“Motionless” Chorus Pedals

[Blood_mountain]

Yo! I have found that the only chorus I really dig is the “motionless” type, like the Boss Dimension-C and TC Electronic 3rd Dimension.
Are there any other awesome pedals out there that do this sound well?

[backwardsvoyager]

also a fan of this sound and my pick would 100% be the Iron Ether Polytope.

the filter and blend controls make it possible to not sound totally out-of-tune in an ensemble even with really extreme detuning, and the LFO can be dialed out completely if you want.

it's a shame they're so hard to get, now.

[Chankgeez]

Maybe a Rainbow Machine with the pitch knob around noon?

[Gone Fission]

Dimension chorus actually has motion but it isn’t obvious for a few reasons. First, there are two voices that are driven by the same LFO, but one gets an inverted version. When one is at peak upward shift, the other is at peak downward shift. And similarly, the pitch changes offset when they are just off pitch from the dry signal. The LFO is also a much cleaner wave form than in a CE-1 or 2, so this is done very evenly. There’s also some eq tricks going in, but the basic thing is that it sounds more like pulsing widening of the dry signal than a wobbly double added on.

(Early demos of the 3rd Dimension sounded broken to me, like something was really off that you need for that recipe to work. So I would be wary of that one.)

On a similar logic, even if not modulating, you can hide detune better if you balance + and - voices, and keeping them within 9 cents of the source also helps on subtlety. (The big letdown of the Digitech Luxe was that it only has one detune voice, so not the pick for this approach.) Not that one voice doesn’t give you some good sounds, they’re just going to be more apparent to the ear.

[backwardsvoyager]

(Early demos of the 3rd Dimension sounded broken to me, like something was really off that you need for that recipe to work. So I would be wary of that one.)

I've had one of these as well as an original DC-2, and the 3rd Dimension is definitely missing something in comparison.

Having said that I don't think the DC-2 is that worthwhile either because of the weirdly low input headroom. The Waza version seems more useful.

[John]

DUDE. This is my taste as well. The pedal that does it the best for me is a Mooer Pitch Box set to Detune. Trve bypass, plus you get all the other pitch shifting capabilities. Don't be fooled by the low price and uncool brand; it does exactly what you're looking for and very well.

[harpies]

.

[friendship]

+1 to everything Gone Fission said. If you're looking at the Pitchfork, I'd check out the Plus as it gives you two detune voices.

The Boss options are limited but very solid if you mostly want a subtler effect.
*PS-2: one voice, 0 cents to 1 octave (on a single continuous knob)
PS-3: two voices, 0-30 cents
PS-5: one voice, 5-30 cents
PS-6: two voices, 5-15 cents (or up to 20 cents if you use a single voice)
HR-2: two voices, fixed (unknown cent value)

I've been looking at the TC Mimiq for this type of sound actually. Not a lot of the full-sized one on the market right now though...


*thanks for catching the omission, chomandre!

[Jero]

+1 on the PS-6

[friendship]

+1 on the PS-6

can you get continuous detuning with the expression pedal, or is it stepped like on the knobby

[chromandre]

dont forget the original ps-2! It was a good chorus in manual mode, I think you can even toss in feedback for barberpole flanging

[John]

hate to sound like an old man but those Boss pedals are tone suckers

[Blood_mountain]

also a fan of this sound and my pick would 100% be the Iron Ether Polytope.

the filter and blend controls make it possible to not sound totally out-of-tune in an ensemble even with really extreme detuning, and the LFO can be dialed out completely if you want.

it's a shame they're so hard to get, now.

Sounds awesome. There is one on Reverb...for $950 Canadian. Yikes!

[Blood_mountain]

Maybe a Rainbow Machine with the pitch knob around noon?

I have never dug the Rainbow Machine. Even when it's not doing the acid-trip cascading rainbow thing I still can't get into it

[Blood_mountain]

(Early demos of the 3rd Dimension sounded broken to me, like something was really off that you need for that recipe to work. So I would be wary of that one.)

On a similar logic, even if not modulating, you can hide detune better if you balance + and - voices, and keeping them within 9 cents of the source also helps on subtlety. (The big letdown of the Digitech Luxe was that it only has one detune voice, so not the pick for this approach.) Not that one voice doesn’t give you some good sounds, they’re just going to be more apparent to the ear.

I picked up a 3rd Dimension cheap, and it's ok, but the sound quality is def not the greatest. I need to learn more about detune options.