Effect Pedals - Who Uses What?

[David Emm]

A very early pleasure in my audio dabbling: the Boss DSD-2 Digital Sampling Delay. It came and went all too quickly on the market, but its pedigree lives on in every Roland FX unit. I ran a MiniMoog through it- loads of fun- but it proved even more useful as a studio effect. This assumes that you call 2 dual cassette decks a studio, ahem. When you're 20, it is, anyway.

[cphollis]

Just sayin' y'all have given me major GAS.

 

The Eventide H9 Max has made me want to spring for that pedal.

 

That has never happened before for me. Except for Vents, that is.

[Hoochie]

I haven't bothered with any outboard effects for a long time until the H9.

There's just something special about its tone being as important as the original

signal.

I was using it on the Forte before we got access to the effects which are

really very good. There "was" no way to get at easy stuff so the H9 gave me that and more with its patch mapping and all. Pretty well thought out device.

Now it's on the Mini

 

I still have a PCM 60 I used with a 256 millisecond delay in the loop.

Then I had a Roland Dep something I used with it.

Still have the Lexi and the reverse chip set.

 

John

[Losendoskeys]

Easy for me for Genesis - stick the MXR100 on the SK2 and everything else is done with built in effects.

Oops - forgot the Vent!

[Baldwin Funster]

Easy for me for Genesis - stick the MXR100 on the SK2 and everything else is done with built in effects.

Oops - forgot the Vent!

 

The vent almost doesnt count. Thats like telling what i did today, but i forgot to say breathe.

[Baldwin Funster]

Ok so i went out on a limb and picked up a used EH Ring Thing today. It is a ring modulator with filter and modulation and way more. I barely cracked into this thing and already am in jon lord , peter robinson heaven. If you like ring mod effects but find it limited this thing pushes those effects into unlimited variations. Works well with vb3. Barely move a drawbar and the thing turns into a different animal. Easy to get horrible sounds also but right next to the bad sounds are where the good sounds live. You cant get them from presets. I dont know enough about this thing yet to record a sample but i'll tell you its keyboard level friendly and major cool with distorted organ. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Doerfler]

put an expression pedal on it and it will be dope.

[stevie b]

 

The Giggity is a weird pedal, I actually won it as a door prize from a local music store event, it's a pre-amp/EQ pedal with a bunch of pre-programmed EQ curves, it sounds terrific on the RHodes

 

New and Improv,

 

Glad I saw this post. I've been refurbishing my Mark 1 73 and now considering a preamp pedal. Does it obtain anything close to a Dyno Rhodes sound?

[RudyS]

I use an Eventide timefactor for my mopho keys. Sounds great!

[Redknife]

Sub 37>H9. Really happy with the H9. Others onboard.

[Marzzz]

Poor man's H9: Zoom MS-70 CDR

 

But I did just purchase an H9 Core

[Pigmeat]

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h51/bbrucemusic/IMG_0579_zps7bwqz4ii.jpg

 

I use these with my older keyboards (Rhodes, Wurli, Clav, DX7)

 

The SansAmp Para Driver is so great at bringing life to the old boards. The Q-Tron is new and I'm using it mainly with the Clavinet. Strymon Flint is nice combination reverb and tremolo.

[Baldwin Funster]

Ok so how is everybody cutting the signal level down to say -20 and adjusting impedance before your pedalboards and bringing them up to line level before poweramps?

[NewImprov]

 

New and Improv,

 

Glad I saw this post. I've been refurbishing my Mark 1 73 and now considering a preamp pedal. Does it obtain anything close to a Dyno Rhodes sound?

 

My taste tends to lean towards more warm, midrange-y Rhodes sounds, I've never liked the Dyno sound. But next time I fire up the Rhodes, I'll give it a shot and see if it gets there. Give me a few days.

[roygBiv]

Keep meaning to add this comment: Check out the Korg Kaoss Pad 3+

 

Only discovered it because I once lent my Boss RE20 Space Echo -type pedal to a local reggae band (who's real Space Echo had broken), and when I went to pick it up after their show, noticed they had a Kaoss Pad on stage.

 

What's weird is these Kaoss pad thingies are normally used for DJ/Electro music, etc., so I think most of us have not really thought about them.

 

However, because of that, they have been designed to handle line-level input very well, have very little noise, and great fidelity.

 

They also have stereo in/out, and can store up to 8 different effects settings, AND they have a yuuuge X-Y pad for tweaking the sound in real-time. Tap tempo is super easy to do.

 

Very cool, especially for delay/dub type effects, reverb, and even a few synth/squawks types of sounds.

 

Seriously, I know it sounds a little unconventional, but you can pick them up for $150-200, used.

 

http://www.korg.com/us/products/dj/kaoss_pad_kp3_plus/

 

 

[stevie b]

My taste tends to lean towards more warm, midrange-y Rhodes sounds, I've never liked the Dyno sound. But next time I fire up the Rhodes, I'll give it a shot and see if it gets there. Give me a few days.

 

I don't really need full on Dyno - just close enough to add some brilliance. I may be able to get this out of the eq and timbre adjustments on my Traynor K4.

I'll check that out as well.

 

Looks like a lot of folks with small stone or MXR 90 phase pedals. Does any one think it's worth paying for vintage MXR vs remake? I've checked some youtube vids and the MXR 100 vintage sounds really sweet.

 

[Doerfler]

I didn't buy the vintage or reissue script MXR as is is battery powered only, that just doesn't work for me. I have a vintage MXR Commande Series (1981), I believe it has the MXR 45 circuit board. I currently use a Line 6 M5 on my Rhodes Piano for MXR Script Phase 90. It's physical modelling, spot on, not expensive, and uses AC current. I know the Small Stone was and is still popular, had one and sold it, just didn't work for me. Like New and Improv, I'm not into the Dyno sound so I can't help you there. I would be interested in what you found to get that sound though if you do.

[JWhllr]

I use an EHX Stereo Pulsar tremolo, MXR Analog Chorus, Boss RV-6 reverb/delay and an MXR 10-band EQ/Preamp pedal for my Rhodes MkI Stage. RV-6 is a really interesting reverb pedal, I often use it for a bit of delay and use amp reverb for verb, but I took my Rhodes into church last week (final week playing with a congregation I've been a part of for 10 years, plus it was in my car from a gig the night before) and found that having a touch of the shimmer setting with the tone knob rolled off gave me pretty much a 'pad' sound that followed me around the keyboard. Wasn't expecting to be able to layer a pad under a vintage Rhodes!

 

I'll have to see if I can get a dyno sound out of my 10-band... Not a huge fan myself, but an interesting experiment.

[Baldwin Funster]

Just started using the Solodallas Storm. Its a guitar pedal for making your marshall amp sound like angus but as mr sherinian pointed out solodallas effects sound great on organ. It acts like an optical compressor to bring the sound foreward and helps by keeping low notes from masking high notes . And adds punch.

[sagetunes]

I use a Line 6 Pod between my Korg BX3 and Leslie 900, for overdrive and a little chorus.

 

[KenElevenShadows]

I use a Pigtronix Echolution (the original one with all the switches, and sounds beautiful, with this very 3-D sort of sense when used in stereo), a Strymon BlueSky Reverb (gets this amazing Brian Eno-like shimmer if you wish), and an Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine (this bizarre harmonizer that is amazing). I have other pedals, but those are the main ones.

[TommyS]

Lounsberry Organ Grinder with a Vent.

[analogman1]

I'd love to be able to get the effect of the "Bender" in my Model D iOS app...I'd like to run my Subsequent 37 through it.

 

It looks very similiar to the "Moog MF Chorus" pedal.

 

Can anyone verify this?

[hardware]

Just did my first gig using MIDI Automated Strymons.

Cant even explain how gratifying these are.

Ive got really good DSP Based FX like UAD Already but nothing beats SHARC DSP Chips that are automated via MIDI CC#s.

 

[Quai34]

I love pedals....That's why I build a 18 pedals pedalboard for my guitars that I don't play because I'm in keys but my guitar player uses tehm. Same with a 8 pedals bass pedalboard....

But for keys:

Prophet 08 to H9 Max live, thinking to buy a Zcore to put it after the Prophet 12....

Actually the Prophet 12 use the TC Electronic M-one XL rack, not a pedal...And the Matrix 1000 and Yamahs TC802 use the lexicon mx200....I woul love to have pedals on all of my synths but it's more difficult to use them as Aux send Loop, I put the 4 TC pedals on the NL2X just because I just had the room for that....

On the NL2X:

All TC Electromic, I like stereo pedals:

Helix Phaser, The Dreamscape (chorus Flanger vibrato), Alter ego Delay and Hall of fame Reveb.

Back in the day, TC SCF stereo chorus, used in the studio sometimes.

 

Next plan: Tall & Fat to Vent 2 to HOF Reveb on my C2 (still waiting for my bonuses and that should be bought from a guy in the forum....If he still has the T&F and the Vent...)

 

[jimkost2002]

Ive used moogerfoogers and eventides in the past but have moved on to strymon, namely big sky and timeline.... getting a mobius next

 

im with hardware on this one

[hardware]

Ive used moogerfoogers and eventides in the past but have moved on to strymon, namely big sky and timeline.... getting a mobius next

 

im with hardware on this one

 

Beyond a doubt the most Modulation Algos in a Multi FX unit Ive ever had.

 

What sold me on Strymons were the clarity and power they maintain for AUX FX Channel usage.

I started with a Deco Strymon just to stick on my mixers Main outs just for that authentic Tape Flange when ever I felt the need.

One day I ran it through an AUX and it was as if I was running directly into the Pedal.

 

So I kept using 4 Stereo AUX Channels, 2 with Scope DSP FX that come with the audio interface and its incredible MIDI Automated Mixers. The other 2 Strymon Deco & TimeLine.

Now its 4 Stereo AUXs per channel (24 x 8 x 2 layout) all using Strymons.

I cant stop playing.

 

Im sure other pedals have the same quality, but they dont have MIDI CC# automation or modulate parameters in real time glitch free.

 

A really sick effect is to modulate Reverb room size and decay simultaneously.

Dont have time to sit there and twist knobs, so since my Mixers are all custom designs with multiple LFOs per AUX, Buss, Mains Out or Channels, I use retriggered Triangle Wave to automate Big Sky so its ducked at the detection of the signal, then the Reverb shrinks or Gates (zipper free) @ selectable thresholds on the tails.

Leads are appropriately effected, and keep that Reverb sound without carrying tails across the notes making it muddy.

The SE-02 on Moves Like Jagger is like a giant fat suck machine...

 

Some really slick stuff.

[Delaware Dave]

If you use my Voce then I use a Vent pedal for the leslie sim since the Voce doesn't have a leslie sim. Other than that I rely on the effects within the keyboard. The Kurz's effects section is strong.

[hardware]

If you use my Voce then I use a Vent pedal for the leslie sim since the Voce doesn't have a leslie sim. Other than that I rely on the effects within the keyboard. The Kurz's effects section is strong.

 

Years ago the FOH who did our shows used a Kurz KSP8 which was the Kurz innards with extra Motorola (IIRC) DSP.

Laser Verbs were fantastic.

A popular combo was the KSP8 and a fantastic sounding Ensoniq DP4.

If the contractors had a loose budget the Lexicon 480Ls with a LARC was used.

But Laser Verbs in the Kurz sounded just as good, but wouldnt provide 4 separate Reverb Engines.

[Sam CA]

If you haven't seen this Electro-Harmonix Lester video: