nice and tidy, for the most part. You can get some great sounding, heavy tones out of a couple transistors and a simple filter. Stick it in a 1590B and total cost in parts assuming you already have the poo poo to solder with can come out lower than $40 (though at that point, you start to see the argument for asking Dan-o to make it for you...) Full disclosure I have an opinion about danelectro and it is "I don't like the dude that runs it" which, if really examined, is a pretty dumb opinion because all he's guilty of is general rich person douchebaggery, if I applied the same level of scrutiny to every CEO of a gear company I'm sure I'd find some heinous poo poo to be just as mad about. What can you do, rich people In the words of Nic Cage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6RWiVRwoE8
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Mar 9, 2014 02:45
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Make an Electra distortion (which is actually a splatty radical fuzz if you run it low voltage... or at all), it has like seven parts, so goop it with something that blows up when in contact with solvents, spend money on a fancy rear end box, have a potentiometer called "Jazz/Rock" but all it really does is adjust the bias and rule the world with your new $600 Dumble sound, this is your calling.
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Mar 9, 2014 04:10
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Stravinsky posted:Same. Close to home man come on   (actually iirc there are two companies that actually do make a product called the Ego Boost, one's Smart People Factory and I can't remember the other but there's gotta be a reason I remember this random trivia, or maybe it's all just a total waste and none of it matters, none of it, aw shoot.)
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Mar 9, 2014 07:20
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Declan MacManus posted:Beavis Audio has tons and tons and tons of information, I'm sure they have details there (my understanding basically extends to bigger cap = more treble rolloff and germanium vs. silicone and basic stuff like that) First, this is a good recommendation for some info. Second, I am a child and giggled because Silicone   is not Silicon  
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Mar 9, 2014 23:19
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New post because it's totally unrelated to the fuzz discussion but this is a fantastic read for anyone who is just looking into some DIY stuff. I think this may be one of the coolest things I've ever seen put out in terms of being concise, really useful, and well presented. The anatomy of a booster, using the very straightforward EHX LPB-1 as an example Very slick, take a peak would-be pedal builders who are curious about why you put certain things where. After you've read it, you should be able to easily intuit how you can turn an LPB-1 into either an EHX Mole bass boost or an EHX Screaming Bird treble boost - but don't make those, they sound terrible. What does not sound terrible, however, is a few cascaded LPB-1 circuits with a tone control. That turns a very simple collection of parts into a solidly nice sounding overdrive, especially if you raise the first one's gain, much like V1 in a tube amp feeding a strong signal into a cascading preamp tube arrangement. This same basic idea has been used by many builders, though not always or even often with an LPB-1 circuit (though I believe Dwarfcraft makes or at least made a four LPB drive pedal that lots of folks like playing). The ZVex SHO is probably the most prominent early example of somebody realizing how well this can work and doing it on purpose - on its own, a SHO is a great sounding, effective, single-knob MOSFET boost with a highly variable impedance relationship that adds some nice "brilliance" or presence and some very pleasant harmonics to the signal when turned up and the amp is cooking. Then you've got the ZVex Super Duper 2-In-1, which starts the idea of stacking them internally and adding an output attenuator (a volume pot), turning a single-stage boost into a multi-stage overdrive, with each stage doing some nice sounding stuff on their own and having some cool nonlinearities in their behavior thanks to the specific nature of the SHO's MOSFET boost. Then you get to the Box of Rock or Distortron, which are both quite a few SHOs in series but with good tone shaping: taking the basic idea of a single good gain stage design, and building on it to act as a very nice sounding cascaded FET preamp kinda thing. This isn't to single out Zvex or anything (he gets unduly poo poo on at FreeStompBoxes, or used to in 2007 when it was first formed, because he goops and AnalogGuru had a great grasp of circuits, fuckin' savant at that poo poo, but no grasp of markets). In fact, using multiple single transistor stages is pretty much the bread and butter of a lot of more recent fuzz makers. Some of them do it in nuanced and carefully considered ways, while others (lookin' at you, Devi) throw a shitload of transistors into a circuit and end up with something incredibly loud and intresting but not exactly scientific. Doesn't bother me, though, I have a Bit: Legend of Fuzz and it rules for making my guitar sound like a synth going direct to board. Hyperion and Year of the Rat are also really good, imo. Many other more recent "innovations" in fuzz are basically borrowed from Zvex's Fuzz Factory and Zoom's UF-01 Ultra Fuzz (which, really, weren't improbably unique innovations, just good ideas from classic gear put to good use in neat ways - the ideas had come before, but people weren't looking at older modular synth setups when they decided to put this stuff in their own guitar pedals), offering control over the voltage and other similar things to give you some pretty direct control over less conventional aspects of the circuit than traditional designs. It used to be that putting out a Germanium Fuzz Face with a bias control was hot poo poo, now there are all kinds of ways to basically take a given existing fuzz circuit and effectively let the user circuit-bend it to do weird poo poo at will. Footswitchable oscillation is another nice feature on modern fuzzes. Make your guitar sound like fuckin' flipper, do it to it. g-g-g-gyeeeeaah  p.s. I still love the MXR LA Machine, because it has a shitload of functionality, cuts better than most other fuzzes on the market, is basically two pedals in one, kicks the Dan-o French Toast's rear end for construction quality and effective range, and both sounds and looks sweet as hell. 
Agreed fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 00:04
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I would clone a Rangemaster or buy a cheap Freq Boost. BBE's pedal lineup that got clearanced after they discontinued them included both the Freq Boost (rangemaster clone) and the Orange Squash (Armstrong Orange Squeezer clone with extra features). Neither of them are identical to their predecessors but they both sound fantastic and are super useful. Alternatively, don't attenuate the low frequencies quite so ridiculously heavily as the Screaming Bird (seriously, it is awful, the Mole is actually kinda cool by comparison and doesn't sound nearly as bad, it just doesn't sound as good as the standard LPB-1 so what's the point, eh?). I'd use something more closely resembling a Tubescreamer's filtering, but moved up in the frequency range a bit, set with resistors rather than adjustable (maaaaybe a trimpot for presence, I've always liked the way David Barber's DirectDrive does that and I think it would work really well in a boost for dialing in something for your rig in a set-it-and-forget-it kinda way). After that basic decision about what the frequencies you'll be emphasizing is made, the next decision is how do you want to do the boosting itself - keep it super clean? Op-amp all the way, probably a JRC-4559 or a TLO72 for super clean up to a fair dB range, or if you want to get some more noticeable harmonics going, lower headroom op-amps are fine. Or, go with a single transistor design - I like JFETs, my favorite JFET for drive pedals is the one that I got well acquainted with during my time working for Wampler, the J201. It was used in a lot of solid state recording consoles, but despite that it actually has quite a lot of manufacturing variance... still, neither here nor there if you're making a single-stage boost rather than a more complex pedal. J201 isn't the only quality transistor for the job, of course, and given that they aren't made in non-SMD packages anymore, might be best to look elsewhere. But unless I'm trying to make a Rangemaster clone I'm going to prefer a FET or MOSFET transistor over a standard NPN transistor just because their variable impedance behavior and overall sound is just much nicer for the job in my opinion, especially if you want some more noticeable clipping going on. The Rangemaster gets grandfathered in but I'll want something like a 2N388A GE transistor for it with an appropriate HFE, which can get kind of pricy as they are not cheap for transistors but it sounds really nice. Subject to temperature variance unfortunately, but if you're in a studio you're likely in a nicely temperature and even humidity (not that a transistor package cars much about THAT) controlled environment anyway, so no big deal. Something to consider when taking it on the road, though, keep that sucker out of the sun, and be ready for extreme behavioral changes at temperature extremes. There are good SI alternatives if you want to avoid that, but it just sounds better with a good germanium transistor in my opinion. One thing I do like on anything from full range to just treble boosts, especially *boosts that can get a little bit of clipping going on, is an appropriate value output attenuating potentiometer in addition to the gain adjustment. That way, you can dial the sound in for a hint of OD and then control how much it's actually hitting the amp with in terms of output (or pedals, later in the chain - that's a sound that works quit well very often, especially for amp-in-a-box style pedals). I just prefer that finer control over its behavior. Others may disagree on the basis of period correctness or "gently caress you it should be loud play it loud" or whatever, but they're not building the thing so I win. 
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Mar 10, 2014 00:47
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I'm tired as poo poo right now but give me some time and I'll do a recording into a whatever orange emulation you want - what's your amp and cab and how do you usually mic them up? Your preferred amp settings, or any clips you have online of you playing it so I can dial my modeler of choice in correctly, would be very very helpful here. Short answer is "I'd imagine so, yes," though, I am fairly confident that the wide, wide range of the tone control from very dark to razor-cutting bright and everything useful in between should make it play nice with pretty much any amp and cab. Also, Oranges don't hate pedals, they're just a little picky  What Orange is it? What cab is it driving? Give me info and I will give you a quickie demo some time tomorrow (possibly even in the wee hours of the morning, it's only like 8:00PM here but I am loving exhausted, I may only end up sleeping 4 hours or I may manage a straight eight if I'm mega lucky and my back pain doesn't gently caress with me too much + my insomnia chills out tonight, wake up at 4:00AM bright eyed and bushy tailed, who knows, haha).The dude who asked about the Dan-o French Toast did so because they're both based on the same circuit. The Dan-o uses pretty crap parts and is not a very high quality pedal, but it does still sound like a Foxx Tone Machine and still has a switchable octave and junk. It just isn't on the same level as this unit, in my opinion, by a pretty long shot. But it also costs like $100 less. If you want to try this sound yourself for cheap, you could do worse, even though I do have a sot of low-level but long standing grudge against the guy who owns Danelectro for his politics. I'm sure he's a nice guy in person but he gives quite a lot of money to people who hate gays and that is not okay with me. During the whole prop 8 thing, he donated $15K to the conservative side of things. That's a lot of pamphlets if nothing else, and I've kinda been side-eyes at him ever since. Edit: Which, as I mentioned, is in the final analysis kind of unfair, as I haven't scrutinized many other CEOs and it's totally possible that I'd find similarly heinous viewpoints backed with money to organizations among them - well, at least I can admit that I'm being a little less than consistent here, for whatever the heck that's worth. Agreed fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 02:19
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The Glove is better than the Ultimate Drive in theory, but I have heard of early issues with the recently introduced units and at this point it's unsure whether you'll get one of those or a newer one with whatever it was loving up addressed. But the Ultimate Drive is sub-Danelectro quality. Does not spend money in the right places, very strong suspicion that "non-essential" parts are counterfeit, and if that is true, probably less out of design than "absolute lowest bidder supplier" and it's China (again, that statement is speculation, just based on what I know about parts labeling and packaging for those components). Use your judgment as to whether you think that they can deliver a product made in China that EHX is delivering made in China with the only meaningful differences being an internal charge pump on the EHX unit to get it up to 18V, a switch for that, and maybe some minor "finishing" work in the USA if they're claiming Made in the USA, I guess - for half the price - and somehow it's not skeezy. You pay some for the EHX name, but not that much. That's kinda the point with their cheapo pedals. Rumbling w/ Danelectro, etc. more than the crazy world of Chinese clones, or, don't get me started, Chinese counterfeits. Basically yeah do your thing man, money's tight but you want a pedal, look toward inexpensive pedals.
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Mar 13, 2014 16:01
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Smash it Smash hit posted:One day at practice my EBVP decided to not push all the way up anymore, heel position. So, I took it apart and reset it, now I cant seem to get it to taper gently anymore - ie with fuzz it goes from full fuzz to clean with a flick of the toe. And when I try to reset it again, it now will not go through the full range from full clockwise to full counter (toe to heel) I would guess the pot before you even got any further than "My passive volume pedal is having issues, and they are-" just because it's such a dead simple circuit and that's the most likely point of failure. Can't hurt to restring it, next to free to do once, and hey maybe it is just not gripping worth a poo poo and that's what's going on. But if that doesn't fix it...
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Apr 4, 2014 13:28
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I like the Digitech HW Supernatural as a lower cost alternative to the modulated coolness of the Space, but nothing is going to be as out-there as it is, frankly. You won't find another pedal that does what it does. They were careful about that.
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Apr 24, 2014 19:33
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:How come I've never heard of this one before? I just watched some YouTube videos on it and I'm in love now It was pretty big on TGP when it was released, is a Digitech & PGS exclusive, I love mine which I got some time in mid 2012 Great pedal; it won't do what the Space does but it has its own realm of great reverb tones. Very very hard to beat for far-out cool poo poo at the price!
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Apr 24, 2014 19:51
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Pretty sure I'm gonna have to sell my Cathedral and replace it with this to supplement my Dispatch Master.
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I think they're still releasing them in batches, but I could be wrong. I kinda stopped paying attention to how to get one after I finally got one 
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Apr 24, 2014 20:30
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Kilometers Davis posted:Hey fellow MF Trem bros, does yours make an audible pop when you stomp it off? That's the only thing I don't like about mine but I'm going to live with it because, well, I don't need to explain. No, it doesn't, though from what I can tell these are in no way attempting to be true bypass pedals (2pdt + LED, sans relay = not true bypass, generally speaking!); have you tried moving it around in your signal chain? Usually it's the device that comes before a pedal that causes the pop. Pop is the result of a buildup of potential energy that gets released suddenly when the switch actuates. Where is your pedal in your chain? Do you happen to have a buffer handy?
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May 12, 2014 02:22
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It's possible that it's a Millennium style and I'm just missing it, but 2PDT without a relay and with an LED that comes on and off with the actuation of the switch is not, generally speaking, true bypass. Still, I don't think Moog would lie about that. I'll ask a contact there tomorrow about it as it's been a curiosity I've had about them since getting them in, and let you know what they have to say. Again, it is possible to do a fully input-to-output bypass with a 2pdt switch, but it's a bit complicated, and there's a reason nearly everybody uses 3PDT switches for it (which also allow for a really simple fix to any popping, even if it's not the pedal's fault, by the way). I'll talk to Trent and see what's up there. As clever as these circuits are, it's probably just something I'm missing in trying to suss out the bypass methodology with my eyes. Edit: Popping is pretty much solely caused by something adjacent to a pedal building up a potential difference (voltage) and that releasing when the switch is actuated. It's almost never the pedal itself that's doing it. This is especially true with buffered bypass pedals and 3PDTs with sufficient pulldown, can be less true with pedals that are running less sophisticated bypass setups, but it's still usually "the thing next to it"'s fault, as counter-intuitive as that may sound. The impedance relationship is more about whether you'll accidentally have an unwanted filter created due to an impedance mismatch between pedals. Ideally, pedals should have very high input impedance and very low output impedance, if they want to coexist peacefully on a board. Agreed fucked around with this message at 05:16 on May 12, 2014 |
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May 12, 2014 05:10
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"Are they tbp update" - I don't need to talk to Trent about it, I took a closer look and ... as I probably should have expected, they're getting clever with it. In a way that improves durability, too. It's true bypass, it's just unconventional. Well, it's loving Moog, haha, so ... yeah, I take that earlier statement back, just needed to look closer at what's going on. Two damned PCBs in these things, and the actual mechanical switch they're using is really durable, too, much more so than any 3PDT currently on the market. God drat they make some cool pedals. It should not be popping because of itself. Examine your power, see if it pops if you just go guitar --> MF Trem --> Amp.
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May 12, 2014 06:35
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havelock posted:I'm curious about the details here. What's on the other pcb? A relay? I'm put in a position where I've got the answer but to print it would be breaking confidence and I don't do that, ever. In my situation I reckon most would do the same (seriously, the Moog guys are super cool and I don't want to get shitcanned because I upset some of the nicest people in the business to satisfy curiosity when anyone who is reeeeally interested can reverse it themselves, you know?) Please trust me that it is, however, fully true bypass, and that as such the 2PDT switch conveys a reliability advantage - less to fail, and the angle of contact is very cleverly done too. Just very well thought out designs, both of the ones I have in my possession. Keep coming back to the word "cool." Hah. True, though, these things are really, really cool.
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May 12, 2014 21:29
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The "I know exactly what sound I want" thing can trip you up with the Moog pedals, though. I'm reviewing two tremolos right now, back to back (hey, don't laugh, not much of a difference conceptually from reviewing a shedload of fuzzes and dirts back to back to back to back, just more fun  ) - one is the MF Trem, the other is the Wampler Latitude. They are both absolutely fantastic pedals, but they do extremely different things. The Moog MF Trem I almost want to call a "tremolo emulator" in that while, yeah, it is capable (through some seriously cool engineering chops) of producing destructive interference that can be dialed in to have some remarkably authentic tremolo sounds, its real strength lies in what is not advertised. It starts at "it can sound like a trem" and turns into any number of things when you mess with it, and with just four knobs. Same profound design qualifications that make the MF Drive so conceptually interesting - OTAs in an age where VCAs are the go-to ICs for this kinda thing, the Moog ladder filter used creatively across the lineup, voltage controlled features that actually go beyond what the adjustment range of the pot they're linked to is (this is especially apparent on the Drive, where an expression pedal makes it a wicked tasty dirty wah, which is more than the face control can do - it'll get into cocked wah territory, but nowhere near as aggressive or long of a sweep).The MF Trem is a pedal that really wants you to say "ok I can do trem stuff, cool, now let's see what else this crazy sucker has in store!" Because there's a HUGE wealth of stuff it can do, so much that I'm having trouble really doing it justice in words. Most profoundly I think it works amazingly well with the Depth set quite low, the Tone set to let more high frequencies through with less waveform cancellation, and the Speed and Shape adjusted so that it isn't really obviously having at the signal - it has a profound clarifying effect on your instrument of choice which does amazing things in a live or crowded-recording context. It makes whatever is run through it stand out in a way that is difficult to concisely describe but which is immediately apparent if you just listen for it. By way of comparison, the Wampler Latitude is sort of a blend of "very studio capable trem features" but with all of that control given to you underfoot. You can dial in some really crazy tremolo tones with it, and that is what it does. A huge variety of them. Hell, it has a control which increases the period between tremolo waves, and another which shifts the waveform to have a faster attack or a faster release. It does all I could possibly ask for in a tremolo pedal, without being too complex to use live or too simple to take to the studio. You've got digital control (including tap tempo and foot-activated note subdivision from quarter to eighth to dotted eighth to triplet) over a fully analog tremolo with three basic waveforms and a great deal of stuff you can do to modify how those waveforms work, it is tremendously powerful at shaping the volume envelope - because that's what Tremolo pedals do. There is a huuuge difference in design goals here. If you know you want an incredibly precise, incredibly controllable and great sounding tremolo, I'd recommend the Latitude by a mile because it will do everything an analog tremolo is capable of doing (but with the aforementioned digital precision - really clever work, there, keeping the signal path analog but controlled by digital means, definitely a pro move and I'm glad to see Brian and the team embracing the future without giving up the good poo poo we bring from the past there)! If you want to be able to do quite a bit of trem stuff, with an emphasis (it stands out here) on sounding very similar to a classic optical trem for basic needs and mussing up the waveform with the Shape control to move it to other stuff for more out-there sounds, because it is after all a Moog and what would a Moog be if it couldn't do "out-there sounds!" But it also happens to not really be especially committed to being a tremolo. Whereas nearly any trem with a sufficiently high rate of speed and the right waveforms can sound ring-mod-like, this one gets closer to that capability such that having the Minifooger ring mod and it on the same board and getting them in sync with the MF Trem's most ring-mod-like sounds produces some really out there stuff. And it works really, really well to just punch up a signal that isn't cutting for whatever reason, despite not actually being loud or anything - it has to do with its sophisticated, phaser-based innards and the way that a signal which is always just very slightly phasing (but not in an overt, in your face "effecty" kind of way at all) has an unbelievable level of clarity either into or after distortion. Moog's design philosophy is more about trying to draw you into creative experimentation. That fits a few particular niches especially well, but it may not be the ideal pedal if what you want is the most controllable super duper trem in the world. Wampler's design philosophy is very different - sure, they want you to experiment, too, but they built the Latitude to take the overall idiom of "trem stuff" and make it as broad as necessary and as accessible as possible, without deviating from the path of Building A Tremolo. A really badass tremolo, at that. I feel like you've got two extremes, here, in terms of design philosophy - which is why I've spent time droning on about 'em in the first place - and they service very different needs/wants for guitarists. At one end, you have the pedal which doesn't even really tell you everything about itself in the literature; it's barebones, even! But they want you to use it and discover all the cool poo poo it can do in your rig that they didn't even explicitly think about, necessarily, when putting it together (though I guarantee you they would be able to discuss, at length, any usage scenario you come up with and why it works well in said scenario)! At the other end, you've got an expertly designed and crafted pedal aimed at just totally loving nailing How To Make A Tremolo That Works For Your Rig. It isn't a pedal to do trem stuff and oh also a bunch of crazy awesome unrelated things; but in terms of its trem functions, it really kills it for straightforward ease of use despite (well considered) sophisticated functionality. Making the best gat damned analog trem possible, and giving you digital-level control of its inner workings so that you can run it on the road or in the studio and be able to play whatever your setlist or setup needs. So Moog is at the far side of the "explore, be adventurous, don't be shy" design philosophy, and Wampler is at the other side of "this is everything you need to make pretty much any kind of tremolo sound you could possibly want for existing songs, and new songs that you'll be wanting a tremolo for - take advantage of all of its features and it will do pretty much whatever volume envelope trickery you need." There are other companies that align themselves closer to one or the other side of that spectrum, and I think, to wrap up, they appeal to different sorts of guitarists. If you're more experimental, you'll probably be looking fondly at something that encourages you to experiment with a really unconventional design and a little bit of mystique as to what all you can do with the thing. If you know what you want and need the explicit control granted by well-thought-out controls that still stay within the milieu of conventional trems, just kicking the amount of adjustment (both hands-on and hands-free) up to the max without crossing over into "how the hell does this thing even work" territory, you'll probably be extremely pleased that you've got the power to do exactly what you were thinking about doing. There is room for experimentation. I think it's incredibly important, especially once you've got past the initial "so how do I even use pedals per se" stage in your playing, to seek out new experiences with apparently familiar things. There's also, and this is I think the thrust of Stravinsky's argument, the risk of going overboard if you're experimenting as a sort of complicated ruse to avoid making music. If your pedal collection starts to rival or overtake how much you spent on your amp and your guitar and you still don't have a little EP's worth of songs that you could put down if you had the opportunity, you may be in the "buying for the sake of buying" GAS trap. It's a fine line, especially for newer players, because there's a lot of influence that more experienced guitarists have whether they realize it or not and it can be easy for enthusiasm for something that is really cool to be infectious in a way that doesn't end up helping the newer guitarist in the end... But it could also be the kind of influence that helps an individual to shape their style, or find something that they never really knew existed. There's some responsibility on both sides to be smart about the whole thing, but it really does come down to an individual choice at that point in a musician's walk into their future.
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May 19, 2014 01:48
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Professor Science posted:re: delay pedals--any thoughts on the TC Flashback? I've got the Hall of Fame reverb and like it a lot, and the EHX Memory Boy feels limiting. Cool and fun with lots of interesting sound possibilities, but lacks a bit in the durability department. There also happen to be some absolutely amazing sounding delays in the $170-$200ish range that give it more than a run for its money in terms of sound quality. I fully agree that the Memory Boy is limiting, but in fairness it's meant to do what it does and it does that - a pedal made for people who aren't really that arsed about the limitations, I think. If you're finding it limiting, it's because you've outgrown what it can do, if you get my meaning. Not every Flashback is going to croak early, of course, but I've seen more do so than I would expect for pedals across various other competitors. I guess the Digitech HW delay also has a bit of a high failure rate, mainly due to some switch issues if I remember right, but those two stand out in my memory as pedals to be cautious of, especially if buying used, because you have to baby them a bit if you expect them to hold up well over time. The audio strumming timed tempo is a neat gimmick that lets them keep the small form factor without losing the capability to control the tempo without having to bend down and adjust a knob; it's not really any worse than tap tempo in my experience, good tracking of input, it does its job. Some people also really like the Toneprint thing, which I can understand since some cool artists have gotten on board with it and it's a nice shortcut to sounding good. Big FYI that I just learned about myself - it's on sale brand new at PGS right now for like $126 (as opposed to $170!), so if you like its features and don't mind being cautious with it so that you don't stress it more than it can handle, strike while the iron is hot and save nearly $50 on the pedal. Weird but probably necessary full disclosure - I write for Tone Report Weekly, which shares a whole lotta names in terms of management/editorial with the owners and higher up staff at PGS, so I am in some form or fashion affiliated with them. I don't know why it's getting a huge sale right now, I only found out about it when I searched for them online to see what the price spread is and that stood out to me. Maybe because the 4X version is afoot? I dunno, man. Either way, it's a good but not perfect pedal but at $126 that is some killer bang for the buck. Just be gentle with it and all that and you should be fine.
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May 19, 2014 12:53
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JohnnySmitch posted:Agreed - just out of curiosity: did you happen to write the Tone Report article on out-of-the ordinary distortion pedals? Nah, that was Fletcher Stewart. My workload is exclusively reviews, so far - not because I don't have ideas for features, I'm sitting on a few for a rainy day actually - but because I really really really enjoy trying out different pedals, getting to know them, then talking about them. It's fun
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May 19, 2014 14:42
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Declan MacManus posted:You can tell he's a masterful guitarist because of how difficult it is to make Eventide products sound bad and how easily he does it I actually know an, I guess pretty prominent jazz guitarist from that era who is good friends with HK and he describes him more or less as being generally a very good guitarist who basically got caught on tape embarrassing himself a bit (by our standards, of course) during a particularly experimental phase of his playing. He was trying so hard to escape any sound he was used to that he would wipe his presets monthly or weekly and make all new ones, just to kick his creativity as hard as he could. And as I recall, his Dumble cost more what a Mesa would cost people (then or now), it was before they blew up and that video became the source of the hilarious hemming-and-hawing non-answer about tube amps, fragile harmonics, and the solid-state crystal lattice. I've listened to mr. Kaiser's other stuff and it's mostly pretty accessible considering what you hear there makes it sound like he's trying to make John Zorn sound like Billy Joel or something, I truly think that what we have there is basically a guitarist caught at probably the worst part of his development as a musician, on camera and unfortunately very notable by association with Dumble there. All the tempered empathy in the world, though, doesn't diminish the inevitable mega-  that happens during that one improv bit beginning with Henry Kaiser telling Dumble to play something "down low," because holy loving god ahahaha he made his own [Artist] Shreds video before it was cool 
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May 27, 2014 00:30
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:So it's EHX's answer to Earthquaker's Organizer? Except it sounds a lot more organ-y. Yeah, generally speaking it sucks to have EHX answer a product ever, from a production standpoint, though $60 cool rear end boutique pedals is certainly attractive from a consumer standpoint. They are just obnoxiously good at what they do, and they pretty much do everything now. And have kind of aggressively accelerated that, over the last year. Respect.
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Jul 9, 2014 00:38
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I agree, that's a great pedal. Another very good pedal that is super cheap and often totally overlooked is the Digitech Screamin' Blues, which is very much a BD-2 but has a few adjustments that give it a different sound. In my experience, slightly less fizz as you end the note, but a less pronounced attack too - except at higher gain settings, where it really really just sounds like a cranked BD-2 (and any circuit with a similar topology running at 9V and amping a guitar signal probably would, too). Good tone controls on it. One doesn't HAVE to spend a fortune chasing nice sounds, it's just, y'know, you can, I guess. two fuckin' Openhaus pedals, I am the original owner. ._. the 2013 "Openhaus EQ" revision is just so nice, I tells ya!
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Jul 31, 2014 14:19
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Smash it Smash hit posted:almost gave up all things fuzz then decided to roll the guitar volume a bit. makes it sooooo much more practical for me Watch pros, they're almost always fiddling with the volume and tone knobs. Which are totally on there for a reason, and do some pretty neat poo poo electronically when you put them in series with the cable and a fuzz pedal load A buffer will make it more controllable/predictable but also probably worse if it's a fuzz. Not necessarily so, just often the case, depends very much on the design (it's just that it's really easy to make a retro fuzz, so poo poo like input impedance often gets ignored in the name of verisimilitude).
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Aug 9, 2014 19:39
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Also, mind the polarity because most makers just insist rather than sticking another few parts in there apart from maybe a diode intended to croak before the circuit gets fried (of course, if they're slick, you might see some kinda FET to handle improper polarity safely), and if you ever put AC anywhere near a pedal expecting DC, a diode race to death is the least of your worries. Wax on, wax ZAP
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Aug 20, 2014 17:27
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Kilometers Davis posted:if you have more living stability than sweet delay/verbs you're not living anyway Almost the same algorithms as their standard Hardwire reverb pedal, but a tweak or two that comes out really nicely. Very warm, spacey verb - hard to bring it in tighter, actually. It's very clearly meant to be used for ambient, big sounds. It also has some ~okay shimmery stuff that approximates the old Eventide Crystals thing / Boss Phase Shifter sound, but it's not as good as those. It does sound good, just not something I'd record with given the other, better options. Excellent pedal for all-in-one stuff, but the least reverb it'll do while still sounding really good is a moderately wet spring or plate sound. I'm really happy with mine and it's my primary verb. I appreciate its range, especially, though most of the time I use the Modulated Plate setting, not the more out-there ones. It just sounds really good. Stand-out for the pedal, not the shimmery ones.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:59
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HollisBrown posted:Agreed I'm sending you a PM in a sec Replied, hopefully with some helpful info Yeah, I also like unsubtle reverb. I could NEVER get along with the Supernatural if I wanted just a touch. It sucks at that, frankly. Modulated plate is as subtle as I like it, which really isn't very!
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Jan 7, 2015 23:13
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The DC Timeline is one of my favorite underrated pedals (well, is it? everyone loves them, you just can't find one for poo poo and the size is really inconvenient). Moving it to the modern form factor was a pro move and Strymon is a great manufacturer.
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Jan 13, 2015 16:48
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I got a Rocktron Utopia and it turns out I just really need to stick with modelers. Back to making music now. Something about the console-style workflow just really clicks for what I like to do, which is wank tastelessly mainly, punctuated by a few cool notes that I'm gonna vamp on 'til everyone is bored. Man Rocktron knows how to make that sound good! Weedly weedly... I might record a demo of it for old time's sake. It purports to have a decent built in audio interface, might as well test it out! A new addition to my 2008 modeler comparison, since it came out in 2008 anyway. Maybe that was just my fuckin' year, guys. 
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Mar 16, 2015 07:28
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The Demilich posted:Anyone have any echo pedal recommendations? I acquired a desire after hearing the Fuzzlord Space Master Echo, but it's new territory to me and I'm not sure what else is available. Old Blood Noise Endeavors Black Fountain V3 knocked me out for tone and functionality - OBNE was founded by a guy who worked for Keeley in the early 2010s and then was a founder at Walrus Audio but left to establish OBNE in 2014. Some OBNE pedals have an expression jack and you can combine them with their Expression Ramper to get really cool with things. They also have an Expression Slider to put precise adjustment at hand-level if that's a thing you need. Speaking of Keeley - Keeley Caverns V2 is my other delay, PT2399-based (often referred to as analog voiced though it is technically a variable rate digital sampler that recreates a BBD-chip like functionality). They tend to feature 650ms of delay time or lower because poo poo sounds weird with them above that. I like how he did his, reminds me of the Wampler Faux Tape Echo which is also PT2399 based. Caverns is a dual function pedal with a delay and reverb on different switches each with four knobs and one three way switch to control the two sides. I have decided on OBNE Visitor (which does have an element of delay but is primarily a really cool, out-there modulation) -> Black Fountain V3 -> Caverns V2 -> Walrus Audio Fathom for my echoes n ' verbs, which fits my goals for the last stages of my pedal board and should let me do what I want to do creatively. That said there are as many delays and reverbs as there are fish in the sea - it helps if you know what sort of thing you want them to do, and pursue within that boundary. Otherwise you might be better off with something more basic and less costly, or go the other way and spend more to get something like the revamped DL4 MkII which can do a solid version of nearly anything. Agreed fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Jun 15, 2022 |
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Jun 15, 2022 05:00
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Ok, I'm just missing a few ingredients that are still in the mail but what I have going on now is making me grin so I wanted to share a quick clip https://soundcloud.com/user-6129700...=social_sharing This has some comps and dirts, and the delays and modulation I mentioned (except the Visitor, it'll be here early next week), plus Earthquaker Pitch Bay which is a weird and somewhat glitchy sounding tunable two-voice harmonizer that I dig. Details of exactly what was used at the Soundcloud link. I freaked out when I first put the Black Fountain in because it sounded HELLA DARK, way darker than I remembered in the store. Like, "can I use this muffled barely-there sound" kind of dark. Turns out I had the wrong power supply going to that chain and it was current starved. Oooops. Nothing was harmed, it sounds exactly like I wanted it to when I gave it enough juice.
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Jun 16, 2022 07:33
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I thought the DL4 was the poo poo back in my college days, but haven't tried the revamped one yet. I've been really impressed with what the EHX Grand Canyon can do - lots of delays, good types, mono input but stereo output with ping-pong operation... Cool, but I am really loving its built-in polyphonic pitch shifter right now though and keeping it in that mode a lot of the time. Great tracking on it, does the POG thing really well but has adjustable intervals. It's part of its "Pitch Delay" - it can work as described of course, set it up to do ping pong pitch shifted delays with adjustable level and feedback and all that, works great when you want the delay line pitch shifted, but if you set the delay time on it to nothing it turns into a pitch shifter with adjustable wet/dry and the feedback control gives you additional octaves of your initial pitches. I've been using a T-Rex quint up front, into an Earthquaker Pitch Bay, then the Grand Canyon set up like that and it makes the guitar sound like a big rear end unison synth or something with all that going.
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Aug 15, 2022 22:19
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What a cool way to use loopers, that's badass
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Aug 15, 2022 22:52
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