Magical Wahs and Synthy Drones from Electro-Harmonix

EHX Superego Synth Engine

 For nearly five decades Mike Mathews and his company Electro-Harmonix have designed some of the most popular and groundbreaking effects of all time.  From the Big Muff to the Memory Man, EHX needs no introduction.  Set for a spring release are two amazing new products.

The SuperEgo picks up where the Freeze left off

SuperEgo Synth Engine:
I know the word “Synth” is in the title but don’t expect thick, multi-voiced square waves from the SuperEgo.  Complete with All-seeing-eye graphic, this is what I would categorize as a “Blanket” or “Sound-scape” pedal.  Using similar technology as their Freeze pedal, the SuperEgo can sustain notes indefinitely but that’s just where the fun starts:
-Send your signal through the effects loop to add modulation, pitch shifting, delay or anything you can think of.
-Add a glissando effect when moving from note-to-note to create a violin-like attack.
-Selectively layer notes on top of one another to create a thick, complex background.
-The Latch/Auto switch allows you to select the notes to sustain or let the SuperEgo detect whatever you play.

The New Crying Tone Wah

Crying Tone Wah Pedal:

This version of the original Crying Tone features a Big Muff Circuit

Ok.  This is different.  A wah with no moving parts!   The Crying Tone Wah was originally produced by Electro-Harmonix in the early 70’s but I would hardly call this a reissue.  The wedge-ish shaped pedal rocks back and forth and returns to the “up” position using good ole’ gravity.  Internal sensors detect it’s position  It’s rumored that EHX will be releasing an entire line based on this design so look out.  It’s not going to make “cocked” wah players happy but never having to replace worn out parts or dealing with squeaks will no doubt appeal to lots of cats.

 Premier Guitar gets the scoop on EHX's new toys.

Spatial Profiling: The Kemper Profiling Amp

Cloner Rock

Amp modeling has been around for about two decades now, and although many detest it, it’s more popular than ever.  Be it from a device or software on your laptop, phone or ipad.  Oversimplified, modelers use complex algorithms based on studio analysis of a specific amp to reproduce the tone and response of the amp digitally.
Obviously there are some rather large differences in quality amongst modelers but the one thing they all provide is huge convenience.  
We have now hit the point where there is a high-end guitar processor market.  The Fractal Axe-FX has spent the last few years alone at the top processor game, due to it’s renowned sounds and popularity with pros, but that's about to change.  The Kemper Profiling Amplifier enters the Thunderdome.

“Profiling Amplifier?  Profiling?  What is that all about?” That’s what I said.  Then I started looking into it.
This amp can analyze and profile the tone of any amp and store it!  It comes with some amazing profiles of boutique amps to begin with but you also have the ability to copy any amp you can get your hands on.  To make things even sweeter, you can share the profiles with other users.  That’s kind of insane.  It’s one thing to share tones with guys who have the same tools as you but it’s another thing to virtually play someone else's amp.  Ridiculous.

At $1850.00 it’s pricey but a lot less than every single amp ever built.  Or even just a single high-end amp.  Ok, how does it sound?  I have yet to play it but it seems like every video I see has really tremendous sound. 

Are “Profiling” amps are the next “Modeling” amps?  Who knows what we'll be using in five years.   But for now, it seems like the bar may have just been raised.
At $1850.00 it’s pricey but a lot less than every single amp ever built.

 Watch the Kemper profile a Bogner

Crush Groove: Bit Reduction

 proguitarshop.com Reviews WMD's Geiger Counter

Today everything is Hi Def.  It’s the new buzz phrase to someday be replaced with the next even-greater level of realism to be developed.  Audio and video seems to always be striving for some greater clarity.  Leave it to musicians to tell clarity to fuck off.

When Leo Fender was designing his guitars and amps in the 50’s the last thing he wanted was dirt coming out of his products.  But, it wasn’t long though until a slashed speaker cone, a faulty mixer channel or an overheated amp started giving some players the extra “balls” that they’re music was 
asking for.

Since then, countless amps and stompboxes have been created to distort the pretty sine wave that their guitars produce naturally and the rest is history.  

 

proguitarshop.com review's Death By Audio's Robot

Jimi, Reduced Jimi, Getting Crushed Jimi, Fully Crushed+Voodoo

From the late 70’s on the focus of digital audio has been, for the most part, to achieve the highest level of clarity.  At the same time, simple processors were providing the music for video games and powering the first digital synth engines.  These sounds were far from “perfect” but after a few decades many have become charmed by their quirky, bleepy tones.

We can now take our guitar signal and bring it back to the Galaga days and beyond.  How?  Bit Crushing!   Otherwise known as bit reducing, we are actually taking the amount of building blocks available to process the sound and drastically reducing them.  When you do this, the processor has to decide how to organize aspects of the signal which can result in a wide spectrum of glitchy, fuzzy and unpredictable insanity.  It’s like if you were to ask a 4 year old to draw you a picture of a your car.  You’ll for sure get something but nothing like your driving.  Players looking to experiment with “synthy” tones.  Look no further.  Bit crushers can mangle and contort sounds waves better than Yoko Ono and Jimmy Buffett combined.

Most of these bit crusher devices reduce the quality of processing then add or exaggerate a number of parameters from octave dividing to arpeggiation.  This is when it get’s WAY out there.

Check out the vids to see if if bit crushing fits in your box.

 Hexe's Bitcrusher III is rather insane

Synth Up Your Sound part 3: Wobble, Woosh and Chop

 Frank lays down some huge filter modulation @ 2:11

Ok, so a synth’s oscillators make the basic sounds, but much like a note on the guitar, it’s more interesting to make that sound move!  We’re talking modulation.  On a guitar you can physically shake you hand and create vibrato.  On a synth we gotta go to the LFO or Low Frequency Oscilator.  These create slow and low waves that you don’t exactly here but effect the things that you can.  LFO’s are in many of the pedals that you may already own(chorus, Flanger) but a synth aproaches them in a different way.  You can actually choose what part of your sound will be controlled by the wave that the LFO throws out.  You can also select the kind of wave to warp it.

Let’s take a look at the three most common places to apply the LFO, what it does and how to mock it with pedals:

Earthquake Devices' Sea Machine takes Chorus/Vibrato to 20,000 leagues down.

EHX Stereo Pulsar will help you dial in the perfect tractor beam or mothership landing.

Oscillators
In a synth the VCO’s determine the pitch.  If you put an LFO wave on it, it wobbles above and below the note played.  This is vibrato. Obviously you could just use a vibrato pedal.  Try to choose one with more parameters than two to dial in a Moogier sound.  A chorus pedal will get you close although it will add a bit too much of the normal signal to make it “Synthish”.  

The VCA(Voltage Controlled Amp)
This controls the sound over a period of time affecting the attack, decay, sustain and release of a note.  Since it amplifies, when an LFO is applied the volumes are effected creating everything from smooth pulses to agressive chops.  The pedal equivelent= Tremolo.  Try a tremolo with varied wave forms to get closer to the sqare and triangle waves common in synth mods.





Filters
Depending on the type, a filter blocks certain sections of the frequency from getting through to alter the sound.  There are different parameters that you can control on a filter(Cutoff, amount, resonance).  The cutoff is a very common parameter to adjust and results in the classic sweeping woosh that synths are known for.  Wahs and Auto wahs(Envelope Filters) have been common for years but recently filter modulations have become popular again but fused with modern advancements that can create sequenced and random effects.  Check out the Moog MURF.  Huge fun.

Turn Some knobs!

Synth Up Your Sound part 2: Sweeping and Gliding

Digitech Whammy Pedal

"What up with this guy and synths?"  I know.  I like options, what can I say?  One of the things that I dig about synths are the real-time performance effects available to juice-up a riff.  Let's take a look at two of the classic synthesiser aspects that give them "that" sound:


Pitch Wheel
The pitch wheel on the Minimoog was a revelation.  It added enormous expressiveness to the instrument by letting players use the notes “In-between” the keys and beyond allowing keyboardists to manipulate notes in ways that only guitarists, brass and vocalists did before.

Morpheus Bomber

How to get it
The Whammy pedal is the pitch wheel of the guitar world.  Sometimes called Pitch Glide, you can set it depending on how much above or below the note that you want do things never before possible on the guitar. It’s sometimes hard to say if a piece of gear will become a classic but due to  almost instant popularity amongst players across the spectrum, the Whammy, and it’s copy-cats, are here to stay.





Filter Sounds
The Minimoog’s LPF( low pass filter) is a crucial element to sound creation as well as a dramatic performance effect.  The Minimoog's famed filter can be slowly swept or set for high sensitivity.

Mutron Master

EHX Riddle: Qballs

How to get it
The quick answer, a wah pedal.  Although not a LPF, a wah pedal works in a similar manor. Most players put there wahs towards the beginning of their signal chain but for a more pronounced filter voice, try it closer to the end.  It might be a bit much for your SRV covers but better suited for making spaceship sounds.
There are also envelope filters which translate your attack and create an array of vowel tones.

It should be noted that the LPF can also be controlled with the Minimoogs LFO(Low Frequency Oscillator) but that is a whole post in itself.

Synth Up Your Sound part 1: Making Waves

The Minimoog's Oscillators

Electro-Harmonix' Microsynth is a great synth-in-a-box

Today there are several ways to control a synthesiser, virtual or the real deal, with your guitar.  But what if you just want to add some “synthy” sounds  to your rig without using special pick ups or a guitar-shaped controller thingy?  I’ll break down some ways to add  some Moog to your Marshall.

What is a “synthy” sound?  With today’s software and hardware synthesisers the answer is, Anything.  I’m gonna focus on classic analog subtractive synthesis and the most classic of all synths the mighty Minimoog.  Bear in mind that a series of “standard” guitar pedals hooked up to an amp is synthesis so you’ve had your toes wet this whole time.  The ways I’ll talk about are just “synthier” sounding.  There are some great pedals on the market that are one-stop-synth boxes but let’s now look at how we can get synthish tones with simpler pedals.

Let’s talk about oscillators and some ideas on how you can “ape” them with pedals:

Multiple Voices
The origin of an analog synth’s sound lies in it’s oscillators.  In a Minimoog there are three oscillators.  This means that when a note is played it can play up to 3 “voices” simultaneously.  Each oscillator can be set to a different octave in either direction creating a a three part tripled harmony.
How to get them
There are now so many pedals that can can add octaves and harmonies to your sound that the choice is yours.  Let’s use the example of simple octave up and octave down pedals.

The EHX Micro POG is your tone x 3

Varied Wave Forms
Guitar for the most part is a sine wave.  Each oscilators of the Mini Moog can produce either sine, square, triangle, saw or pulse waves.   

A ColecoVision fighting a Speak & Spell to the death

The Zvex Fuzz Probe turns your movements into splattey waves

How to get them
Clip them peaks!  You can’t produce a true square wave out of a standard electric guitar to my knowledge but you can sure hack up a sine wave til it sounds like one.  Don’t go for a smooth overdrive here.  Big, brittle fuzzes and crackly distortion can do the job nicely.  To push it even further, try a bit reduction pedal to get that wave jagged.  A pulse wave can be created with a vibrato or tremolo pedal.



To get into synth territory, try running an octave down pedal then fast vibrato pedal in paralel with an octave up plus a jagged fuzz.  Adjust the blend of each signal to get a three octave voice with varied waveforms.

That’s just a simple example.  There are pedals that provide several voices all on there own. It’s up to you to find out what you want/don’t want.