What are you using? OTB Effects Boxes, Racks and Pedals

[Markus Wolf]

Hi Guys,

Just like the title says. What do you guys using for OTB processing? Ive been looking at a Boss SE 70 and a TC electronics D Two Delay. I do most processing ITB but would like to expand my options a bit without breaking the bank.

cheers

[ayusounds]

At the moment I only have a Proco RAT (distortion) and Ensoniq DP/2 (multi-effects). I love them both

Looking forward to get some Strymon and Eventide...

[Markus Wolf]

At the moment I only have a Proco RAT (distortion) and Ensoniq DP/2 (multi-effects). I love them both

Looking forward to get some Strymon and Eventide...

Funny I owned a DP2 with a big old power supply. I never invested much time into it. Battery was low. I sold it for a good price. I regret it everyday

[msl]

Rack:
Alesis Midiverb II
ZOOM 1204
Tascam 122R mkII

Pedals:
Alesis Metavox
Frostwave Resonator
Ibanez ES2
Aria Metal Master
Boss MT-2 Metal Zone
Pro Co RAT

[terryfalafel]

TC D Two. It's a great buy for the money. Definitely recommended.

Lexicon MX400. Not a lot of parameters to control for each effect, but sounds decent enough for chorus / flange / phase / delay

Lexicon MPX1. Bought from someone on here for reverb duties cos I couldn't find a decently priced PCM model

2 x Neve 1073 clones. These are both mic and line in. I don't do much mic recording with them but I put synths through them while recording for extra gain and lovely EQ.

Neve 33609 compressor clone. This was the first proper DIY piece I built. It sounds great but doesn't get that much use. Should flog it really and buy something else but it has sentimental value cos it was the first big, complicated project I built.

TB Audio TBDD 500 series. DIY clone of the Dimension D. Amazing for fattening synths. I use it on everything

Elysia Xpressor 500 series. Great sounding and versatile compressor

Elysia Nvelope 500 series. This hasn't got as much use as I thought it would when I bought it. I'm always happy with it when I use it but need to find a better way to incorporate it into my workflow.

1176 blueface 500 series clone. Sounds great on synths and bass.

Shure Level Lock clone in 500 series. Distorted, noisey and hard to control. It's fun, but I've yet to find an application for it where it really fits.

[Markus Wolf]

TC D Two. It's a great buy for the money. Definitely recommended.

Sounds Like, you have allot of hardware. I just picked up the D Two last night for ridiculously low price, I paid 1/3 of what it costs new Its basically brand new. Im going to midi sync it tonight. I didnt have too much time to play with it last night. And I picked up the boss se 70, interesting little box altho its not syncable. Ive heard good things about this unit but again I havent had the time to dig into it yet.

[terryfalafel]

Cool. Yeah for me having stuff to touch makes all the difference when I'm writing. I could achieve the same with software I'm sure, and have a lot less headaches with cabling, routing maintaining all the hardware, but for me it's just not as much fun doing everything on screen.

I don't know that Boss unit myself but they used to be super popular back in the day. Defo worth a punt. The one I'm looking out for is the blue 1ru Boss unit from the 90s that had the Roland RSS 3D sound algorithms in it. Could be a giggle go see what they sound like and they go for next to nothing these days.

[Pelecaras]

Rack:
Alesis Midiverb II
ZOOM 1204
Tascam 122R mkII

Pedals:
Alesis Metavox
Frostwave Resonator
Ibanez ES2
Aria Metal Master
Boss MT-2 Metal Zone
Pro Co RAT

I have the Metavox, it's a fucking great little unit

Don't own much outboard gear

Boss SYB-5 Bass synthesizer
Alesis Metavox
Boss V-Wah
Korg Kaoss Pad

and just bought and waiting for Realistic Electronic Reverb unit (the thing that Audio Damage Ratshack is modelled on)
cant wait to have a play.

[msl]

I have the Metavox, it's a fucking great little unit

yeah its absolutely amazing isn't it. kinda wanted a Bitrman too but people are asking stupid money for them these days like €250... they were only €40 originally

and just bought and waiting for Realistic Electronic Reverb unit (the thing that Audio Damage Ratshack is modelled on)
cant wait to have a play.

Ah man its just a mega piece of crap the plug in is way better no joke... the distortion on Ratshack is awesome... if you just zero all the rest of there options....

[Pelecaras]

I have the Metavox, it's a fucking great little unit

yeah its absolutely amazing isn't it. kinda wanted a Bitrman too but people are asking stupid money for them these days like €250... they were only €40 originally

and just bought and waiting for Realistic Electronic Reverb unit (the thing that Audio Damage Ratshack is modelled on)
cant wait to have a play.

Ah man its just a mega piece of crap the plug in is way better no joke... the distortion on Ratshack is awesome... if you just zero all the rest of there options....

No way, glad I only paid next to nothing for it then. oh well it may come in handy for something.

I wonder how much the Metavox sells for? Not that I'd ever sell it, it's sounds great with everything I run through it.

[Hades]

kinda wanted a Bitrman too but people are asking stupid money for them these days like €250... they were only €40 originally

.

I have a good friend that has one, or at least had one afaik
want me to ask if he's still using his unit enough ?
just a fair price would probably be reasonable for him.

[Hades]

ok...

TC electronic Fireworx (x2) :
started with just one, but it got broken by accident by my oldest (on my b-day of all days ffs) a few weeks ago,
I realized I really did still use this unit a lot,
so I almost istantly got a new "used" unit, and the old one is in for repair,
but I strongly suspect l won't sell it after it gets back in working order.
I just like the unit too much, gives you so much value for your money.

Sherman filterbank 2x2 :
This shit seriously doesn't get used enough (read : gets fired up maybe 6x a year), and I know all you guys would kill for a distortion unit like that (but you should have seen some of the vintage gear Herman has at his place ),
but maybe distortion just isn't my thing enough, and I have yet to try out that "non destructive overdrive" mode it can do as well by sending it the right MIDI message...
keep saying for ages I should try it out some day. I really wonder if the Sherman can also do milder filter stuff...

Sherman/Rodec Restyler :
plain fucking fun, but more a DJ tool than a sound designers tool. Will move to the DJ room as soon as I have finished building the library, so that the current room used as library can get used to store my vinyl/CD collection and I can set up a proper DJ corner and comfy couch in there.

OTO Biscuit : fucking loved it from day one, still love it so many years later.
Perfect for adding grit and then softening the blow by using the analog filter at the end of its signal chain.
built like a tank, and can also be used as a mono-synth by just loading it differently (totally free upgrade)
One of my alltime favourite (and most used) units in my studio !!!
Sometimes I just use it for the analog filter alone. It sounds totally lovely.
In fact, if I remember correctly my very first post ever on subsekt was about the Biscuit !

OTO Bim.
Not much to say yet, bought it mainly based on my opinion on the Biscuit, and haven't had the time yet to properly check it out enough.

ProCo Rat Deucetone :
hardly ever use it, except if I wanna run my 303 through something.
I know I should try it on other stuff as well.
I'm just over-equiped, really...
And I keep going back to the same pieces, and the other 60% of my studio simply doesn't get enough love...
And then I've already downscaled so much over the years...


and of course, last but not least : Eventide H8000fw
bought that far too expensive thing about 6 months before they started making their way cheaper stompboxes, (ouch !!!!!)
and yet, I still don't regret it for one single second.
It has a dual-core engine, and each engine is just a combination of all these stomp boxes together,
and it comes loaded with approx 1500 presets, and chances are very realistic that you'll most likely never get to know all of them in your whole life.
This box is the rolls royce of effects and is highly addictive.
It has tons of features, and yet stupid little me just always uses it the same way : run audio through it and record into Live.
the plain old fashioned analog way of recording. (Never tried the FW part, and now it's no longer an option with Mac having ditched FW)
I've seen so many artists I respect having at least some Eventide unit (mostly the H3000), and I'm not at all a copycat, but yeah, after getting it and having used it for so many years,
I can totally see why they have such a legendary reputation.
I will cry so hard when it stops working for good.
When my oldest killed my Fireworx, I discovered the H8000 didn't boot up at first either, but all I had to do was replace the power cables.
Thank god...


and then of course my Midas desk which I mainly use for it's EQ, and sometimes the gain to add some little extra power.

[Markus Wolf]

Hades you got such a sweet setup! I got Gear Envy, but lately Ive been telling myself the truth every time I think of buying more and more gear. Its not what you have its how you use it. Allot ITB only producers, allot of very minimal setups putting out good quality music. I still lust for gear, but I know the reality of it too. You dont necessarily need it. I have to tell myself this..... Lol!!

[Markus Wolf]

But yeah, I was at my local gear shop and they had an Eventide H8000. I stopped dead in my tracks, drooled a little bit and then kept walking. I was always looking at the h3000 or even an eclipse, but the h3000 are older units and I was always worried about them needing tons of maintenance.

[Hades]

well : look at it this way : if your H3000 ever dies, you can replace it for half the money (or most likely less) than it costs you to buy an H8000 new !
And the H8000 has been their top model for a long time now, so any time soon (2 max 3 years) they will bring out a newer model, and you might find a reasonable price for a used H8000. Just don't buy that shit used off ebay without trying, too expensive to risk being screwed.

seriously though : about 2 years ago, I decided I really needed to start saving up for some kind of emergency fund,
just in case one of these units that I always use breaks down, and I don't have money to replace it.
there's 2 types of these (HW) units :
units I simply must have for production : monitors, soundcard, laptop, mixer.
and units I'm simply addicted to : H8000, Andromeda (even though it's hardly ever featured on any of my tracks), and in a smaller way : Fireworx

so yeah, I put aside about 100$ a month, just for when those painful moments will happen some day...
I don't have a high paycheck at all, and it's one thing to save up for something, but it's quite another thing to have the money to maintain the "high standard of living", you know ?

It's vital that you think about those things once you start with that high end gear,
otherwise you're just gonna get to some point where one of these things breaks, and you're gonna have to "switch" back to a lower level of gear,
and it's gonna fucking hurt like hell !

seriously, you are totally right, you do NOT need any of this shit,
I do NOT need any of this shit (apart from a laptop and a good soundcard and good pair of headphones) to make music, NOT AT ALL,
but I seriously doubt I'll have that much fun, or that I'll be able to make music 10 hours and still have my ears survive "semi-properly",
or that my tracks will sound the way they sound now.
And I'm honestly not talking about mixes now, just about the sounds in my tracks.
Not that they are über-special or highly original, of course not !!
but my setup is my setup, and I've done 13 or 14 years to get to this point and have exactly this collection of synths.
Which cover a very wide range of different sound synthesis methods.
I record all of them, even if I use 40% lots of times and the other 60% maybe once in a while.
But yeah, of course 70% or more is just knowing how to use your gear (and putting in the hours !!!),
but I'm convinced that once you get to the point where it all starts coming together, and your learning-curve is far easier
(even though of course it never goes away totally, ffs, there's still so many things I gotta figure out properly ),
having a certain setup can make you have a certain "sound" as well, in a way.

Gonna sell my old JX10+PG800 in the very near future though,
I hate to do it, but I need the money now that I'm currently unemployed,
and this one hasn't been used in ages, and the few sounds I love (and bought) it for can be perfectly done with Omnisphere.

[Markus Wolf]

No not the JX!!!! Just kidding i don't even know what they sound like. I have a producer friend who came by my studio last night. Hes always hated the microbrute but I told him "With a little massaging. It can sound good" Anyways microbrute with just a delay on it and this little sub $300 synth was running a wicked synth line. I read an interview with Juan Atkins and he said something to the effect that you gotta "tweak those machines like its nobodys business" Its amazing that my machines with no presets are a little harder to coax but they impart not necessarily a better sound because there analog but there is a certain twang and depth (Im not sure this is the right words) That you get out of them that so far I haven't been able to achieve ITB. Im not saying that Analog is better by any means, whats im saying Is ive noticed certain harmonics and oddities that occur with analog that I haven't witnessed in Software yet. But on the other hand the total recall of software the routing and flexibility allow you to do things that cant be accomplished easily on hardware. Tomatoe, Tomato. Ok ive gone way off topic.

[WOLF!]

I have a hybrid setup and have a few hardware FX units (pedals and one 19" fx unit):

4 pedals:
-EHX Cathedral
-Boss RE-20
-Zoom MS-70CDR
-Ibanez Fat Cat FC10

19" multi fx unit:
-Roland DEP-5

[Markus Wolf]

I have a hybrid setup and have a few hardware FX units (pedals and one 19" fx unit):

4 pedals:
-EHX Cathedral
-Boss RE-20
-Zoom MS-70CDR
-Ibanez Fat Cat FC10

19" multi fx unit:
-Roland DEP-5

Whats the DEP5 like? I saw one for sale locally going for whats seems like a pretty good price. Is it stereo IN? I was looking at vintage unit like the Yamaha SPX 90 II very cheap but had only mono in's. I guess you can get some interesting textures with the Boss RE-20...


cheers

[WOLF!]

Whats the DEP5 like?

I like the DEP-5. I came across the DEP-5 in search of some oldskool fx units.
It was the DEP-5 or the ensonic DP-2 but the Roland popped up first. My unit is mint and for stuff from 84' that is quite rare.
It has a special character because of the 32khz sampling frequency; oldskool gritty digital as I call it.

Is it stereo IN?

Yes it has stereo in but I use it mono in.

[Kuchta]

My favourites in the studio are:

OTO Biscuit for bit crunching and filtering. Utterly brilliant which is the reason you can hardly find one for sale ever.

Shippman Ebbe Und Flut. Deliriously expensive compressor, filter, distortion unit. Like a rounded-off, slightly less insane but fatter brother of the Sherman Filter.

AKG BX20 Spring Reverb. Massive teak wardrobe from the 70's that just happens to have the sexiest, smoothest spring reverb ever made inside. This sounds like nothing else on this planet when you give it a good boot. Such a cool reverb too. I use Lexicon for clean reverbs in my mixes, and then tap this on one sound and when it comes in, it just pops out in the most beautifully dark and noticeable way.

Boss CS3 compressor pedal - Cheap as chips and makes any drums sound fat and crunchy. As recommended by Legowelt.

Roland RE-201. The pedal sounds pretty good, as do the plugins, but there is a reason why everyone harps on about 'not being able to beat the real thing'. They are just so dark, varied and unpredictable. Buy the most expensive, cleanest and complete version you can find (mine came from Japan) and sell your Granny to do so. The bitch smells and the RE-201 will always be worth what you paid for it.

Revox B77 tape recorder - If you have a hardware synth or drum machine, get one. Whack it in front of the inputs to your sound card, set it running, and switch it to 'monitor' then record EVERYTHING through it into your DAW. Having it in Monitor allows you to slow the speed up or down (it has vari-speed and 2 main speeds too) and play with the input levels whilst hearing the effect it's having in real time. What looks like a large sum of money to drop on a tape recorder becomes the best compressor/saturation/distortion you have ever heard. PLUS - you can use it in your mix as a seriously Hifi tape delay, and then master to it when your done. The bitch keeps on giving.