Winston Psmith
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Posts posted by Winston Psmith
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Still seeing a big blank space, but the holy crap link worked!
Analog Modular Synths have made a big comeback in the last few years, and there's been a good bit of cross-over, between Guitar Effects and Synth Modules in that time. There are also a number of hardware Synths that have Audio In jacks, so you can run your Guitar, Bass or Voice through the Filters and Effects sections of the Synth's processor.
One warning from all of my friends who are into Modular Synths: Once you start collecting Modules, it never ends.
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@Caevan - re: "GFL", that's close enough . . .
@Dannyalcatraz - I love the idea of a Sample&Hold Waveform on a Flanger, and I've been enjoying their Prometheus Filter quite a bit.
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Thanks for that, Caevan! Usually, when I find a cool used pedal, I'll hunt for the Manual online. For such a crazy device, the Bad Comrade has a one-sheet instruction Manual. I think they should add the warning/benediction "GFL", in bold letters, as the final instruction.
No Moog EP (nobody around here carries them?), but I have 5 EV-5's, and they seem to to work with almost anything that needs a TRS jack, including my MoogerFooger pedals.
Getting ready for a weekend of catering work, but on Monday, I'm heading out to enlist the Bad Comrade. Sadly, I just missed a Subdecay Starlight Flanger, that was at the same store. Dannyalcatraz will be shaking his head at me for missing that one, I'm sure.
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Well, friends, I took a chance and called my FLUMS, and they're holding the Bad Comrade for me until Monday - big work weekend ahead, so I'm not at liberty to go gear shopping for the next couple of days. Full report when I have it in my paws, but this could be the final brick in the wall, as far as my pedalboard array goes, the Crapulator I've been looking for. (It could also be the last straw, for some of my listeners, but WTH . . .) I would have liked a WMD Geiger Counter, and might still hold out for one at some later time, but this thing . . . it's almost obscene.
FWIW, I'm not sure if they (it may just be one guy?) make anything else. They're hand-signed and dated on the inside of the box, even the MKII's, which is why I suspect it's one guy, or at most, a very small crew. The MK1 version looks like a project box, while the MKII looks more like a commercial product, although they kept the 'dog-tag'-style serial # plate: Adds a nice, industrial vibe, don't you think?
Now, if it works with my EV-5 Expression Pedal . . .
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It's not entirely new, although the MKII version is more recent. They have one of these at my FLUMS; I'm tempted to make the drive out there today . . .
[video:youtube]
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Because...
[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP5d9FdUiMs&sns=em
Thank you, Dannyalcatraz! Possibly my favorite gear demo of all time!
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Alright, it's not exactly new, but somehow I missed the Vox Delaylab, when it first came out. Anyone looking for a versatile, sweet-sounding Delay box, needs to check this one out. I've been digging into it for a little while, and it's quickly become one of my favorite effects devices.
Think of it as a sort-of DL4 on steroids; 30 User memory slots, instead of 3, a dedicated Reverse Loop switch, and a bunch of surprising effects. The big drawback; no MIDI or USB connections, so if you want to share you patches with anyone, you'll need to work up a Patch Data Sheet (remember those?) from the Preset Program Chart in the back of the Manual.
There are a lot of videos featuring the Delaylab, including a bunch of A/B comparisons with other Delays, but this one shows off some of the more oddball features.
[video:youtube]
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BTW, Caevan, did you ever get to try the Mel9?
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@Caevan - Put a Volume pedal in that line-up somewhere, so you can 'swell' the Feedback effect in and out. I find the Volume pedal to be a great assist with the E-Bow, as well. Also, a Volume pedal following your Looper will allow you to fade out Looped material. Some Loopers have a Fade-out feature, or a function that lets you play to the end of the loop, but too often, they just abruptly cut off the loop whenever you hit the switch.
(Does the Strymon allow you to assign an Exp pedal to the Loop playback? I know the Boss doesn't.)
FWIW, that Plus Pedal was too subtle for my taste; I could barely hear what it was doing. It seems like the FreqOut would cover much of that territory, with a little tweaking?
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By the way- how does your Mel9, or this Synth9, work with your 7-String Les Paul? I bet THAT would be AWESOME with this pedal!
By the way- how does your Mel9, or this Synth9, work with your 7-String Les Paul? I bet THAT would be AWESOME with this pedal!
And you're so very RIGHT about the convenience of using the Synth9 instead of glomming a synth-pickup onto a favorite guitar!
The Mel9 works very well with all of my Guitars, but it is fun pairing it with the 7-string, as it brings in two unexpected elements, playing in front of people: you don't often see a 7-string LP, even less one that sounds like a Mellotron!
What I've done, so far, is to create a handful of patches in my GT-10 that allow me to run a chain of effects for straight Guitar signal on one (virtual) Channel, then have an effects chain for the Mel9 on the other Channel, with different, discrete effects & Amp models, for each signal chain, like having the Mel9 go through a Rotary effect and a short Delay, into a Full Range Amp model. (The GT-10 has dual Amp models and Noise Suppressors, and you can arrange or route your signal chain pretty much any way you like. I patch the Mel9 in through the GT-10's Send/Return.)
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Caevan, I hope we can agree to disagree about the Synth9. Other than the Mel9, which I already have, this is the only other model in the series that calls to me. I'm with you on most of his examples, but what I really dislike about these demo videos is that they're over-produced, if that's the right word? In a few cases, we're hearing multi-tracked riffs, and in every example, that bloody Drum Machine is going in the background. I think a lot of folks are going to take the thing home and expect to sound like a band, from those videos!
Can't find a purchase price anywhere yet, but I expect it'll be in the same $225+/- range as the others, coincidentally, right around the price of a Roland GK-3 Synth pickup. If you're NOT in need of deep programming or MIDI control, just looking for a few cool sounds, this is much easier and neater than glomming a Synth pickup onto a favorite Guitar.
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That would qualify! You have to love how they 'distressed' the pedal, so it looks like it sounds . . .
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Reminds me of the "Large Print" books we used to sell for the vision-impaired. That thing is bigger than ANY pedalboard I've ever hauled around.
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Sounds like my weekend! Thanks for posting that, Dannyalcatraz, I'll try and dial up some of those sounds in my Delaylab.
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No question, the DLX is one impressive pedal! However, the DLX is running around $325 everywhere, and I got the original model for $90 in trade value.
Filter sweeps are pretty wide, as I said, more like a Synth Filter. Depending on which Filter type you're using, you can dial yourself out of the audio range pretty quickly. In some of the videos showing the original, you'll notice that the users very seldom dial the Freq knob to either extreme, because they get cut off.
The Step/Rate combination is one of the coolest features possible, almost as weird as the Z.Vexx Seek Wah.
The Delaylab can be viewed either as a souped-up DL4, or a stripped-down Eventide Time Factor. I lean towards the latter viewpoint, mostly because there's no MIDI nor USB connectivity; if you want to trade sounds with anyone, you'll need to work up an old-fashioned Patch Data Sheet. Still, don't know why this one escaped my attention when it first came out?
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Looking in on Saturday morning, and that Guitar is already sold. Not surprising, that was a truly beautiful Guitar, in great shape. Ah, well . . .
In the meantime, I traded out some gear yesterday and came home with a near-pristine Subdecay Prometheus, and an equally clean Vox Delaylab. I've been getting back into stacked Delays lately, and the Delaylab is a very nice addition. The Prometheus is pretty wild, more like a Synth Filter than your typical Envelope Filter pedal. Haven't had a really good Filter effect for a while, and this is even a little beyond what I expected. Here's a decent video of it.
[video:youtube]
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@Danzilla - that is a beautiful Guitar! If I had the cash on hand, I'd grab it, but sadly . . .
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Another really nice thing about the Sustainiac Model C is that you can use any pickups on the given instrument, whereas the Fernandez Sustainer- and the similar Sustainiac Sustainer- replaces the neck-pickup, so you can't use the neck-pickup by itself or in combination with other pickups when you're using the sustainer.
The Sustainer is a weird design, so you can still use the neck pickup without engaging the Sustainer; same thing with the Jackson Sustainac system. I would never want a Guitar with no neck pickup!
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I could get very close to that tone with my old Boss Feedbacker pedal, and like Caevan says, at any volume level, or even through headphones. Admittedly, a far more impressive effect driving a live Amp.
Much as I love my E-bow, that Fernandes Sustainer is the thing! IIRC, you can still buy the Sustainer system for $200-300(?), but then you have to have it installed, so you're either committing one Guitar to that sound, or buying a spare, plus the expense of the installation: I've seen used Montereys for $400-500, ready to go.
Right now, the Dream Reaper and the Geiger Counter are the main contenders; if money were no object, I'd get both.
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Y' know, one hallmark of that Sustainiac Model C is literal, actual infinite sustain, as well as fattening harmonic-overtones.
That lends itself greatly to crafting all manner of sounds.
Add a volume-pedal or, say, a VFE Bumblebee (HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended!!), along with whatever you may choose, and you can make all kinds of cool and/or weird noises!
You and I are often following similar paths, from slightly different directions, brother! Just as we're both fans of Attack Delay devices, that Infinite Sustain thing has been part of my quest for some time. I wore out one E-Bow - the switch, at least - which I've replaced. I load up most of my GT patches with the Feedbacker effect, and I've been looking for a nice used Fernandes Montery with a Sustainer built in. +10 on the Volume Pedal: With just a Volume Pedal and an E-Bow, you can manage some monstrous sounds.
I'd like to hear more about the various Bumblebee models? The Quantum Drive seems like it would go nicely with a Compressor and an Attack Delay, and it would be nice to have both functions in one pedal.
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I gave it away. I have way too much gear and I was never going to use it again but mine was the Boss GT-3. It had some sort of quasi-synth section that I used for special effects like the synthy sounds like in the intro to Gunpowder and Lead.
You could actually do quite a bit with the synthy patches. Not really sure how it worked. I don't think it had actual oscillators. maybe it was something like a Pog.
The Ampeg Patch 2000 was really cool and the tracking was instantaneous because the synth was hardwired to the frets. The one I played came with a Hagstrom Swede controller which was one of my favorite guitars. I still have an early 70s Swede gig with when I need a humbuggy guitar.
Still have my GT-3 . . . and an ME-25, a GT-6b, and a GT-10. I still use them all, especially for live set-ups. The Ring Mod in the GT processors is pretty sick, too. I also have four different Roland Guitar Synths . . .
Looking more for a stand-alone, Pandora's Box kind of effect, a pestilence in pedal form.
That Ampeg rig is very cool! Never seen one before, so many thanks for that!
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OK Danny A...I too was think'en 'bout miss'en those Whale in heat underwater expression pedal sounds that I could make on me Juno 60...I could also get into the windstorm sounds for those Garth Brooks friends in low places Thunder Rolls tornado stuff!
@Larryz - Man, I would LOVE to get my paws on a Juno! If you really miss yours, you might want to look at this- Roland Ju-06. I've read very favorable reviews of this RI series, so it's worth looking into. There is a keyboard attachment available, as well - K-25m
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@Winston - right now, I can't recall if there is or isn't. I tell ya, tho...if I had an expression pedal for every pedal I own that has a jack for one, I could probably make a keeeeRAYzey pedalcarpet. And what emitted therefrom?
"My God, man- those sounds! It is as if someone slammed a humpback whale in the junk!!!"
"Aye. And with an electric bagpipe...the fiend!"
I know whereof you speak. More than 2/3 of my pedal array consists of footswitches & Exp pedals, rather than sound effects, at this point. I use one of the king-size Pedaltrain pedalboards, just to hold all 10 controller pedals for my FX rack. Like Mr. Wilde said, "Nothing succeeds like Excess."
Still, while I would never even consider jabbing a humpback in the junk with an Electric Bagpipe, I'm reasonably sure I can conjure the Song of the Sauropod with Intestinal Distress.
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..."park" the crazy.
@Dannyalcatraz - try an EHX Freeze pedal, it's essentially a short duration Hold pedal. Works in either Latch or Momentary modes. Try putting it on either side of the CHK CHK Boom, see what happens. You could also try any Delay pedal with a Hold/Loop function, to capture the crazy sound at its peak. You would think they'd add an Exp In jack, for something like that?
@Caevan - all good, brother, I realize not many folks here are into signal abuse.
I really liked the WMD Geiger Counter CI, but it just made me want to keep an eye out for the full-size model. The Dream Reaper that showed up in the "New Effects" thread seemed close to what I want, something completely out there. Those were two that stood out. The new Digitech FreqOut looks like fun, too, although it's not quite in the same camp. I still miss my old Boss Feedbacker, and the FreqOut seems to cover that territory, and beyond. The faux E-Bow sound is very impressive.
My main oddball box is a Digitech XP-300 Space Station; yes, really. It never leaves my Music room, especially now that they've gone up to $400/500 on Ebay!?!?!?! Nuts. The sounds are pretty cool, overall, and a number of them are truly unique; others, I might be able to reproduce with the right chain of effects, along with a Volume/Exp pedal, but there is no one box that will give me all those sounds in one place. However, both the Dream Reaper and the Geiger Counter have Exp/CV Inputs, which might get me closer. At the very least, I like the idea of real-time dynamic control over the effects, and an Expression Pedal adds that.
cool new effects
in Guitar Forum
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Thanks, Caevan, I'll try that.
BTW, check yer PM's, here and on FB . . . I may have a solution to reviving the Vortex.