Rainer's Rig

[Rainer Straschill <moinsound@googlemail.com>]

Bill,

yes, it's still that FireworX you discovered, next to the other two TC
Electronics components (D2 and TripleC, the Finalizer is in another
setup, I use it mainly for FOH processing *g*).
And you remember correctly what I said about it in the past: the lack
of processing power was somewhat disappointing, what's more, there are
other limitations (like that you can only use one filter at a time, so
if you want to do e.g. an anti-wah with sweepable low-pass going to
the right channel and sweepable high-pass going to the left one)
that's not possible.
I also find that a lot of the algorithms are lacking character
somewhat. So this effector is neither that super-powerful can-do-all
box, nor that thing with lots of weaknesses but a super-characteristic
sound that makes you still use it for me.

Now there are also really beautiful things about it. Apart from a very
efficient clock sync (remember that old Repeater's warbly clock? The
FireworX was one of the few devices which could sync a delay to it
without generating artifacts), the main strong point are the
modulation capabilities.
(some of the following is from memory, so if you can't replicate what
I'm telling you, my memory is most probably at fault, not your grasp
of the unit).

One of the possible uses of the ADSR envelope is to do some kind of
transient shaping, e.g. apply a totally different dynamic envelope
shape to your input signal by simply assigning it to the level at one
point in your effects chain. This works best obviously with percussive
playing.
Of course, you don't need to stop here - you can also use it to
control e.g. filter frequency to give you some kind of super-tricky
touch wah.

Another nice thing you can do (with the ENV functionality) is this:
normally, when using that kind of super-hot fuzz/distortion
death-metal sound (sorry for the pun - you said "I'm a bit fuzzy on
how I'd use that"), you basically use most of your playing dynamics.
So simply do this: setup a simple patch which does that completely
overloaded distortion. Have the output level be controlled by the
input's ENV. And voila, you got yourself a sound that all the time
goes to eleven, yet still has subtle dynamics.

Another favourite of mine is the FREE modulation source. To give you
one hint how to use it: look at the demo fo Zachary Vex's "Ooh Wah"
and try to do that using a filter block and the free modifier.

Have fun,

            Rainer