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What's everyone using with their synths?

I actually don't use too many synths, typically. But the one that seem to get the most use are my TC Electronics Hall of Fame for spacious Hall sounds, and it also has stereo ins and outs.

I also use a Boss DD-3 and a Ibanez DE-7 for delay. The former for percussive/doubling sounds (I Feel Love-like) and the latter for dirty, long stuff (Cosey Fanny Tutti-style, like on Time To Tell).

I want to get more interesting things going on, so interested to see what everyone else does.

Chorus, delay and reverb are the main three for me and are all easy to get stereo. I also use saturation/od/fuzz and ring nodulation, bit reduction and flange, ...but to a lesser extent.


Here i use my boss rv-5 on the stereo master out, its an 8 track sampler.
https://youtu.be/hvjC5hh1wWo

I also use the strymon big sky and deco and a moogerfooger ring mod a lot.

I only have a Roland D-50, 'though I really want to get a Moog someday soon, and to make it sound more analog I run it through a couple of things. It has chorus, reverb and delay built in, so I skip those as I like those 80s Roland tones.

Electrix Filter Queen: half sized version of the Filter Factory. It doesn't have midi, but most of the rest is there. Adds analog style filtering to the basic pads and strings of the D-50. Also has a momentary switch to kick in some distortion. Some funky auto-wah is possible if you like that. Can do a pretty good "Diamond Sea" impression.

Lovetone RingStinger: adds ring modulation to electric piano. Also does cool tremolo and outer space modulations. The octave fuzz can trip out single note leads too.

I used to have an old Ibanez rack that had Distortion, Compression, Phase and Flange modules. The Distortion was basically a Tube Screamer, but the D-50 would overdrive it so much that it was almost a thick wall of fuzz tone. The Phaser was cool too, but I didn't use the rest of it much. I don't overdrive the 2 above units as they can handle line levels and the sounds are more interesting and hi-fi.

I tried the Juno 60 with my board this weekend. Randy’s Revenge sounded excellent, algal bloom sounded great and could make it wail like an electric guitar with the gain all of the way up, and my Ibanez cs9 is as good as the onboard chorus (but different). I used reverb onboard my SFPR. The Maxon AD9 pro sounded wonderful but has a HUGE volume drop

The sky's the limit. Delay, reverb, chorus, phaser...those are all standard for me. Alesis Ineko, Alesis Bitrman, and Line 6 Echo Park are the main effects I use, but I sometimes run through my guitar pedalboards.

With vintage stuff, effects with high headroom work the best. There's a lot of guitar pedals that don't work that great due to input impedance. The Moog MF series sound really good. I've got the Analog Delay and the Ring Mod. The drive knob on the delay is great.

I've been really picky with Chorus pedals. I shouldn't say this but one of the best analog chorus pedals I've found is also one of the cheapest! The original '90s 18v Danelectro Cool Cat is amazing. I bought two of them before the 'cat gets out of the bag'. They were about $35-45 shipped on Reverb. The 18v model has nice headroom. It's a true analog chorus that uses the MN3007, just like the CE-2.
I want to try the Moog MF Chorus but haven't yet.

I was enjoying using my modded Line6 M9 but I was distorting the front end. The same with my Boss CE-2W but I've been able to make it work with most everything. I have an original '82 CE-2 that works great. Then I use the Boss DD-7 and RV-6, both work great.

For distortion/Fuzz, I found the Red Llama ckt. to work very well. I have an old MXR Micro Amp that works great as a 'boost' for a warmer sound. It rounds off the top end perfectly and works kinda like a Limiter/EQ.

Sorry I don't have anything to add as I'm still in the process of building my first synth, but this is something I'm definitely interested in!

Since I'm in the Eurorack thing to start with as opposed to hardware synths (soon ), I've been thinking about this a lot since there's only so much space each system has. There are a few companies that make Eurorack effects, like Strymon with their Magneto Eurorack tape delay (based on the El Capistan I think).

Since I don't (yet!) have a vintage Juno or something based on it, I've been curious about the chorus from one. Has anyone tried the TC Electronic Juno Chorus pedal? I saw a video from 2018 winter NAMM that showed one, and the guys decided to upgrade their Juno chorus to stereo, which is REALLY cool. Still just the two buttons, just like on a classic Juno (mode 1, mode 2, and the pedal can even have mode 3 by pressing both).

Just remembered about MERIS. https://www.meris.us

I'm really excited about these pedals. I think it's two ex Line 6 guys and one of them was also the founder of Strymon. Anyway, they're pedals are synth friendly. I think you can switch the input impedance for Line Level.

^That is fantastic! I know a few synth guys who use the pedal-version Ottobit, and swear by it!

Oh man, I'd love to get my hands on some of those Meris pedals. But I can buy synths for the price of some of those.

With that said, I have an 18v Dano Cool Cat Chorus heading my way and I might buy a Zoom MS-70CDR since Megan is always raving about them. Money is tight at the moment, though...

smallsound/bigsound pedals are tuned to work with keys/bass.

I can confirm that the Dano Chorus sounds great! Almost Juno-like.

I feel like an evangelist preaching to the same flock as ever, but... Zoom MS70 CDR. It just has all the stuff in it, takes a synth at the inputs like a champ, and sounds great to boot. It's arguably better for synth than guitar, just because of the interface.

That cheap little pedal is just absurdly good.

StevenO wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 27, 2018 4:20 am

Oh man, I'd love to get my hands on some of those Meris pedals. But I can buy synths for the price of some of those.

With that said, I have an 18v Dano Cool Cat Chorus heading my way and I might buy a Zoom MS-70CDR since Megan is always raving about them. Money is tight at the moment, though...

OH. Just saw this after I posted.

Well, yeah. For 120 bucks new, they're a steal. Also, they seem to sell used for like 100 or so. That says a lot.

Anyway, I say do it, and I hope you get more money, because we all could use some more money.

Having just bought a condo in Toronto, plus wedding season, and also my burgeoning Faberge egg collection, really takes a chunk out of the ol' pocket book. BUT, I do want one of them zoomy dealies. One day.