Best Distortion/Fuzz For Synths?

[dallasisacowboy]

I'll take any and all recommendations. My bandmate is looking for a distortion/fuzz that will work well with his synths (He uses a DX7 as his main, if that helps). Thanks for your time!

[oscillateur]

My personal favorite for this is the smallsound/bigsound mini. It works very well with synths, and can go from completely clean to to nice overdrive to starved fuzz.

I have two, one for guitar/bass and one for synths.

[D Rock]

My personal favorite for this is the smallsound/bigsound mini. It works very well with synths, and can go from completely clean to to nice overdrive to starved fuzz.

I have two, one for guitar/bass and one for synths.

I've been holding off on buying one of these for some time now. You may of just convinced me.

[K2000]

Interested in this topic as well, except I mostly use drone boxes and simple oscillators. Most distortions don't add anything noticeable to the signal, not enough to devote board space to them. Adding an overdrive, Big Muff, Fuzz Face or Rat variant does absolutely nothing for me, actually a lot of effects boxes result in volume drop for me. (Why is that? I guess it's related to impedance?) I suppose a synth signal may be different. One of the few pedals that has made a hearable difference was the Great Destroyer, also the DOD Buzz Box. It seems like modulation can work (example: fast, chopping tremolo) to create the impression of texture. Frequency modulation seems to work in some cases. Any suggestions for rad effects that work on drone type signals?

[actual]

Data Corrupter works well for me, it's a great fuzz and it obviously adds some more synth parameters to play with. I've also had good use of the Way Huge Fat Sandwich. A lot of fuzzes and distortions can't really take line level signals, the signal just ends up being more compressed, but the Fat Sandwich takes it like a champ and the texture is nice with synths.
Like K2000 says, modulation, especially chorus and flange, can really help dirt shine, especially with a somewhat static sound and with the modulation pre-dirt.

[D.o.S.]

Yeah PLLs are great for this, that's what I'd recommend first. So are the RMA distortions I've tried. The problem with most drone signals and distortion is that you don't have a lot of dynamics to speak of, so you don't get the dame sort of crash and bang you're used to with a stringed instrument as there's no attack or decay.

The important thing, like actual said, is that they can deal with lone level sources.

[Doctor X]

I don't know about that particular synth but I tried a lot with drones, and the ones that really stand out are the Dr Scientist Elements and Frazz Dazzler - very large gain range, low/mid/high EQ, blend.
And the other one that always works well is the Hudson Broadcast.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

[youtube][/youtube]

[Sonaboy]

I would imagine using a fuzz formulated for guitar on a synth is a mistake, since there would be pretty bad loss of low frequencies.
Wouldn't a bass fuzz with a blend function be a better choice?

[actual]

It depends a lot on how hard you're hitting the front, if you turn the synths waaay down and let the fuzz's gain do the work, you get better results in terms of bass response, depending on the fuzz of course. But yeah, blend is good to have.

[doommeow]

My personal favorite for this is the smallsound/bigsound mini. It works very well with synths, and can go from completely clean to to nice overdrive to starved fuzz.

I have two, one for guitar/bass and one for synths.

I'll see your mini and raise you a Fuck.

Interested in this topic as well, except I mostly use drone boxes and simple oscillators. Most distortions don't add anything noticeable to the signal, not enough to devote board space to them. Adding an overdrive, Big Muff, Fuzz Face or Rat variant does absolutely nothing for me, actually a lot of effects boxes result in volume drop for me. (Why is that? I guess it's related to impedance?) I suppose a synth signal may be different. One of the few pedals that has made a hearable difference was the Great Destroyer, also the DOD Buzz Box. It seems like modulation can work (example: fast, chopping tremolo) to create the impression of texture. Frequency modulation seems to work in some cases. Any suggestions for rad effects that work on drone type signals?

Gristleizer is king. My locked in setting for the past year is like an inverse trem - it starts at (or above) unity gain and then raises rather than lowers volume. Big huge whale orgy throbs.

Goatkeeper is obv. Twin Stags is fun, esp w/ the CV integration - I'd say most of the Dwarfcraft stuff from the past 1-3 years probably fits the bill.

[gila_crisis]

Digitech Death Metal!!

[tremolo3]

Wouldn't a bass fuzz with a blend function be a better choice?

I will 2nd this and say ODB-3.

[Eivind August]

Wolf Computer.

[cantremember]

I use my pretty years on synth stuff a lot and I really like the results I get with it. The filter section rules and it can handle the low end pretty well. I also like the chase bliss condor on synth (it has a gain setting) because the eq and filter on it rule. The Dr scientist the elements is also pretty cool.