Opinions on Aux Channel Distortion (Was Plasma Pedal)

[Snarl 12/8]

Hi Kind and illustrious TOMBers,

I've been wanting to throw a distortion on my 6th aux send of my mixer. I tried the Rat pedal, but I feel like it always has this signature resonance that bugs me. I also like a "bitcrushed" sound. The Plasma Pedal has really caught my ear. To me, the Plasma Pedal sounds cool on guitar. I like the sound and the glitchiness, but for this application I'd be using it mostly subtly on kick drum and bass and overtly on vocals in mixes. Probably usually in parallel.

Anyone have an opinion or description or sound files of how the Plasma Pedal sounds on common rock/funk sources other than guitar?
Or opinions on its fitness as basically a parallel "buss distortion".

It's a lot of coin for a pedal.

Thanks,

ck

[digitaldrummer]

I've seen Jacquire King use the UAD "RAW" plugin for this same purpose, but I imagine he was just trying to use all UAD products. it didn't do much for me, although it did serve his purpose for that session. I don't usually like the Rat on most things (including guitar). I would use Soundtoys Decapitator or another plugin before RAW...

What else have you tried or what else do you already have? I'd try something like one of these -- https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... fuzz-pedal
before plunking down big money (and btw these do sound pretty good on guitars too). And no, I haven't tried it myself, but if I was going to I'd probably try that one or the Carl Martin Plexitone https://reverb.com/item/57212148-carl-m ... ly-shipped (which I also own and is an awesome Marshall in a box...I mean pedal). I just like the distortion tones of these better than a RAT.

[losthighway]

But crusher is a pretty different thing, but as for overdrive I've had the best luck with the "ranges from clean boost to full saturation" type pedals. I have a Catalin Bread Dirty Little Secret always hooked up to an aux send. I've used it to give a clean bass more attention in a mix, to gently saturate a vocal, or for a bonkers kick/snare effect.

Again, I'm talking overall utility, I imagine you have a more specific effect in mind. In general I've found patching drums through any kind of fuzz gives them a pitched ringing quality that I don't love but there's undoubtedly a cool use for.

[kslight]

I have one (actually the plasma coil tmr variant).

It is a hard gated fuzz sound, there would be a big contrast between wet and dry sounds. If you’re okay with a non subtle effect, then yes this is a very cool pedal. Not what I’d call a bit crusher.

There are video examples of your application if you look up the rack model.

[Snarl 12/8]

I have one (actually the plasma coil tmr variant).

It is a hard gated fuzz sound, there would be a big contrast between wet and dry sounds. If you’re okay with a non subtle effect, then yes this is a very cool pedal. Not what I’d call a bit crusher.

There are video examples of your application if you look up the rack model.

Thank you for your thoughts on the sound and the steer towards the rack model reviews. Yeah, that's not what I'm looking for. The search continues.

The mix buss distortion that I really, really loved using was a plugin called QuadraVerb (by Mark Anderton). It was basically four fuzzess spread out over low, low-mid, h-mid and high freqs. Very easy to deal in some low fuzz or air fuzz or anything in between. I'm not in the box these days, so I need hardware. There is a hardware Quadrafuzz that I've thought of getting, but it's a PAIA project and I doubt it does what the plugin did which was very easy and intuitive to use.

[thunderboy]

There is a hardware Quadrafuzz that I've thought of getting, but it's a PAIA project and I doubt it does what the plugin did which was very easy and intuitive to use.

It's Craig Anderton's design, why wouldn't it?

[numberthirty]

If it's "Along The Lines Of The PAIA..."?

It seems like a company called Iron Ether made a pedal called the QF2 for a bit that seems like it might be along the same line as the Quadrafuzz.

[drumsound]

I've used a small, Pignose sized amp on an aux send successfully.

[Snarl 12/8]

If it's "Along The Lines Of The PAIA..."?

It seems like a company called Iron Ether made a pedal called the QF2 for a bit that seems like it might be along the same line as the Quadrafuzz.

Thank you for this. So helpful! I'm going to ask Santa for one.

[Nick Sevilla]

You''ll need an impedance matching device for guitar pedals.

REAMPING.

You'd be doing the same thing, except sending from a console AUX (line level) to your guitar pedals.

Then bringing the signal back into the DAW.

Fun times!

[KuruPrionz]

Tech 21 Double Drive, that will give you both even order harmonics and odd order harmonics. 3 band eq.
At lower distortion levels it's pretty quiet, especially if you use a 9v battery.

Much less gnarly than a RAT. No longer made but I got mine (a 3x MOD version) on Fleabay for about $100. They are out there if you keep an eye open.

[Snarl 12/8]

You''ll need an impedance matching device for guitar pedals.

I made one a while back. I find I don't always "need" it. My MoogerFooger Ring Mod seems to do fine without a reamp. It's on Aux 5. I could see fuzzes and preampy gainy things being a bigger issue though.

That QF2 pedal emulates the plugin more than I thought a hardware version could. You can dial center freq's and it has q switches.