Good Abstract Pedals

The Moog Forum Moog Music General Topics Forum
1

Hey, I am new. If anybody knows about weird guitar effect pedals it would be this forum. What are some cool effect pedals that can create some messed up noises. I already have the moogerfooger ring modulator.

I am not talking normal effects like delay and flanger. I am talking about synth type pedals that give you a lot of variety.

2

The Moogerfooger MuRF.

Nothing else like it has ever been made. Completely unique effect.

3

Z. Vex makes some great stuff. Especially the Fuzz Factory. There is the new Vexter series for the working musician, which immitates and copies the originals, but they are built and painted by machines.

http://www.musictoyz.com/guitar/pedals/zvex1.php

-Tyler2000-

4

MURF, Echoplex, Boss Phaser (sacriledge I know…but i get some great sounds out of it)…

:bulb:

5

Oh yeah, Frostwave makes some cool stuff. I’ve been meaning to get a Sonic Alienator and a Resonator for a long time. The Spacebeam might be right up your alley.

http://www.frostwave.com

6

For a time, Alesis made a line of pedals called ModFX. Two of the better ones were the PHILTRE and BITRMAN (yes, that’s the correct spelling of each).

The PHILTRE was a multimode fiilter offering LPF, HPF, BPF and Notch responses in either 2 pole or 8 pole mode. Fun to place this pedal in the Voyager’s Mix Out jack.

The BITRMAN was a mixed function module, offering compression, distortion, phasing and any one of 6 modulation effects in the same box. The modulation effects (called BITRNESS) include Comb filter, Decimator, Bit Reducer, FM, Ring Mod and Frequency Shift. The order of the compression, distortion, phasing and modulation effects could be changed, so you could phase a frequency-shifted compressed, distorted signal, or bit-reduce a distorted, phased signal that is compressed, for example. Each section had its own control, so if you didn’t want distortion, for example, you could turn it off.

The ModFX line didn’t sell well, so Alesis discontinued the product. Music stores blew them out for $30 each (MSRP was $129). You might find a few places that still have some stock left if interested. Both of these make interesting companions to the Voyager.

Another effect type that creates interesting sonic results is a vocoder. The ModFX line offered one called the MetaVox, but a vocoder function is sometimes included in effects sections of synths (the Roland V-Synth and Alesis Ion come to mind). Synths such as these allow you to process an input like the Voyager, your guitar, etc., through their FX sections, taking advantage of vocoding and any other effect they offer.

Lastly, a company called MetaSonix offers a line of pedals based on tubes that aren’t intended for musical applications. The results from these pedals are said to be wild and wooly - maybe just what you’re looking for.

Greg

7

4ms looks very cool as well as midfielectronics

8

I have a Philtre and its pretty cool. The main downfall is that you can’t have a filter without modulation or some sort. It also comes in a cheap plastic case, and doesn’t have a real foot switch (though it does have a foot switch jack, and a bypass button).

Basically, you get what you pay for. But, it’s an inexpensive way to add quite a few cool sounds to your aresenal.

You could also check out the Korg Kaoss Pad, but they aren’t very effective for guitar due to the controller method. However, I have been known to take off my shoes and play the kaoss pad with my feet while playing guitar or bass.

Electro Harmonix makes some great, odd guitar effects. Such pedals include: POG (polyphonic octave generator), Graphic Fuzz, Bass Balls, Q-tron, 16 second delay, micro-synth, and on and on. All thier stuff sounds great. Very warm and analog. They also make non-crazy with quite a bit of class. A very good company. They also offered “delux” versions of most of thier classics, which add a whole new realm of control.
http://www.ehx.com

Another good company is Snarling Dogs. In particular, the Mold Spore Wah - which features a variable ring mod. Also, the Bootzilla - a bass fuzz/wah designed for bass legend Bootsy Collins.
http://www.snarlingdogs.com

Of course you could always do the classic guitar-through-synth technique. Thats always fun.

-Tyler2000-

9

is the murf versatile in that it can go beyond the mechanical sound clips on the Moog site? Does it do random arpeggios?

10

I don’t own one, so I don’t have any first hand experience with it. The clips on the Moog site suck, here are some better ones courtesy of someone who posted here:

http://www.coraconnection.com/moog/kora-MuRF-extreme-filtering.mp3

http://www.coraconnection.com/moog/kora-MuRF-Filtery1.mp3

http://www.coraconnection.com/moog/kora-echo-MuRF.mp3

http://www.coraconnection.com/moog/kora-MuRF-gatting.mp3

http://www.coraconnection.com/moog/kora-MuRF-panning.mp3

http://www.coraconnection.com/moog/kora-MuRF-modulation2.mp3

http://www.coraconnection.com/moog/kora-MuRF-SlowSteped.mp3

http://www.coraconnection.com/moog/kora-MuRF-FilterRates.mp3

http://www.coraconnection.com/moog/kora-MuRF-modulation1.mp3

11

sounds good. I especially like the slow stepped one. I assume he is using a pedal for the modulation speed

12

hey deimos

you should definetely check out EFFECTOR 13 pedals ( www.effector13.com ), DEATH BY AUDIO also has some really great stompboxes! And catalin bread also ( www.catalinbread.com ). Oh don’t forget www.zebranalogic.com weird and cheap!!

Ps: MuRF has a random pattern

13

Thanks a lot man. Do you know if those clips were just the MURF and no other effects? Thanks again and anybody that commented thanks. Its Christmas time and im drooling for fun pedals.

14

The MuRF is amazing. Here’s part of a post I made to Squarewave a while ago:

My first digital synthesizer was a korg wavestation and while I loathed those ‘hold down a key and get the keyboard section of a cruise ship band’ patches, I loved patches which sequenced different textures. And this is basically how I use the MuRF, as a texture sequencer.

There are two basic effect types that I seem to use the most here. The first sounds much like the wavestation sounds I was talking about (although fully analogue and therefore far more engaging) and, at its most extreme, even sounds a bit like granular synthesis. The idea is to create these shifting bands of frequencies that play into and out of the sound. Here I usually use a pretty slow rate and feed it as rich a signal as possible and then fiddle around with the sliders, pattern and envelope controls until it is pulsating/shifting/burbling in the right way (envelope is probably the most crucial here). The second effect is as a formant sequencer. Here I use faster rates, busier patterns and the position of the sliders becomes the dominant factor. Fantastic for that band-pass vocodery/formanty type effect.

As OysterRock said, nothing else quite like it…

p.s. this was in the context of using it with the voyager. Using it with digital sounds can sound even stranger :slight_smile:

15

I hear there is a new bass murf…

16

I 2nd a vote for MID-FI ELECTRONICS. This guy DOES make the most extreme/messed up/cool pedals right now. Makes the Fuzz Factory(that I do like BTW) sound like a MXR Distortion+. The only place to go from here is the Modular Synth world if you want wild guitar/bass/whatever processing.

http://midfielectronics.com/


Check out the “Glitch Computer” and the “What?”

Also unlisted is the “Pitch Pirate” LFO modulated delay.

I LOVE ZVEX too.

17

obviously the moogerfoogers are the best.. my bro in law uses “Death by audio” pedals along with his MuRF, and thats why SLEEPYHEAD is the coolest band in Chico, Ca…

DBA+MF = lovely sonic experiences

18

who makes a really great octave pedal? SOmething without fuzz or something that you can control the amount of fuzz. I have a arp quartet that could really use some fattening

thanks

19

The Electro Harmonix Polyphonic Octave Generator (POG) is really amazing.
-Tyler2000-

20

DAMN! I was hoping you weren’t gonna say that. That one is pretty expensive. Are those danelectro pedals any good? they look a little cheap but there’s one called ChiliDog that’s an octave dealy.

thanks