Effect Pedals - Who Uses What?

[J. Dan]

I posted on the guitar forum a while back, but I'm interested in a true tube overdrive or possibly amp sim. Not one of those starved plate tube pedals. Ed (CEB) I know you have some opinions on these. This would be for lead synth and I'm going to stare out experimenting with my Line 6 POD but am interested in the Synergy product that has a Soldano SLO preamp (designed and approved by soldano). Not a pedal, but along those lines. I'm a little bit curious if something like a Vent could do justice to a bit of a more extreme overdrive without Leslie effect because it could then serve dual purpose. Back when the Burn came out I was interested in it because it seemed like it had more flexibility in that department. But I'm still thinking that for my needs, something like a true tube preamp or pedal, or maybe a high quality guitar amp sim, would be better.

[Doerfler]

Hey Dan, Derek talkes about a MXR EVH 5150 Overdrive pedal in one of his videos. It's an "amp in a box" pedal and half the price of the Synergy product you are interested in.

[Rusty Mike]

I route the synth voice on my Stage 2EX to a separate output and use the Minifooger MF Drive and Seymour Ducan Vapor Trail analog delay.

 

The MF Drive's ladder filter helps create some creamy leads sounds from the Stage, which is rather thin on its own.

[DenCV]

In the studio I use a vox wah and my mutron phaser 2 gets switched between that and whatever else I want it on. If I want something real warm I get out the echoplex on some of the analog synths, and even organ from time to time. Instead of overdrive I have a bunch of vintage guitar amps in the studio I experiment with. Wurly and clav get shoved through them once and a while.I tend to run things through the leslies for the organ, and one especially made for guitars too. A lot of guitarists that come through to record will come in with a line 6 or something, end up trying my most used guitar amp, a simple epi valve junior, and need a bit of gain on the front, and I'll run them through an H&K tube factor. That's about it for effects that actually get used in the studio

Now live is another story.If I'm taking the XK5 out, I run the internal sim, and that comes out through a strymon el cap, which I love. That's usually set with the tape as warbly, fluttery and noisy as I can get it.ALl other keys I use internal effects on. If it's a small venue and I have to take the SK1 or 2, then it's out of the 8 pin into an organ grinder, then into an original vent, and out of that into the strymon. I have a tall and fat, it adds a minor amount of warmth, but not enough to justify the hookup time for me. Everything goes into my mixer, an XR18, and I am using reverb in that to make everything a bit wet.

 

[J. Dan]

Hey Dan, Derek talkes about a MXR EVH 5150 Overdrive pedal in one of his videos. It's an "amp in a box" pedal and half the price of the Synergy product you are interested in.

 

Thanks. I planned on hitting him up after I get my Dominion 1 so I'll be sure to inquire about it.

[David Loving]

I run a Voce V5 through a Vent. Really fine.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

After I got my Motion Sound, I bought a Digitech Polara pedal to add spring reverb to my Electro 4D organ, pre-rotary (the built in reverb on the 4D is only hall or room, and only post-rotary when using the onboard sim). I love the sound, and it's a lot lighter to carry than a Hammond with a built-in reverb tank!

 

The Polara has a bunch of other cool modulated reverbs, and it's stereo, both of which are things that I see coming in handy, but thus far I'm pretty happy with mono organ > spring > Leslie.

 

Other than that, I have a Morley wah pedal that I love to use on my clavinet. In addition to the wah effect, it adds a little bit of bite to the tone that I like.

 

I had a cheap Danelectro phaser pedal that I used on my Wurlitzer for a bit, but we played a radio station gig once and the pedal carried the station's broadcast signal into the Wurli speakers even in bypass mode. Lesson learned.

 

On my Novation Ultranova (and occasional the Nord), I use an MXR talkbox, which has provided me with many a night of gimmicky joy.

[RABid]

I've got various guitar and bass pedals and MoogerFoogers, but my most used is a Line6 pedalboard. It is just so convenient.

[UnderGroundGr]

I use strymon flint and vox satchurator to pianet t and strymon lex for kurzweil's K2661 kb3.

[Al Coda]

Other than that I rely on the effects within the keyboard. The Kurz's effects section is strong.

 

True !

 

I get almost any lead sound out of my KURZ PC361 when FX matter for that sound,- "tube-OD" included.

Designing your own wah for a specific patch from, Dist/OD resonant BP-filter and compressor FX blocks, tune ´em to that specific input signal, use together w/ modulation FX inside a single FX chain and use 2 auxes in addition is perfect for synth lead sounds.

It´s the only keyboard instrument I own offering up to 8 FX in a chain plus 2 aux FX (-chains).

And Kurz-Forte doubles the FX DSP-power,- unfortunately for the price loosing the ribbon controller.

 

That doesn´t mean a real tube circuitry isn´t better.

But at the end of the day it´s all about if an amp and/or stomp box made for guitar/bass,- which means there´s an electromagnetic pickup in the ballpark,- matches a digital keyboard´s analog output stage level and impedance perfect.

 

If it doesn´t, it´s sonic quality, as a result of the designer´s intention, is gone anyway because of impedance mismatch.

The input level issue comes in addition.

If one likes the sound nonetheless doesn´t matter.

You never get the result a guitar- or bass player gets from that gear ! Period.

 

I stopped using guitar/bass FX pedals already in the 90s when I had sold my last electromagnetic keyboard instrument.

The only one which worked nice w/ line levels was the Mutron Phasor II.

None of the stomp-box type MXR pedals did.

Well, you can reduce master volume of the instrument, but that doesn´t fix impedance mismatch.

My experience is, impedance mismatch makes the sound more boomy and dull.

 

Already in the late 70th I tried using guitar amps and FX for synths and I bought a lot, tried and sold ´em again soon.

Marshall 50W green tolex, Ampeg V4, Fender-Princeton,-Super Reverb and Dual Showman Reverb and Gallien Krueger too.

Most of ´em worked good for Rhodes, Clav, Wurli, Hammond,- but not even for a Minimoog D.

All wah pedals were crap for synths,- 60s VOX and Morley included.

The vintage MXR Flanger was good for Minimoog D when reducing output level on Hi-Out or using the Lo-Out.

Advantage,- it was protected against too high input levels.

Drawback, when input level increased too much, FX intensity was reduced.

Nonetheless, I´ve found a way to kill it 2x by a transient !

Same w/ EH Electric Misrtress Deluxe.

So, when you love buying SAD-1024 stage bucket brigade chips, use it.

 

I don´t want commenting on all the other FX pedals I used,- it´s too much,- but in general I disliked all guitar distortion stomp boxes.

 

I was happy when the rackmount (studio-)units were introduced.

Want great vintage flangers for even digital keyboards ?

Look for Marshall Time Modulator, MXR Flanger/Doubler or a much cheaper Vesta Fire 010.

Other devices ... the always out of reach Songbird/DynoMy Tri-Chorus,- but also the analog Rocktron Prochorus, BOSS CE-300, the Roland Dimension-D, SBF-325 and TC-1210 as well.

 

When I want guitar type overdrive distortion from outboard gear, I still use Chandler Tubedriver rackmont modded w/ better milittary grade tube and better toroidal mains transformer. It offers individual instrument- and line-inputs as well as outputs.

The other is a Rocktron GAP-1 ...

I still get a super heavy "wall of sound" from a DX7mkII, quasi modelling a plucked string, running into GAP-1 and then into the Rocktron Prochorus.

It´s 1-trick-pony like a Tom Scholz Rockman though,- that sound, nothing else,- but I never got that w/ keys and from any other guitar stomp-box and amp/speaker combo, tube or not.

Several guitarists asked for that sound.

I gave ´em tapes and they tried to replicate at home w/ their guitar gear and never nailed it.

 

When I wanted to buy something new to process keyboards w/ all kind of guitar type OD, FX stuff and cab emulations, I´d go and buy a Kemper modelling amp !!!

 

A.C.

 

[EricBarker]

This is pretty much all my thoughts. I tried hardware pedals few times during the 90s... sold all of them. The vast majority of them now are solid state anyway (basically computers), so might as well keep the computer in the same box, tuned to the patch, with no chance of impedance mismatch.

[dbran]

Aside from the Ventilator, the only effects pedal I use regularly with keyboards is the Digitech SP-7 Hardwire Phaser. It does the 4-stage MXR Phase 90 sound, and also does a really good EXH Small Stone along with many other variations like 2-Stage, 6-stage, etc. It's digital, which usually is a bad thing for phasers (at least, most others I've tried), but this one sounds very alive, warm, and lush, not sterile at all.

 

And it's stereo in/out, like all of the Hardwire modulation pedals. (The Hardwire Chorus is also amazing, but I don't use it on keys).

 

The only down side is, it's seemingly made for guitar levels only, and so to avoid clipping I have to run keyboard sounds into them at a lower level from an AUX output, and then make up the gain difference afterward at the mixer. This adds some noise, but fortunately not enough to be noticeable in a live mix.

 

 

[CEB]

Guitar pedal overdrive pedal for keys is kind of tricky because the incoming signals are so different. Some guitar stuff will Sag. Wampler stuff will often be in UNusable for keys.

 

If you want to try true tube overdrive the new pedal from David Friedman sounds interesting. The 12AX7 in the pedal is working at 211 volts I believe is what the Marketing propaganda said. I have NOT heard them. But for true tube overdrive the pedal is only $250. The Effectrode stuff is nice but twice that cost. High tolerance parts, good transformers and heat management isn't cheap.

[Markyboard]

Guitar pedal overdrive pedal for keys is kind of tricky because the incoming signals are so different. Some guitar stuff will Sag. Wampler stuff will often be in usable for keys.

 

 

So glad we have 2 threads for this

Anyway since you stated this in the other tread I've been trying to figure out why. I thought I knew but turns out I was wrong. Whats different about the distortion type guitar pedals vs others?

[CEB]

Some pedals don't have the headroom to handle hotter signal or its maybe be impedance related. It's is a circuit by circuit thing. I ran into this recently trying to run my pedal steel through a dirt box. I had to audition a bunch of them. Ended up using the old cheap Boss DS-1 because it could handle the output of the steel. My Wampler Pinnacle about shi* it's pants. Not sure what the cause is.

[hardware]

Space Heater by Radial is a great sounding Tube Drive too.

Selectable voltages from 35v/70v & 140volt.

 

210 volt by Friedman sounds nice though.

Space Heater needs a fat line in to get beefy.

Sampled stuff is better off with a plug in, at least from what Ive gathered.

ROMplers seems to fair better, but synths love those Tubes.

 

DeCo Strymon has great sounding drive on the videos, but as soon as I crank up drive up with keys, even my SE-02 or Code 8 the volume drops out and it sounds like shit.

Which is really odd because using just the dual tapedeck parameters sound fantastic.

String Machine sounds get that Come Sail Away sound.

 

I might have to try the Friedman Pedal.

Ive spent a ton of cash to get some beefy Tube tones in EPianos but they never get that sweet spot.

 

Thanks for the share.

 

[mynameisdanno]

DeCo Strymon has great sounding drive on the videos, but as soon as I crank up drive up with keys, even my SE-02 or Code 8 the volume drops out and it sounds like shit.

Which is really odd because using just the dual tapedeck parameters sound fantastic.

String Machine sounds get that Come Sail Away sound.

 

I got a Deco secondhand recently for liberal use of the ADT effect on a White Album tribute show. I had the same impression of the tape saturation side of the pedal being somewhat unimpressive on keys, but looking at the Strymon side it appears that there's a way to set the pedal to "studio mode" that might perhaps make it react a little more appropriately with line-level signals. Give it a shot if you haven't.

 

https://www.strymon.net/faq/how-do-i-set-the-deco-to-studio-mode/

 

[Markyboard]

Some pedals don't have the headroom to handle hotter signal or its maybe be impedance related. It's is a circuit by circuit thing. I ran into this recently trying to run my pedal steel through a dirt box. I had to audition a bunch of them. Ended up using the old cheap Boss DS-1 because it could handle the output of the steel. My Wampler Pinnacle about shi* it's pants. Not sure what the cause is.

 

Well you can always turn down the level from the mixer/keyboard or adjust the input level at the device itself and the input impedance is pretty much the same for all these devices including Moogerfoogers; 1mOhm. But you're right, there is something different about distortion/overdrive effects. :idk

[roygBiv]

As primarily a guitar player in the past, I've recently chased the distortion-pedal thing on keys with no success, for the most part.

 

The only things I've fond that sound reasonable is the aforementioned TubeDriver (mine is the 90's Tube Works Real Tube).

 

Anyway, a key thing that will kill all of these distortion boxes is the speaker output - some of the guitar (and even keyboard) distortion boxes produce a lot of high frequency content, and seem to rely on the inability of most guitar speakers to remove this white noise hash, "smoothing out" the sound.

 

I found this out when I bought the EHX Overlord. Stereo in-out, sounded great the first night I was playing around, running an EP patch through it into my Space-Station amp. The beers consumed probably helped too.

 

HOWEVER- luckily, the next day I happened to run it through my old Klipsch heresy speakers. Sounded horrible.

 

What I realized is that anything with high-frequency producing tweeters will make most of these distortion boxes sound like ass.

 

I really think the solution is to run a cabinet simulator after the dirt pedals. I think it is part of why the Vent works so well, it has a built in cabinet simulator.

 

However, I haven't gotten around to trying that, ended up just using the effects in the keyboard.

 

However, I did track down at least one stereo cab emulator, from digitech.

 

https://digitech.com/en/products/cabdryvr

 

PS - while looking stuff up, I found this cool recent Sweetwater video from Mr. Fisher comparing distortion boxes for keyboards - how timely!

 

 

[Markyboard]

 

Anyway, a key thing that will kill all of these distortion boxes is the speaker output - some of the guitar (and even keyboard) distortion boxes produce a lot of high frequency content, and seem to rely on the inability of most guitar speakers to remove this white noise hash, "smoothing out" the sound.

 

I found this out when I bought the EHX Overlord. Stereo in-out, sounded great the first night I was playing around, running an EP patch through it into my Space-Station amp. The beers consumed probably helped too.

 

HOWEVER- luckily, the next day I happened to run it through my old Klipsch heresy speakers. Sounded horrible.

 

What I realized is that anything with high-frequency producing tweeters will make most of these distortion boxes sound like ass.

 

I really think the solution is to run a cabinet simulator after the dirt pedals. I think it is part of why the Vent works so well, it has a built in cabinet simulator.

 

 

Interesting - I had never considered that. I wonder how a distortion pedal through a real Leslie sounds?

[hardware]

DeCo Strymon has great sounding drive on the videos, but as soon as I crank up drive up with keys, even my SE-02 or Code 8 the volume drops out and it sounds like shit.

Which is really odd because using just the dual tapedeck parameters sound fantastic.

String Machine sounds get that Come Sail Away sound.

 

I got a Deco secondhand recently for liberal use of the ADT effect on a White Album tribute show. I had the same impression of the tape saturation side of the pedal being somewhat unimpressive on keys, but looking at the Strymon side it appears that there's a way to set the pedal to "studio mode" that might perhaps make it react a little more appropriately with line-level signals. Give it a shot if you haven't.

 

https://www.strymon.net/faq/how-do-i-set-the-deco-to-studio-mode/

 

 

Thanks chief, never knew that, but Im using Mobius now and the Overdrive Section works much better.

Its as good as Deco and my LesterK fit ADT and Rotary.

 

Might put Deco back on my SE-02 with the new High Pass Extender upgrade.

Expression Pedal work on this is fantastic when blended with Wheel Modulation,

 

[Markyboard]

Some pedals don't have the headroom to handle hotter signal or its maybe be impedance related. It's is a circuit by circuit thing. I ran into this recently trying to run my pedal steel through a dirt box. I had to audition a bunch of them. Ended up using the old cheap Boss DS-1 because it could handle the output of the steel. My Wampler Pinnacle about shi* it's pants. Not sure what the cause is.

 

Well you can always turn down the level from the mixer/keyboard or adjust the input level at the device itself and the input impedance is pretty much the same for all these devices including Moogerfoogers; 1mOhm. But you're right, there is something different about distortion/overdrive effects. :idk

 

Found the answer to my own question. For anyone else interested...

 

MXR Distortion Circuit

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Interesting - I had never considered that. I wonder how a distortion pedal through a real Leslie sounds?

I've heard Benmont Tench talk about using a fuzz pedal in the effects loop of one of his Hammond organs to get some grit out of his solid-state Leslie. He tells the story in this video:

[video:youtube]-7bBsR_snWo

He tells some other stories too, and noodles on a Wurlitzer through a bunch of different effects.

[Doerfler]

thanks for posting that, Samual. Don't know how I had missed it.

[Doerfler]

here is my current Rhodes/Clavinet pedal setup. As one could imagine, this is stationary. No way I'm moving this stuff around.

Not pictured is a Moog expression pedal on the MF 101, gets me a wah sound on the Rhodes. Also a Vox wah on the E7, gets me a wah sound on the E7.

 

[Markyboard]

Nice Dave! I too found room for one more:

 

 

 

 

[ProfD]

I already have a Dunlop Cry Baby wah pedal.

 

My next pedal will be an Earthquaker Spatial Delivery.

[Guven Ilter]

Subsequent 37 -> MF MuRF -> EHX Cathedral Reverb -> mixer

Korg CX3 -> Hughes&Kettner Tube Rotosphere II -> mixer

Nord Stage 3 -> Stereo to mixer, Aux Out to Bass Amp if playing LH bass (toying with the idea of getting a compressor)

Nord Lead A1 -> Mono to mixer for each layer (4 layers)

Yamaha Motif XF -> Stereo to mixer

 

The NLA1, CX3 and Motif very rarely go on stage anymore.

[RudyS]

I use an eventide timefactor for my mopho. Really like it!

[MAJUSCULE]

My current pedalboard (usually paired with Rhodes and Fender Hot Rod Deluxe) is:

 

Earthquaker Devices Disaster Transport -> Line 6/Red Panda Bitcrusher Tonecore -> Ibanez FLL Flanger -> Minifooger Ring Mod -> EHX Big Muff Pi Germanium 4 OD/Distortion