looking for guitar synth sound ideas.

[Nightfly27]

Hey folks,

I'm looking for suggestions for a pedal that will help me sound less guitaristic, and nothing can be too obscure. Currently, I use an Arion Chorus for leslie stuff on comping, and this works great, but now I want something a bit less pitch-modulating to sit next to it on the pedal board.

What do you stomp on when you don't want to sound like a guitar no mo'? Ferinstance, while using the search function, I found that the new Line6 Verbzilla pedal has a mystery "Octo" mode. Cool, I'll check it out... And if I remember correctly, my brudder once had a Boss multi-effects pedal thingy that when misused correctly, would give a decent approximation of Pat Metheny's early synth sound. Gawd I loved that!

Any ideas? Thanks!

NF

 

[BmoreTele]

MuRF
Ring Mod
Robotalk

 

[Nightfly27]

Originally posted by BmoreTele
MuRF
Ring Mod
Robotalk

Thanks BMF! The clips of the Murf sound way cool. Expensive tho, and big. Still, its on me list. The Robo and other ring mods are a little "burpy" for what I'm after - I think maybe I need something a bit more legato...

NF

 

[HHB]

Digitech has a synth- wah pedal that looks like it offers a lot of sounds for the money, get a pwr supply cause the new digitech go through batteries like crazy

 

[TaronKeim]

Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth for Guitar ( or Bass if you like the extra low-end www.ehx.com has clips )

Studio Electronics Chaos (a synth-like distortion/fuzz that changes timbre as you hold notes www.pedalgeek.com sells them)

Studio Electronics Filter ( www.pedalgeek.com )

Moog Murf ( Amazing pedal )

Moog Low-Pass Filter ( www.moogmusic.com has some great sound clips)

Keeley Nova Wah ( with some fuzz and distortion it can make some very UN-guitar sounds but at some extremes it sounds louzy with chords )

And if you already have some texture effects like Chorus, Phase and Vibe don't fogot to play with them with your tone rolled off on your guitar and/or with a Wah and then run them with a Delay at strange settings with lots or barely any repeats (short delay time with lots of repeats yeilds awesome sounds) into a fuzz or distortion... Just try tons of things like that as well, you can get some truly amazing synth sounds out of pretty regular effects if you fool around long enough. Hope this helps. Also, try effects in different orders, for some of my cool synth sounds I go guitar->dealy->phaser->distortion/fuzz->clean amp which is almost the complete reverse of how lots of people run their FX-Chain.

-TJK

 

[CapSized]

This may not be exactly what your looking for but you should check out the Boss GT-8. It has a lot unusual effects like Sitar simulator, wave synth, hamonist, pitch shifter, octaver, auto riff phrase generator and you can combine these with the GT-8s more common effects like chorus, delay, reverb, phaser, flanger, univibe, etc for some cool and unusual sounds. On the down side you'd be paying for the GT-8s amp & speaker sims which sound awful IMO. I'm currently debating wether to replace mine with a rack effects processor or not. Unfortunatly I can't find a rack unit that does all of the unusual stuff the GT-8 does (except the GT-PRO, but its twice the cost and still has the same crappy amp models).

 

[g3rmanium]

Originally posted by Nightfly27
I'm looking for suggestions for a pedal that will help me sound less guitaristic, and nothing can be too obscure.

There's nothing like the Roland VG-8(8), trust me. There are sounds in it like you never heard before. And all are polyphonic and react beautifully to your playing. Forget the Les Paul-Marshall-emulations.

David Coffin makes some absolutely insane patches.

The only downside is the lack of a digital output, but there's a mod.

 

[covert]

The old Digitech Space Station pedal will get you pretty far away from guitar sounds.

 

[Amit]

+1 for the Roland VG8!
Needs a dedicated pickup (polyphonic) but its worth it if you like this stuff
The pickup will also let you use guitar synths like the GR family or drive a Pitch To Midi converter with any synth you like.

Whole new world of sounds, some what a stip learning curve but nothing can touch it.

 

[ck3]

Originally posted by HHB
Digitech has a synth- wah pedal that looks like it offers a lot of sounds for the money, get a pwr supply cause the new digitech go through batteries like crazy

... and it may need to be a separate one. My Synth Wah has been prone to create ground loops when daisy chained.

Other options not mentioned up to now:

Akai Deep Impact
Most Alesis Modfx processors
Alesis Ineko & Akira
Various Tim Escobedo fuzz projects (D.I.Y.)
Various Effector 13 pedals
Various 4ms pedals
All Mid-fi Electronics pedals
LAL Rattle Crow
Lovepedal Fuzz Daddy
Lovepedal Wall of Noise
Yamaha Magicstomp I & II
Boss DR-5
Dave Smith Evolver
Zvex Fuzz Factory & Fuzz Probe
Boss Pitch Shifters
Digitech Whammy
MXR Blue Box

 

[Nightfly27]

Wow, thanks a TON guys, this is exactly the list I was hoping to compile. I think I'll start with smaller boxes that can be fed by my Pedal Power. I really like the vibe of the EH Micro Synth, its 24V, so I hope it can work with 2 of the VL PP's 12V outlets summed together.

So much here, this list is going in my wallet for future reference, thanks!

NF

 

[sysexguy]

if you have a synth pickup/mid converter, the Dave Smith Evolver or Polyevolver is the most responsive sound module from a guitarist perspective that I've ever tried.

Another great way to get a Metheny esque synth tone is with a Vigier Surfreter (fretless guitar) for the brave.

btw, I'm wearing a pimp hat on this because we sell both, but I'm speaking from the heart as a guitarist.

Andy

 

[Boogie92801]

I just listend to the samples of Studio Electronics Wolftone Chaos... that sounds "sorta synthy". I would love to check one of those out.

 

[gulliver]

A simple answer, guitar tone control all the way down, amp treble control way up. With my setup, it sounds very moog.

 

[dorfmeister]

Bump for new ideas.

 

[jaywalker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiagcRMZwww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiagcRMZwww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJhNGoWbe2s

With a GR20 this setup gets me everything in the world.
But I hate it.
all effects there are bog standard music shop stuff available everywhere though.

 

[thesooze]

EHX Hog. Nuff said.

 

[enocaster]

+1 on the EHX HOG, it's good for complex sounds.
Micro Synth for more simple, nasty sounds. Any reverb pedal that will do 100% wet is good, too.

 

[GovernorSilver]

I'm looking for suggestions for a pedal that will help me sound less guitaristic, and nothing can be too obscure.
...What do you stomp on when you don't want to sound like a guitar no mo'?

Less guitaristic, but not too obscure? Hmm... that's still kind of vague. What kind of sound do you want? More like a violin, a trumpet, a sax, a Minimoog, or...?

would give a decent approximation of Pat Metheny's early synth sound. Gawd I loved that!

Various thoughts:

Pat Metheny's early and still current synth sound is the Roland GR-300. It does not seem to be easy to find though in the used market. For reference, here's a vid of the guy using the real thing:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BzfbsoCTplA

A nice little demo of the real thing by somebody (without ever playing a guitar!!!):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eu64tLEbn4I

The new Roland VG-99 includes a GR-300 model. I tried it a bit at Guitar Center and it sounds pretty good. The VG-99 has 4000 parameters, so I think you can tweak it enough that the sound will be yours and not Pat's. These 3 vids may be the only thing online you can find demoing the VG-99's synth capabilities at the moment. Like it's great-great-great-etc-grandfather the GR-300, it can make all those synthy sounds without MIDI:

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=roland+vg+99+synth&search=Search

I have a VG-99 on order. If and when I get around to recording demos of it, I'll post them here.

 

[dorfmeister]

Anybody played through a Smith Evolver? ...or used it with a roland pickup and guitar to midi converter?