External Effects

[galonso57]

Thanks everyone I just started posting here and you all have been a great help. My question is in my rig my second board is a Roland SH-201 not the best but it has done the job. I am a programing novice so to be able to come up with a sound and tweak it works for me. I would like to go real analog at some point but it is not in my budget right now. So for all of you synthesizer experts what is one value priced pedal that I can buy that would thicken up the sounds and also add some weirdness to them? Or do you have another suggestion other than a pedal? I play in a rock band my sound is reminiscent of Rick Wright. Thanks!

[RD9]

in terms of bang for your buck, pedals are probably not as good as all in one units like the lexicon mx series for example, like the mx 400. for $300 USD it's not bad. pedals are more fun to use, but will probably cost you more. not sure sure what kind of weirdness you're looking for, but maybe there's another effects unit like an mx 400 that has more interesting things like distortion...

update - the TC Nova seems to include overdrive+distortion. might be a good deal at $340 vs. getting a single effect pedal.

[space6oy]

again, be a bit more specific. put a number on the "value priced" scenario. i do agree w/ RD9 though, a multi effect might be a better thing to start off with since you're unsure of what you're looking for.

[galonso57]

Sorry if I am not specific enough I don't always know what I am looking for thanks for the ideas these are a bit more than I want to spend. I am looking at up to $125 maybe. My goal is to fatten up the sounds I already have. Does that make sense?

[space6oy]

"fattening up sounds" could be via distortion, EQ, chorus, delay, reverb...

far as a multi effect for under $125, off the top of my head you could get something like a yamaha magicstomp or a boss ME-50.

[galonso57]

What about this? http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/G2/

[space6oy]

i've never had any zoom gear, but sure. alesis akira / ineko are a couple other options.

[galonso57]

Even though these are designed they work well with synths? Do you have anything like this in your rig?

[space6oy]

most effects processors are designed for use with instrument level inputs like the electric guitar instead of the line level output of a synth, but that just means you can cause overdrive by a loud output from the synth. aside from that, yes they work fine. i have two magicstomps, two GS-10s, an ineko and shitloads of other pedals, rackmount and desktop effects processors. the CS-40m i recently bought is currently running through a catalinbread manx fuzz, a behringer CC300 chorus and VD400 delay and an earthquaker ghost echo reverb.

[galonso57]

Wow that is great do you have any of your material love to hear it. What are your keyboards? I am mainly trying to find what is best for live performance. I use midi in the studio have an Komplete 7 used to use it live but it was just not working well.

[Nightdare]

Try to find an old Boss GX700, cheap on the S/H market, no switching lag, got every basic boss effect (pedal) onboard you might need
Compressor/Limiter, Distortions/Fuzz, Delay, Reverb, Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Pitch Shifter, Ring modulator, Humanizer, auto-Wah, Pan/vibrato/Rotary, EQ
though mono in, still stereo out, handles PG based and CC commands (unsure about SysEx, never dove so deep)

May have a lot of useless amp and speakersims, but those are on every processor these days (except maybe studio FX, but those tend to forgo or compromise 'serial' fx like overdrives, phasers and such)
though who knows, amp sims can work like it's distortions, and speaker sims are basicly stationary filters so perhaps there's a use for those as well

[burnn_out!]

if your trying to just kinda beef up the sound, fatter, more analogish, etc.. Maybe try an eh big muff and small stone phaser. Used those are dirt cheap and sound great on synths. In general if your considering add pedals to your rig you should own those. Don't over look those behringer vintage pedals either.

[Jay200MPH]

Don't know what kind of effects you're looking for... I posted a similar topic a while ago when I sought a cheap distortion & delay setup for doing acid / hard techno sounds. I ended up with a Yamaha REX50, which is a bit limited but perfect for what I wanted. It doesn't by any means sound "analogue" but has quite decent distortion, delays, echos, chorus, flanger, reverb, etc., and has 70 memory slots where you can edit/mix the effects to make your own patches. (Also 30 pre-defined patches that you can edit on the fly but can't save over - no need to anyway.) It's a bit noisy and lo-fi, but doesn't bother me...

I've also discovered that it can make just about anything into a cheesy '80s hair metal electric guitar, which is awesome. Rock on!

I picked up the REX for $50, you can probably find its big brother the rack mount SPX90 for a little bit more if you look around too.

[Z]

Since the SH-201 already has some built-in effects, it really doesn't make much since to run it through additional effects unless you bypass the on-board effects.

You might try a tube pre-amp to add a bit of warmth. You might be able to find a used Presonue Blue Tube for around $150.

If you do purchase an external multi-fx unit, you'll definately want to bypass the on-board fx. I've got 2 Lexicon MX400 (one in studio and one in potential "live rig") since it actually has 2 independent stereo processors. I'd never heard of the Boss GX700 until now, but it looks like a fun unit - an upgrade to the Boss SE-50 that I used in the 90's.

[Nightdare]

I'd never heard of the Boss GX700 until now, but it looks like a fun unit - an upgrade to the Boss SE-50 that I used in the 90's.

Well it isn't much newer ('96 or something)
there was also it's studio counterpart (SX700) which doesn't have any overdrive fx, and crams the chorus under the other modulation fx, but is stereo in and has more emphasis on stereo and time based fx
though i would believe that will be a little harder to find