Everyone knows what boutique pedals
played by people with talent through amps which cost loads of money sound like. PGS Andy, Mike Hermans, Brett Kingsman, Pete Thorn, the stoner from Gearwire...
Then there's me.
Every demo is the same. An Epiphone Dot
loaded with a Bare Knuckle Stormy Monday bridge pickup is plugged into a pedal via Planet Waves cables. That pedal is connected to a
recording PC via the DI input of an SPL Crimson audio interface going into Reaper. No other plugins or
pedals are used. I then play whatever random shit comes into my head
and you get to hear the pedal as it is, uncoloured by amps,
microphones, or salty talent explosions. For the anal, I use Jim Dunlop USA Nylon .50 or .60mm picks, Rotosound 10 strings, and change my strings about once a year because I hate new strings. I'll also talk about amps, guitars, and sounds in general.
EDIT: THE PATCH IS NOW HERE AS SOMEONE VERY NICE UPLOADED IT:
https://line6.com/customtone/tone/6187067/
Let's get into the Helix then and go for one of the great indie schmindie rack patches ever: the Yamaha FX500 Soft Focus patch. You'll find it as Program 40 on the FX500. I've done a video of this previously when trying to recreate it with plugins and did a fairly alright job considering my dismal lack of talent.
The Soft Focus patch is made up from these elements.
Most of it is pretty self explanatory. The compressor and equalizer settings are easy to set up. Choose a suitable reverb, set the times, and listen to the video above to the reverb sound on its own to get your reverb to how you want it. The left-right delay is also fairly easy. The stumbling block is the Symphonic chorus setting. It isn't a regular chorus, it has a sort of phased warble to it which adds some movement to the overall sound. The above video has the Symphonic chorus on its own. I don't have an FX500 now but I do have an SPX90 so that was used to get a good idea of what settings will be needed. The sound of the SYmphonic chorus on the SPX90 will be found on the overall video below. (there are physical differences between the units. SPX90 is noisier, less clarity, FX500 overall sounds brighter. If you go through the various Yamaha rack units, every Symphonic chorus setting will sound a little bit different) Let's get into the Helix then. First of all, use stereo elements. The overall chain is like this.
Compressor--> Reverb --> parametric EQ --> flanger modulation --> delay --> chorus I won't go through all the settings in detail as you can download the patch I've made and see what's there. I'll talk a bit about them though and my reasons for doing what I did. Compressor: you need some lengthy release time in there. It gives the whole thing some ooompf. EQ after reverb: the FX500 is a bright unit, much brighter than the SPX90. Adding in EQ at the top end gives it a more FX500 sheen. Flanger modulation: just enough to get the movement you have in the Symphonic chorus on the FX500. Delay: left-right delays set as per the FX500 settings above. Very plain and simple delay needed here. Chorus: I used the Plastichorus model based on the modded Arion SCH-Z.
It's only now that the awareness of just how long it has been since the last demo was posted. Blame a combination of work, romance, more work, moving house, and work for that. In the meantime Windows Movie Maker is no more, Star Ward died for me with The Last Jedi (and don't get me started on Solo), and Avengers went up a level.
So first up on the demo front is the Deluxe Memory Man XO. As usual, a cheap Ebay purchase that was totally powered by "Wow, never tried one of those, let's do it". After owning a double figure number of big box DMMs, it's time to give the XO the once over.
Basic delay sound
A draw here. It's good. XO does seem to feed back a lot easier. The big box repeats degrade a bit more, the XO holds together better. Choose whichever suits you best.
Noise
A hard one as every big box DMM has a different noise level in my experience. There is some noise with the XO but it's not bad at all.
Modulation
This is the big area where the big box wipes the floor with the XO. It's not bad but it's so average compared to the wonderful modulation on the big box.
Sound blending
This is how I perceive how well the dry uneffected sound blends with the effected (delay) sound. Big box wins and it wins in the same way something like the Alesis Midiverb wins out. Older stuff just seems to knit these sounds together so much better than the modern ones. My usual gripe about Strymon pedals is how you get the dry sound and the effected sound seems like a sheen plastered over the top. With the big box DMM and Midiverb, they feel much closer together, smeared in a good way.
General play
The XO was good to use. I could get my usual Boards of Canada warbly overwet wiffle going. Did it hit the heights of the big box DMM? No and really that's down to the inferior modulation.
Doctor, I am a Loveless tragic. The earlier MBV stuff doesn't do that much for me and the new album is good but not astoundingly good. It's all about Loveless and that swooping in and out guitar sound.
I've had countless rack units to compare reverse gate sounds. The GEP50 is a little duller in tone than the SPX90. The FX500 is a little brighter and clearer. The Midiverb II reverse is really good in its own right but I don't think it's on Loveless that much. The SPX90 is where it's at.
So what if you're someone like me who owns no amps, a few pedals, and relies on his computer for his noisemaking?
Answer: Impulse Response files.
I won't explain convolution reverb and IR files here as places like Sound on Sound do it far better than I could ever do. I've been working more with IR reverb since upgrading to Reverberate 2 from Liquidsonics. One morning at Gearslutz, I chanced upon a chap selling some IR files he'd done of the Yamaha SPX90.
Surefyre's website:
https://impulse.surefyre.com/
The first thing to do was to consider the effects chain I'd need. A normal chain would be something like this:
Guitar with the trem arm being abused for pitchbend effects --> guitars pedals for overdrive and distortion --> SPX90 set to Reverse Gate --> amp --> recording device
I haven't got a Jaguar or Jazzmaster with a trem arm so I'd need some kind of pitch modulation going on. The effects board right now has a Thundertomate LM308N Rat clone and a Skreddy Lunar Module clone on there. The SPX90 would be satisfied by the Surefyre impulses and an amp... not necessary as I'll record it through Reaper.
SPX90 settings and replicating this in Reverberate 2
The SPX90 settings Shields is meant to have used are like this:
Reverse Gate. Output and balance to 100%. Liveness at 3-5. Room size 20. LPF and Pre delay unknown.
I've written elsewhere on my blog how it wasn't 100% wet all the time and other videos on Youtube using the SMMH for example show that it's somewhere around 50 to 70% wet so you get this wonderful mushing between the dry signal and the wet signal. Personally I go for 70% on the rack units so went for this in R2.
Liveness - anywhere between 3 to 8 works for me. The Surefyre impulses offer Liveness of 0, 2, 5, 8 and 10. I tend to use 5 and 8. For this demo, I shall use 8.
Room Size 20 - yep, all sorted.
LPF - I always had this at Thru on the SPX90 so no need to cut any highs on R2.
Predelay - I set this to 0.075 seconds.
Organising the effects chain
My lack of tremolo arm means the chain will go from guitar to effects pedals to computer. The first effect in there is Melda's MEqualizer just to roll off a little of the top end as the SPX90 converters do this in real life. Just a little bit off.
Next up is my pitchbend element. For this, Melda's MVibrato is brilliant. It's set to 100% wet (as obviously you can't have 50% pitchbend when you're using a trem for real: it's all or nothing!) and then set the step sequencer to 100%. Random values and random shapes set there in the step sequencer and then the rate is set to 0.0458Hz.
Add Reverberate 2. Load up the IR file you want, in this case Early Reflections 2, Reverse, Liveness 8, Room Size 2. Set predelay to 0.075s. Make sure both IR1 and IR2 are the same.
I then added some compression via Klanghelm's MJUC and set Reaper to mono. Why mono? Because Divine Emperor Shields said he recorded Loveless in mono.
Making noise
I first start out with the Thundertomate Rat. Definitely a bit too much gain on this (more later) and possibly a bit bright. I switch to the Skreddy clone which is set at 75% gain and with the body control right up. Much better, I think.
Conclusions and thoughts
-Get into pedal stacking. The more I play around with this stuff, the less convinced I am that overdrive pedals need to be run flat out. A half gain Rat into a 75% gain Lunar Module works much better than a Rat flat out.
-Compression is definitely needed. Not too much to squash everything into a flat mush but enough to keep things level.
-Loads of people say that you should try reverb before distortion. I've done it with so many units and it's always sounded shit. -I don't claim my sounds here are astounding. I'm using the wrong guitar and there's no amp which would compress things a great deal more. If I buy S-Gear in the future, I'll re-record it to see how it makes a difference.
Plugins used:
Reaper as my DAW (free if you're not wanting to pay, $60 if you value it that much and I most certainly do)
Melda's MEqualizer and MVibrato - free from Melda. Well worth paying a bit more to get rid of the ad screens.
Reverberate 2 by Liquidsonics - £100 and well worth it*
MJUC by Klanghelm - 24 Euros.
Yamaha SPX90 IR library by Surefyre - £10.
*anything that can play IR files will do. Reaper's reverb plug will do it.
People who know me, which totals 8, know I love the older JC-120s. The third series with the direction connections to the power amps rule. Absolutely top three amp material there. The chorus is great. I had a 1st series JC and the chorus just wasn't as good. The third series may not be the real original but it works better for me. So this... well, it's good. It's a good chorus. It's limited in what you can vary with it as there are so few knobs. The vibrato is a bit too fast for me even with the rate at minimum. I like it but quite honestly would rather have a Boss CE-2B. Spoken like a true heretic. I'll be on fire by evening. Listen here!
If you want pristine clean echo, this is not for you. Short version: does a lot more than I thought it would. Nice front end, surprisingly good on the MBV smeary sound. Beautifully built.
I bought one of these about ten years ago and really liked it (yes, it was sold. Just like most of my gear). The bypass isn't great but it has so much going for it. The operation is simple and there are plenty of good sounds within this unit.
None of the distortion sounds are good. About half of the presets you will skip over within seconds. The compressor has the ability to be a bit crunchy in a very digital way that sometimes works but mostly doesn't.
But the modulation.. oh, the symphonic modulation. It's fabulous. If I want reverb from a rack unit of this era, I'm jumping on an Alesis Midiverb II, Quadraverb, or one of the cheaper Lexicons like the Reflex. The biggest strength of the Yamaha units like the FX500 and SPX90 (if you're not into the reverse reverb) is the modulation options.
To start with, I'll go through some of the presets I like. As ever, it's straight DI recording with a small amount of compression to balance out the audio at the end supplied by the Kotelnikov compressor plugin.
Audiomulch as the host
Klanghelm's DC8C compressor
Longsound.de's Microverb plugin
SDelay (native Audiomulch plugin)
Valhalla Space Modulator (free to owners of Valhalla plugins)
All the relevant settings for the FX500 Soft Focus sound can be found in the manual (easily found online).
Imagine something like thisL
compressor at the front --> reverb set for 3.4s of reverb, 100% wet --> delay plugin with 250ms left, 380ms right. Set for 72% feedback, 70% wet mix --> Symphonic chorus type sound adjusted to taste.
This doesn't need a long write up. Read the MA CT5 web page, read the manual, and then buy one.
Being a DAW user with no amps, a lot of what this does I have already in plugin form. Having the knobs in front of you though does throw up some great instant ideas. Having pitch variations in front of me rather than as point and click knobs on a screen is a good thing.
Marshall Bluesbreaker Mk 1 pedals go for good money here in the UK. I've sold them for anything between £120 to £200 and some of these have gone overseas as well. Most of the clones end up being disappointing. The Analogman King of Tone for instance has a lengthy waiting list, sells s/h for £350, is based on the Bluesbreaker Mk 1, and has never failed to disappoint me in that it's no better than the pedal it's inspired by and over double the price. The Rawk D King of Blues is not expensive. It's under £100 new from the seller in Greece. It's nice seeing these newer sellers coming through at such good prices (Vick Audio pedals are now for sale through Atlantic Guitars in the UK at £100 and under per pedal). The King of Blues is beautifully wired. It might sond strange to say that wiring is beautiful but this is. The yardstick for great wiring is still the Paul Cohrane Tim v1 I had but this is right up there. So so cool. Soundwise... it's a Marshall Bluesbreaker. It's got a bit more fidelity than the original, perhaps a bit more headroom, but it doesn't get too clear and clean, which is where most BB clones fall on their ass. It still rocks: too many clones clean up too much. If you really want a BB pedal and don't want to sell out big money for an original, then get this. You won't regret it. No audio demo of this one as I really can't be bothered to make one and you don't need to hear me play the same badly timed nonsense I always do.
...and I can't think of anything else to say about it. I've owned this pedal a couple of times and still can't get inspired. It's not a bad pedal at all, the real flaw being the lack of 100% wet delay and the modulation isn't very controllable, but it sounds alright. It just doesn't tickle the sensitive areas of my brain.
It needs a valve amp to shine. I don't have one and I'm really only playing Rat pedals into the DAW now so I sold it. Hands down the best overdrive I've used. Throw anything into it, use it as a stacker. Great EQ, fine boost, everything about it is great.
It works, it's simple, and it has great routing options. The secondhand prices are excellent and this kicks the ass of some more expensive delays. A big Boss win here. Team this up with an analog delay and get the best of both worlds.
It would be an understatement to state that I found OBNE's Procession reverb immensely disappointing. It was noisy, limited in its range, and pretty expensive for what you get. So it is with wiggling rivulets of joy that the verdict on the Black Fountain is so so different.
It's average.
Which technically is different to saying the Procession is shit.
The Black Fountain is a murky delay that isn't as fun as a tape echo and it has some weird modulation that isn't particularly good on it. One of the modes is pretty much a slapback delay with a basic reverb on it. With the mix knob at 50%, the delay sound is really quite weak compared to the dry sound.
It's not horrific but there are many better echo/delays out there and the limitations of this oil can delay replica pedal are really shown by comparing it to the oil can settings in the Echoboy plugin.
Great if you like murky delays that sounds a bit flat.
I don't know why I've never tried one of these before. There's always one for sale on eBay for a good price, nobody ever seems to rave about them but reports of horrible sounding reverb don't really exist. The punt was taken. And it was a surprising experience. There really isn't a bad reverb sound in there. The hall, plate and spring reverbs are excellent. The reverse is a bit shit and room reverbs pass me by on every platform, pedal and plugin alike, but ignore this. You get some great sounds in a pedal that costs about £30 to £40. It's better than the Hardwire reverb, more fun than the RV-3, has more decent reverbs in it than the RV-5 (which has the great modulated reverb and not much else), and sounds better and costs substantially less than some of the boutique reverbs out there which are shockingly poor for the money. Best cheap reverb out there by a mile.
Now I tend to favour reverb pedals which are more geared toward effects than realism. The RV-5's modulated reverb, Eventide Space, EHX Cathedral, things like that. The Dr Scientist Reverberator is a bit different. it's not an effects-type reverb. There's no black hole settings or sub-Sigur Ros type sounds in here. Instead you get reverbs that really compliment a guitar sound. The halls are pretty good without being enormous, the room reverb works, and the plate reverbs are some of the best I've used anywhere. The Plate on the long setting gets quite springy as well. What surprised me is how it reminded me of using old rack units like the Alesis Midiverb. You don't have a huge amount of options to play around with so it evokes memories of using presets, just press and go. Decidedly impressed by this. It would go very well with a Space or Big Sky.
The SPX50D is a guitar orientated version of the SPX90. It has most of the things people love about the SPX90 (reverse, early reflections, the symphonic chorus) and the things they don't like (it's not particularly quiet, the bypass is rubbish, there is a bit of a volume drop, and most folk hate the distortion although I say that some of the distortion is actually quite usable). SPX50D's tend to go for not much money at all and are a good starting point if you're new to rack effects as it is really simple to use. Go and find the manual online and come back here. The first step is get the SPX50D set up. It's been written on a few forums how the SPX was set up and this seems to be the accepted start point: PROGRAM = Reverse Gate (it's #15 on the SPX50D) TYPE=reverse ROOM SIZE=20.0 LIVENESS=6-7 DELAY=75.0 ms LPF=through
BALANCE=100% OUT LEVEL=100% I'm not convinced this is right. With the tests I made with a Midverb II last year alongside the Magicstomp, Cathedral and SMMH reverse reverb demos I've already posted up and my own experiments with plugins, the most-MBV sounds have come from a straight 50-50 balance (ie. a 50% wet mix). 100% wet is fine if you're getting busy with the Bloom reverbs on a Midiverb but it doesn't sound right to go 100% wet with the Reverse Gate. The second issue is the 75ms delay time. It's a pre-delay time so it's the time between the initial sound of the instrument and the reverb coming through. The problem is that the above settings are using a 100% wet mix. That means there is no dry signal coming through, making pre-delay a complete waste of time. Liveness means the rate at which the reflections fade. Lower values mean they fade more quickly, higher values keep them there longer. With the Liveness at 0 on a 100% wet mix, you get no sound.
I'll playing a simple D-G-B minor-A sequence for each demo. 1. Liveness at 7, delay at 75.0 ms, balance at 100%. 2. Liveness at 7, delay at 75.0 ms, balance at 50%. 3. Liveness at 10, delay at 0.0 ms, balance at 70%. I'll explain my changes for number 3 here. I want a bit more liveness, a bit more treble in the reverb. I want the reverb coming through as soon as possible, hence the lack of pre-delay. I upped the balance a bit because there is a volume drop in the unit when you go from bypass mode to engaged mode so I want the reverb bumped up a little bit. At 50% mix I think it's a bit low compared to the dry sound.
"Enough of this clean stuff!". I hear you say. "We're shoegazers, we want distortion!". Very well. In each case I shall play an MJM London Fuzz Mk 1 (silicon fuzz pedal), then a RAT2 with LM308 chip and then both together. 4. Liveness at 7, delay at 75.0 ms, balance at 100%. 5. Liveness at 7, delay at 75.0 ms, balance at 50%. 6. Liveness at 10, delay at 0.0 ms, balance at 70%.
That fifth audio clip shows what I was getting at with the balance at 50%. The reverb just doesn't come through well enough, too much of a volume drop, so the sixth demo demonstrates why I put the balance to 70% and turned the liveness up to 10. For the final demos, I am adding some pitch modulation in my DAW using MVibrato by Melda Productions. As I don't have a Jaguar or Jazzmaster and play a hardtail modded Epi Dot with no Bigsby, I have no bars to poke and prod so MVibrato is there at the end of the recording chain to get some of that MBV swooping and diving sensation. All distortion supplied by the RAT2 only (distortion at max, filter at midday). 7. Liveness at 7, delay at 75.0 ms, balance at 100%. 8. Liveness at 7, delay at 75.0 ms, balance at 50%. 9. Liveness at 10, delay at 0.0 ms, balance at 70%. The MBV sound isn't one piece of gear. It's the whole thing: the guitars, the effects, the production, the people playing them. There's no magical setting on the SPX50D that taps you straight into To Here Knows When. None of the audio I've recorded for this demo has had any additional processing such as compression or equalization (compression and EQ is a big part of the MBV recorded album sound in my opinion). Now that I've played the SPX90 and 50D and had experience of Quadraverbs and Midiverb II's, I think the Midiverb II is the best of the MBV rack units. The combination of decent early reflections programs and the immortal Bloom program gives it the win. It is noisy as the older units tend to be but it's got that elusive 'something' quality to it in the same way a big box Deluxe Memory Man does.
Reasons to love the RV-5: -Modulated reverb. Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. -The hall and room modes are really rather good. -It doesn't feature anything useless like dynamic reverb Reasons to not love the RV-5: -the Spring setting is shite. It's got a quack to it like a rubbish compressor.
