esp_gaijin
10-16-2008, 02:14 PM
---- totally short tiny summation: ----
1.) it can do tremelo and advanced parameters of a trem that most "trems" cannot achieve.
2.) it can do choppy sounds, zipper sounds, i've heard sounds like this on songs by Tool and RATM.
3.) it can do arpeggiated-like sounds and rhythmic patterns that we've most often heard by synth players more than guitarists.
4.) this is not a box for the traditional "guitar guy", it's a box for doing more "experimental / atmospheric" sounds; again think Tool, RATM, and synth players.
-----the end-----
http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/5/9/5/557595.jpg
http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/5/9/4/557594.jpg
rest o' review, but still just a short one:
#'s 1 and 2 above are something i've been seeking for a number of years, but not seeking aggressively, just trying out various trems whenever;
then when listening to Tool i got more intersted in finding a device for this and had never heard what "effect pedal", if any existed, did this, so i wondered if it was just some rack effect or studio trick.
a year or something ago i saw Prince play SNL and he ended a song with a big chord slam that he let ring out into a very chopped trem or stutter, put the guitar down and walked off stage and let that sound trail off.
Probs i'd had trying to achieve a harsh square-wave chop-off with regular trems was once you turned the gain/distortion up it would destroy any hope for a square-wave, and instead just sloshed all the sound together into a lumpy-stream, like mashed potatoes with dumplings in 'em.
probably all along some synth maker like Moog had a device to do exactly what i wanted, but as i'd said i wasn't searching aggressively at all; it was just something i wanted to have in my arsenal someday to experiment with, or cover a Tool song properly.
So when i heard -of- this homeslice it sounded like it was the right device; and it is. cool!
Knobbage:
bank has 5 and pattern has 10 so that's 50 base settings/patterns to start with,
then you alter that with attack, duty, and tempo;
50 is a lot more than i'll need; but also a lot of them start to sound like basically the same thing to me,
so granted this is a very short review, but so far i kinda feel the unit is for this handful of basic sounds:
- standard tremelo
- advanced parameter tremelo, more choppy capability, can make helicopter sound
- very fast and also chopped trem, up to the speed of "zipper" sounds
- rhythmic patterns that sound like "arpeggiator" kinds of effects usually done by synths*
* being that it does those effects on guitar, it gives better organic control IMO than a synth keyboard; instead of a synth's usual note on/off effect, you can slowly bend a string up and down to get more organic and less robotic sounds. although that can be done on a synth's pitch wheel, a guitar string gives you better physical control imo. all this adds up to good haunting atmospheric background sounds or during a song's bridge, or what you might hear in a scifi or scary movie.
Attack - pretty basic, spin to the right for more extreme
Duty - 1 of 2 most important knobs to me, the graphic explains it easily, spun to left it can make the note so short it's hard to tell what pitch, and sounds more like a helicopter blade or something percussive.
Tempo - 2 of 2 most important knobs to me, can get speed going faster than most trems i've tried, thus can get "zipper" sound.
Effect Level / Direct Level - i ended up liking direct=0 and effect=max, jmo.
I didn't mess with stereo functions but on paper they seem like they'd be cool; i probably won't hook those up for live, but i might play with when recording.
The color of this thing is over the top gay. i will hide it in my rack unless Ozz comes over to jam.
-fini-
1.) it can do tremelo and advanced parameters of a trem that most "trems" cannot achieve.
2.) it can do choppy sounds, zipper sounds, i've heard sounds like this on songs by Tool and RATM.
3.) it can do arpeggiated-like sounds and rhythmic patterns that we've most often heard by synth players more than guitarists.
4.) this is not a box for the traditional "guitar guy", it's a box for doing more "experimental / atmospheric" sounds; again think Tool, RATM, and synth players.
-----the end-----
http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/5/9/5/557595.jpg
http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/5/9/4/557594.jpg
rest o' review, but still just a short one:
#'s 1 and 2 above are something i've been seeking for a number of years, but not seeking aggressively, just trying out various trems whenever;
then when listening to Tool i got more intersted in finding a device for this and had never heard what "effect pedal", if any existed, did this, so i wondered if it was just some rack effect or studio trick.
a year or something ago i saw Prince play SNL and he ended a song with a big chord slam that he let ring out into a very chopped trem or stutter, put the guitar down and walked off stage and let that sound trail off.
Probs i'd had trying to achieve a harsh square-wave chop-off with regular trems was once you turned the gain/distortion up it would destroy any hope for a square-wave, and instead just sloshed all the sound together into a lumpy-stream, like mashed potatoes with dumplings in 'em.
probably all along some synth maker like Moog had a device to do exactly what i wanted, but as i'd said i wasn't searching aggressively at all; it was just something i wanted to have in my arsenal someday to experiment with, or cover a Tool song properly.
So when i heard -of- this homeslice it sounded like it was the right device; and it is. cool!
Knobbage:
bank has 5 and pattern has 10 so that's 50 base settings/patterns to start with,
then you alter that with attack, duty, and tempo;
50 is a lot more than i'll need; but also a lot of them start to sound like basically the same thing to me,
so granted this is a very short review, but so far i kinda feel the unit is for this handful of basic sounds:
- standard tremelo
- advanced parameter tremelo, more choppy capability, can make helicopter sound
- very fast and also chopped trem, up to the speed of "zipper" sounds
- rhythmic patterns that sound like "arpeggiator" kinds of effects usually done by synths*
* being that it does those effects on guitar, it gives better organic control IMO than a synth keyboard; instead of a synth's usual note on/off effect, you can slowly bend a string up and down to get more organic and less robotic sounds. although that can be done on a synth's pitch wheel, a guitar string gives you better physical control imo. all this adds up to good haunting atmospheric background sounds or during a song's bridge, or what you might hear in a scifi or scary movie.
Attack - pretty basic, spin to the right for more extreme
Duty - 1 of 2 most important knobs to me, the graphic explains it easily, spun to left it can make the note so short it's hard to tell what pitch, and sounds more like a helicopter blade or something percussive.
Tempo - 2 of 2 most important knobs to me, can get speed going faster than most trems i've tried, thus can get "zipper" sound.
Effect Level / Direct Level - i ended up liking direct=0 and effect=max, jmo.
I didn't mess with stereo functions but on paper they seem like they'd be cool; i probably won't hook those up for live, but i might play with when recording.
The color of this thing is over the top gay. i will hide it in my rack unless Ozz comes over to jam.
-fini-