Effects madness, come on you keyboard players

[Arpangel]

I had a drastic reorder yesterday, may as well, putting the place back together after the flood.
Instead of tying up all my FX sends with pedals, I decided to share them across my synths, it’s limiting in the way that you can’t use them on everything, but the pay off is that you can come up with some very unlikely, interesting, and totally unique combinations no one else is using.
For instance, my Yamaha MX61 already has some nice effects, but now it goes into a Boss SE70, followed by a Fairfield Shallow Water, followed by a Zoom CDR70, another chain I created was my Monotone Delay, into a Behringer Overdrive, into a TC FlashBack which I need to add more pedals to, I’m working on it.
It’s worth just experimenting, as I said, it’s a unique way of working, just like modular synths really.

[junkmale]

yeah, I'm totes with you on the FX front Arpangel, I lean pretty heavily on them for my productions.

not got too many outboard, mostly software.
Live has some very useful ones built-in, and I'm also a fan of Kilohearts (who release a good number for free, which is jolly decent of them) and Melda Production

[MOF]

I had a drastic reorder yesterday, may as well, putting the place back together after the flood………..
now it goes into a Boss SE70, followed by a Fairfield Shallow Water

That struck me as a strange juxtaposition.
Did you lose tapes in the flood, as mentioned in a post about backing up hard drives? https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... 12#p991712

[Arpangel]

I had a drastic reorder yesterday, may as well, putting the place back together after the flood………..
now it goes into a Boss SE70, followed by a Fairfield Shallow Water

That struck me as a strange juxtaposition.
Did you lose tapes in the flood, as mentioned in a post about backing up hard drives? https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... 12#p991712

????????????



This reorder has paid off, recorded three pieces last night, inspired by these new effects chains, absolutely amazing, got some great sounds that just suggested pieces, the shortcomings of one effect that I wouldn’t have used normally, are made interesting or tamed by other pedals, it’s great, how they all interact.

[MOF]

????????????

Maybe I should have said a funny juxtaposition, seeing ‘flood’ followed by ‘Shallow water’ amused me.
It must have been a coincidence that you’d had a flood and someone else mentioned a mate who’d had a flood causing damage to tapes.

[BillB]

I have connected my Behringer ‘Model D’ and 2600 combination (because, of course, the 2600 can mix in other signals) into a Mooer Reecho (which has some nice decaying echo tones) into a Nu-x Mod Force (which has two stereo modulators, so for example an auto pan followed by a stereo phaser) into a Behringer Reverb Machine RV600 stereo in/out pedal. So the original tone and echo get shifted around in stereo and phased, then smeared through reverb with controllable wet/dry mix. Just a few pedals pulled out of a box that seem a bit ordinary on their own, but really mangle the original tone in combination.

I agree, Tony, it’s great fun to mess with your synth tones and yes, it does have the feel of modular building blocks, but all very understandable and accessible.

[Bob Bickerton]

Yep effects pedals are a big part of my exploration. I have them patched to a mini jack patch bay (as mentioned sometime ago):



So it's dead easy re-patch various combinations.

Current in the rig are:

Soma Cosmos
Source Audio Collider
Source Audio Nemesis
EHX 720 Looper
Red Panda Tensor
Eventide Blackhole
UAD Teletronix (LA2A)

And thinking of a Vongon Paragraphs II ..........

Bob

[BillB]

Bob, it’s so great having you as part of the 24-hour global economy. SOS discussions through the day/night

A patchbay is a great way to go, complete flexibility. I even have a spare (rack) patchbay sitting around. The thing that puts me off is it means twice as many leads flying around… I just can’t go that extra step. Like Tony, I’m happy to hang a given set of FX off a given synth. As well as pedals, I have quite a few Korg NTS-1’s either on the end of synths or sometimes on FX sends. NTS = stereo in/out, each with mod/delay/reverb. There is full wet/dry mix on the delay and reverb, so good for FX sends, but the mod is a 50/50 wet/dry, so not so good on a standard FX send unless it is pre-fader send with the fader turned down. If anybody reading this doesn’t get why that’s an issue, it is because the dry synth signal comes into the mixer, is then sent to the FX and returned, probably with a slight processing delay, into the mixer, as part of the mod signal. The mixing of the original signal and the slightly delayed returned signal are likely to result in nasty phase cancellation and a degraded basic sound.
So boxes like the NTS tend to work best on the end of a synth.

I get the technical superiority of a patchbay-based solution, but doubling up the connection count has held me back thus far.

[The Elf]

Same approach here: lots of (mostly old) pedals all accessible through a patchbay. I can patch anything, in any combination, to any source in a few seconds. I've done this for decades.

A patchbay is one of the most creative tools you can have in a studio.

[Arpangel]

Same approach here: lots of (mostly old) pedals all accessible through a patchbay. I can patch anything, in any combination, to any source in a few seconds. I've done this for decades.

A patchbay is one of the most creative tools you can have in a studio.

I've tried more than once, to integrate patch bays into my studio, and failed.
I find they present too many options, and I spend ages exploring infinite combinations, now I like to work in more constrained ways, I like having things pre-patched, I love to leave all the variations to just twiddling the knobs on the pedals.
I've now become so bored with synth's, I'm doing anything to get away from them, and there stereotypical contributions, no matter what you do they all seem so cliched now, I'm rapidly going back to acoustic instruments, and anything, old organs, bits and pieces, pedals, drums, just anything to get away from that "I'm trying so hard to sound original" synth vibe, a synth is a synth, doesn't matter, it's as boring now as an electric guitar was to me before I discovered synth's, actually, that's a great way to describe how I'm feeling.

[The Elf]

Good for you. I prefer to have no constraints on my creativity. If I had to go re-plugging pedal cables, just to try a new combination, I simply wouldn't bother. I've discovered wonderful ideas just by trying odd fx chains on the hoof - all in a few seconds.

[Arpangel]

Good for you. I prefer to have no constraints on my creativity. If I had to go re-plugging pedal cables, just to try a new combination, I simply wouldn't bother. I've discovered wonderful ideas just by trying odd fx chains on the hoof - all in a few seconds.

I just prefer to have a lot of decisions made for me these days, or preset by me.
I don't edit my keyboards anymore, the only forced blank canvas is my modular.
In keeping with my modular I'm buying more pedals with knobs not screens, seems more fitting.
Now I'm in my 70's there's nothing I find interesting anymore about electronics, that's why I bought a violin, I'm getting more fun out of that putting it though pedals than anything right now.
My god, never thought I would get here, thinking of the joy I felt in 1975 carrying my VCS3 out of the store, my god.

[Bob Bickerton]

Here you go Tony, have a crack at one of these:

https://somasynths.com/dvina/

Bob

[Arpangel]

Here you go Tony, have a crack at one of these:

https://somasynths.com/dvina/

Bob

Bob, actually not bad, at all, and, it would solve this constant faffing around trying to mic up my violin.

[ManFromGlass]

I’ve been assembling a live rig with up to 6 now new generation pedals. I have been avoiding a patchbay for live but maybe I should reconsider it. Originally I was looking for a small mixer that had up to 6 sends. Good luck with that. So I built a few chains of pedals and am happy with those restrictions, considering the mind numbing number of patch variations I can make already. I also have the option to send up to 8 inputs to my pedal chains by using a mini mixer.
I usually have guitar, wavedrum, mic for flutes and digital trumpet and rca input from iphone sound apps always ready to go.

One trick I am using during the building of the “compositions” is that I can turn the Blend knob to only incoming on each pedal so I can bypass a pedal’s fx easily.

One frustration is that not having a dedicated multi track looper means it is harder to build interesting compositions. No probs getting gorgeous timbres and soundscapes but I also enjoy a few chord changes and melody now and then.

[The Elf]

I’ve been assembling a live rig with up to 6 now new generation pedals. I have been avoiding a patchbay for live but maybe I should reconsider it.

I wouldn't be dragging a patchbay along with a live rig. It's adding complexity and jeopardy you just don't need on a stage.

If you really feel the need for that kind of flexibility then there are pedal switching matrix devices that would probably be a better option.

I can't advise on models, as it's not something I've ever felt the need for. For live I'd just use a multi-FX pedal (I use Helix devices) and accept 'close enough'.

[ManFromGlass]

I searched but haven’t found stereo switching devices. One of those would be perfect.

[The Elf]

Yes, stereo might be a challenge. Either you may need to accept mono, or use two mono matrix connections in parallel - which will halve the number of available connections.

Again, for live, a multi-fx might be the pragmatic solution.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Originally I was looking for a small mixer that had up to 6 sends. Good luck with that.

A&H CQ18T. 18 inputs, 8 outputs (stereo main plus 6 Aux), very small footprint.

https://www.allen-heath.com/hardware/cq/cq-18t/

Depending on how many sources and what you want to do with your effects, the Boss ES-8 (or smaller ES-5) mighr work for you. It allows up to 8 fx pedals to be switched in/out of the signal path and reordered, including in parallel paths.

https://www.boss.info/us/products/es-8/

Or if you want to be able to route different sources to different FX units, then an audio router or matrix is a good solution. Lots of different brands available with different features, usually in multiples of 8 channels, eg. 8x8 in/out, or 16x16 or 32x32 etc. Routing paths can usually be stored and recalled, often over MIDI.

I use an old SSL X-Patch (16x16) to route my synths between different fx pedals and mixer inputs, for example.

[ManFromGlass]

Hugh - thanks! I knew of the Boss unit. The CQ 18-T looks interesting but the website or tech info doesn’t mention if the 6 Aux’s are mono or stereo, even if they are TRS. I assume mono. Time to do more research!

[Ben Asaro]

Here you go Tony, have a crack at one of these:

https://somasynths.com/dvina/

Bob

Holy crap, I want one of these!

[Arpangel]

Originally I was looking for a small mixer that had up to 6 sends. Good luck with that.

A&H CQ18T. 18 inputs, 8 outputs (stereo main plus 6 Aux), very small footprint.

https://www.allen-heath.com/hardware/cq/cq-18t/

Depending on how many sources and what you want to do with your effects, the Boss ES-8 (or smaller ES-5) mighr work for you. It allows up to 8 fx pedals to be switched in/out of the signal path and reordered, including in parallel paths.

https://www.boss.info/us/products/es-8/

Or if you want to be able to route different sources to different FX units, then an audio router or matrix is a good solution. Lots of different brands available with different features, usually in multiples of 8 channels, eg. 8x8 in/out, or 16x16 or 32x32 etc. Routing paths can usually be stored and recalled, often over MIDI.

I use an old SSL X-Patch (16x16) to route my synths between different fx pedals and mixer inputs, for example.

If that had truly 18 inputs, not a stereo, and subs inc the 8 outs, it’d be here.

[Hugh Robjohns]

If that had truly 18 inputs, not a stereo, and subs inc the 8 outs, it’d be here.

Er... it really does have 18 balanced inputs. 8 mic/line XLR, 8 mic/line combi XLR, and stereo line on TRS. (The CQ20 has 20 inputs: 16 mic/line and two stereo ins).

It doesn't have conventional audio subgroups, but does have configurable DCA grouping and mute groups. And six of the eight outputs can be used either as aux sends or audio groups.

It's an amazingly powerful beast with a very small footprint.

[resistorman]

If that had truly 18 inputs, not a stereo, and subs inc the 8 outs, it’d be here.

Er... it really does have 18 balanced inputs. 8 mic/line XLR, 8 mic/line combi XLR, and stereo line on TRS. (The CQ20 has 20 inputs: 16 mic/line and two stereo ins).

It doesn't have conventional audio subgroups, but does have configurable DCA grouping and mute groups. And six of the eight outputs can be used either as aux sends or audio groups.

It's an amazingly powerful beast with a very small footprint.

I specced a CQ20 upgrade for a venue where I work and liked it so much I bought one for myself. The sound is impeccable.

[Hugh Robjohns]

The CQ 18-T looks interesting but the website or tech info doesn’t mention if the 6 Aux’s are mono or stereo, even if they are TRS. I assume mono. Time to do more research!

The info is all there... The auxes are mono, balanced. Adjacent pairs of sends can be linked for stereo working if required.

I have the CQ20B and it's utterly brilliant as far as it goes!