Best expression pedal

There is no best pedal, any more than there is a best guitar, best amp etc

Totally depends what your like, what you need etc

I like the Mission spring loaded pedals for things like wah, traditional crybaby feel under foot, however, I think they suck for things like delay mix, because there isn't enough travel. I use Ernie Balls which I mod for that, though the fractal EV1 is nice too. Didn't like the EV-1 for wah though, too much travel, wore my calf out right away lol

So as I said, totally depends what you want the pedal to control, how you want to activate it, how you want it to feel etc
 
Are you guys that are using the EV-1 putting a stopper under the pedal to lessen the range of travel for wah usage ?
 
lqdsnddist said:
Didn't like the EV-1 for wah though, too much travel, wore my calf out right away lol
Click to expand...

I don't think you have to use the full travel. I was thinking you could program, for example, to use your own tone range to whatever motion range you wanted. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I was about to try it cuz' it does have a heck of a range of motion...lol.
 
There are some pros and cons.
  • The metal ones are study and the plastic ones break.
  • Adjustable pedal tension is good to get it feeling the way you like.
  • A return spring is good if you want it to auto-return to the heel position.
  • Having a long throw suits some, but a short throw is good too. It depends how quickly you want things to change.
  • Size can be important if you want it to fit in your pedal board or other place.
  • Polarity reversal (TRS to RTS) is useful if you have equipment that requires the different polarity.
  • Being able to adjust the minimum depth is handy for things like volume and pitch and even Wah so you don't get the muffled end of things.
  • Being able to adjust the maximum depth also, is doubly handy. Particularly for pitch effects as when combined with the minimum depth you can set the exact pitch distance to move over (1st, 3rd, 5th, octave etc).
  • Look out for the expression pedals configured as RTS and TS because effect units or MIDI controllers that use them, although good, are in the minority (Zoom, line 6 and Rocktron).
  • The M-Audio EX-P has been reported as having a limited range of modulation due to a 1K ohm resistor in series with the wiper. For most effect parameters it would not be a problem, but for pitch parameter effects, and also for MIDI controllers that need the full range of 0 - 127 values, it can be an issue.
  • Nearly all expression pedals have a linear pot which is generally what you want, but the Yamaha FC-7 has a logarithmic pot which means the modulation effect occurs nearly all at once, at one end of motion.
  • Multiple expression jacks can be good if you want to control multiple effects at once.
  • Being able to reverse the sweep is handy if that's the way you want it. For example go from maximum volume to minimum volume rather than vice versa.
  • A toe switch can be useful for switching things on and off.
  • Whether it can also act as a volume pedal is useful
  • Inertial motion control is interesting as it gives a different type or an expanded range of expression.

For my money the source audio Reflex is incredibly flexible, though requires some reading and experimenting to get it the way you want it and use all its features. The dB instrument 4E dual axis is an interesting device. The hot hand 3 inertial device is a funky little mover. The Xpression fX Black magic motion inertial device from Oz Inventions is upcoming and promises some interesting features to expand expression ability. The plastic ones are good if you just want to have a go, coz they are cheap. Mission engineering have a big range of quality expression pedals and also have the expressionator which has a few control ports.
 
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