Re: Switchers, blenders, etc.
Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 1:38 am
Shoe string budget: Boss LS-2
You can run in series or parallel (with a volume for each loop), A/B between loops, or use it as a master bypass of a single effects chain (A or B). You can’t reverse the loops though, and you can only choose one of these options at a time, changeable only by bending down to turn the knob. So, if you want two or more of these options at once, or you don’t want to have to bend over to select A/Bypass or B/Bypass, you may wanna look elsewhere, but that being said, they can be had for cheap on the used market if you’re patient, and there’s no reason you can’t have a whole board full of furious white & black routing power!
Deluxe Budget:
The Boss ES-5 or ES-8
It’s a MIDI programmable effects command center, with series/parallel, loop re-ordering, and the ability to change the parameters of you other gear via MIDI, and store all of thes options in bankable presets which you could switch on the fly, and if needed, at the touch of a footswitch, move from “preset” mode to “pedalboard” mode, allowing you to use the switcher to toggle individual loops on and off rather than entire chains.
...and, if I’m not mistaken, each footswitch can be setup as momentary or latching, meaning you could have a burst of fuzz or dollop of chorus for as long as you held down the switch.
Side note to this: while not an effects router, per se... the Line 6 Helix HX can do a smidgen of this with added bonus of routing signals chains with a crossover or... dun dun duuunnn! An envelope! You could play quietly for phasey Reverb and dig in for delayed filter freak outs.
If you just want stand alone routers like this, there are a few companies that do the crossover splitter, KMA Tyler is the one that sticks out to me the most. I don’t know of too many companies still making an envelope controlled router, but there was the Zvex Loopgate and it looks like the Spaceman Mission Control has some element of this.
But yeah, there’s a ton of stuff out there for every budget that can combine all the weird effects we have in new and beautiful ways! I only talked about the LS-2 AND ES-8 because I personally use them. Check out the Wounded Paw Blender pedals. Ohhh! and SaturnWorks. He seems to specialize in custom signal routing! If you can’t find exactly what you’re wanting, I bet he could custom make it.
And finally, if you’re brave enough... look into matrix mixers! While you tend to see them utilized more in the context of harsh noise, they can be made to “behave” with beautiful reseults. The VFE Klein Bottle is a pretty fun example that blended “frequency specific” routing with a matrix style sing along flow.
TL;DR
Plug into this thing to make that thing sound like another thing.
You can run in series or parallel (with a volume for each loop), A/B between loops, or use it as a master bypass of a single effects chain (A or B). You can’t reverse the loops though, and you can only choose one of these options at a time, changeable only by bending down to turn the knob. So, if you want two or more of these options at once, or you don’t want to have to bend over to select A/Bypass or B/Bypass, you may wanna look elsewhere, but that being said, they can be had for cheap on the used market if you’re patient, and there’s no reason you can’t have a whole board full of furious white & black routing power!
Deluxe Budget:
The Boss ES-5 or ES-8
It’s a MIDI programmable effects command center, with series/parallel, loop re-ordering, and the ability to change the parameters of you other gear via MIDI, and store all of thes options in bankable presets which you could switch on the fly, and if needed, at the touch of a footswitch, move from “preset” mode to “pedalboard” mode, allowing you to use the switcher to toggle individual loops on and off rather than entire chains.
...and, if I’m not mistaken, each footswitch can be setup as momentary or latching, meaning you could have a burst of fuzz or dollop of chorus for as long as you held down the switch.
Side note to this: while not an effects router, per se... the Line 6 Helix HX can do a smidgen of this with added bonus of routing signals chains with a crossover or... dun dun duuunnn! An envelope! You could play quietly for phasey Reverb and dig in for delayed filter freak outs.
If you just want stand alone routers like this, there are a few companies that do the crossover splitter, KMA Tyler is the one that sticks out to me the most. I don’t know of too many companies still making an envelope controlled router, but there was the Zvex Loopgate and it looks like the Spaceman Mission Control has some element of this.
But yeah, there’s a ton of stuff out there for every budget that can combine all the weird effects we have in new and beautiful ways! I only talked about the LS-2 AND ES-8 because I personally use them. Check out the Wounded Paw Blender pedals. Ohhh! and SaturnWorks. He seems to specialize in custom signal routing! If you can’t find exactly what you’re wanting, I bet he could custom make it.
And finally, if you’re brave enough... look into matrix mixers! While you tend to see them utilized more in the context of harsh noise, they can be made to “behave” with beautiful reseults. The VFE Klein Bottle is a pretty fun example that blended “frequency specific” routing with a matrix style sing along flow.
TL;DR
Plug into this thing to make that thing sound like another thing.
