Stupid Effects tricks, part II

unix-guy

unix-guy

Master of RTFM
i'm sure in the past I posted a thread on some other "unusual" techniques with various effects when I've gone off the beaten path with weirdness...

Today I was messing around with the delay block doing weird stuff like assigning the Envelope controller to the delay time in the Tape Delay with a long-ish damping value (like 300-600ms).

Then I took it a step further and assigned the Envelope controller to the Hold function, but set it reversed so that as I played, it was off... But as the signal dropped below the Envelope threshold the Hold would kick in. Very cool!

I plan to do further exploration with this concept of Envelope + (reversed) Delay Hold later, but thought I would share.
 
Very cool. I did a one-off experiment where I tied Envelope to amp trem depth (reversed) so the trem got deeper as the note decayed. I should have saved it.
 
The tremolo block is a lot of fun to play with.

I like assigning the envelope controller to tremolo depth and rate. Hit a chord and let it ring and you get this deep trem that's fast and fades to a nice shallow effect that's slow. Takes some tuning, but once you dial it in it's really dramatic.



And if you use the step controller, attached to a volume block, you can build out patterned tremolo effects:



You can do a similar thing with the sequencer and the wah block:



And don't be afraid to play around with different tremolo wave forms. Another user put me on to a (I think it was...) Vox effect that was essentially a reverse saw tooth tremolo, which lead to a very cool sounding tremolo block setup:

 
unix-guy said:
Then I took it a step further and assigned the Envelope controller to the Hold function, but set it reversed so that as I played, it was off... But as the signal dropped below the Envelope threshold the Hold would kick in. Very cool!
Click to expand...
This is a very cool idea! Thanks!
 
iaresee said:
The tremolo block is a lot of fun to play with.

I like assigning the envelope controller to tremolo depth and rate. Hit a chord and let it ring and you get this deep trem that's fast and fades to a nice shallow effect that's slow. Takes some tuning, but once you dial it in it's really dramatic.



And if you use the step controller, attached to a volume block, you can build out patterned tremolo effects:



You can do a similar thing with the sequencer and the wah block:



And don't be afraid to play around with different tremolo wave forms. Another user put me on to a (I think it was...) Vox effect that was essentially a reverse saw tooth tremolo, which lead to a very cool sounding tremolo block setup:

Click to expand...

All of those are cool effects!

On the sequenced volume, was the panning also sequenced?
 
unix-guy said:
All of those are cool effects!

On the sequenced volume, was the panning also sequenced?
Click to expand...
Not quite. It was ping-pong delay set to a division of the temp which was also driving the sequencer.

You can pull a lot of value of sequencing a delay with a tremolo. Put a hard chop tremolo on 1/8th notes and the delay on 1/4 notes with a few tails and it gets synth-like.
 
I like to put things in parallel and see what happens. Mostly it doesn't work out so well, but sometimes you hit on something really weird but plausible. Parallel whammy? Why not, right? I can work if stretch your mind out a bit. :)

 
iaresee said:
I like to put things in parallel and see what happens. Mostly it doesn't work out so well, but sometimes you hit on something really weird but plausible. Parallel whammy? Why not, right? I can work if stretch your mind out a bit. :)

Click to expand...

Oooh... I like that!

Now assign the Envelope controller to control the Whammy!
 
iaresee said:
I like to put things in parallel and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Speaking of parallel.
Filter block before Drive and Amp in parallel set to Lowpass, max q or what ever sounds good to you with the frequency tied to a fast Envelope. Level between -6 and -18. Play with the low and high cuts.
Quack and dry.
:)
 
iaresee said:
The tremolo block is a lot of fun to play with.

I like assigning the envelope controller to tremolo depth and rate. Hit a chord and let it ring and you get this deep trem that's fast and fades to a nice shallow effect that's slow. Takes some tuning, but once you dial it in it's really dramatic.



And if you use the step controller, attached to a volume block, you can build out patterned tremolo effects:



You can do a similar thing with the sequencer and the wah block:



And don't be afraid to play around with different tremolo wave forms. Another user put me on to a (I think it was...) Vox effect that was essentially a reverse saw tooth tremolo, which lead to a very cool sounding tremolo block setup:

Click to expand...

Super cool creative stuff.
 
LostInSpace said:
This isn't too revolutionary, but for my lead patches I have the input gain on my delay controlled by pitch, so higher notes have more sustain and lower notes have less delay so they don't get muddy. It works really well for me.
Click to expand...
Yes, the Pitch controller can be fun, too...:)

You might also want to look at the EQ controls in the Delay block. That can really help with the low end.
 
unix-guy said:
Yes, the Pitch controller can be fun, too...:)

You might also want to look at the EQ controls in the Delay block. That can really help with the low end.
Click to expand...
Actually, I just had a cool idea which may have already been done: assign the Pitch controller to the Pitch in a Fixed Harmony Pitch block. Set the modifier so that low notes get an octave harmony and higher notes get a unison: Faux 12-string!
 
unix-guy said:
Actually, I just had a cool idea which may have already been done: assign the Pitch controller to the Pitch in a Fixed Harmony Pitch block. Set the modifier so that low notes get an octave harmony and higher notes get a unison: Faux 12-string!
Click to expand...

Could you post a preset please? I think the higher notes need at least a little deviation from each other to get the fuller sound of a 12-string, wouldn't you? But how could it be done?
 
guitardoc said:
Could you post a preset please? I think the higher notes need at least a little deviation from each other to get the fuller sound of a 12-string, wouldn't you? But how could it be done?
Click to expand...
As mentioned, it's an "idea"... I didn't try it yet.

However, if you put a shimmery Chorus in there, that would probably work.

Note that my idea probably would not work that great as you move up the neck... But for "cowboy" chords I think it might be ok.
 
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