cool new effects

[Scott Fraser]

5 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

Haahh! Firstly- I saw that, too; secondly, I immediately thought of you, Scott; and thirdly, I came here to post that same video...
Haahh!       
           
 

Great minds, etc. I guess I'm pretty predictable.

[Caevan O’Shite]

1 hour ago, Scott Fraser said:

Great minds, etc. I guess I'm pretty predictable.

Well, I wouldn't necessarily say, "predictable"- I just know you a bit, and we share some tastes in common.  

I'll put on my star and moon festooned robes and wizardly turban and stare deeply into the crystal ball and-

Aaaah, I see through the swirling spirits and stars that Winston Psmith will post here, and compare this and possibly other 9 Series pedalry to synthesizery and samplement... !  

At least, I hope he does...
  
 

[Winston Psmith]

13 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

Well, I wouldn't necessarily say, "predictable"- I just know you a bit, and we share some tastes in common.  

I'll put on my star and moon festooned robes and wizardly turban and stare deeply into the crystal ball and-

Aaaah, I see through the swirling spirits and stars that Winston Psmith will post here, and compare this and possibly other 9 Series pedalry to synthesizery and samplement... !  

At least, I hope he does...
  
 

 

Ah, my brother, you know me well . . .

 

My first thought it that it sounds like they re-visited the sound engine from the MEL9 or SYNTH9? A lot of similar textures to the sounds, and at least one repeat demo tune, that opening riff from Watcher Of The Skies. It's also interesting that the box is designed around Synth String sounds, for the most part.

 

My second thought is that this one will probably do well. There are a LOT of would-be String players in the Guitar world, and I'm among them. Everyone who has an E-Bow, or a Swell Pedal, never mind those of us who've really taken a Violin bow to a Guitar (yes, I have a Guitar Bow) is going to take a second look at this thing. At right around $250, this will more than do for many players who are still daunted, or just put off, by Guitar Synths and MIDI rigs.

 

Samplers, and Sample Libraries, are the bastard children of the Mellotron, in a way, where you have pristine Digital recordings, instead of slightly grainy Tape Loops. It's not entirely in the same realm as Synthesis, although Wavetable Synths (ROMplers to some . . .) are generally Sample-based.

 

Full disclosure: I had a MEL9 for a while, and found that I only used the Orchestra and Clarinet sounds, and those rarely. I finally traded it in, because I just wasn't using it enough to justify keeping it. I've never invested in any of the other EHX9 series pedals, because I have more than 20 different Synthesizers, Analog and Digital, so I'm pretty well covered for any kind of Synth sound. (Fair warning: I also have a real Violin, with a pickup, coming my way, sometime soon . . .)

 

Having said that, it's not really fair to compare the STRING9, or any of that series, to a full-powered Synth engine, where you can conceivably stack sounds, add Harmonies and FX, layer it with other Synths via MIDI, and even generate backing tracks with a Sequencer. The STRING9 is a true, straightforward Plug-&-Play device, which I suspect is what most players really want.

 

FWIW, I remember seeing Steve Hackett on tour in 1980, with a Roland GR-500 Guitar Synth rig. The Guitar itself looked like a Les Paul with a plethora of switches. The Guitar Synth looked more like a Printer sitting on a desktop than anything else; it was overlarge, and cumbersome, at best. ARP's Avatar, which helped kill the company, was even earlier than that, mid-1970's, IIRC? I got to experiment with an Avatar, briefly - not exactly user-friendly.

 

My point being that different makers have attempted to blend the Electric Guitar and the Synthesizer for over 40 years now, and yet Guitar Synths are still somewhat of a fringe market*.

 

The STRING9 costs somewhat less than a Roland GK-3 HEX Pickup (around $280US+/-), which is a LOT less than any current Guitar model with a Roland, Graphtech or RMC system installed ($1200US and up . . .), and you can use it with your favorite Guitar, as is. That's a strong market appeal, IMHO.

 

 

 

*Side rant and pet peeve: The 13-pin Hex Pickup systems made by Roland, Yamaha, Axon, Graphtech, Fishman and RMC are NOT Guitar-to-MIDI systems, although you'll sometimes see them described as such ("Roland MIDI Guitar" - there ain't no such animal). The Hex Pickups themselves send no MIDI data, whatsoever. You still need a Roland, or Axon, or Yamaha box with a 13-pin Input and MIDI Out to act as a MIDI Converter. The Fishman comes with a USB-to-MIDI wireless converter, BUT you still need yet another breakout box to use the Fishman TriplePlay with a true 5-pin MIDI device.

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

If I were gigging regularly, even fairly regularly, I could see myself having several of the EHX 9 Series pedals on a small-ish pedalboard, and probably with a few select modulation and filter pedals* to go with them, all controlled by a loop-switcher. Likely the B9 (which I already have, a generous Christmas gift from Elizabeth, aka "Caevs Grrrl" here 'bouts), and a C9, a Key9, a Mel9, and this new String9...

Now... It's not lost on me that I MIGHT be able to get as much, or even more, keyboard-simulation performance from a dedicated synth and possibly- probably- a hex-pickup or somethin', FOR AROUND THE SAME TOTAL COST as adding four EHX 9 irons... Or, could I... ? I don't rightly know!

* Such as Leslie sims like a Boss RT-20 or Neo Ventilator II, and a number of favorite phasers, flangers, choruses, tremolos, etc. etc. etc...
I've found that while the various rotary, tremolo, etc. options that come with the 9's are convenient and serviceable, dedicated modulation and filter stomps can be quite an improvement on them.
 
 

[hurricane hugo]

Wish that EHX had dedicated Polymoog or Voyetra 8 voicings, but should be able to get fairly close anyway. I like it!

[Winston Psmith]

17 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

Now... It's not lost on me that I MIGHT be able to get as much, or even more, keyboard-simulation performance from a dedicated synth and possibly- probably- a hex-pickup or somethin', FOR AROUND THE SAME TOTAL COST as adding four EHX 9 irons... Or, could I... ? I don't rightly know!

 

 

It all depends . . .

 

I found a fully functioning used Brian Moore iGuitar i21.13 (import model) for $300 at my nearest GC, but my used Godin Freeway SA was more like $550. Three of my Roland Guitar Synths came in at $200 each, so a full system - iGuitar w/Hex Pickup & Guitar Synth cost me $500. Admittedly, I got lucky on the price of the iGuitar, but working GR-series Guitar Synths regularly sell for $200-250, except for the most recent GR-55, which is a VERY different animal. By contrast, just two of the EHX9 series pedals will put you over $500, and four of them will put you over a Grand, closer to $1100.

 

Given that, at $1000+/-, yeah, you should be able to find a working Guitar with a Hex Pickup already installed and a working Roland Guitar Synth. If you chose to install a Hex Pickup on an existing Guitar - BTW, that doesn't require drilling holes in a much-loved Instrument - with a nice used Guitar Synth, you're looking at more like $500-600. If you have a Mac, the Fishman will let you play all the Virtual Instruments in GarageBand, so you don't need to buy a hardware Synth at all, if you don't want to.

 

The EHX9 pedals would still likely win out in an Ease-Of-Use competition; no menus, no programming, no surprises. That alone would be worth the extra cost, for many players. I happen to enjoy programming Synths and MFX, so I'm probably not a good example.

[Caevan O’Shite]

7 minutes ago, Winston Psmith said:

The EHX9 pedals would still likely win out in an Ease-Of-Use competition; no menus, no programming, no surprises.

What about the 9's vs a guitar-synth-rig for polyphonic tracking?
       
 

[KuruPrionz]

On 6/15/2022 at 7:21 AM, Winston Psmith said:

 

Ah, my brother, you know me well . . .

The Fishman comes with a USB-to-MIDI wireless converter, BUT you still need yet another breakout box to use the Fishman TriplePlay with a true 5-pin MIDI device.

 

While this is true and you certainly have your reasons for wanting 5 pin MIDI devices, I'm having a blast with my Fishman Triple Play using VST synths. 

I recently brought it back into play and have been creating my own patches. The Triple Play interface screen allows 4 vst synths plus you could run a guitar amp emulator if you wanted to, I don't.

By blending different ADSR templates I can create sounds that reshape and move over time. It's fun but the reality is that guitar strings have very different sustain curves so no patch is ever going to supply consistent performance from string to string. I can adjust the volumes to even things out but the sustain curve difference will remain. 

 

This will be true of any interface using a real guitar with real strings, just how it is. I'm not gigging with this and don't plan to, just for recording and primarily background parts since I don't own or play keyboards. It's fun, I like it, that's all I need to say about it really. Converting guitar strings to MIDI will always be defectve because strings are inconsistent and that will not change. 

 

If I did go live, I'd plug the guitar into an amp just like normal. That way I'd have a reliable backup system in place, just turn up the volume and it's there. Would really only need to add a laptop to my performance rig to get it up and running. 

[Winston Psmith]

@KuruPrionz- One of my overseas Guitar buddies uses the Fishman exclusively, and gets very good results from it. If I were coming into Guitar-Plus-Synthesis now, I would very likely have chosen the Fishman, as well.

 

Your description of blending ADSR envelopes sounds similar to what my old Korg WaveStation SR does; very nice!

 

FWIW, the Roland Guitar Synths let you set the individual String Tracking Sensitivity, but that setting is Global, and applies across all Patches, so there are still issues with sustain envelopes and dynamics. Different Hex systems behave differently, as well. I've made peace with it.

 

@Caevan O’Shite- Not quite "Six Of One . . .", but close. By designing my own Patches within my various GR's, I can get VERY fast tracking, but it takes a good bit of menu-diving and tweaking of the aforementioned String Sensitivity. Lower notes can still be problematic, because of the Physics involved, and again, different Hex systems behave somewhat differently.

 

I suspect the EHX9's have little or no tracking issues, because there's somewhat less processing going on. It is worth noting that I haven't seen any rapid-fire playing in any of the EHX9 demo videos, at least not that I can recall at present.

 

More detailed answer forthcoming in PM . . .

 

[KuruPrionz]

7 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

@KuruPrionz- One of my overseas Guitar buddies uses the Fishman exclusively, and gets very good results from it. If I were coming into Guitar-Plus-Synthesis now, I would very likely have chosen the Fishman, as well.

 

Your description of blending ADSR envelopes sounds similar to what my old Korg WaveStation SR does; very nice!

 

FWIW, the Roland Guitar Synths let you set the individual String Tracking Sensitivity, but that setting is Global, and applies across all Patches, so there are still issues with sustain envelopes and dynamics. Different Hex systems behave differently, as well. I've made peace with it.

The Triple Play interface has a way to set the volume response of each string as well. 

That doesn't change the aspect I mentioned, which is true of all guitars acoustic, electric and electronical. 😁

The strings themselves have different sustain characteristics. Even if you set them all at the same volume, when you pluck a chord in a polyphonic mode with all polyphonic synths activated in the Triple Play interface and let the notes sustain, the sixth string will be the last one to go silent and by a considerable margin compared to the first and second strings. 

As far as I know, the option to hold notes for as long as desired does not exist with guitar synths, you have to use a keyboard to do that. 

Just an aspect of guitar synths that use strings to activate the MIDI conversion, I doubt it will change unless you have a Sustainer on your guitar.

That is something I would like to have. I do have an Ebow, it works great but just for one string at a time. Fabulous guitar effect though, probably my all time favorite even if I don't use it much. 

Nothing else like it, nothing. 😇

[Dannyalcatraz]

Gotta say, as a former cellist (20 years), owner of an eBow and owner of a few but not all of EHX’s 9 series pedals, that new one interests me as well!

[Winston Psmith]

@KuruPrionz- My Roland Guitar Synths all have a "Hold" function, with various Modes, that allow me to hold or sustain tones, pretty much as long as I have my foot on the Pedal. Works very well.

 

There was one trick from the very early days of Guitar-Synth rigs, to help with tracking, and to balance string dynamics - stringing the whole Guitar with .010's, tuning all of your strings to E4, and using the Pitch Transpose function within the Guitar Synth engine to set the "pitches" of the strings. Doing this resulted in all of your strings being the same thickness, at the same tension. There may even still be a few player using that method, although it means that you can ONLY play the Synth sounds.

[Caevan O’Shite]

56 minutes ago, Winston Psmith said:

...to help with tracking, and to balance string dynamics - stringing the whole Guitar with .010's, tuning all of your strings to E4, and using the Pitch Transpose function within the Guitar Synth engine to set the "pitches" of the strings. Doing this resulted in all of your strings being the same thickness, at the same tension. There may even still be a few player using that method, although it means that you can ONLY play the Synth sounds.

I recall reading of that years ago! Didn't John Abercrombie do that? WAAAY beyond what I want to put into it; I just want to add a few cool faux classic keyboard sounds now and then, preferably suited to live performances. For years, I got by pretty well using various effects-pedals like octave-fuzz (up AND down), Leslie-sim stomps, phasers, and infinite-sustain courtesy of my Sustainiac gizmology- all aided by my fingerstyle approach. To my credit (forgive my patting myself on the back ), there were a few times I had to prove to someone that no, there wasn't someone hidden from view playing an organ or keyboard, and no, I wasn't using a guitar-driven synth or sequencer...
 
Photo for content and context of the "stringing the whole Guitar with .010's, tuning all of your strings to E4" daze, ehr, days:

(I know this one isn't so 10'sionally strung, but IIRC people did do that with these, and others... )

(10's, tension, intentionally, 10'sionally... sorry... )     


 

[Winston Psmith]

I remember that model - came with a hellacious rack-mounted interface, as well. The HEX PU is a version of Roland's original GK-1.

 

Ibanez very likely came up with that model because they were already making the Guitar Controllers for Roland's earliest lines of Guitar Synths. At the time, it was WAY beyond my price range, so I never got to try one.

[KuruPrionz]

4 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

@KuruPrionz- My Roland Guitar Synths all have a "Hold" function, with various Modes, that allow me to hold or sustain tones, pretty much as long as I have my foot on the Pedal. Works very well.

 

There was one trick from the very early days of Guitar-Synth rigs, to help with tracking, and to balance string dynamics - stringing the whole Guitar with .010's, tuning all of your strings to E4, and using the Pitch Transpose function within the Guitar Synth engine to set the "pitches" of the strings. Doing this resulted in all of your strings being the same thickness, at the same tension. There may even still be a few player using that method, although it means that you can ONLY play the Synth sounds.

That's a plus for Roland. 

I do remember reading about the .010 trick. I'm not sure it can be adapted to the Triple Play and I'd tend to want to choose all .046 instead since they sustain longer. 

But, I can plug my guitar in now and record 2 tracks using the guitar electronics and Triple Play. That provides a nice range of options for mixdown. 

 

Live, I prefer the simplest possible signal chain, we don't always have much time to get set up and playing.

Multi-effects guitar amps (Boss Katana or Peavey VIP) use a single cable to the pedal that controls presets with effects, and one cord between guitar and amp.

 

I have a Tech 21 Para Driver DI in my gig bag, with a fresh 9v battery. Worst case, if the amp goes belly up I switch to the DI. I've taken the DI to gigs and used it to see how it works. Can get a clean tone with it off and a variety of usable distortion tones with it switched on. Very usable, would get me through a gig if I need it. Small and light and just 2 cords total there too. 

 

Anything that works is way better than something that doesn't. I've survived amp failure, cord failure, and guitar failure in the past. None of them are fun. The less I have to trouble shoot on stage the better!

[desertbluesman]

5 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

i had one of the  below for a short while. However at the same time I had a custom Phil Petillo made electric guitar, one of the first ones he did after branching out from repair and acoustic. I had him put a Roland GK 1 Guitar To MIDI pickup. And I preferred the Petillo/Roland analog sound more because the Petillo had better (to my taste) magnetic pickups. Of course I also preferred the Roland GM 70 interface and the Roland synth sounds as well.

Brings back memories

 

 

[KuruPrionz]

Disclaimer #1 - other than owning a select few Tech 21 pedals, I have no affiliation with the company. 

Disclaimer #2 - I don't own any of these pedals yet, they haven't hit the market for one thing.

 

That said, I don't have many pedals at all and most of them are Tech 21. I like their gear, it sounds good, is versatile and laid out nicely and it lasts. 

4 new pedals from Tech 21, the videos are demos and they all sound good to me although I will concede that I gravitate towards the "Englush Muffy" and "Mop Top Liverpool". 

 

https://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/characterplus/

[Dannyalcatraz]

Don’t know how new it is, but I found this after checking in on Magnetic Effects- I hadn’t for quite a while.

 

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

On 6/20/2022 at 12:50 PM, KuruPrionz said:

Disclaimer #1 - other than owning a select few Tech 21 pedals, I have no affiliation with the company. 

Disclaimer #2 - I don't own any of these pedals yet, they haven't hit the market for one thing.

 

That said, I don't have many pedals at all and most of them are Tech 21. I like their gear, it sounds good, is versatile and laid out nicely and it lasts. 

4 new pedals from Tech 21, the videos are demos and they all sound good to me although I will concede that I gravitate towards the "Englush Muffy" and "Mop Top Liverpool". 

 

https://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/characterplus/

I like those! Nice.   The Mop Top Liverpool and English Muffy do indeed sound very good in those demo videos. The Mop Top Liverpool seems especially versatile! To the point that its name is almost unfortunate- it will do a LOT more than deliver you to nostalgic Beatles tones... I really like the inclusion of the balanced XLR output on these, as well!

I do think that you'd also really, really like the Strymon Iridium; its "Punch"/Marshall and "Chime"/Vox amp-models and speaker/cab IR's are quite extraordinarily excellent and very faithfully authentic and convincing! (When in "Chime"/Vox Mode, the last bit of range of the Drive control brings in a virtual Brian May/John Deacon style treble-booster.) Both for recording and live gigging DI applications, taking the place of carrying an amp. Fantastic through headphones and it conveniently has a headphone-jack on the pedal!

 

5 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

Don’t know how new it is, but I found this after checking in on Magnetic Effects- I hadn’t for quite a while.

 

 

Wow! Nice! Very versatile and seems to be very dynamically responsive to "touch" and guitar-controls. I really like the dual gain-stage design and the ability to blend the different sounds and feels of its Preamp and Gain controls. Its three-position EQ switch seems somewhat similar to Keeley's Phat Mod Mode. I think that I'd really like this pedal.
      
 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Magnetic Effects is one of those companies that simply does good work.  I’ve got several.  They’re kind of like a smaller, English version of Keeley.

[Caevan O’Shite]

1 hour ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

Magnetic Effects is one of those companies that simply does good work.  I’ve got several.  They’re kind of like a smaller, English version of Keeley.

Cool. Smaller than most Keeley pedals? They're fairly small, themselves!

That Zig Zag may be small, but it sounds big!
   
 

[Dannyalcatraz]

AFAIK, ME is a one man operation.

 

And supposedly, he’s contemplating a move which may cause him to shut down for a time…or permanently.  So I’m STRONGLY considering getting the ME pedals on my GAS list.  The Zig Zag would be one.

[KuruPrionz]

10 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

I like those! Nice.   The Mop Top Liverpool and English Muffy do indeed sound very good in those demo videos. The Mop Top Liverpool seems especially versatile! To the point that its name is almost unfortunate- it will do a LOT more than deliver you to nostalgic Beatles tones... I really like the inclusion of the balanced XLR output on these, as well!

And, if you run phantom power throughh the XLR, it powers the pedal. One less cord (power supply). 

My Tech 21 Bass Driver DI, Para Driver DI and Q-Strip all to that as well. They are all studio quiet too. Like I said, good stuff. 

[Caevan O’Shite]

9 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

AFAIK, ME is a one man operation.

 

And supposedly, he’s contemplating a move which may cause him to shut down for a time…or permanently.  So I’m STRONGLY considering getting the ME pedals on my GAS list.  The Zig Zag would be one.

I think I'd really like a Zig Zag, myself! It might not happen, though, I doubt I'll be able to swing that in time.

I can't complain, I have plenty of great pedals 'n stuff...
      
 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Welp…it looks like I was right about ME.  Apparently, the dude hisself is moving from England to Japan, and whatever you can find on the market is all there is, at least for now.  I went looking for a Zig Zag and a Lonely Robot (souped-up RAT), and found…a single used Zig Zag on Reverb.  It’s currently on its way to my house.
 

The stores that sell new (listed on ME’s Stockist menu) have a lot of “Sold Out”/“Out of stock”/“Backordered “ tags.

[hurricane hugo]

New Wampler delay:

 

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

On 6/27/2022 at 10:29 AM, hurricane hugo said:

New Wampler delay:

 

 

Brian Wampler wanted to combine some of the best elements of tape-echo machines like the Echoplex EP-3, Roland Space Echo, and perhaps others in the Metaverse's 'SPC' 'Space' algorithm; primarily the perceived airy, spatial, dimensional qualities.

I think that he really accomplished that! The "airiness" of the 'Space' algorithm, beginning around 11:16, evokes parts of Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy, like the end of "Over the Hills and Far Away" in a can...

 
 

[Caevan O’Shite]

Some big improvements to some already amazing pedals- including MIDI and the ability to save and recall A LOT of stored favorite presets... !! 😆  TAKE MY MONEY!! (When I have it to spend... ) I will HAVE to get the new El Capistan and Flint; and I already wanted a Deco, so it'll probably be this new version when I get around to it...

I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to have whatever I needed for full MIDI implementation and multiple preset-memory bank use of the El Capistan and Flint... !

Another benefit of this is that prices on used "legacy" Strymons of these six models should go down. I am still absolutely floored by the El Capistan I've had for years now...
 

 

[hurricane hugo]

I think this came out late last year, but I just heard of it today, so here it is. A bass boost, mid boost, and treble boost all in one pedal. Each part lets you choose between 3 different center freqs. My primary guitar is an acoustic with a Fishman Rare Earth pickup, and this should be great at letting me set one EQ curve for flatpicking and another one (or two) for fingerpicking.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKgq2L71Xxc

[KuruPrionz]

34 minutes ago, hurricane hugo said:

I think this came out late last year, but I just heard of it today, so here it is. A bass boost, mid boost, and treble boost all in one pedal. Each part lets you choose between 3 different center freqs. My primary guitar is an acoustic with a Fishman Rare Earth pickup, and this should be great at letting me set one EQ curve for flatpicking and another one (or two) for fingerpicking.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKgq2L71Xxc

I took a look, I like the concept and well, everything except... those 3 footwitches are very close together. 15 EEE here, I'd have a difficult time switching the mid in and out without also switching either the bass or the treble or even both. 

I've got 2 Tech 21 pedals with 3 footswitches each, the Tri AC and Double Drive 3x and both of them have plenty of space between the switches. The old school Peavey footswitches with 4 switches were wll spaced too, they had a big gap in the center and two pairs of decently spaced switches out near the ends. Sure makes life easier for us Sasquatch types!!! 😁