Digital Guitar Effects

There were some very nice fuzz pre-sets and it was easy to modify these a little. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to switch between say chorus and flange, nor could the assistant, and it wasn't clear how you 'build' an effect. Does this work OK? No doubt the instructions would reveal all.

The clean sounds didn't seem as impressive - is it possible to get a BIG clean stadium delay/reverb? Any thoughts chaki/damian?

Back on the subject of the Zoom boxes - does anyone know if you can switch them off mid-song - or do you have to set-up a 'no-effects' patch? Also, can you re-order the patches easily so that you ca get the ones you need for a given song next to each other to select quickly? It seems that Bob Snoom is correct - these boxes are bedroom only and no good for live action.

I'm coming across like a Zoom fanatic here but I'll add that I only use it for modulation stuff really, all my distortions and delays and reverbs are on other stomp boxes. I find it works better that way, more controlability.

Basically, Dr C - try as many as you can before you buy - there's a Digitech pedal which is similar and good too, has better reverbs than the Zoom for a start. And don't be forced into a decision by pushy people in shops, or on message boards for that matter. 8-)

Rob - Realistically can this be done mid-song? Your description of multi-foot toggling sounds a bit dodgy.

Yes, I thought the reverbs were crap on the 505, although I wasn't really able to crank the volume up in the shop as loud as I would have liked to check it out for sure.

I really need to check out more boxes, you're right. What I really need is a few good and different-from-each-other fuzztones/overdrives/distortions and some clean and dry and clean and reverby tones. Oh, and delay. My main objective is not to get the highest number of different effects, but to get something which sounds good and works on stage.

**And don't be forced into a decision by pushy people in shops**

Hah! That WON'T happen. I am world champ at dealing with *salesmen*!

As to pedal jumping... when I used the Zooms on stage I had about six FX patches set up close together and on my set list I would write which song required which patch, just so I always knew! 8-) The 'toggle' as I called it before isn't quite how it sounds. Basically you can either set the machine up to load the patch as you change to it - "Direct load" as it's called - or when you confirm changing it. Maybe a look through the manual would help make sense.

But try a few others, for about £150 you can get a Korg with about 4 patch pedals on it which can be changed so each pedal acts like an individual stomp box, which might be more useful to you. See what you think and let your ears (and feet) decide.

Guitarist sets effects pedals world record
Skunk Anansie's guitarist has set a new world record for playing with the largest number of effect pedals switched on at the same time.
Ace played 85 bars of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water on Brighton seafront for the official Guinness Book of Records attempt using 100 different types of pedals.
A video of the attempt will be sent to the Guinness Book of Records for verification.
The star was cheered on during the attempt by about 150 students of the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, where he is a tutor.
Judging the attempt Neville Marten, editor of Guitarist magazine, ruled after 85 bars that the notes could no longer be heard. Ace then mimicked countless other rock stars before him by smashing up the black Fender Strat he was playing and set it on fire.
He said the noise was terrible during the attempt, which was deliberately meant to be "super corny".
He said: "I played Smoke on the Water with all these pedals which is a bizarre idea and then smashed the guitar when I could not get the pedals to work and set it on fire."
Institute managing director Bruce Dickinson - no relation to the Iron Maiden singer - said the "horrendous" noise was like Concorde taking off.
Explaining the idea behind the attempt, he said: "Ace is known for being quite experimental with guitar sounds and one of the students happened to asked in class what would it sound like with hundreds of pedals plugged in. Ace said it wouldn't work and that led to discussion."
The smashed up guitar will be framed as a memento of the day, Mr Dickinson added.
Story filed: 15:10 Wednesday 4th June 2003

So f@ck effects boxes! Go for the stomp pedals!

I don't think that even *I* could list 100 different *types* of pedals.

At least from my experience from a Zoom bass effect box, the answer is no. Piece of crap.

im just pretty young and use it for light gigging...wat do u rekon?

If you do more than just Death Metal, I'd also look at the Digitech Distortion Factory (DF-7), which is about $100 and has multiple modeled settings.

Also - buy a power supply! Batteries+high gain distortion = inconsistency in sound and a small fortune spent on batteries.

also, behringer has a new line of pedals - suposedly boss and EH clones - due out quite soon. they will be DIRT cheap at around $30 a pop and probably decent.

xpost: shine headlghts on me also OTM. I see more repairs on Behringer at the shop than any other brand, and most of the time it isn't repairable/worth repairing.

You're entitled to your opinion but Behringer makes some pretty high quality gear for pretty low prices. If you have the cash to afford better gear, good for you.

If a Behringer breaks, you can buy a new one and it'll still be cheaper than whatever the other guys are charging you.

I think you are actually sort of proving my (and others) points here. Prior to the Behringer knockoffs, the Boss pedals were apparently worth the extra money to many people, given how many were sold. Why does a blatant copy that will prove (in the long run) inferior change the value of the original? Because it is inherently UNFAIR competition, and for the most part, people don't know any better.

Also, if (and I would argue, when) your Behringer breaks during the middle of your gig, who gives a shit how cheap it is to replace? Not your audience, not your bandmates, and not the club owner...unless you're planning on bringing a spare to your shows, I'd buy somethig that has a proven track record.

I have a few Behringer rack units in my studio, and while they do the job, if you're careful setting them up, they are not a match for "proper" studio gear. I bought an aphex expressor compressor off ebay for 90 quid, and it totally pwnz my behringer composer in just about every way.

By the way, I know it might seem like I'm pimping for Boss on this thread, but truth be told, my store doesn't even sell Boss stuff. I just think that they are well-built pedals, whether I sell them or not. Just to clarify...

also, it is the inherent cheapness of quality/durability of behringer pedals that i think will keep these new pedals in a separate market from boss pedals. people who have the cash will still want to buy boss, no one's going to be fooled. it may drive prices down a little, but boss's are overpriced anyway, innovation or not.

I'm really not a Boss hater. Most of my pedals are old Boss units and I love them. However, 3 of them were given to me. I'm a student so cash is tight. If Behringer can make knockoffs that I can afford, I'd rather have a few of those than one Boss unit. My Behringer mixer has worked great for about a year and if it broke in a year from now... I'd probably buy another one. If I could afford it though, I'd get a Mackie. It's the same stance I take with the pedals. Obviously I can't imagine that Behringer is going to make good replicas of any of the more high-end Boss single effect units (let's say Pitch Shift, which Boss's isn't that good to begin with), but if they made a cheap Temolo (Boss's is an absolute ripoff for the few features it has) or Overdrive (love my Boss OD), I'd probably consider buying one if they sold it for pocket change. I'm not saying that Behringer is great quality gear. It's not. I'm saying it's the affordable, relatively quality alternative for people who don't have or don't want to shell out the cash.

my roomate has the same one, and a much nicer mackie, and the mackie is the one that's always giving him trouble and needing to be repaired.

as far as cheap trems, the best one for under $100 i've found is the danelectro tuna melt. damn good.

Also I can vouch for the Tuna Melt.

Yeah, that Tuna Melt is the one I've been looking at.

What is the best drum machine for someone who knows music but not drum programming? Is there an easy box out there somewhere that easily allows you to program fills and weird changes that also has the drums stereo-separated so that an elaborate tom fill will go all the way around your head?

It does have a "drum machine," but its beats are not good for much other than timekeeping. Often what I'll do is make demo recordings with it--that way the rhythm-guitar guide track and the timekeeping drum pattern are on one track; it gets deleted once I've added the final guitars and real drums.

Stoner, I generally play the drums myself, but I do sometimes use a Boss DR-3. It's inexpensive and fairly capable--it will do fills and changes and basslines, but there are some quirks (as on most equipment).

Two things - reed, good news for you...pushing your mixer to the point where it hits the peak leds isn't at all detrimental to it's lifespan. Think of them as warning lights to avoid clipping distortion. You can clip your channels to your hearts desire (outside of lunacy like sending speaker level into your inputs) without risking any deterioration of your mixer. Also, most peak leds are set to show that you are approaching clipping, not there already (generally 6 dB's before clip). In fact, some inputs (kick drum in particular) SHOULD hit your clip leds. Worry only if they are on constantly.

Aaron OTM about Electro-Harmonix being great and innovative. Actually, my ire re:Behringer's new pedals was mostly due to their plans to copy some of the EH bread-and-butter pedals (Big Muff/Small Stone/etc.), which could really hurt EH in the long run...and they're nice people who deserve better.

Cheap drum machines that are easy to program: Zoom MRT-3B ($99.00) Zoom RT-223 ($179.00). Dumb enough that even I can program them...

I mean, one never seems to hear, "Gee, it sure is tedious to get someone to play the guitar, and record it and stuff. Surely there's a machine that can do the guitar-playing for us?"

I just picked up an Akai MPC1000, mostly for the reasons Stoner Guy mentioned above. It's great for loading samples. Now I'm just deciding what drum samples to pick up.

Not to be all rockist, but I have yet to hear a digital distortion that didn't make my ears hurt. I got a Line 6 distortion modeller on the cheap, and traded it within two months. I spent HOURS trying to get a sound out of that thing that I liked.

For some odd reason, I'm way more partial to the distortions you can get from VSTs. Not a big fan of Guitar Rig and Amplitube, but some of the tube warmer effects and Izotope Trash make phenomenal sounds.

I've worked with the 8-channel and the 24-channel Behringers, and also with all kinds of Mackies. the Behringers sound okay when you're not pushing them, but if you come anywhere close to clipping, the sound shatters completely: screeching static shatters your highs and the low end cuts out. ruins anything.

Mackie's mixers actually sound pretty good when you max them out; quality components = good angry harmonic distortion. They're a respectable company too, and very sharp: the first people to design mixers as portable instruments for the stage.

if you're just doing studio work on a budget, you can probably get by with a Behringer, simply recording quiet & re-recording the occasional scorched take. but if you need a mixer for live work, where it's practically inevitable that _someone_ is going to occasionally peak out, you can't afford to use a Behringer.