Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

In a Moog Mood? Here's a forum for discussion of general Moog topics.
User avatar
Ollimac73
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:54 am
Location: Budapest, Hungary

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by Ollimac73 » Wed Mar 16, 2016 6:52 am

While saving for a Strymon combo Big Sky + Timeline....I am having great fun with a BEHRINGER ECHO MACHINE EM600 and the Valhalla plugins via Ableton....actually many time I am asking to myself if I truly need the Strymons (but I love them!)

:mrgreen:
"...A fatal attraction is holding me fast
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?.."

Spitfire
Posts: 142
Joined: Mon May 23, 2011 8:07 pm

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by Spitfire » Wed Mar 23, 2016 3:17 pm

@ollimac73

did you run synths into the Behringer? What is your view on the hardware (since we are focusing on pedal/stompboxes in this thread)?

Thanks! :mrgreen:
Minimoog Model D / Moog Little Phatty TE / DSI Prophet 08 / Elektron Digitone / Elektron Octatrack Mkii / Clavia Nord Wave / Nord Drum II / Clavia Nord Lead 3 / Roland TR-707 / Roland TB-03 / Korg MS-20 / Access Virus TI 2 Polar / Roland SH-101 /:mrgreen:

User avatar
Ollimac73
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:54 am
Location: Budapest, Hungary

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by Ollimac73 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:27 am

Spitfire wrote:@ollimac73

did you run synths into the Behringer? What is your view on the hardware (since we are focusing on pedal/stompboxes in this thread)?

Thanks! :mrgreen:
For what it costs...the Behringer Echo Space is a great pedal, a must have.
For a Live setups, I will wait the Strymons...but at home, to give a nice flavor to my Sub37, I love it.

For 30 something GBP you cannot go wrong :mrgreen:
"...A fatal attraction is holding me fast
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?.."

Spitfire
Posts: 142
Joined: Mon May 23, 2011 8:07 pm

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by Spitfire » Thu Mar 24, 2016 1:58 pm

Ollimac73 wrote:
Spitfire wrote:@ollimac73

did you run synths into the Behringer? What is your view on the hardware (since we are focusing on pedal/stompboxes in this thread)?

Thanks! :mrgreen:
For what it costs...the Behringer Echo Space is a great pedal, a must have.
For a Live setups, I will wait the Strymons...but at home, to give a nice flavor to my Sub37, I love it.

For 30 something GBP you cannot go wrong :mrgreen:

one more thing - how is the signal to noise ratio on it? do you feel that you have to do a lot of attenuation on the synth's end to not overdrive the pedal to the point that if you have good volume coming out of the 37 you'll get some nasty ratchet-sounding noise coming out of the pedal?
Minimoog Model D / Moog Little Phatty TE / DSI Prophet 08 / Elektron Digitone / Elektron Octatrack Mkii / Clavia Nord Wave / Nord Drum II / Clavia Nord Lead 3 / Roland TR-707 / Roland TB-03 / Korg MS-20 / Access Virus TI 2 Polar / Roland SH-101 /:mrgreen:

SlurmsMacKenzie
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2016 12:44 am

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by SlurmsMacKenzie » Tue Apr 12, 2016 12:58 am

Here are my experiences with some guitar pedals with various synths.

Retro-Sonic chorus clips past 1/4 volume level on all my synths. Such a drag because of signal to noise ratio issues downstream for recording and playing live but it sounds so good when its not clipping.

Effectivy Wonder Juno Chorus clips past 1/2 -2/3 volume level (white noise level depending on synth)

EHX Clone Theory clips past 1/2 volume.

EHX Poly Chorus clips past 1/4 volume.

EHX LPB 2Tube Stereo Tube Preamp Pedal reduces bass frequencies (really mid focused)

Catalinbread Belle Epoch reduces bass frequencies

Gurus Amps Echosex 2 was fabulous, wish it had multihead echoes

Mr. Black SuperMoon and Double Chorus clips past 1/4 volume

fanbrits
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 13, 2016 6:52 am

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by fanbrits » Fri May 13, 2016 6:57 am

MXR 70's Distortion
Boss RV-6
Pigtronix Echolution

Those are my favorit ones.

kurt2100
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2016 1:58 am

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by kurt2100 » Tue Sep 06, 2016 2:07 am

great topic! I already found some great stomp box pedals through this topic. :D

I'm still looking for a chorus stomp box pedal voor my voyager. Except the minifooger/moogerfooger, are there recommendations ?

User avatar
stiiiiiiive
Posts: 2534
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 2:58 pm
Contact:

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by stiiiiiiive » Tue Sep 06, 2016 11:00 am

The Boss CE-3 is an instant classic: BBD based, not wild at all. Will have your mono signal go stereo.

Another suggestion: if you’re planning to use a delay afterwards, or if you don’t want to increase your FX footprint too much, you can consider using a nice (BBD) delay that features modulation. Some good examples are EHX Deluxe Memory Man with or without tap tempo, EHX Deluxe memory Boy, Chase Bliss Audio Tonal Recall, Ibanez ES2 (did not like that one…), and some MF104 of course.

User avatar
thealien666
Posts: 2791
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:42 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by thealien666 » Tue Sep 06, 2016 1:51 pm

A footnote on BBD based delays, some of them don't work very well with synths that have a high harmonic content because at longer delay times, there might be some audible aliasing-type artifacts due to low clocking frequency. Some of the more expensive ones will have automatic integrated low-pass filtering on longer delay times, to remove such artifacts at the cost of darker repeats.

Modern digital delays don't suffer from that, and some of them emulate BBD analog behavior well enough. Strymon Brigadier comes to mind. But also Boss DD-7 (in analog mode).
Moog Minimoog D (1975)
DSI OB6
DSI Prophet REV2
Oberheim Matrix-6
Ensoniq SQ-80
Korg DW8000
Behringer DeepMind 12
Alesis Ion

Spitfire
Posts: 142
Joined: Mon May 23, 2011 8:07 pm

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by Spitfire » Sat Sep 10, 2016 9:58 pm

Hey y'all. Sorry for stepping away for so long without refreshing the list on page one. I'm getting to this now... great feedback everyone!

@kurt2100 - Glad to hear this post has helped. :mrgreen: It ain't easy getting effects, so getting feedback from users is key.
Minimoog Model D / Moog Little Phatty TE / DSI Prophet 08 / Elektron Digitone / Elektron Octatrack Mkii / Clavia Nord Wave / Nord Drum II / Clavia Nord Lead 3 / Roland TR-707 / Roland TB-03 / Korg MS-20 / Access Virus TI 2 Polar / Roland SH-101 /:mrgreen:

Spitfire
Posts: 142
Joined: Mon May 23, 2011 8:07 pm

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by Spitfire » Sat Sep 10, 2016 10:06 pm

SlurmsMacKenzie wrote:Here are my experiences with some guitar pedals with various synths.

Retro-Sonic chorus clips past 1/4 volume level on all my synths. Such a drag because of signal to noise ratio issues downstream for recording and playing live but it sounds so good when its not clipping.

Effectivy Wonder Juno Chorus clips past 1/2 -2/3 volume level (white noise level depending on synth)

EHX Clone Theory clips past 1/2 volume.

EHX Poly Chorus clips past 1/4 volume.

EHX LPB 2Tube Stereo Tube Preamp Pedal reduces bass frequencies (really mid focused)

Catalinbread Belle Epoch reduces bass frequencies

Gurus Amps Echosex 2 was fabulous, wish it had multihead echoes

Mr. Black SuperMoon and Double Chorus clips past 1/4 volume

You're the man, Slurms. This is exactly the kind of feedback (pun intended) I was looking for. Very helpful, since clipping/bad distortion is the main problem with these pedals when connected to synths, especially the EHX stuff from what I can tell. :mrgreen:
Minimoog Model D / Moog Little Phatty TE / DSI Prophet 08 / Elektron Digitone / Elektron Octatrack Mkii / Clavia Nord Wave / Nord Drum II / Clavia Nord Lead 3 / Roland TR-707 / Roland TB-03 / Korg MS-20 / Access Virus TI 2 Polar / Roland SH-101 /:mrgreen:

User avatar
weary
Posts: 64
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 6:18 am
Location: Russia, Penza

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by weary » Wed Sep 14, 2016 3:28 pm

Hi!
Can you recommend a good and inexpensive looper?
Voyager PE, VX-351, 2xCP-251, LittlePhatty SE II, MF-101, MF-102, MF-103, MF-104M, MF-105M, MF-107, MF-108M

User avatar
stiiiiiiive
Posts: 2534
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 2:58 pm
Contact:

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by stiiiiiiive » Wed Sep 14, 2016 4:00 pm

Well, there is a whole spectrum of loopers out there, from the one-track-no-undo-single-footswitch one to the multi-track-with-integrated-mixer one.
Amongst the cheapest are the TC Ditto, Xvive D3, EHX 360 and Mooer MicroLooper.
Just a bit higher you'll find the TC Ditto X2, EHX 720, Boss RC1 and RC3.

To get back to the general topic, I've recently tried an EHX TurnipGreens with a LP and it works well. The TG is a box with a HolyGrail Max and a Soul Food, the later being a clone of the Klon Centaur. You can invert the FX chain direction as well as use the FX loop to place other pedals inbetween. No particular advantage over using the two pedals it embeds except maybe the footprint just a tiny bit smaller and the fact you can invert the direction on a switch move.

I bought it to see whether it could replace a combination of ProCo RAT + EHX Cathedral in a pedal board I use. I could, as long as I play in mono.

On a side note, reverb into overdive can seem a weird choice but I actually like the overall dirty quality of the obtained effect. If some of you guys like grit and unusually grainy, middy, NINesque soundscapes, try this combination :)

Spitfire
Posts: 142
Joined: Mon May 23, 2011 8:07 pm

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by Spitfire » Sun Sep 25, 2016 4:37 pm

So, I tried having my SH-101 go into a new EHX Cathedral... big mistake. The impedance mismatch and my results after the level setting procedure was unsatisfactory. Far to audible noise, feedback... just an outright mess.

I returned it and got out of the idea of trying any EHX pedals with synths. The small clone was a similar disappointment. Instead, I went on ebay and bought for $200 a Lexicon MPX 1. Wow. Just. Wow. It's not a stompbox, so it won't be added to the list on page 1, but damn... what a great unit. To think: they actually went for over $1200 brand new, and mine is a 9.8/10 condition. It's like the previous owner never used it.

Anyway, I see that Stiiiiiiive may have had a positive experience with the Cathedral, so I won't dog it all the way. Me... no,the Cathedral just didn't get the job done at all. :mrgreen:
Minimoog Model D / Moog Little Phatty TE / DSI Prophet 08 / Elektron Digitone / Elektron Octatrack Mkii / Clavia Nord Wave / Nord Drum II / Clavia Nord Lead 3 / Roland TR-707 / Roland TB-03 / Korg MS-20 / Access Virus TI 2 Polar / Roland SH-101 /:mrgreen:

amrryprnkstr
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2016 3:45 pm

Re: Stomp Box Pedals that Work With Synths (Digital, Analog)

Post by amrryprnkstr » Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:19 am

I've been using the following with a moog voyager
Sansamp bass para driver in the mixer section sounds amazing
EHX poly chorus I have an old version and it works great I especially like the filter matrix I can manually get sweeps that way, and it does repeats similar to the memory man
Zvex lofi junky really great warble effect
EQD rainbow machine I love using this thing in small amounts
Greer amps peace maker got this recently and it sounds great on the synth I like to stack it with EHX germanium od

Post Reply