Yamaha Magicstomp reverse reverb and my continuing quest for My Bloody Valentine fabulousness

For years on gear forums, people have claimed that the algos from the Yamaha SPX90 can be found in the Magicstomp. This includes the much vaunted Early Reflections reverse reverb programs so beloved by shoegaze nerds like myself.

To get the best out of the MS, you need to use the software editor. It is somewhat hard to find since the Magicstomp website came down but I did find the stuff I wanted and got it working eventually (you have to set the Midi I/O in a specific way - Yamaha software used to be very quirky. The drivers for the 01X were completely hideous). Editing city, here I come...

So what did I discover? Well, the Magicstomp doesn't sound like the SPX90. The bypass is as bad as people say so throw it in a true bypass loop. The reverse is pretty good actually, not as clanky as the SPX90 and not as thick as the Midiverb II, but it isn't bad at all.

I created a quick demonstration below. First the bypassed sound then the reverse reverb on its own. I threw a Boss HM2 pedal into the MS then tightened everything up using Klanghelm's MJUC compressor.

Finally I added some pitch variations using MVibrato by Melda Productions. The step sequencer allows for some very erratic variations. As I play a modded Epi Dot and so don't have a JM/Jaguar type trem system, MVibrato is my pitchbender.

It's not a great demo and doesn't pretend to be. So there!

Hopefully over the weekend I will have an EHX Cathedral to experiment with. 

Digitech Supernatural ambient reverb pedal - yes and no. Obviously.

Good points:

-The plate, plate mod, and spring settings are really good. It will let you go to 100% wet unlike the Hardwire delay and reverb pedals. 

Bad points:

-The shimmer and variation presets do nothing for me (Valhalla's Shimmer plugin has ruined all shimmer effects for me). Doesn't sit well behind delay pedals. I like stuffing reverbs into delays and tried the Supernatural going into the Flight Time and a TC Nova Repeater. No real sonic happiness for me. 

Conclusion:

Dump overdrive and delay into this, you'll be happy and you can gaze at your shoes for hours. 

Free The Tone Flight Time digital delay pedal - it's pretty special.

If you want a big clean clear delay pedal that sounds big, this is the clear winner. Something like the Eventide Timefactor is a very good pedal in its own right but it is not as pristine as this one. The FT doesn't sound harsh or sterile. 

Good points:

-The sound. Loads of headroom. Easy to program and operate. The sound. Oh, the sound!

Bad points: 

-The modulation is good but it's not 'Deluxe Memory Man vibrato' modulation which is the golden temple for me. A fair whack of cash for a pedal with one mode really. 

Verdict: 

If you need a clean big sounding delay pedal, hit this softly and enjoy. 

Throwing a Boss HM2 into a Deluxe Memory Man and an Alesis Midiverb II...

Oh look!

Alesis Midiverb II reverse reverb programs - My Bloody Valentine, Bloom reverb, reverse reverb

I love the Alesis Midiverb II. It's noisy, it's old, and mine smells of cigarettes and concerts. 

I hate the Strymon reverbs and a lot of plugin reverbs. To me they put this sheen of reverb over the top that doesn't gel with the guitar sound at all. 

The Midiverb is different. The reverbs aren't technically that impressive but they sit with the guitar sound so damn well. There's this really solid feeling to the reverbs. I shall have to find myself a Quadraverb now... 

The Midiverb now gets praised by shoegazing tossers like me who want the My Bloody Valentine reverse reverb sound (program 43) and the Bloom reverbs (programs 45 and 49). 

Enough typing. Listen to what some of those reverse reverb programs sound like. 

Alesis Midiverb II program 43 - 200 msec reverse reverb - My Bloody Valentine

The Alesis Midiverb has a lot of fans out there in the electronic music and guitar bashing worlds. From Aphex Twin to My Bloody Valentine, it's graced some astoundingly creative records. 

So what is program 43? 

It's listed as a 200 millisecond reverse reverb. Really it's a load of delay taps that builds the sound up beaituflly as each tap gets louder. 

Now this video is one of the best out there. It shows how the delay taps work with the SMMH and it's the same concept with the Midiverb. 

The difference is that the Midiverb taps 'smear' together a lot more than the SMMH which, even with distortion over the top, still lets you hear the individual taps. The Midiverb flows more and you can hear that thick chewed up sound Kevin Shields referred to as sounding like it was melted. 

I've been trying to replicate this with plugins, namely Echoboy by Soundtoys and Ubermod by Valhalla DSP. I'll post up the results in the future. In the meantime here's a quick demo of program 43. Note it was a bit fiddly getting the levels right so the volume isn't always great. The Midiverb is not a quiet unit and so I did turn down the output a bit. 

Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal - great when it's fuzzy, terrifying when it's trebly.

There is little I can say on this in detail. So we will go with short points.

-It's horrible when the treble is pushed up
-It's godlike with the low end going up
-Get it right, the pedal sings. 
-Get it wrong, it urinates into your mouth.