Suggestions for outboard "mini" gear

yek

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I'm on the lookout for some kickass gear I can put in one of the III's loops.

Must be small, out-of-the-ordinary and fun. Inspiring and creative. No regular pedals, no full-size 19" gear.

My Korg Kaossilator is a fun toy, but doesn't offer enough control. Maybe a polyphonic synth such as Korg's Volca Keys?

Already have an EHX Mel9.

Suggestions?
 
Digitech Sdrum


Tc helicon voice live 3 does some cool stuff - also I keep thinking I need to integrate a ms surface pro with midi guitar and a vst synth ?
 
I really don't use other gear very much. I sometimes enjoy using a FoxRox Zim with two "Vintage Tube" cards as an insert on I/O 3. This is basically a stereo analog distortion which I use for NIИ type insanity, or in the loop of an out-of control feedback delay as a kind of variable soft-clipping stage. I'd probably like to replace this with two Moog Moogerfooger MF-101 lowpass filters for some hi Q ladder filter madness.
 
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I mean, if you want weird:
Those are all unique effects that are exceptionally hard or impossible to replicate in the big, black box. Now...where exactly you'd use them... :D

I still have some of my stranger pedals from my big a** board days. And I'll never part with my collection of fuzz pedals. There's just not substitute for the guitar <> fuzz pedal connection right now in the digital world.
 
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I’ve been pretty impressed with what iOS apps can do these days. Some really innovative synth engines with unique GUI and sequencing abilities that lends itself to touch screens.

Dynamically control multiple parameters with things like a bouncing ball, taking into account gravity, surfaces to bounce off etc, with the result being crazy non linear interactions.

Most stuff can be tried out for free too
 
I mean, if you want weird:
Those are all unique effects that are exceptionally hard or impossible to replicate in the big, black box. Now...where exactly you'd use them... :D

I still have some of my stranger pedals from my big a** board days. And I'll never part with my collection of fuzz pedals. There's just not substitute for the guitar <> fuzz pedal connection right now in the digital world.

Whoa, these are a little too much chaotic. :)
 
Pretty cool effect, at least with regards to something from existing blocks, but.... I find it kind of glitchy/warbley and synthetic sounding, with little sustain.

The real FreqOut pedal, especially when set to the natural hi and lo harmonic settings has a certain randomness to it, yet also tracks the relative pitches on the neck, so an open E chord can sound different than an open D, and you can use the tremolo and manipulate the pitch of the feedback tone.

What I really like about it more than anything though is that it actually tends to produce real feedback very easily, with minimal volume. I can hit an open A, step on the pedal, and the feedback swells up, and if I close to my monitor, the feedback tone can sustain near infinity, with very little volume. Don't quite understand the interaction of how its working, but the pedal does use the vibrations of the strings to generate the feedback effect, so usually you only have the effect last til the string dies out, BUT, when the monitor starts to produce the feedback pitch, it seems to keep the string vibrating, OR, perhaps more likely, the pickup is able to pickup just enough of the monitors output to keep a stimulus going into the pedal, which then continues to produce the artificial feedback effect. Don't fully understand how its working, but, I can have the monitor at very low volume, like 50dB, step on the pedal, and turn the face the monitor and keep the feedback ringing out.

Really comes into its own though with the III's extra routing, as you can run the pedal set to dry kill, and run it parallel, with some added compression and delay, and then use an EXP or switch with some dampening, to mix in the feedback effect. You can then have the delay repeats continue to fade out even when you've started playing again.

Its not the cheapest pedal, but IMO, it does something that otherwise is difficult to achieve without a lot of physical volume, and it does so very, very convincingly.

Worth checking out if you've never played with one
 
Yeah, the simulator isn't the real thing, and doesn't offer as much as the FreqOut, but it does the job quite nicely on occasion. IIRC Simeon's original offered some more. For more sustain, tweak the compressor, or turn up the volume.
 
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