Keyboard with Guitar/Bass Effect Pedals?

[Mingalicious]

Has anyone ever tried to connect a keyboard with a guitar or bass multi-effect processor or just a stomp box? I'm wondering because I'm considering connecting some guitar effect units to liven up my synthesizer tones to my keyboard (cheaper than buying a new board, right?). Would I be better off using effects intended for bass or guitar?

 

I understand that there are differences between the output signals between guitar and keyboard, so are there adapters or such that I would need if I was to do this? Also, does anybody have any recommendations for some moderately priced stomp boxes/processors?

 

Thanks!

[NewImprov]

Been doing this for years, no problem. Some favorite combo's:

 

Minimoog->Rat->Memory Man

Rhodes->Bass Pod (Never liked the Pod for bass, but I had some killer Rhodes sounds from it)

Rhodes->Adrennalinn

Minimoog->Space Echo

[C.J. Lewis]

I, too, have been wondering about this - thanks for the info, guys!

[MusicWorkz]

I use a Vox Tonelab on my keys and synths... It's great on Rhodes and lead lines...found it works better on sounds that don't have a lot of extra high frequency content (like FM bell-type sounds). It does take some fiddling around with your gain structure to dial in the right sound, but all of it adds to your learning curve.

[Mingalicious]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

 

So no additional set-up is required? Just another plug-and-play operation?

[Mark Schmieder]

The TC Electronic SCF pedal is the best pedal ever made -- period. Dead quiet, built-in power vs. wall wart, and 100% transparent throughout the entire frequency range. I even owned the TC1210 for awhile last year but found it wasn't as transparent in the low end as the SCF pedal!

 

TC Electronic deliberately made the pedal to be universal in its application, with keyboardists especially in mind. As far as I know, this is the only effects pedal ever made with keyboardists as its primary target. And in so doing they of course also made it the first pedal ever to be entirely faithful to bass guitar.

 

It is very flexible and can cover several categories of effects, but doesn't have enough delay in it to be useful as a dedicated delay unit. For that, you might want to investigate the new ND-1 (Nova Delay), or Eventide's Time Factor.

 

I personally find chorusing and phasing to be the most useful effects for keys, so the SCF pedal would be my choice if I was going with a vintage synth that either had no effects or a synth that had bad effects. It can also cover tremolo and flanging.

 

For distortion, it's hard to find any one pedal that does it all and does it all well -- especially in the low end, which is as important for keys as for bass. I will probably eventually buy the SansAmp PSA-1.1 or its eventual successor, as I was blown away by how transparent it is and how faithfully it reproduces so many different distortion and overdirve styles.

 

It is FET based so is an analog pedal, like SCF. ND-1 and Time Factor are digital pedals, but when dealing with delay, your ADDA round trip latency is "built-in" so to speak, and so time-based effects are often best in the digital domain as it's easier to keep them transparent and clean. Other type effects generally come off better in analog, whether via FET, modeling, tube, etc.

[Mark Schmieder]

And if you have more dough to spend, investigate the Moogerfooger series of pedals. Quite interesting, the lot of them. But they're unconventional enough that each one might take considerable time to work out towards a musical application deemed practical vs. fun and experimental. I remain a bit leery of them as a result, but they get rave reviews from everyone who uses them.

[The Real MC]

I used to own a Clav D6 and tried a buddy's Zoom pedal through it. Loads of fun. Clavs loved to be processed.

[KenElevenShadows]

I play a Nord Electro II through a Diamond Memory Lane analog delay all the time. Sounds really great.

[Mark Schmieder]

That delay gets top picks at Gearslutz, so I took a look at it the other day while evaluating the new Nova Delay from TC. It certainly has a unique look to it, but in the end I decided not to risk it. I've had too many headaches with smaller outfits, to be frank. But I would look forward to hearing someone's experience with it here in the context of keyboards.