Have you tried running your synths or keyboards through stompboxes and other guitar-oriented processors? I've played my fave synth -- the original Clavia Nord Lead -- through numerous stompboxes, including fuzz boxes, flangers, and delays. In my current rig, I route one side of the NL through a Big Briar Moogerfooger MF-102 Ring Modulator into a Korg Kaoss Pad, and the other side through a Line 6 Pod. Monstrous! What have you used that works?

Hi, Mark - good to see you!

Great topic - I am way into this!

I first started doing this by running my old Kawai K1, which had a great Strat sound, through a Rat stomp box...sounded way ballsy. I've been playing with guitar boxes ever since. Right now, I am very into running keyboards through the Pod (organ and minimoog especially), and I have also been using the Moogerfooger Phaser and Lowpass Filter pedals in conjunction with it to produce tones which I can only describe as terrifying.

Big, big fun.

dB

[This message has been edited by Dave Bryce (edited 10-16-2000).]

Hi Mark!

First time I did this was way back -- programmed a Commodore 64 SID chip to play Van Halen's "Eruption" and ran it through a Rockman. Woohoo!

later I had pretty good luck running S1000-based samples and TX-816 sounds through a Quadraverb GT on some "academic" electronic music. I especially liked the way you could use CC's to change the GT's parameters in real time.

Lately I've been enjoying a Pod Pro as a keyboard processor, and Craig Anderton just turned me on to a Czech company, DSound, that has created VST emulations of guitar pedals -- there's a review in the Nov. EQ (no, that's not a plug...okay, maybe it is).




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Mitch Gallagher
Editor
EQ magazine

Ooh, great topic.

My favorite effect *EVER* is the Mutron Bi-Phase. I run dark sawtooth strings through it for the ultimate synth pad, and I also run all kinds of lead sounds through it in mono. This oddly shaped box adds instant animation and LIFE to anything that goes through it. Not to mention some nice soft clipping distortion.

For stereo sounds, the awesome thing about the Bi-Phase is that you can retain the stereo image by using the two discrete audio paths with one LFO controlling both filters. Ultra groovy.

And before I could find a Bi-Phase, I used a Mutron Phasor II, which is (I believe...) the same circuit only mono.

I heard Dave's Moogerfooger phase shifter which also sounds great. If I remember correctly, there is a VC I/O on the back so that you can link two of these boxes together to create that sync'd stereo Bi-Phase effect.

Cheers,

Erik

Yep. Totally great. Even cooler when used in conjunction with the Lowpass Filter, which has its own I/O array.

Besides, the Moogerfooger phaser that has "stun" and "kill" settings. I love little touches like that...

dB

Hi Mark, great topic.

Eno once said something to the effect (no pun intended) that he'd put any amount of effects in line after his synths just to see what would happen. He was especially fond of the Roland Tape Echoes and EQ (he couldn't believe that manufacturers hadn't put EQs in their synths).

That being said, I own many more effects than synths. Erik and I are BiPhase enthusiasts; I've had mine modded a few times, and am planning on getting it set up for negative feedback (the Norlin/Moog phaser tone). Other faves?

MXR Flanger
EH 16-Second Delay
A/DA Flanger
Rat distortion

And most especially classic effects that weren't made specifically for guitar:

Marshall Time Modulator
Deltalab DL-2 Acousticomputer (E and I both own a pair)
Dimension D
Yamaha e1010 analog delays
A/DA Stereo Tapped Delay
Trine Corp. "Pipe" flanger
Castle 3 phaser
Lexicon delay and reverbs

The Moogerfoogers are on my want list. They're worth it for the overdrive alone!

>>Lately I've been enjoying a Pod Pro as a keyboard processor, and Craig Anderton just turned me on to a Czech company, DSound, that has created VST emulations of guitar pedals -- there's a review in the Nov. EQ (no, that's not a plug...okay, maybe it is).<<

Not a PLUG, Mitch. A PLUG-IN! And you can use them for much more than Prague-Rock.

There, I got to make the pun I couldn't fit in the review .

But seriously, folks...

One cool effect you must try is wa-wa before distortion. It's the secret to getting the guitarist's version of a kind of hard sync effect.

I've always loved running my keyboards through stompboxes. For wah, my all-time fave is the Boss Auto-Wah pedal. Run a Clav sound through that puppy for some serious funk.

Ernie Rideout
Keyboard Magazine

Hi, Ernie...

Great to see you here!

Yeah, I've also been a big fan of the whole auto-wah thing ever since the '70's....on the clav, fer sure; plus, I like it on a nice crunchy Rhodes as well - deeply funky.

I'm currently using the MoogerFooger Lowpass Filter pedal for that. Woof.

dB

Anything is fair game here... Whatever I have available in the studio is what I'll run a synth through. Like:

Sans Amp, Kaoss Pad, TC FireworX, Tube Screamer, Echoplex, Analog Tape!!!!, Pro Tools Plug ins, and sometimes several of these in a row for some real destruction!!!


Michael Oster
F7 Sound and Vision http://www.f7sound.com