Page 1 of 2

Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 5:38 pm
by PXR5
Greetings,

Currently running Little Phatty through a Korg KP3 to add delay and/or reverb. It sounds OK, but unfortunately OK isn't good enough (Story of my life :lol: ). Have read many many reviews on this forum and others, but i'm still unsure what to buy. I have contemplated getting the EHX Cathedral (£149 Sterling) but for a little more there's the Lexicon MX200.
I'd love the Eventide Space but my wife would have kittens if i spent that much.
Is there any units which i've over looked in a similar price bracket ?
If you own either would be :D to hear any feedback.

Mark.

PS Other effect units owned include: EHX MEMORYMAN - MF-101+CP-251 - SMALL STONE

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:09 am
by namahshaman
Perhaps not quite the quality of of the EHX, but definitely better than the Kaoss Pad, is the Boss (Roland) RE-20 (I own all 3 units). I am NO fan of Dream Theatres' music, but Jordan Rudess is certainly a synth badass, and he swears by the RE-20 (not sure if there's a sponsorship reason for that or not :wink:). But, I use it with my Phatty and Voyager all the time, it sounds great . . . much better than anything on the KP3. And I think it's quite a bit cheaper than the EHX Cathedral, plus it has great echoes too.

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:42 am
by vasago
Eh, man up and buy the Eventide Space. It's ridiculous. I would also buy the mf104. If its worth anything to you, if I could only have one effects unit, it would be the moog delay. Simple, sounds good, nuff said.

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:02 pm
by muksys
I use a cathedral. Very nice. I wanted the eventide, but the cost pushed me to something a bit cheaper. Eventually I'll get some eventides. Also, check out the Strymon BlueSky. I kinda wished I had picked that up instead of the Cathedral. The demos seem to show it has a much crisper, cleaner quality.

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 3:12 pm
by stiiiiiiive
I just love my Cathedral's character. If you're after something that tends to be more guitarish than Massive Atack revebs, without being necesarily muddy, the EHX is the one.
I like processing synths as guitars :)

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:29 pm
by David Smyth
I also use the Korg KP3 Kaoss Pad for reverbs & delays with my Phatty Poly Chain (and also use it for sampling/looping). One day I'll upgrade to dedicated stompboxes, but regarding the delay, I like that the KP3 has the BPM Tempo/Midi Sync. aswell as the standard Tap Tempo.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a nice delay with BPM Tempo/Midi Sync.? Do Analog Delays with this function exist?

In the meantime, the KP3 is a pretty useful and versatile unit.

Regards,
David Smyth
NZ

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:36 pm
by vasago
KP3 is a cool unit. It's def got that bang for buck thing going on. RCA adaptors are kind of annoying but thats the only drawback. The only thing I use it for really is to apply LFO's to drum loops. Sometimes I get good results, most of the time its garbage.

BTW polychained phatties=the nut high. I have done some cool stuff with just looping with them.

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:07 pm
by David Smyth
vasago wrote:BTW polychained phatties=the nut high.
They do sound amazing, but I've had quite a few technical problems, one which is still ongoing. The dials on my two SP's (but not my LP) move around by themselves, similar to the common grounding problem people have, but in my case, I use 3-pronged plugs everywhere and it still occurs when no audio/midi cables are plugged into the units (other audio devices in the chain are not causing the problem). I've tried all different types of power conditioning products including a professional (and expensive) Furman Voltage Regulator & Power Conditioner.

If I can fix this last problem, it will all be perfect.

Anyways enough of that.

David.

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 9:01 pm
by vasago
INteresting. I have never run into that issue. I only had the four of them hooked up via midi to a triton, and never had a single issue. Well except for having to change each dial on each phatty individually. But, that lead to having 4 different sounds on the same preset(mind you accross the four) and lead to some interesting interactions.

Still really strange to have them move on their own. I'd be all sorts of freaked out by it, or try and use it to some sort of musical advantage/quirk. Like it would be totally sick if the filter knob decided it wanted to turn about 15 degrees left and rigth for me at random times! :D

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 9:50 pm
by David Smyth
vasago wrote:INteresting. I have never run into that issue. I only had the four of them hooked up via midi to a triton, and never had a single issue. Well except for having to change each dial on each phatty individually. But, that lead to having 4 different sounds on the same preset(mind you accross the four) and lead to some interesting interactions.

Still really strange to have them move on their own. I'd be all sorts of freaked out by it, or try and use it to some sort of musical advantage/quirk. Like it would be totally sick if the filter knob decided it wanted to turn about 15 degrees left and rigth for me at random times! :D
Well I like to plan my parts (especially for recordings) aswell as jamming randomly, so random movements are a bit of a hassle especially for things like Osc. 2 Freq. if you're playing a phat saw bassline or something, and I can almost guarantee it will land on an unusable interval. If I want things like that I'd route voltages to control Filter Cutoff and such.

It's just not the way it's ment to work and it makes the whole system unstable.

Regards,
David Smyth
NZ

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 10:17 pm
by vasago
David Smyth wrote:
Well I like to plan my parts (especially for recordings) aswell as jamming randomly, so random movements are a bit of a hassle especially for things like Osc. 2 Freq. if you're playing a phat saw bassline or something, and I can almost guarantee it will land on an unusable interval. If I want things like that I'd route voltages to control Filter Cutoff and such.

It's just not the way it's ment to work and it makes the whole system unstable.

Regards,
David Smyth
NZ
I was caught up in wishful thinking, forgive me. But yeah, I can see hwo that would be a giant pain.

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:36 pm
by David Smyth
vasago wrote:I was caught up in wishful thinking, forgive me. But yeah, I can see hwo that would be a giant pain.
That's all good, I can see what you mean - it's possible it could randomly do something great! :wink:

David.

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:08 am
by Kenneth
David Smyth wrote:
vasago wrote:BTW polychained phatties=the nut high.
They do sound amazing, but I've had quite a few technical problems, one which is still ongoing. The dials on my two SP's (but not my LP) move around by themselves, similar to the common grounding problem people have, but in my case, I use 3-pronged plugs everywhere and it still occurs when no audio/midi cables are plugged into the units (other audio devices in the chain are not causing the problem). I've tried all different types of power conditioning products including a professional (and expensive) Furman Voltage Regulator & Power Conditioner.

If I can fix this last problem, it will all be perfect.

Anyways enough of that.

David.
I have had similar issues with sending MIDI notes to my Phatty and recording the audio out from it. MIDI is a great idea, but after nearly 30 years of its existence it should have been perfected. Goes to show how unreliable digital technology is. I think CV is by far a more efficient way of controlling things.

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:21 am
by stiiiiiiive
David Smyth wrote:One day I'll upgrade to dedicated stompboxes, but regarding the delay, I like that the KP3 has the BPM Tempo/Midi Sync. aswell as the standard Tap Tempo.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a nice delay with BPM Tempo/Midi Sync.? Do Analog Delays with this function exist?
Some analogue delays have tap tempo: EHX Deluxe Memory Man w/ Tap Tempo and its little brother the DMMWTT 550, JHS Pedals The Panther, Diamond FX Memory Lane II.
Both EHXs and The Panther have possibility for an external tap tempo connection, which allows MIDI sync using a MIDI-to-CV(gate) converter.

EDIT: oh and the Cathedral has a delay mode which delay time can be set using tap tempo. It is not analogue sounding but you can drown the repeats in some reverb for a less digital feel. Can be useful :)

Re: Reverb for Little Phatty

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 9:39 am
by vasago
Kenneth wrote: I think CV is by far a more efficient way of controlling things.
Agreed. Call me old fashioned, but this is my preferred way of controlling synths. For the most part, the price on a synth has to be phenomenal for me to buy one without CV control on it.