Which chorus peds should I try?

[frigid midget]

It never sounded special to begin with, and it's not like I expected to outlive a shitty Mooer Micro pedlol

Wanna replace it with somesort of phase/chorus/vibe combo pedal, if such a thing exists in a compact size

Already have a Flanger on my board that I like, but that's currently my only source of modulation.
I used to LOVE my old BOSS CE2, and I know the new Waza version expands a little on that..But it still doesn't touch any phase/vibe territories...

[qersty]

The diamond chorus is the only one I can think of that does both phase and chorus (in the stereo mode). Maybe the flanger hoax but that is stax and stax of filters so character is void.

I dont think many pedals do all three without compromise in quality unless you get a good multi like an md500 or möbius. Still a phase 90 does a chorus in a pinch at faster speeds, an arion chorus does vibey stuff. Wont get killer versions in all three from a simple stomp.

CE2s are awesome and the waza version looks sick, i think its more of a CE1 even which is not a negative if you know what i mean. I like my moog and dr sci choruses but both are really pricey now

[Gone Fission]

Roger Mayer Vibe Unit is a bit leaner and less corpulent than a typical Uni-Vibe type pedal, along with having a useful vibrato mode and a great tremolo mode. It won’t give you classic Roland/Boss chorus, but maybe that’s not your bag. So demos may tell you if it would do the phase-y/chorus-y sounds you want. I have gotten DIY boards for this, but I can’t say if they’re still out there for cloning.

The Lovetone Doppelgänger, or more realistically a clone, will cover phase and vibrato and can cover some Uni-Vibe/rotary/chorus-y territory. I think there are still semi-active clone builders and I’ve seen PCBs for sale pretty often. Not the most whiz-bang phaser these days, but it still is a good-sounding design.

Both of these are 4-stage phasers. Typically a phaser can pass a bit better for a BBD chorus than vice versa. So if you need these sounds in one box, digital is not a bad way to go if you need something more specifically in either column. Boss MD-x00, Source Audio One series, or Zoom MS pedals are credible paths. Fancier options like the Zoia may do less conventional things if you really aren’t looking for the classic sounds.

[ognoy]

Small Clone

[Phosphene Audio]

Personally, I prefer detune to chorus. I bought a Digitech Luxe when they were blowing them out for $50 and it's great. I got similarly good results when I still had an Eventide Pitchfactor.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

More BOSS-sized than compact, but I've been seeing Nux Mod Cores going for cheap on Aliexpress lately. Has Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, Pan, Rotary, U-vibe and Vibrato with stereo outs. Decent effects, and the rotary is said by those in the know to be especially good.

[digi2t]

Without going to rack units, my top three (no particular order);
- Strymon Ola
- Digitech Nautila
- Ibanez RC-99

[coupleonapkins]

The Alexander Wavelength seems to do all of that

But also it's not as cheap as a Nux (except for, well, whoever is cloning Nux these days and selling those for $5 cheaper)

[qersty]

Without going to rack units, my top three (no particular order);
- Strymon Ola
- Digitech Nautila
- Ibanez RC-99

And going into rack units?

[Never]

I’m a huge fan of the Ibanez DCF10, I bought two. It has like six trimpots inside for compression, wobble, freq, runaway feedback for self-oscillation.. I bought two so I could keep one stock and mess with the other. And it does flange, but the chorus settings I think are more special. A lot of time I’ll just put max delay full wet full width to get a nicer juicier tone with some movement in stereo, but mostly I like the feedback cranked for some clangy noise — I’ve always wanted a Romferd but never got around to buying it, because I think it sounds too close to this to justify.

Pretty sure it’s the same circuit as the DML with different values

[frigid midget]

Thanks, I'll check all those options out. I wasn't too impressed with the Nautila I had for a while. It kinda confirmed my prejudice about digital combo/multi pedals...
Decent at everything, but seperate analog chorus and flanger pedals sounded much better to me. No deep slow flange, no lush warm wobbly chorus...

Which is why I'm reluctant to go with a Nux or Mooer type of combo pedal, but I'm not yet writing anything off.

[Dandolin]

I should say, I've never been that much of a chorus head (despite my first amp being a JC120), but when I had them, the Ibanez RC99 and DCF10 were both capable of surprising me with how much I did like them, and both are pretty different from each other. RC99 was good for that fast rotary sim thing, but I liked it for the thick slow-rate stuff - it was surprisingly warm in that setting, almost made me think of a phaser. The DCF has a lot of interesting quirks, a ton of range in delay time, a neat way of kinda ducking while you're playing and then blooming in when you hold a note/chord, and like many early digital devices, is nowhere near as "cold" sounding as you might think. Never knew about all the cool trims within but, bonussss

Sadly, prices on both have crept up over time, so I haven't gone back t9o them, bit they're both firmly in the "wish i hadn't sold" category.

[frigid midget]

Damn, those old Ibanez boxes sound GREAT. But yeah, not exactly thrift store prices, seems like the word is out :/

I also stumled onto something completely different. A phaser actually, instead of a chorus. The OBNE Dweller, pretty impressive. Kinda like when a PH-3 and a DD-3 had a baby.
So not a chorus, but still a good delicious way of adding modulation to my board and annying the shit out of mu drummer

Always been a sucker for that step phase thing. And it's a good excuse to justify adding yet another delay to my board. No top jacks though, not yet sure how I'll squeeze it on there.

Edit: back on topic, OBNE also makes a pretty sweet chorus apparantly! Visitor, anyone familiar with it?

[Dandolin]

haha, i was gonna mention the Dweller. I was looking at it last year but stopped myself from grabbing one because I didn't really hear much "phasiness" in the delay settings, though when I thought about it more, it made sense to me that I wouldn't. still seems a rad combo of phaser and multitap-sounding delay, even if it doesn't do both at once. (and if it does, slap me, lol)

[frigid midget]

I know this is the lamest reason to not buy a certain pedal...But I'm really starting to think that with the lack of top jacks on the Dweller, it'd come down to half and inch or so

Besides my current small board, I also have an unused empty big board with a case. Now I'm looking at spending good money on yet another board, a medium sized one? Just to have space for one or two more non-essential pedlols