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Looper's Delight
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<<Is that something new? Seems to me there were always devices around that offered interesting ways to control them musically. I think there was a period about 10 years ago where rack processors tended to bury everything behind opaque menus with limited real-time control, which users tended to reject. So things just went back to how they used to be with more knobs, sliders, buttons, etc.>> I agree here, but it depends on what effects you're talking about. If I'm not mistaken, there were delay units back in the early 80's that allowed you to control the delay time, feedback, and/or wet/dry mix via foot pedals. As I recall, the option of controlling parameters on a multi-effects unit via MIDI dates back to, well, as far as I know, when the first MIDI controlled multi-effects units came out. And ones that didn't, could easily be modified to do so. Electro-Harmonix used to make a pedal that operated a cable, which attached to the pot shaft on any of their pedals (you took the knob off the shaft and replaced it with the end of the cable) and you control, say the delay time on a Memory Man as if it were a wah wah. And of course, if you were one to process your instrument via, say the filter on that trusty Mini-Moog, you could plug pedals into control the cutoff frequency (sorta like a wah wah type effect) and VCA level (giving you a volume pedal type deal) and you could also use a pedal to control the pitch bend effect (if memory serves, you could thusly control the modulation rate, since oscillator 3 was also wired to modulate the pitch of the other two oscillators and/or the cut off frequency). I imagine there were even more possiblities in that direction when you used a modular synth, and I imagine other analog synths offered other options (obviously, on something like the VCS3, you could use the ring modulator to process that external feed). And concerning the comment that having so many effects is something like having a modular synth, I sometimes feel the same way, and I'm really not using that many. I have a Boss Metal Zone distortion pedal, Danelectro French Toast octave fuzz, a Line 6 Filter Modeler, a Line 6 Modulation Modeler, a vintage Colorsound wah wah (I also have a fairly new Colorsound wah wah, as well as an early 90's Crybaby reissue), a Line 6 Delay Modeler, and finally, the Boomerang. In fact, if you look at what the Filter and Modulation Modelers can do, you basically have the basic modification effects you'd have a small-ish modular synth. The Filter Modeler actually has a built in monophonic synth, but it's mostly useless (very slow tracking and lousy sounds). Basically, with my effect rig, I have my guitar as the audio generator, with the pedals as being the rest of the synth. ===== May you never thirst! The Scuba Diver Presently Known As Chris "What do you get when you give a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?"-James Earl Jones __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com