Re[2]: pedals!! (was: splitters)

[Mike.Biffle@wj.com (Mike Biffle)]

     Michael P. wrote...
     >On the subject of pedaqls, does anyone find that FX pedals can just 
     >become a gimmick, and that the audience tire of hearing "there's 
that 
     >Ring Modulator again" on, say, a 2-hour Ambient looping set?
     >Michael
     
     I've got hours of jam tapes from "The Lunar Asylum" (what we are when 
     we get together.) And I find that, sure, there are often times 
     redundant useages of various pet effects and tones, which tend to be 
     the favorite of the month. But we're all attracted to these sounds 
for 
     *some* reason. So we use them and find their context and/or move on.
     
     That said, I find that what started out as an alienating sound, can 
     sometimes become understood in a different context and become a very 
     useful and workable sound. I've also been amused at other ensemble's 
     reactions to my use of those tones which I've grown comfortable with. 
     Ultimately you have to choose something that works with the ensemble 
     and material you're performing. 
     
     Michael P. said...
     >>> Z-VEX , is that the company with the "crackle okay" pedal??? That 
     >>>sounds like a great idea , have you tried it??
     
     I said...
     >> That IS the crackle ok pedal! 
     
     >No, the Crackle Okay control if on the tastefully named "Super 
     Hard-On" pedal.
     
     MB: I went home last night thinking Fuzz Factory... Crackle OK, 
     Crackle OK. Mostly due to listening to it rather that looking at the 
     darn knobs and their titles.  8->
     
     Well I started playing and looking at the knobs on my FF and THERE IS 
     NO 'CRACKLE OK' knob. Oops! It's personality is pretty Crackle OK 
     though. Here's the knob line up from right to left, which roughly 
     follows the signal path I believe. This review is based on my highly 
     subjective experience of last night's playing.
     
     STAB: Stability... Sort of a flabbiness / spikiness knob
     
     DRIVE: With compression down this *sort of* works like a normal fuzz 
     drive knob. Sort of meaning that at around 4 O'clock it goes from a 
     grainy toothy sounding fuzz, (It's dominant characteristic) to much 
     fatter sound. (At this point the Gate setting has to be increased for 
     silence between notes.)
     
     COMP: Compression. Seems to be second most straightforward knob on 
the 
     box. Still experimenting. (Cranking knobs in the dark.)
     
     GATE: Gating feature which is highly mandatory for any semblance of 
     silence between notes. (Threshold position varies depending on drive, 
     comp and stab settings.) The other *sound* after muting a note with 
     gate turned down is oscillation of some sort which IS tunable. You 
can 
     control the actual note with the Stab and Drive controls before you 
     open the Gate and begin oscillating... then you can jack up the Stab 
     and Drive and make it sound like radio static. Oh Boy... (I will use 
     this. How much remains to be seen.)
     
     VOLUME: Ouput level. Wow this one is simple.
     
     Notes: All controls seem *very* reactive to one another. Possibly 
     excepting the Volume knob, although the jury isn't in on that one. 
     There is NO tone control knob. You have to either love this pedal or 
     hate it on it's own terms.
     
     When A/B'ed with the PE Experience the Fuzz Factory seems to be 
     lacking severly in bottom end. That was my initial impression of the 
     pedal as well, but like I said in an earlier post... Each time I've 
     used it, it has been a very different experience. This a fun part of 
     using the fuzz factory as long as you're not looking for cover song 
     accuracy! I have no such needs, so I'm still waiting to become a true 
     believer. 8->
     
     I've used it on separate 5 evenings and the impression is: Twice I've 
     felt that this baby was fat and singing in it's own quirky way. The 
     other times I've been a little too far into the insect buzz zone, 
     which the Experience does quite well with the Swell button (which you 
     can turn off! ;-)) In all fairness, the output level of the pedal 
into 
     my Pearce amp affects the overall fatness quite a lot as well, so 
     there's more to tweak than just the fuzz. Last night was pretty good.
     
     Anyway this is probably off topic for the list, but I know most of us 
     are knob twisters, and these are GOOD knobs to twist!
     
     Cheers,
     -Miko