Synth Peds

[Uncle Grandfather]

The EHX BMS is one of the main core sounds I use for my originals, I'd say it's on more than half of my songs. Between the different octaves, filter sweeps, and volume swells, you can do a shitload of different sounds with it. I fucking love it. I also have a BSY-600 for when I need a more modern digital-y synth sound. The PWM mode on the BSY can sound pretty beastly, I will often run that mode into the BMS and then run all of that into a chorus for a thick synth sound.

I'll admit I haven't tried it with a guitar though, I almost always use bass for that stuff. I've even run a synth into all of my synth pedals, and that sounds really cool, too.

Also forgot to mention but Tristan reminded me, the Copilot Orbit is fucking amazing at doing synth tones as well. I've found that Orbit into a detuner-style chorus is synth-as-fuck.

is that the long rectangular white one with knob along both side? that is an awesome blue meany

[bigchiefbc]

The EHX BMS is one of the main core sounds I use for my originals, I'd say it's on more than half of my songs. Between the different octaves, filter sweeps, and volume swells, you can do a shitload of different sounds with it. I fucking love it. I also have a BSY-600 for when I need a more modern digital-y synth sound. The PWM mode on the BSY can sound pretty beastly, I will often run that mode into the BMS and then run all of that into a chorus for a thick synth sound.

I'll admit I haven't tried it with a guitar though, I almost always use bass for that stuff. I've even run a synth into all of my synth pedals, and that sounds really cool, too.

Also forgot to mention but Tristan reminded me, the Copilot Orbit is fucking amazing at doing synth tones as well. I've found that Orbit into a detuner-style chorus is synth-as-fuck.

is that the long rectangular white one with knob along both side? that is an awesome blue meany

Mine looks like this:

[Casavettes]

damn you guys are all awesome!
i've got some thinking to do

right now i'm really looking at the bit commander, copilot mantis, catalinbread perseus, maybe the xerograph?

[goroth]

The Xero sounds poo on its own with a guitar. But put a fuzz in front of it... HOLY SHIT BALLS! I use Octasynth -> Xero a lot. It's unfortunately mixed pretty low, but you can hear it on https://soundcloud.com/centre-of-gravit ... ind#t=0:34

You've got some pretty different pedals and really different sounds there - you could probably get all four and not have any overlap. Bit Commander will give you multiple octaves at once, Copilot will be the thickest sound, perseus the glitchiest. I think the Octasynth tracks the best out of all of the octave synth pedals I've played, including the Second Voice stuff, and I'm a pretty tough customer as I only have a bridge pickup and no tone control. So if it tracks on that it'll track on anything. Bit Commander is pretty good too.

Man, they are all awesome pedz...

[Casavettes]

Man, they are all awesome pedz...

exactly! just gotta find that one that speaks sweet nothings into my eardrums.

[Tristan]

Just one little suggestion more...
Today I went pedal testing a bit in some shops and came across an MI Audio Pollyanna, holy sheballs!!!
Never really looked at it because I thought it was going to be a tame beasty.
Took it home with me right away, it's got that nasty octave down like the Mantis II but it tracks even better and it's way more powerful sounding than the Bit Commander on every accounts, at least ten times more powerful I'd say.
Oh yeah, and don't forget about the Iron Ether Subterranea, should be a great synth in a small box too!
Well, anyway, carry on...

[Casavettes]

Oh yeah, and don't forget about the Iron Ether Subterranea, should be a great synth in a small box too!
Well, anyway, carry on...

i was just checking that out!
so many options man

this is kind of left field and not so much a standard synth pedal but i think i'm going to pick up a dwarfcraft hax
and then save a lil bit more money and get a bit commander or that mi audio pollyanna because the demos i just listened to sound gnarly

[ChetMagongalo]

for synth tones I really like fuzz -> filter. Xerograph is the best at this setup I think but I didn't like it on it's own. I really like the Subdecay Prometheus, I think it's an amazing filter and it would be the best if it only had a volume knob (it can peak and be real loud if you're not careful). I haven't really tried a lot of other actual "synth" pedals. I think you can get a ton of flexibility out of using multiple pedals. Putting an octave before fuzz and filter is great too. I also like tremolo somewhere in there so you can rhythmically trigger the filter.

I think the bit commander sounds good but it's not very versatile. Aggie Octamizer is a very very good octave down.

TL;DR stack peds for your own synth toans

[Bartimaeus]

Iron Ether Subterranea is definitely worth a look.

But you can also try putting two things together. Get one octave fuzz type thing, and one filter. Any sort of bit crusher or heavy fuzz (either with octave) with an Iron Ether Xerograph Deluxe (using expression control) would be pretty killer.

[PanicProne]

So, speaking of nothin. After reading this thread the other day I plugged into my Line6 M9 and started jamming. I turned the octasynth waay up. It was cool.
After a while I got fed up with it so I switched it off only to notice it continuing in the background. So I switched on my synth strings preset instead and thought "hey, let's do some looping", so I hold the tap tempo button to turn on the looper and the pedal goes "blaaaaaargh!". So I switch back to "preset mode" again and turn off the synth strings, just to hear the octasynth still going in the background. I turn on the octasynth and turn the mix down, nothin really happens. So I hit the tap tempo button again to see if I for some reason had a loop going without remembering looping one in the first place. The pedal goes "pew" (you know, like those lasers in star wars). I hit it again, "pew!", again, "pew!", three more time "pew pew pew!", I've got a laser rifle!!! So I shoot jedi's for about an hour. After getting tired of it I turn my amp and pedal off. I knew it had to be a glitch, but was it a "standard" M9 glitch or just my unit? I tried the same trick (everything on the octasynth maxed) with my bassists M9 today at rehearsal but no laser guns, sadly, though I was happy not to have an octasynth going in the background during our 4 hour rehearsal/jam. Haven't tried my M9 again yet. End of story.

Anyone with similar experience?

[Casavettes]

i've actually noticed that with some settings on the octasynth it will continue to make those weird sounds when you're not playing
although i don't remember if it did it when the effect was off..

[louderthangod]

I really like the Mothership. When I'm doing guitar synth stuff I'm almost always playing slow enough to never come close enough to having tracking issues. I'm also not a fan of it running on 48V since I do t want wall-warts on my board. I don't have it on my board because of it. I've essentially built a board that acts like a giant modular synth. POG2, soon a Zvex Fat Fuzz Probe for filtered fuzz, superego, Arpanoid, rainbow machine, mooger ring modulator (so cool with an expression pedal on the frequency, Clusterflux for modulation, mooger delay and the synthyist piece of awesome pretending to be reverb the Eventide Space. I'm adding a compressor mainly for my cleans but maybe that'll help even things out a bit. I've never been happier with my board, especially when creating huge, layered sounds that go far beyond the guitar norm. I'd like to eventually add a H9 to get some pitchfactor tones as well as some reverb in front of fuzz tones. So many cool pedals nowadays.