Slow Vibrato Pedal?

[j_howell]

Can anyone recommend a vibrato pedal or rack device that will do functions kinda like vibrato in the Z Vex Lo-Fi Loop Junky?

http://media.zvex.com/FLASH/LOFI/

What I'm going for is mostly the slower, warped-record settings. With my Teles, I'd just bend the neck as I play, but what I'm hoping for is something similarly not perfectly mechanical sounding that I can run other stuff (submixes, etc) through for a similar, kinda-random slight pitch bend. Cost-effective would be nice, too, as well as preferably analog. I have a Dano vibe pedal that just sucks, and an Alesis Bitrman that has a pitch-mod function, but it's difficult to control the speed and has no depth control at all, and is painfully noisy. Also, something that does a Magnatone-ish vibrato would be nice, but mostly, I'm looking for the warped-record effect. Any ideas?

[Dakota]

Pitch vibrato that's cheap, genuine analog, actually sounds very good: behringer UV300. Boss VB-2 clone. Has speed and depth controls. Does not do pseudo-random lfo, but the sine wave lfo is really "right" sounding. At the cheap price, you could put two in series at different speeds and get complex compound rates.

Dirty looping with warped record / damaged recording options: the 80's digitech rack delays that had very long times, loop hold, and pitch lfo. RDS-8000, RDS-4000, Time Machine 7.6 or 3.6. I like those a lot for chewing up audio. Internal trim pots are easy to adjust for even longer and more damaged sounding looping time.

Always mark or photograph trim pots before you adjust them.

[Marc Alan Goodman]

For warped record sounds don't forget about a short modulated delay. Deluxe Memory Man always does the trick.

[gregovertone]

Pitch vibrato that's cheap, genuine analog, actually sounds very good: behringer UV300. Boss VB-2 clone. Has speed and depth controls. Does not do pseudo-random lfo, but the sine wave lfo is really "right" sounding. At the cheap price, you could put two in series at different speeds and get complex compound rates.

Dirty looping with warped record / damaged recording options: the 80's digitech rack delays that had very long times, loop hold, and pitch lfo. RDS-8000, RDS-4000, Time Machine 7.6 or 3.6. I like those a lot for chewing up audio. Internal trim pots are easy to adjust for even longer and more damaged sounding looping time.

Always mark or photograph trim pots before you adjust them.

this guy knows the score.

the magnatone amps really set the benchmark in pitch vibrato.

boss attempted to mimic it w/ the BOSS VB2.

BYOC made a clone of the vb2.

bbe has the mind bender.

malekko just release a KILLER little vibrato that's really, and sounds awesome!

[supafuzz]

Dirty looping with warped record / damaged recording options: the 80's digitech rack delays that had very long times, loop hold, and pitch lfo. RDS-8000, RDS-4000, Time Machine 7.6 or 3.6. I like those a lot for chewing up audio. Internal trim pots are easy to adjust for even longer and more damaged sounding looping time.

Always mark or photograph trim pots before you adjust them.

Cool I have an RDS 8000 sitting in my rack..what setting do you use for your looping??

[tdbajus]

Can anyone recommend a vibrato pedal or rack device that will do functions kinda like vibrato in the Z Vex Lo-Fi Loop Junky?

I had a brief email conversation with Zach about it him making exactly what you wanted. He was less than receptive.

I did try out the EH Memory Boy, set the delay time on minimum, and the vibrato on the delay came close. Give it a shot.

[Dakota]

Dirty looping with warped record / damaged recording options: the 80's digitech rack delays that had very long times, loop hold, and pitch lfo. RDS-8000, RDS-4000, Time Machine 7.6 or 3.6. I like those a lot for chewing up audio. Internal trim pots are easy to adjust for even longer and more damaged sounding looping time.

Always mark or photograph trim pots before you adjust them.

Cool I have an RDS 8000 sitting in my rack..what setting do you use for your looping??

Long loops: the 8 second mode, feedback up to near unity, modulation initially off or doing slight vibrato (3 to 5hz). Repeat/Hold switch to hold the loop when it's cool. Then widen the pitch modulation depth, mess with the lfo speed, and grab the delay time knob, freak out to taste. I love the hands-on knobby performance way those do.

Or just freak all of the above settings (except for the 8 sec button, changing that dumps the memory) as you loop, for very skewed soundscapes.

Short and freaky track treatments: the 120ms (second) mode. 100% wet mix, feedback 70%-ish, deeper modulation, slower lfo speeds - but jack those around. Also jack the delay time knob around. Spazz out on the hold button, kicking it on and off - stutter holds, drones. Record some performances. Pick the best two, slip them earlier in time so they are on average in sort-of sync with the source track. Pan them hard left and right. Gets a super head trip result, really compelling.

I did try out the EH Memory Boy, set the delay time on minimum, and the vibrato on the delay came close. Give it a shot.

Having both the UV300 and the memory boy: memory boy set as you describe does do vibrato. But the delay-only signal is pretty band-passed and faded sounding, reduced lows and highs, compressed, BBD lofi chewed up. Which is great if that's what you want. But it's a dramatic replacement/change of the original signal if set 100% wet.

UV300 is inherently 100% wet when on, and is analog BBD, but is pretty sweet in character, full spectrum, and not a dramatic swap of your original tone. It sounds pretty much the same, but wavery.

Both are cool sounds. But very different. UV300 is more my bread and butter for pitch vibrato on the pedalboard. Memory Boy's best task is modulated medium analog delays, which it's very good at.

[JBRoy]

kjj

[DJ_LBP]

+1 Dakota, I love those Digitech rack units. I have several of those guys, all with differing times available, and they are a blast to play with. If you find an older one with the white or gray buttons, I'm pretty sure on some of those you can change the max time settings while the unit is playing and not lose your sound. But on the later ones with the black buttons, there is a dropout like you mentioned.

I think those boxes are definitely my favorite for making wobbly sounds, from subtle to VERY over-the-top.

[Dakota]

+1 Dakota, I love those Digitech rack units. I have several of those guys, all with differing times available, and they are a blast to play with. If you find an older one with the white or gray buttons, I'm pretty sure on some of those you can change the max time settings while the unit is playing and not lose your sound. But on the later ones with the black buttons, there is a dropout like you mentioned.

I think those boxes are definitely my favorite for making wobbly sounds, from subtle to VERY over-the-top.

Really? The white or grey button ones don't dump the audio when you switch times? Awesome! I'd been ignoring those, they have less delay time. But now I'll have to get one. Terrific tip, thank you.

[joninc]

i had started a thread similar to this last week - looking for a pedal that will approximate the vibrato in older ac30's. junkshop recommended trying the danelectro reel echo pedal in it's "warble" mode - i am looking forward to trying that soon....

[TapeOpAl]

I really like the old Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory for vibrato, the old big box version - just set it to 100% wet. No idea about the newer version.

[j_howell]

Hmmm...interesting ideas here...thanks!

[alkooloid]

I've got an EH Wiggler on the way... I'll be interested to check out this tube powered analog beast: http://www.ehx.com/products/wiggler

[Recycled_Brains]

The demos of the new Melekko Vibrato sound rad.

http://proguitarshop.com/store/vibrato- ... ato-p-1530

Small footprint is nice too.