I need pedal recommendations (reverb, tremolo, dirt, midi)
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:13 pm
I'm playing a Gibson SG Standard through a Fender Quad Reverb. My pedalboard currently contains (or will shortly contain, in the case of one or two of these) the following:
TC Electronic Polytune 2 Blacklight
Ernie Ball VPJR (modified to include a buffer)
Idiotbox Effects Han-Taun
Line 6 DL4 (modified to have real footswitches, include an external tap tempo jack, and include a footswitch to enter looper mode)
Strymon Timeline
Chase Bliss Audio Tonal Recall
Earthquaker Devices Afterneath
Montreal Assembly Count to Five L
Electro-Harmonix Freeze
TC Electronic Ditto X4
Selah Effects Quartz Timer V2
DB Instrument Amp 4E
Over the last year or so I've been carefully upgrading the offerings on my board and I still have a few holes in my sound.
REVERB: I like the Afterneath a lot, and want to keep it on my board, but I want a more conventional reverb as well. I'm more into hall than plate or spring-style reverbs. I've had my eye on an Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star, but I'd probably only use it in delay mode and I've probably maxed my allowable delay quota for a single pedalboard. I'm consistently tempted by the Strymon Big Sky too, but I think it probably has more features than I need. I'm much more likely to set-and-forget with a reverb pedal than I am with delay, and there's probably cheaper options than the Big Sky that still sound great.
TREMOLO: I was going to get a Chase Bliss Gravitas, and then I got enamored by the Walrus Audio Janus. Then I started thinking that a joystick probably wasn't a suitable replacement for tap tempo in a tremolo, and the fuzz side of the Janus doesn't excite me all that much without the tremolo integrated. I started looking around for a good tap tempo tremolo and came across the David Rolo Twin Peaks, which seems sweet but only has on-board tap tempo, and I'd much rather sync with the Quartz Timer so I don't have to mess with multiple tap tempos. So now I'm back to looking at the Gravitas, but open to other suggestions.
DIRT: Right now the only dirt on my board is the Han-Taun, a Klon-style overdrive which serves my purposes well, but I find myself often wanting to accent heavier parts with something bigger sounding. I want something crisp and full, with lots of sustain. I'm not really sure whether that means fuzz, more overdrive, or maybe even just compression, but I need something.
MIDI: I want to be getting the most out of my midi-capable pedals, especially if I end up getting a Gravitas and/or Big Sky, but I'm new to midi and don't really know where to start. I know I need to get an Empress Effects Midibox for the Chase Bliss pedal(s). And other than that I want something reasonably compact, but I want to be able to set presets that each send enough PCs (and possibly CCs, though they seem less important with all the in-pedal presets available) to set ALL my midi pedals simultaneously, and most of the midi controllers I've found with that capability are huge effects loop rigs. Is my best option an event processor? I've seen a lot of people using Disaster Area controllers, but is One Control any good? I'm probably going to need a few loops anyway, but I'd rather split those up over small innocuous pedals to be determined once I have my midi control established. As you might imagine, I'm running out of space.
Anyway, any thoughts or suggestions on any of this would be much appreciated. I feel like my board's getting close to where I want it.
TC Electronic Polytune 2 Blacklight
Ernie Ball VPJR (modified to include a buffer)
Idiotbox Effects Han-Taun
Line 6 DL4 (modified to have real footswitches, include an external tap tempo jack, and include a footswitch to enter looper mode)
Strymon Timeline
Chase Bliss Audio Tonal Recall
Earthquaker Devices Afterneath
Montreal Assembly Count to Five L
Electro-Harmonix Freeze
TC Electronic Ditto X4
Selah Effects Quartz Timer V2
DB Instrument Amp 4E
Over the last year or so I've been carefully upgrading the offerings on my board and I still have a few holes in my sound.
REVERB: I like the Afterneath a lot, and want to keep it on my board, but I want a more conventional reverb as well. I'm more into hall than plate or spring-style reverbs. I've had my eye on an Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star, but I'd probably only use it in delay mode and I've probably maxed my allowable delay quota for a single pedalboard. I'm consistently tempted by the Strymon Big Sky too, but I think it probably has more features than I need. I'm much more likely to set-and-forget with a reverb pedal than I am with delay, and there's probably cheaper options than the Big Sky that still sound great.
TREMOLO: I was going to get a Chase Bliss Gravitas, and then I got enamored by the Walrus Audio Janus. Then I started thinking that a joystick probably wasn't a suitable replacement for tap tempo in a tremolo, and the fuzz side of the Janus doesn't excite me all that much without the tremolo integrated. I started looking around for a good tap tempo tremolo and came across the David Rolo Twin Peaks, which seems sweet but only has on-board tap tempo, and I'd much rather sync with the Quartz Timer so I don't have to mess with multiple tap tempos. So now I'm back to looking at the Gravitas, but open to other suggestions.
DIRT: Right now the only dirt on my board is the Han-Taun, a Klon-style overdrive which serves my purposes well, but I find myself often wanting to accent heavier parts with something bigger sounding. I want something crisp and full, with lots of sustain. I'm not really sure whether that means fuzz, more overdrive, or maybe even just compression, but I need something.
MIDI: I want to be getting the most out of my midi-capable pedals, especially if I end up getting a Gravitas and/or Big Sky, but I'm new to midi and don't really know where to start. I know I need to get an Empress Effects Midibox for the Chase Bliss pedal(s). And other than that I want something reasonably compact, but I want to be able to set presets that each send enough PCs (and possibly CCs, though they seem less important with all the in-pedal presets available) to set ALL my midi pedals simultaneously, and most of the midi controllers I've found with that capability are huge effects loop rigs. Is my best option an event processor? I've seen a lot of people using Disaster Area controllers, but is One Control any good? I'm probably going to need a few loops anyway, but I'd rather split those up over small innocuous pedals to be determined once I have my midi control established. As you might imagine, I'm running out of space.
Anyway, any thoughts or suggestions on any of this would be much appreciated. I feel like my board's getting close to where I want it.
Low gain, high gian, brutal high gain, fuzzy gain, you name it...
