Who's got the best Shimmer in town?

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fuzzjunkie
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Re: Who's got the best Shimmer in town?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Sat Dec 29, 2018 8:32 am

Unicorn Warrior wrote:
Fri Dec 28, 2018 7:57 pm
Fuzz Junkie...dude...that's some great info there. I'm going to hire you as my effectologist

It's funny, because you guided me to selecting the space about a year or two ago I suppose and the settings you suggested are still some of my bread and butter sounds
Cool! I thought I put out some Time Factor settings here but I didn’t remember putting any for the Space.

I also did not realize how many reverb pedals did shimmer effects. Lots of info in this thread.

Back in my studio days I was the “effectologist.” I was the one that sat around and programmed all the Roland, Lexicon, Yamaha, tc electronic, and Eventide units in the rack when we had down time. My old partner prefers analog and tape effects. He wouldn’t scroll through any of the parameters and change them, so it was on me.

One parameter that the Space is missing that I wish it had is the ability to modulate the pitch shift. You can fake it a bit with setting the pitch slightly above and below the octave with the two pitch lines, or feeding a modulating delay into it, but I prefer the sound of the single pitch shift that gets modulated around the octave of the old units. I don’t have a Pitch Factor, I would think that unit could do it?

I used modulation a lot on the GP-16 and H-3000 to get Cocteau Twins type sounds, Robin Guthrie used both those units on Heaven or Las Vegas, and on after that.

I prefer this to both Shimmer and most Chorus settings, but it’s a bit of both; and similar to Dimension-D, you take a delay and modulate it, then feed it into a pitch shifter that modulates +/- 3-7cents like a Harmonizer, and then add reverb for a Flange sound. If you add a 24-36ms predelay and increase the pitch shift modulation to +/- 7-11cents then you get chorus. On the GP-16 you could put delay line before the Harmonizer and set to BPM 250-330ms, or set it as a doubler (ADT) before or after the Harmonizer at 30-60ms. Guthrie did that All The Time. ADT into Flanged Harmonizer into another delay or reverb.

I like to send a Space Echo into an analog Vibrato pedal (Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe) for a similar but thicker and more syrupy effect.

Another old trick Is to increase the predelay of the pitch shift to say 225-500ms and feedback into it (you’d need a 2nd delay line to do this with Space I think, but it’s easy on the Roland or Harmonizer), you get “bell trees” that rise up and fall down or keep spiraling up like on some of Robert Smith’s Disintegration era vocals. Works a treat if you set the pitch shift to 4ths or 5ths, but octaves sound good too, just more extreme. It’s similar to Shimmer, but different, more psychedelic.

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marqueemoon
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Re: Who's got the best Shimmer in town?

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Dec 29, 2018 9:31 am

DarnWeight wrote:
Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:14 am
marqueemoon wrote:
Fri Dec 28, 2018 4:24 pm
Do any manufacturers that do a shimmer effect allow the predelay (how soon the octaves can be heard) to be adjusted?

That’s my most consistent complaint with shimmer.
The Alexander Golden Summer has adjustable pre-delay in its shimmer mode. They've been discontinued, I think, but shouldn't be too difficult to find used or old/clearance stock.
Cool! I have mixed feelings about shimmer, but it’s fun to mess with sometimes.

Fuzzjunkie’s detailed Space settings are also pretty amazing, but I’m not planning to pick one up.

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Re: Who's got the best Shimmer in town?

Post by dezb1 » Mon Dec 31, 2018 9:51 pm

Digitech supernatural reverb....

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