FX guys: What FX do I need?

Paolo_M

Lads,

I'm not normally an FX guy but seen as I put a series loop in my build I thought I should invest.

I'll be running a Dunlop Wah and Boss OD set as a clean(ish) boost up front as I've always done.

What would you recommend for
delay
graphic eq
tuner
noise gate?

From reading here and doing some other research I'm thinking
Boss DD7, it has a kind of chorus effect available.
MXR 108
TC Electronic Polytune
ISP Decimator

Any other ideas or recommendations before I splash the cash?
What about road cases?
Does anyone use the Boss case?
What about the Rockcase on Thomann? Rockcase
The rockcase looks good but I can't find any info on the web.

What about the TC Electronic Nova unit? Nova Seems well built and the clips I heard sound good. Anyone with any experience?

punchdrunk

cool!

i'd go with a better delay if it were me maybe try and find a second hand T-rex replica

68 lost souls

I have a Nova repeater which I love if you want to go digital delay I would recomend that or the nova delay. The T-Rex that punchdrunk suggested is nice as well but if you want to go analog delay I cant recomend the MXR Carbon Copy enough, I love it.

The tuners of choice by most poeple would be either the Korg Pitchblack, TU-2 or 3, or the polytune which isnt out yet. Some people go for the likes of the PETERSON VS-S2 STROBO STOMP 2 but I find it unneccesary.

Apart from that I would probably agree with the 108 and the decemator.

Your rig is gonna be awesome when its done :P

rcaz

Well... What effects do you think you'd use? No point having a savage pedal if you don't use the effect!

If those Rockcases are the same as the older Rockcase made by Warwick, I'd stay away. I have this one, and it's not great. Does the job, I guess, but the velcro has started peeling off the bottom, the case bends a little when you lift it by the handle which doesn't really inspire confidence, and last time I was carrying it from the car into the house, it opened and spilled all my un-velcroed pedals on the driveway. Luckily, the damn thing is so heavy the pedals only had an inch or two to fall.

I regret not getting a Diago pedal board, they look pretty nice. I think the Pedaltrain tiered job is pretty unnecessary, and I like how the Diagos are wider rather than deeper.

Paolo_M

punchdrunk wrote: »

cool!

i'd go with a better delay if it were me maybe try and find a second hand T-rex replica

Cheers, I'll check out some clips. Do you know of any live gig or recording where someone uses one? I'd like to get a feel for it's tone.

68 lost souls wrote: »

I have a Nova repeater which I love if you want to go digital delay I would recomend that or the nova delay. The T-Rex that punchdrunk suggested is nice as well but if you want to go analog delay I cant recomend the MXR Carbon Copy enough, I love it.

The tuners of choice by most poeple would be either the Korg Pitchblack, TU-2 or 3, or the polytune which isnt out yet. Some people go for the likes of the PETERSON VS-S2 STROBO STOMP 2 but I find it unneccesary.

Apart from that I would probably agree with the 108 and the decemator.

Your rig is gonna be awesome when its done :P

Thanks mate.
How would you describe the difference between analog and digital delays?
I'm an guitar - amp guy, the only time my guitar has been heard with delay was ago on a demo and it was the studio guys idea. The clips on-line are hard to judge by but it seems like anaolg delay are less precise sounding, the tone get darker (on some anyway) during the decay. I wouldn't say that's a bad thing but is it a fair judgement?
I'd intend using it for ambience during solos or clean passages, not the Edge thing. Which type do you think would suit that best, which type do you go to for that?

El Pr0n wrote: »

Well... What effects do you think you'd use? No point having a savage pedal if you don't use the effect!

If those Rockcases are the same as the older Rockcase made by Warwick, I'd stay away. I have this one, and it's not great. Does the job, I guess, but the velcro has started peeling off the bottom, the case bends a little when you lift it by the handle which doesn't really inspire confidence, and last time I was carrying it from the car into the house, it opened and spilled all my un-velcroed pedals on the driveway. Luckily, the damn thing is so heavy the pedals only had an inch or two to fall.

I regret not getting a Diago pedal board, they look pretty nice. I think the Pedaltrain tiered job is pretty unnecessary, and I like how the Diagos are wider rather than deeper.

Thank's for the input.
I reckon I'd only have use for EQ and a touch of delay. Then house keeping like tuner and noise gate, though I'm not sure I really need the noise gate either.
Yeah, the rockcase is the warwick type. That's not good news, but thanks for the heads up.
Something well built with clean power distribution is what I'm after. Might end up building that myself too!!
The Diago looks nice but has no power.
Are you aware of any other options?




Thanks guys for your help.

rcaz

Paolo_M wrote: »

Are you aware of any other options?

For a case or power?

Loads of people make cases, I like the flat box type. Just don't go for the cheapest option like I did, I'm gonna be buying a new one I think.

For power, I'm not sure what the story is. There are loads of deadly looking ones like the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power and the T-Rex jobs, but they're really expensive.. I went with the Diago power supply, and it seems great too me. A little problematic with one of my delays (Boss RE-20), but I didn't expect to be able to power my entire board off it.

Paolo_M

El Pr0n wrote: »

For a case or power?

Loads of people make cases, I like the flat box type. Just don't go for the cheapest option like I did, I'm gonna be buying a new one I think.

For power, I'm not sure what the story is. There are loads of deadly looking ones like the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power and the T-Rex jobs, but they're really expensive.. I went with the Diago power supply, and it seems great too me. A little problematic with one of my delays (Boss RE-20), but I didn't expect to be able to power my entire board off it.

Both, I'm all about integration and consolidation given the current economic climate!!
Ever hear any reports of the Gator product? Gator The power supply has plenty of taps, even have 18V for the MXR108 and it's got teh flamz?

Fingers Mcginty

If you could afford it I'd go with the Voodoo labs pedal power 2 with the pedal train junior. Very nice and compact. Bit on the expensive side but well worth it. I'm delighted with mine. The power supply is designed to snugly fit under the board.
Also for a tuner I would go with the sonic research turbo tuner. Small footprint , true bypass and very quick and accurate.

Sandvich

Try a Memory Boy for delay, maybe the deluxe one. It's a great analogue delay, and it'll give you some nice chorus/vibrato sound should you need them.

If you want analogue quality effecs from a Multi, I'd nearly recommend an M9 over the Nova. The M9 has some killer delays, some great chorus, a noise gate, and some nice EQs. The tuner's not the greatest though, but it's alright. Usually best to get an standalone device for that.

rcaz

Sandvich wrote: »

analogue quality

Er... What does that mean? The M9 is a digital pedal, there'll be nothing analogue about it

68 lost souls

The analog vs digital delay debate has been around for years.

THats a fair judgement alright. The analogue delay sounds more like a natural occuring delay, the sound if the repeats differs slightly form the origional sound as if it were a natural echo where as the digital delays can reproduce the exact sound for the repeats which means with some pedals you can use them as loops as well or you can get some interesting reverse delays. I would guess for ambience you might prefer analogue but I would try and get your hands on one of each in a shop or something to compare the two.

Some of the features I really like on the Nova repeater are the spilllove delay so when you turn the delay off at the end of a solo it keeps the repeats going over what your playing as the fade out naturally and I find the kill dry good fun too with a reverse delay so only the repeats sound, and it also has a modulation setting that gives you either chorus or vibrato. They are the advantages of it from my side however I do like to use delays like the Edge kind of stuff or Gerry Leonard who builds up the layers of a track with delays and loops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlKwCZDGKb0

I dont own an analogue delay at the moment, there is an analogue setting on the nova but I hope to buy the carbon copy or some sort of memory boy/man. Here is a good video on the carbon copy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJPde-C28iU

Here is an article that goes into the dofferent types briefly http://www.legendarytones.com/delayroundup.html

Pedal boards:

I am building my own pedal board but I rate the diago pedal boards really highly, excelent build quality. For power I am using a 5 way power conditioner with a DC on tap power supply, a Boss PSA230 and 2 dedicated power supplies for the Nova repeater and the Digitech whammy. I really like the DC on tap and it powers up to 20 pedals off one, the MXR bluebox however topped that off and that needs the PSA for extra power. The MXR fuel tank or DC brick are good power supplies to have on a board though if you get a board without a dedicated power supply.

Sergio

The nove system from TC is supposed to be very good.im looking at the Gsystem myself at the moment but ive checked out the nova system already and you cant go wrong with any of the TC gear.

Sandvich

El Pr0n wrote: »

Er... What does that mean? The M9 is a digital pedal, there'll be nothing analogue about it

Well it'd be a bit odd describing an analogue pedal as analogue quality, it's a given.

The M9 also has true bypass, quite rare for a digital pedal. Though you also have DSP bypass(which allows delays/verbs to trail off).

The M9 is a good solution for effects light users as it's pretty simple to use and can be used in place of a pedal rig. For heavier users such as myself it can be best complimented with some other pedals, though really there are so many amazing sounds in there it's not necessary.

For analogue effects I'd probably recommend

Memory Boy(Delay) or Carbon Copy
Boss GE-7 Sniper Mod(EQ)
Korg Pitch Black(tuner) or the Polytune

For a Digital delay; the Line 6 DL4. Nothing wrong with the DD7 either, though a Digidelay is similar and I think cheaper. There's the Ibanez DE-7 too.

Boss CH-1(Chorus, make sure to get the old analogue one) for a Chorus. A flanger can actually work well here too, I sold my Small Clone and got a Deluxe Electric Mistress, great for that Andy Summers shimmer(the digital stereo version is gimmicky and hard to use - had it and sold it, much happier with this pedal).

68 lost souls

Colinboy wrote: »

The nove system from TC is supposed to be very good.im looking at the Gsystem myself at the moment but ive checked out the nova system already and you cant go wrong with any of the TC gear.

Yep the G system is probably the greatest multi effect processor ever invented, there are so many good things on it, I especially love the fx loops on it and the fast that you can put them in at any stage of the signal and the fact that you can rackmount the main part of it and use the chasis as a footswitch only is pretty cool.

I might be wrong but I think the OP is looking for individual stomp boxes rather then an all in one, at least I was talking about the nova repeater in the stomp box form rather then the Nova unit. I find that in general with the individual pedals you have much greater control over each parameter and you can get a much more specfic sound. Saying that the G system is very good at this.

I never even asked Paulo_M are you specifically looking for individual pedals or a complete unit? I would genereally go for seperates but each to their own.

Paolo_M

Thanks very much for all the advise lads.

68, not essential but I would prefer individual pedals.
Did look at integrated units but good ones are very expensive, eg G-System, and I don't rely on pedals that much to justify the money.

I had a ME50 for years but all I ever used on it was the tuner, OD and chorus for clean parts on very rare occasions. Never even bothered to program a single patch in the 6 years I had it.

I've pretty much decided on:
ISP Decimator
MXR108
MXR Carbon copy, it adds a real warm ambience which is exactly what I'd want, the digital devices look like fun but not something I'd have a practical use for
Polytune, they are showing as available in Thomann

At some point I may add a chorus but the modulation function on the carbon copy with some delay sounds even nicer to my ears.

Fingers Mcginty

CC is the best delay i've ever had. don't think you'll be disappointed.

Sandvich

68 lost souls wrote: »

Yep the G system is probably the greatest multi effect processor ever invented, there are so many good things on it, I especially love the fx loops on it and the fast that you can put them in at any stage of the signal and the fact that you can rackmount the main part of it and use the chasis as a footswitch only is pretty cool.

I might be wrong but I think the OP is looking for individual stomp boxes rather then an all in one, at least I was talking about the nova repeater in the stomp box form rather then the Nova unit. I find that in general with the individual pedals you have much greater control over each parameter and you can get a much more specfic sound. Saying that the G system is very good at this.

I never even asked Paulo_M are you specifically looking for individual pedals or a complete unit? I would genereally go for seperates but each to their own.

The G System gives you much greater control than the M9 but as Paulo said he's not really a huge effects guy. The M9 would be better in that regard since it's got a more stompbox like interface, the algorithms in the Nova are also getting pretty old.

Sandvich

Keep in mind Carbon Copys are pretty expensive compared to most delays in it's range of features.

If you're looking for Warm ambience, the Memory Boy has that in spades.

http://www.candyappleredguitars.com/product_info.php?products_id=1226&osCsid=d2b09fede26bf475ae6e067e45695e06

Also you can get an even cheaper/simpler version, comparable to the Carbon Copy -

http://www.candyappleredguitars.com/product_info.php?products_id=1220&osCsid=d2b09fede26bf475ae6e067e45695e06

And for less than the Price of the Carbon Copy, still, you can get this -

http://www.candyappleredguitars.com/product_info.php?products_id=1297&osCsid=d2b09fede26bf475ae6e067e45695e06

Which has tap tempo, subdivisions, effects loop.

The Carbon Copy is a great portable delay, and it's better than the Memory Boy for more "slapback" kind of stuff supposedly(though the voicing is darker I think, unsure), but the Deluxe Memory Boy especially is better bang for your buck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Vt2dlCtoE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_jGLba0lQo&feature=related

These are my two favourite demos of the device. A lot of demos of the Memory Boy will focus on the weird stuff(since it's more fun to demo), but it can do the warm lush sound pretty well.

Carbon Copy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJPde-C28iU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPl9-hE4Cqg

The only Memory Boy/CC shootout is a bit naff, but the Memory Boy is a darker version of the Memory Man overall, here's a shoutout -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjZePo5WSFw

They're both pretty good at warm and ambient, and both can do some weird sounds when you're bored. I think the Memory Boy family are more interesting and have more to play around with though. The Carbon Copy has longer delay time than the Memory Man, but I think the Memory Boy has longer delay time - but at a lower resolution(this is probably why the CC can manage it).

It's also worth considering the Malekko 616.

http://malekkoekko616.com/

rcaz

Or if you really want to slum it, the Behringer VD-400 is a savage DM-3 clone for around €30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8dIXnLZwBg

And before people come on saying that Behringer pedals are just going to break;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QL-6eTHSHQ

Futureadvocate

- The ISP Decimator is brilliant.Accept no substitute for a noise gate.

- I would seriously consider this over the Carbon Copy for an analog delay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2yDjVsnGN8

I had a Carbon Copy and i find the effect wayyyy to subtle even at high mix settings.The modulation on the CC is subtle to point of it being useless...
Both pedals are around the same price.

- Have a look at the Sonic Research Turbo Tuner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPU8ckQ_D6M

It has true bypass,very acurate tuning and it's quite small too..

68 lost souls

El Pr0n wrote: »

Or if you really want to slum it, the Behringer VD-400 is a savage DM-3 clone for around €30.

I have 3 behringer pedals in my setup and I like them. Bought 2 of them from Doc J who replaced them with Boss versions and talking to him afterwards he prefered the behringer ones. I got the Acoustic simulator when they first came out and I love that. Yeah they are made of plaastic but just put them in a case and they should be fine, if they do get damaged they are cheap enough.

Sandvich

Futureadvocate wrote: »

- The ISP Decimator is brilliant.Accept no substitute for a noise gate.

- I would seriously consider this over the Carbon Copy for an analog delay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2yDjVsnGN8

I had a Carbon Copy and i find the effect wayyyy to subtle even at high mix settings.The modulation on the CC is subtle to point of it being useless...
Both pedals are around the same price.

- Have a look at the Sonic Research Turbo Tuner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPU8ckQ_D6M

It has true bypass,very acurate tuning and it's quite small too..

Is the 616 actually out yet?