My Shimmer Sucks

J

jshirkey

Experienced
I'm trying to set up a good shimmer sound (classic ex. Edge on "With or Without You"). In a nutshell, mine sucks. I'm trying the Crystals setting on the Pitch algo. I also tried fixed harm for kicks. It has that typical fake pitch-shifted sound, and it's choppy. The shimmer/crystals sound takes too long to bloom,and changing the delay settings doesn't seem to help. I also put a reverb after it, but it still isn't smooth sounding.

I'm running the pitch and reverb in parallel. I have a light OD and delay in the other path.

I've never been able to get a good shimmer sound, though--not with Eventide stuff, and not with Fractal. I've heard other people do it really well, so it's obviously user error.

I'd also like to assign it to an expression pedal. I assume toe down would be 100% wet. Heel would be 0%.

$20 for your preset. lol

Thanks.
 
jlynnb1 said:
hi cut is your friend. i chop everything above 3-4k
Click to expand...

Ok. I'll try that.

Question about my parallel path: What I think I want is pitch-->delay-->reverb in my parallel path. But I don't think I can do that, can I? I can put each of those fx in a parallel path, but they won't be in series with each other, which is what I want. I want the pitch-shifted sound to go into the reverb, in other words. I don't just want a reverb in parallel with my other chain. Or am I missing something?
 
yeah, the plex shift will give you a smoother sound than the pitch crystals. make sure all four delay times are set randomly (i.e. don't use tempo subdivisions). make the smallest delay time about 200ms and the largest about 450ms. you'll only need to shift one of the delays up by +12. you can shift another up by +24 as well if you like. you've correctly surmised that running it into a wet reverb is the thing to do (although you may find the plex is diffuse enough already). the plex and the reverb will need to be in series in a parallel sidechain. no idea if this is possible with the FX8, though.attach your midi controller pedal to input gain. if the block is in parallel, set the mix to 100% and use the level parameter
 
jshirkey said:
I'm trying to set up a good shimmer sound (classic ex. Edge on "With or Without You"). In a nutshell, mine sucks. I'm trying the Crystals setting on the Pitch algo. I also tried fixed harm for kicks. It has that typical fake pitch-shifted sound, and it's choppy. The shimmer/crystals sound takes too long to bloom,and changing the delay settings doesn't seem to help. I also put a reverb after it, but it still isn't smooth sounding.

I'm running the pitch and reverb in parallel. I have a light OD and delay in the other path.

I've never been able to get a good shimmer sound, though--not with Eventide stuff, and not with Fractal. I've heard other people do it really well, so it's obviously user error.

I'd also like to assign it to an expression pedal. I assume toe down would be 100% wet. Heel would be 0%.

$20 for your preset. lol

Thanks.
Click to expand...


send me a private message with your email and I will send you a good shimmer effect which I use for covering the intro of 'Be Enthroned' by Bethel
 
You guys are great. Thank you.

Brace yourself for a stupid question: I cannot find the plex modes to save my life. Under "delays" or under "pitch"? Are we positive they are included in the FX8? Not just in the Axe FX?
 
jshirkey said:
You guys are great. Thank you.

Brace yourself for a stupid question: I cannot find the plex modes to save my life. Under "delays" or under "pitch"? Are we positive they are included in the FX8? Not just in the Axe FX?
Click to expand...

It's in the Multi Delay block
 
Rex said:
You're in for a treat.
Click to expand...

jshirkey said:
Got it. I was thinking it was a sub-type of "Delay". Believe it or not, I had never even used (or, apparently, even noticed) that "MultiDelay" was its own block.
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Don’t mean to belabor the point. But it is SO worthwhile to get the blocks I suggested in post #5, @simeons multidelay blocks Are as good as shimmer gets this side of an Eventide 8000..
 
Raise the 'Input Diffusion' parameter all of the way up in the Multi-Delay block. It washes it out more, resulting in less need for a Reverb block after, (If you don't have enough CPU?)
 
bradlake said:
Don’t mean to belabor the point. But it is SO worthwhile to get the blocks I suggested in post #5, @simeons multidelay blocks Are as good as shimmer gets this side of an Eventide 8000..
Click to expand...

I will grab them for sure. Thanks.

Fwiw, I used to own an H8000. lol
 
Moke said:
Raise the 'Input Diffusion' parameter all of the way up in the Multi-Delay block. It washes it out more, resulting in less need for a Reverb block after, (If you don't have enough CPU?)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll do that.

I think I have enough CPU, but you can't create a parallel chain with the fx in that chain in series in relation to each other, can you? In other words, I can add a MultiDelay block in parallel, but if I then add a Rev block, it's either going to be in series with the original (main) signal path, or it is going to be in parallel with the main path and the MultiDelay. Right? It would be easier to draw than to explain.
 
jshirkey said:
...you can't create a parallel chain with the fx in that chain in series in relation to each other, can you? In other words, I can add a MultiDelay block in parallel, but if I then add a Rev block, it's either going to be in series with the original (main) signal path, or it is going to be in parallel with the main path and the MultiDelay.
Click to expand...
Right. You can stack eight effects in parallel with each other if you want to, but you can't have parallel rows of series-connected effects.
 
My shimmer has improved quite a bit thanks to all of the tips here. I still need to download Simeon's blocks and see if I have room to improve--which I probably do. But I thought I'd see how far I could get on my own first just by tinkering with things on my own.

A couple other issues I'd like to ask about:

1. Using an ebow, the shimmer effect can get quite loud and overwhelming easily. I compensate by rolling off my volume knob about halfway, if not a little more. Anyone else doing that?

2. Input Gain: Keep it on 100%? How does that relate to the Level (both of these parameters are in the "Mixer" section using FX8 Edit)? I've been tweaking both the input gain and the level to try to maximize the shimmer effect I hear, but also keep the volume issues under control. (see above)

3. I read this on the Axe Wiki: "Attach an external controller or Envelope to Input Gain to be able to fade in the effect with a pedal."
Instead of using an expression pedal, I decided to use scene 2 to turn the MultiDelay/shimmer block on. It seems to work fine, although the shimmer does come on strong right from the beginning as soon as I switch scenes. I suppose the alternative would be to keep every effect in my chain on (it's fairly minimal...one delay, a drive, and then the MultiDly) on in scene 1 and then engage the pedal when I wanted to bring in the MultiDelay/shimmer? Is one way preferable to the other? Is the only advantage that I could bring the shimmer in more gradually?

Thanks.
 
jshirkey said:
3. I read this on the Axe Wiki: "Attach an external controller or Envelope to Input Gain to be able to fade in the effect with a pedal."... Is the only advantage that I could bring the shimmer in more gradually?
Click to expand...
That's the whole point of it.
 
Rex said:
That's the whole point of it.
Click to expand...

Right, but my point is that it may be less hassle to assign it to another scene. I'll see if there's any benefit to bringing it in slowly. My hunch is that it's going to come on fairly strong anyway once the input gain gets to 70% or so. Maybe I'm wrong.
 
jshirkey said:
Right, but my point is that it may be less hassle to assign it to another scene. I'll see if there's any benefit to bringing it in slowly. My hunch is that it's going to come on fairly strong anyway once the input gain gets to 70% or so. Maybe I'm wrong.
Click to expand...
It'll come in as fast or as slow as you rock the pedal.
 
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