Rackmount Gear Thread

[codetocontra]

Picked up an EDP a few months ago at a good price thanks to InvisibleMan pointing it out. This thing is ultra rad. After using a DL4 off and on for the last decade I can say that it was the best pedal looper for me, but the EDP can do all of that and so much more. Insert, Replace, and loop windowing functions are new capabilities I haven't had access to before and further allowing soundscapes to be altered on a journey over time. What a wonderful instrument I have ignored due to the rack format. Now I am embracing it and planning a smallish rack system with the EDP, tape echo, preamp, and power amp.

Tell me more. Let's talk. What do you like?

[crochambeau]

I remember, in the early 1990s buying my first rack unit, a used Digitech DSP 128+.

Since I didn't want to just have the fucking thing lying there, I bought a cheap table top rack.

From that point forward, all I could see was something like eleven unused rack spaces...

I like rack gear, it's a nice format to keeping stuff off the floor. I have accrued a somewhat stupid amount of it though (mostly in the form of mid century industrial stuff not purpose built for sound work). Good thread!

[Mudfuzz]

I really like 90s tube bass and guitar preamps

[$harkToootth]

If I could go back and do it again, I would have listened to Rfurtkamp and gotten a Boss GL-100 and called it a day on dirt. Same with my Reverbs and Delays. I probably would have just combed through craigslist (I do this any way and I don't need/want anything. It's just habit / porn for me ) and picked up a few rack units.
Here is an example of one that is not terribly far from me... and inexpensive for (imo) what it does. https://newjersey.craigslist.org/msg/d/ ... 80360.html
If you don't want to click the link it's a Peavey DEP 3.2S Digital Sampling Processor for $80.


Spacelordmother had a couple half racks I nearly pulled the trigger on too. Lordgalvar is a fan of the Boss RSD-10 (I think?)

CORRECTION: RPS-10
SOURCE: It's Safe For Work

NSFW: show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxNOJPMq_HU

I'm a soy boy and a HUGE DAFT PUNK Fan so of course I have an Alesis 3036 compressor (I got it for a whopping $20 #robotrock).

My best friend is building up his studio and wants to do it with cheap rack mount gear. I fully support his notion. I may pick up the Peavey I posted above for him... and if he doesn't want it... just hoard it

[Gone Fission]

Mono or stereo rig?

Some of the most exciting rack stuff is less exciting in mono. Eventide’s Black Hole and Ultra-Tap don’t have the same magic in mono, nor do Roland Dimension chorus nor even plus and minus detuning. Not anti-mono judgment, just practicality.

If you’re going mono, pick stuff that is strong in mono. Most analog and digital delay lines of the pre-dsp era do brilliant things in mono. (Bonus points for models with a feedback loop insert. But if you’re using a mixer you may be able to self-help into the same capability.) The Digitech/IVL harmonizers do some good stereo patches, but if you just want dumb and intelligent pitch shifting and not the full stereo soundscaping wonder of an Eventide, they are great and affordable. Old graphic equalizers from before the constant bandwidth trend took root are excellent sonic manglers. Noise gates with key inputs are amazing, in combination with the right key signal, for trick tremolos.

For stereo, best bang for the buck if you’re patient is the Lexicon MPX-1. $100-$150 happens routinely. Don’t load on too many effects and it sounds better. It’s true magic trick is the ability to insert effects into the feedback loop of the delay internally.

Mixers are a serious topic for getting the most out of this stuff. A couple reasons: a lot of old digital stuff sounds great on the effects side but murders the dry pass through. And you can do really cool routings that are much more interesting than layering on effects in series. A lot of people ignore this and shouldn’t. Used Rane SM-82’s can be criminally cheap with the power supply. (Don’t buy Ranes that need an external supply without the supply—they are unique and there is no after market replacement I know of.)

[lordgalvar]

RSD-10 is great too and does the same trick with "keyboard" tracking (I just run really slow lfos instead of actually "musical tones"). The RSD is just awkward (to me) to sample/trigger compared to the DSD-2. Have both. Didn't like the reverb, but I never like reverb haha.

Also a fan of FB-01 despite it's shortcomings. Love my vermona ring mod, castle dual phaser III (thanks Chank!), and old Ibanez hd1500.

[Chankgeez]

[coupleonapkins]

Now that Dave Konopka has left Battles, I keep waiting to find at least a handful EDP Echoplex's on the market, but they're still pretty thin (almost bought yrs, codetocontra, before you came 2 yr senses (thankfully)).

There have been, however, many Yamaha SPX 90 II's over the past few months out there in the wilderness, still dirt cheap after all these years, but always snatched up before I can catch my breath. Maybe not ideal for everyone, but a great way to dive into what's possible.

FB-01 is a stone cold classic that I will recommend every time, and I have several $30 spares that probably need their internal battery swapped out before they disintegrate and/or button batteries are no longer in vogue (now is the hour).

TZ81z still haunts me, though, even if an easily editable soft synth version is about the cost of a physical unit in any state of disrepair.

But that only leads me closer to a Yamaha-chipped modular something (like the Akemie's Castle), which is another sort of rack problem entirely.....

[rfurtkamp]

If you don't go looking long and hard at a Lexicon Vortex, you will be a sorry, sorry panda.

You know all those weird pedals people go gaga over with DSP?

This was doing it 25 years ago. And more.

You will NOT be disappointed.

[MrNovember]

I've got a Boss DE200; I honestly don't use it that much, but I like it quite a bit. I would like to add a few more rack units to the collection still. It's currently sitting all alone in an Ikea Rast (I still can't believe they discontinued the Rast). I still really want an RML Electron Fuzz Custom Studio, Sherman Filterbank 2x2, Thermionic Culture Vulture, and Gamechanger Plasma Rack. Those would make for a tasty (and expensive) distortion rack I would love to pick up some of Eventide's harmonizers too.

I also want to collect all of the Boss 1/2 rack stuff. I especially love the looks of the RPS-10 and RDS-10. One day I will own those two at the very least.

Also, I made a similar thread earlier this year with some more rack info: viewtopic.php?f=149&t=61650

[rfurtkamp]

The DE-200 is good for the couple things it does - for that era's rack delays with knobs, the Digitech RDS stuff is far more fun. Unlike the Boss, the destructive modulation section etc isn't destructive to whatever's in the loop/delay line - so you can do absolutely batshit to sample&hold and come back to baseline.

[codetocontra]

Sorry for a similar thread, Mr November. I didn't see yours. Searching "rack gear" brings up a lot of different results, mostly modular.

Plasma Rack is super tempting to me despite the price tag. I am in the minority with a strong adoration for the Plasma Pedal. Rack unit has an input gain, mids knob, and the ability to apply the EQ to the dry signal, so I do wonder how it would handle working as a preamp device as well.

Earlier this summer I was able to borrow an Intersound IVP and reverb unit from a local buddy (Dacod77 as he is known on the interwebs). The IVP is quite rad and much more versatile than for being just the clang gang not-so-secret ingredient. A bit noisy though. Used it a little at one band practice for my own archiving of sounds. At most reminded me of a Boneshaker on steroids, just as wily to dial in but sounded good when I put in some effort. Ended up not spending so much time with the Reverb, had a lot of it's own EQ selection, and that was a whole lot of EQ overwhelming me. I should have snagged the IVP when he sold it, but oh well.

I originally wanted to have my basic needs in a small case, like 8U or 10U. Starting this thread might have been a bad idea.

[rfurtkamp]

If you're looking at older units, the Lexicon MPX-500/550s are worth it just for the plate and the PCM 60 algos.

[MrNovember]

Sorry for a similar thread, Mr November. I didn't see yours. Searching "rack gear" brings up a lot of different results, mostly modular.

No worries! I just wanted to link it so you could have all the info in your search

I originally wanted to have my basic needs in a small case, like 8U or 10U. Starting this thread might have been a bad idea.

I also felt this when I started looking into rack gear, but I pretty much abandoned my search since everything I wanted was well outside my budget

[codetocontra]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQA_Ml0oqgY

I will just leave this here. Love it.