What effect just bothers your ear?

[Jonny D]

As always in sound and music, this is your own personal opinion.

I personally really struggle with Ring Modulation. I understand why people use it, but it immediately makes me want to tune out.

What is it for you?

 

[ChrisFFTA]

80s chorus on lead lines

 

[Seafoam Green]

Phaser. Unbearable 70s cheese.
Chorus on lead guitar. Unbearable 80s cheese.

 

[jdel77]

Not much.
I think it's all about application but mostly the quality and originality of the song.
Take Chris' s comment above.
He's dead right, chorus on lead lines sucks for generic 80's songs but on Nirvana's In Bloom it was just insanely good.
There's new ways to reinvent any sound.

 

[Billy Idle]

Compressor, for my part.

 

[Lucidology]

Too much Fuzz on the lower strings can be especially grating to my personal ears …

 

[TexasHeartRush]

Compressor, for my part.

Understood. Although when used musically, its not possible to tell if its on or not. My compressors are an 'always' on pedal. Its a big part of my tone.

I agree, the musicality and application are key. That said, I don't enjoy Leslie emulators for guitar even when guys like Gatton use them. Not a big organ sound fan in general I guess...except a few old Yes tunes. LOL Cheers! RG

 

[rotlung]

I absolutely hate wah. It never sounds good.

 

[rotlung]

Also flanger on a distorted signal. It can add a watery feel to clean/lightly overdriven tones but on anything too distorted sounds unbearable.

 

[lestera34]

80s chorus on lead lines

I just knew this would be the first answer.

 

[Jonny D]

For my preferred music, Fuzz is annoying. However, Fuzz is nice with the right music. I cannot make a fuzz pedal sound good to save my soul. It just doesn't sound good for my style.

 

[Peeb]

I've got a line6 M5, and honestly I have little use for 90% of the FX/emulation it does (same with my Zoom G3).

That remaining 10% however, is a lot of fun.

 

[eflatminor]

An autotuned voice.

If you can't sing in tune, please, stop singing.

 

[orourke]

As long as the noise is used tastefully there is no sound or effect that I dislike.

I play my guitar perfectly clean pretty often, but I like to pepper my set with surprising sounds. Three seconds of ring modulator or fifteen seconds of particle verb can really spice things up. I use chorus, phaser and compression and different times also.

Too each his own, but for me only relying on my "good tone" can be a bit of a bore.

 

[axdxm]

Shimmer.

 

[gollumsluvslave]

I do struggle with Ring Modulators, and also any kind of pitch shifting with bad tracking.

Autotuned / vocoded vocals annoy me also.

That said, I think there is a place for just about every effect out there give the right context...

 

[MacGregor]

Excessive vibrato on vocals makes me yawn.

 

[thecornman]

It really depends on how the person is using an effect on whether or not it is going to bug me! One effect that I do find annoying for the most part is a wah though. Way over used by way to many people. I have not used one for about 15 years and do not miss it one bit.

 

[Holzar1988]

Yeah: Wah.

 

[whatdisay]

Binary wah