Itty Bitty Multieffects

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inverseroom
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Itty Bitty Multieffects

Post by inverseroom » Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:21 pm

OK, I'm getting sick of lugging my amp and pedalboard around to gigs. I'm in an electronic/experimental duo and the major part of the sound I make live comes from synths...my guitar rig is a necessary but small part of what I do.

So I'm thinking of leaving my amp and pedals at home and getting one of those little cigarette-pack-sized multieffect/amp sim things and running it right through my mixer and into the PA. There's the Zoom one, which is $100, and the Korg one, which is like $170. Anybody ever use these? Are they passable for this purpose? I promise, I will never use them in my studio for recording rock music.

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Post by apropos of nothing » Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:34 pm

Can't vouch for it per se, since I haven't used it, but I've been looking into getting an Adrenalinn II.
http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/

The Zoom stuff I've tried has all been rather hissy.

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Post by inverseroom » Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:23 pm

apropos of nothing wrote:Can't vouch for it per se, since I haven't used it, but I've been looking into getting an Adrenalinn II.
http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/

The Zoom stuff I've tried has all been rather hissy.
People on Harmony=central are saying the Adrenalinn is noisy too. Hmm. You also can't run more than one effect at a time, which is a deal-breaker...I generally make my guitar sound highly un-guitar-like with big chains of stuff.

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harmony central

Post by jmligt » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:43 pm

I think it's a rule that for every guitar pedal reviewed on harmony central at least one person has to say it's "too noisy".

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Post by Electro-Voice 664 » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:45 am

How about an older Ibanez multi effect like this?:http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Ibanez-PUE5 ... dZViewItem
I had an older version and it was fun.
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Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:22 am

I had a 2-generations-ago Pandora (Korg) that was pretty fun to use and not too noisy. I imagine the newer ones would be even smaller and more versatile. The only trouble was the lack of controllability while playing - sure, you could use the little keys to switch between patches, but there was a short gap in the sound while switching and there was no footswitch option. That may all be better now.

What about the Sansamp stuff? I used one of those too long ago; back then I didn't notice if something sounded like cardboard.

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Post by KennyLusk » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:07 am

I'm with tatertot. For a palm-held multiFX unit it's all about Pandora's box man. Even the 1st generation box is sweet.

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Post by BigCats » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:09 am

I've got the AdrenaLinn. It's really a pretty "deep-dive' kind of a toy - lots of parameters to tweak, etc.. If I'm looking to not sound like I'm playing guitar, I usually pick this. It does arpeggios, etc. synced to a beat or time signature. Link that through a delay you can have all sorts of fun for hours.

What did you mean about not being able to run more than one effect at a time? It's got some pretty cool ways of linking filters, effects and time-based stuff pretty creatively. I'm on the road right now and don't have it with me but I'll take a look this weekend and see what you can put in series.

The amp sims suck IMO but, if you don't want to sound like a guitar that probably doesn't matter to you. I think the noise comment comes with all of the usual caveats - use anything badly enough and it'll buzz.
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Post by kayagum » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:20 am

For my stage rig for theater gigs, I lug around a pedal board, feeding a SansAmp classic. The SansAmp sounds great through a PA. I just doubt that any multiFX will sound good.... especially compared to the pedalboard you probably have :D

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Re: harmony central

Post by lyman » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:10 pm

jmligt wrote:I think it's a rule that for every guitar pedal reviewed on harmony central at least one person has to say it's "too noisy".

harmony central just isn't a very reliable source sometimes. sure, if there are 10 reviews all saying the same thing than i suppose it's fair to assume that there's some validity to it. but honestly, sometimes you read what people write and think "what in unearthly fuck are you talking about??" Well, i do at least. sometimes. not to sound like a gear snob. but jeez, the reviews for the behringer compressor gave it like a 9.4 rating for sound quality or something...

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Re: harmony central

Post by inverseroom » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:56 pm

lyman wrote:
jmligt wrote:I think it's a rule that for every guitar pedal reviewed on harmony central at least one person has to say it's "too noisy".

harmony central just isn't a very reliable source sometimes. sure, if there are 10 reviews all saying the same thing than i suppose it's fair to assume that there's some validity to it. but honestly, sometimes you read what people write and think "what in unearthly fuck are you talking about??" Well, i do at least. sometimes. not to sound like a gear snob. but jeez, the reviews for the behringer compressor gave it like a 9.4 rating for sound quality or something...
All true.

I guess what I want is somebody who will tell me the Zoom unit is great and go buy it for 99 bucks.

Is it true though that you can do effects in series inside the AdrenaLinn? If so, that's more misinformation from Harmony Central.

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Post by kingquasar » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:41 pm

I'm going to put in my vote for the Yamaha Magic Stomp. You can hook it up to your computer via USB and really get DEEP(!) inside the programs then transfer them into the pedal's memory. The amp models are as good as you're going to get from a chip. You are somewhat limitted when it comes to chaining effects together. But seriously, let me stress how incredibly flexible this thing is with the computer. If you're doing the "elctronic" thing, it's got a ring modulator, dynamic filters, pitch-shifting delays, etc, etc. Give it a listen. I think I payed around $130 for it about a year ago. I really don't know why these things aren't more popular.

-kQ

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Re: harmony central

Post by creature.of.habit » Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:58 pm

inverseroom wrote:
I guess what I want is somebody who will tell me the Zoom unit is great and go buy it for 99 bucks.
inverse man,

if you're talking about zoom's little box, that one that just got out, with the other version that has the expression pedal, it is indeed great. i've tried it, and it's the only thing that has ever made me rethink the whole aproach to stomps. i think zoom got it right with that. the plain version (no expression pedal) is the way to go i think. if i had to do it all over again, and be cost effective, this would be it. and you can def. get by with it live, no doubt about it. the only thing i didnt like as much there were the distortions/gain settings, but even the amps sims are great, the JC120 patch is superb. just couple it with whatever gain box you use and you're ready to go. it's a step up from every all in one thing ive ever tried. 32 bit internal processing or something like that. zoom is getting better in my opinion..im getting that new drum machine, the 223, as soon as i can afford it.

for 100 bucks you can give a try right? just get it :wink:

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Re: harmony central

Post by inverseroom » Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:21 am

diogo wrote:
inverseroom wrote:
I guess what I want is somebody who will tell me the Zoom unit is great and go buy it for 99 bucks.
inverse man,

if you're talking about zoom's little box, that one that just got out, with the other version that has the expression pedal, it is indeed great. i've tried it, and it's the only thing that has ever made me rethink the whole aproach to stomps. i think zoom got it right with that. the plain version (no expression pedal) is the way to go i think. if i had to do it all over again, and be cost effective, this would be it. and you can def. get by with it live, no doubt about it. the only thing i didnt like as much there were the distortions/gain settings, but even the amps sims are great, the JC120 patch is superb. just couple it with whatever gain box you use and you're ready to go. it's a step up from every all in one thing ive ever tried. 32 bit internal processing or something like that. zoom is getting better in my opinion..im getting that new drum machine, the 223, as soon as i can afford it.

for 100 bucks you can give a try right? just get it :wink:
See?!!? There we go! "Inverse, go buy shit!" :lol: Honestly, I think something like this and my Loopstation will take care of geetar in this context. I'm going to look into the MagicStomp, too...ringmod is the shit. Though I do have that on my Bitrman, which is the main effect I use live, bless its DSP soul.

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Post by inverseroom » Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:31 am

You know what, I had been talking about the PFX-9003, not the G2, and I think you're talking about the G2. But the G2 looks really nice for what I'm doing. I'll check it out... it's Zoom's version of the Magic Stomp it would appear.

Hmm, this way my Memory Man could always be at home with me where it belongs...

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