The dark side: rack effects

[clockwork green]

I've been thinking about inspiring new tones as well as my new found love for reverb for atmospheric tones.  I really love the TC Electronic Hall of Fame reverb but the Eventide Space is probably the most impressive reverb pedal out there.  Well, that got me thinking about the Eventide Eclipse rack unit and just maybe replacing all of my modulation pedals (which I don't really use much of).  There are some really amazing and unique sounds here.  The purest in me wants to fight it but then again there was nothing pure about what many of my musical idols were doing in the 60's and 70's...they were pushing boundaries for the sake of great sounds.  As of 1:37pm on October 9th I'm into the idea but I don't have $2000.  Who knows what I'll be thinking when I actually get that much money.

What are your thoughts on rack, digital and progress in the resistant to change world of guitar?

[bitter]

1

[clockwork green]

That's the nice thing about the Eventide...it can do really high quality basic effects. It's not just a one-trick pony of crazy effects but it can give a lush reverb that is nice a subtle as well as the over the top stuff. One thing I'd like to avoid is the Rage Against the Machine syndrome of letting the music and the guitars get overwhelmed with effects so that each song becomes some predictable hybrid of riffs and novelty noises that start to detract from the song.

I'm starting a new project and I see it as something along the lines of YOB and Electric Wizard in terms of big riffs but with more spaced out dynamics as well as really melodic 40 Watt Sun and Masters of Reality on some of their down tempo stuff. Maybe through a Mahavishnu Orchestra style solo (McLaughlin or Ponty) for good measure and I'm hoping some powerful and unique effects can inspire the process and product.

[bitter]

Ok, I feel you. YOB is one of those bands that balances effects really well. But that really comes down to Mike's songwriting skills. For experimentation, have you seen the EHX Ravish Sitar? I saw it when it came out and thought it was a one trick pony, but it's a little more than that. I think at the end of the day its primarily a sitar simulator but the external control ability and synth setting could be promising.

[jibberish]

stomp it or twist a dial.   if it serves the song, it is the correct thing to be using.

reverb IS nice. i use it too much. so what. heh.

delay is the one that gets really old really fast for me if used too much, but for the right sing, unbelievably cool.

then there is crap like alesis nano-compressor. looks like 2 packs of cigarettes. not a stomp box. f'd up rack size. w/e it is still an able little comp/lim. plus where in the chain it goes..after the mixer on mics, but could be in front on a guitar.

you dont have a choice on compressing mics. it has to be after the mixer input/preamp section. has to be rack[sic].

[Chovie D]

I wouldnt wanna haul any rack stuff to a gig but for studio stuff? whatever works for you.

Some of the old rack units have some really amazing sounds. Im not sure which models anymore but they can probably be craigs listed ebayed and pawn shopped up for not too much dough. Im thinking the early reverbs and delays mainly. Ibanez, Roland, Lexicon, Aelsis???
I literally dont know what im talking  aboot...juts kind a remember some other geeks talking aboot it

I have the Yamaha GEP50. It has some crazy reverbs, gated verbs, it also has a really nice harmonizer and some good chorus sounds.
It would be worht having around the studio for $50 or so...but I admit I never use it.

Eventide stuff is amazing I just cant justify spending the dough on it.
I have the Dgitech hardwore reverb pedal for my reverb pedal.
I also have a fender tube revrb unit that i use mainly, the pedal is for giggin.
It gets some very nice reverb sounds

In terms of the stigma of rack effects...fuck it, all the better...use something most people hate...they are so uncool , they are actually cool again!

[VOLVO)))]

I love Mike Matthews.

Also, great, I have to fucking buy that pedal

[MichaelZodiac]

That sounds like an awesome pedal. Those Raagini Synth boxes that Al Cisneros uses are cool as well.

Sunn, did you see that Fuzz documentary? Matthews tells some cool stories in that one.

[VOLVO)))]

That sounds like an awesome pedal. Those Raagini Synth boxes that Al Cisneros uses are cool as well.

Sunn, did you see that Fuzz documentary? Matthews tells some cool stories in that one.

Watched it multiple times, loved it.

That pedal seems way more controllable than that synth box. I'll buy one soon as I'm armed... hehehe.

[MichaelZodiac]

The synth box is probably more of a Indian drone box than a real pedal. Still, the retail prize of it is higher than the EHX Ravish so I get your point. I'm hoping someone will post a demo on bass with that pedal.

[liquidsmoke]

I don't think I'd ever have the need, I like little old school type pedals with knobs on the floor but ya gotta do whatever ya gotta do to get the tone you want.

[moose23]

Bit off topic but on teh mention of that Sitar pedal, I was checking out the Psychtar diy project. Sounds like a really useful odd sound not unlike the EHX pedal although it doesn't really sound that much like a sitar. Gonna make a a few for using in my band though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw4V_E1-Irs

[Chovie D]

sitar pedal is $239  


In have a 6 string banjo i slapped a sitar bridge on.

kinda like this

what Ive found personally about sitar sounds is that after about 5 minutes of monkeying around with the droning low strings and simply playing modally up and down one string doing all the trills and making it sound like a sitar...I get very bored with it. it has a VERY limited use in modern western music (we use to signal the phsychedlic aesthetic..its almost a joke as if you expect to see Austin POwers head pop up and say groovey baby when you hear one)In truth if you are ever going to use a sitar sound, you are going to use it on no more than one track per album and use it sparingly. These new modern EHX pedals are pretty amazing and theres some good sounds in them, but they all have these weird glitchy synthetic overtones to my ear..and they are all super expensive , and they all seem to be things you'd use MAYBE once in your recording career, and therefor not worth paying 3 times what your normal effects pedal that you will use nearly constantly ...unless of course you are like me and just like buying shit. unused POG2 on my shelf I am looking at you

[bitter]

That's the nature of a lot of effects. They just don't get used that much, which makes it hard to justify owning them. 

[Cursed71]

That's the nature of a lot of effects. They just don't get used that much, which makes it hard to justify owning them. 

Makes the expensive fuzz pedal I use everyday make more sense. Simple effect that never gets old to me.

[bitter]

Yeah, dirt for days. I'll by dirtboxes even if I don't need another one.

[jibberish]

That's the nature of a lot of effects. They just don't get used that much, which makes it hard to justify owning them. 

heh, you beat me to it "One Trick Pony" ie dust collector

[At_Giza]

I want to get one of those Ravish Sitars. I've found that I dislike the presets, though. One or two of them have merit to me, but most of them are just overwhelming. I'd forego them and shape the tones with the knobs, keeping the sympathetic notes the thing spits out to a minimum. I think they could create some good undertones for good riffage. Speaking of EHX stuff I think it'd be nice if there was a rackmounted system for a lot of their effects. Shove the Ravish in there, a Muff or two, whatever else that can be in there and work in a line with however many knobs that are practical. That'd be something I'd get (though I imagine it might just be cheaper to get the separate effects  ).

I'd also like to get one of those Raagini Tambura box gizmo things as well as the Riyaz Tablas box doodads. I think it'd be interesting to run the Raagini thing through different effects to see what droney things that could be had with it. Of course, I would like to just set it up in whatever key, let it drone, and set the Ravish to some setting that tickles my ear and noodle about.

Back to rackmounted effects, I imagine I would use them if I wanted to shove my guitar signal through a million different effects and see what comes out the other side. Not that I would want to lose my tone, because that's a trap a lot of people with rackmounted effects and millions of pedals on a pedalboard fall into. They get the Alex Lifeson syndrome, good guitarist, usually just fine without effects, total loss of tone. Don't want to do that.

While not a rackmounted effect, the ACC Reverbrato would be something I would use. I noodled on one that was in this random music shop in Missouri I was at a few years ago. Liked all the little things it could do. Hard as hell to find, though they do come up for sale on the net here and there.

[clockwork green]

This guy is running through some of the older presets and doing nothing special but I hear a long of things I could turn into songs especially from some of the stuff in the beginning:

[At_Giza]

If that thing wasn't two grand it might be worth it, I could see it only in a studio setting.

[matador_sound]

...fuzz documentary?.....

[Pundan]

...fuzz documentary?.....

Official site: http://www.fuzzthemovie.com/
You can watch most of it here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x79gto_fuzz-01_music, part 6 seems to be missing though.