ilovefuzz.com

Hi guys, greetings from the bunker.

I'm looking to buy *one* modulation pedal which I intend to run more or less all the time. The application is to bring movement and life to a highly digital drone sound from a Freeze or similar without creating too much distraction. Rather than trying to describe the sound I'm after, I will list out the best options I've found so far. They are:

Supro Harmonic Trem
Catalinbread Pareidolia harmonic trem
Farm Fly Agaric dual phaser
MXR Phase99 dual phaser
Lovepedal Pickle univibe

The Fly Agaric is my favourite, but I'm not wedded to it (and they're not easy to come by in the UK). I'd like to hear if anything on my list is particularly good or bad. I'd *love* to hear of alternatives, especially if they're cheap/weird/underrated/all-analog and/or made by small makers who need my support.

Best, NP

I think a dual phaser is a good idea, because the overlapping LFO rates will sound less predictable than a single LFO cycle. The rate ramp switch on the Fly Aglaric looks fun.

You could get a more interesting univibe for the money than the Lovepedal. The TC Viscous Vibe sounds great imo. Don't know if you have a stereo drone setup but the stereo width is nice, and you get the univibe vibrato mode which is a delight.

Harmonic tremolo is a good idea too, if the kind of movement you're looking for is rhythmic and not just tonal/textural.

Don't have experience with those listed but have you checked out the OBNE Visitor? It has a primary modulation that can be set to Phaser/Trem/Chorus and a secondary parallel modulation that can be either trem or chorus. It'll probably be my next pedal purchase and it seems to fit what you are lookin for?

Empress Phaser is awesome and you can get them for pretty ok prices if you are patient. The ibanez phase modulator is a great one too and it's cheap too.

Empress phaser full wet 2 stages assymetrical sine is a killer sound tho, i could live having it on all the time

Ghost Hip wrote:Don't have experience with those listed but have you checked out the OBNE Visitor? It has a primary modulation that can be set to Phaser/Trem/Chorus and a secondary parallel modulation that can be either trem or chorus. It'll probably be my next pedal purchase and it seems to fit what you are lookin for?

Might be worth checking out a Dweller, too. Phase parallel with Delay. Very ambient with some movement. Probs sounds lit with drones. IDK.

Hi guys, many many thanks for helpful suggestions. Wouldn't have considered the Visitor or Dweller without this prompt. (I'm listening to a Visitor demo as I write.) Really interesting to go a bit outside my comfort zone for a while but I fear that I'm gonna stick my thumb in my mouth and buy an analog dual phaser, which simplifies my original question but curtails the discussion. I already like the Fly Agaric; two people have mentioned the Empress; there's also the MXR99. Anything else I should be looking at? Best, NP

Beside the dual options already mentioned, i think an harmonic tremolo with random (sine) option could be ideal, same with a virato or phaser with the same option, there are a few of those out there. With the Zoom MS-70cdr you can create a pretty decent patch of multiple of this effects and have all the movement you want. Other options are The Woozy, which has a random setting, Mid-Fi Random Phase&Vibrato (maybe too subtle?), Fairfield Shallow Water (but i never tried in person, some people think it's too subtle too - there's a dedicated thread).

Aha, thanks Dowi! That was me on the thread about the Fairfield and the Mid-Fi, which means I'm definitely in the ballpark. A few other people have mentioned the Woozy but I think it sounds horrid. I like the Mid-Fi and Fairfield's randomness but I don't think either of them would add enough interest to a Freeze-type drone to keep it listenable for minutes. I may play with the Zoom but I think I'd worry about losing a patch when I needed it. So, dual phaser it is, then... NP

niftyprose wrote:Aha, thanks Dowi! That was me on the thread about the Fairfield and the Mid-Fi, which means I'm definitely in the ballpark. A few other people have mentioned the Woozy but I think it sounds horrid. I like the Mid-Fi and Fairfield's randomness but I don't think either of them would add enough interest to a Freeze-type drone to keep it listenable for minutes. I may play with the Zoom but I think I'd worry about losing a patch when I needed it. So, dual phaser it is, then... NP

didn't notice it was you
I get what you say about the Woozy, it's quite lo-fi, if you don't like that it might not be for you. The Zoom is super useful and super cheap, and you can create and save the patches on your computer (personally create them only on PC because i hare menu diving on the pedal, i just do minor adjustments there), so it's quite hard to lose a patch and not to be able to recover it.
Maybe the Drolo Twin Peaks harmonic tremolo my be worth a check too, but it has only random square wave.

The Shallow Water works really nice with drones, I can confirm.

Another suggestion, I recently got a Verb O Trem, it's going on really well with the freeze. By default the reverb is a spring, but there is a dip switch inside which lets you change it to a beautiful plate.
https://robertkeeley.com/product/keeley ... cts-pedal/