I use a modular thingy plus some synths (EMAXs and stuff).
I’m loving BOSS and EH pedals (mainly distortion and fuzz).
Distortion AFTER reverb is a wonderful thing!
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So true. I most often patch my Analog Heat after the Oto Bam and it makes everything beautiful.
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Ithacus
254
A one off Multi-Fx is for sale on Dreadbox Reverb page.
Looks pretty tasty for synth processing (and price is ok considering what you get, and it’s uniqueness).
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for me, when i use any distortion/drive with synths, it’s almost always with some way to control the dry/wet mix.
that’s why i think a lot of people love the analog heat and oto boum (myself included), among the many other things those boxes do.
without using an external mixer, the first that come to mind for dedicated distortion pedals in the traditional sense with dry/wet blending are the walrus audio ages and eras. they differ slightly in that ages adds in the dry signal, while eras is an actual blend control.
i would love to find out about other interesting pedals which do this internally though! i can’t think of many beyond those two
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I picked up the Matrise this summer for my guitar pedal board & it’s just become central to everything I do. I no longer have to worry about if I should Bloop my Mood or vice versa. Love it.
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Funch
260
good idea worth trying.
Surf music uses a reverb before everything (after the guitar) to get that “drip” fx.
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Yes! it’s great. Use a big stereo reverb - then run each output through a different distortion pedal. Pan each pedal hard L + R for INSANITY.
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I love that you’re digging into it! Happy accidents galore with that thing. Experiment with turning feedback on, rerecording a processed loop to a new length of time, then continuing to process the “pressed” recording. I found that the midi sync sometimes goes haywire when messing with some of the timing settings. It’s also fun to turn down the time buffer to really short increments. Feedback + pitch up can get you pitch shifting sequencing delay stuff as well. 
Long record buffer AREC mode was my favorite with the middle ENV setting to get long swelling / fading repeats of chords at different pitches. Also short record buffers with extensive sequencing options can get you really cool glitchy effects.
Check out that tutorial I made a few posts up! That should get you comfortable jumping around between each of the loops. With the semiconductor shortage it looks like these won’t be in production for a long time again. Also feel free to send me any questions or clarifications on knobs, I think I still remember most of the manual. There are extensive midi controls as well for all of the functions if you’ve got a midi controller and need a weekend project. Not sure what accidental avenues would open up with a midi controller.
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Nice. I really want this pedal.
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Anyone have any experience with Darkglass pedals? Specifically for monophonic bass. Some of the demos sound lush, but have yet to find anything processing line level signals.
A friend or mine designed their Hyper Luminal compressor while he was working there (the company is in Helsinki like us), it’s a really clever bit of hybrid analog-digital kit that might work for monosynths as well, if you’re in market of a compressor. The said friend mentioned that he’d probably rather get an Empress Compressor or a Cali76 himself instead though, but that was apparently down to preference rather than anything else.
Their popular distortion-EQ-preamp things seem to be all the rage in the technical metal / djent community, I always associate them with a certain metal bass tone but that’s obviously not all they do. I’m not sure what is specifically unique or cool in their topology or voicing because I haven’t owned and used them, but at very least most of them (eg. Alpha Omega) have a blend (dry/wet mix) control. It might be fun for synths as well if you eg. want to keep the low end intact while getting some distortion or tone boosting on top.
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Well, I use a lot of pedals with my Korg Monologue. For distortion I use one from Boss, for reverb I use TC. Electronic Hall Of Fame 2, ecc. But mostly I work digitally, so all of my pedal setups are in ToneLib and Guitar Rig 6. Totally recomend to work in digital environment
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robint
269
I’m sitting here while having a blast with this stuff. The Arturia Keystep is connected with Norns Shield. Organelle M is connected with Norns Shield input. Norns Shield output goes to the TC Electronic Plethora X5 and from there on to Empress ZOIA. There are patch bays on the sides for additional connections. Everything is powered by a single Pedalboard Power Supply.
I´m still having some problems controlling Organelle and ZOIA with the Keystep. Glad MIDI exists, but it can be a bit hard to program.
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One neat thing about the DD-7 is that it can be controlled by CV for modular synth shenanigans in two ways - pulses can set the tempo but even more fun if you use a TRS cable and with the right setup you can modulate with an LFO (basically automating the expression pedal feature). The behavior at audio rates is not accurate or clean but also pretty cool.
Oh, the expression pedal input is not 1v/oct - but because the delay times can be as short as 1ms you can get some Karplus-Strong fun out of it with say a random source.
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rklem
271
I don’t know if this is the right place to ask, but I would like to move my CMX 1978 from my pedalboard to my synth desk – and I would like to place it on an angled little stand just for one pedal. A Google search didn’t help. Do you have any suggestions?
davey
272
For single pedals, these are cool!
The CMX is a bit bigger, so there is also these and these.
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rklem
273
Thanks, these look great, but they are built in the US and I’m in Berlin. They either don’t ship to Germany or shipping costs are higher than the price of the product – apart from sustainability concerns. Same goes for the few other options I found. Any suggestions in Europe anyone?
coool setup! all the mutable boxes!
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brick
276
so i kinda skimmed this thread bc wow is it long and i’m new here but i’ll add my two cents:
I’ve been getting a ton of mileage out of the Oceans 11 for just a general multi-algorithm reverb.
That said, two of my favorite pedals are actually the Wet Dreams chorus and The Void reverb from Deadbeat Sound. They stopped making the pedals a while ago, but they’re super inexpensive pedals that do their job really well and are pretty small to boot. You might have trouble finding one lately since they were so cheap though.
I’ll usually chain the Void’s reverb into the Oceans 11 shimmer, which has been my style for a bit. I should honestly try to grab an Astral Destiny though…
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Really thoughtful video from Chase Bliss on their new Habit pedal. Some of the techniques here demystify the workflow. The video is also a super calming sound collage worth looping.
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