If there’s anything we won’t be running out of anytime soon then it’s definitely overdrive and distortion pedals. There’s tons of options out there, stereo, mono, clean blend or not, eq controls etc…
Do you fellas have a go-to overdrive/distortion pedal for synths or drum machines?
I posted a short audio clip the other day of me running a Mother 32 into a Death By Audio Reverberation Machine which may be up there amonst the top dogs in terms of dirt-character ooze. If that makes sense.
Recently I’ve been committing to using a Malekko Downer, which is a blendable octave down distortion and wavefolder. I just made a video of me playing it through a synth patch and a piano patch, it’s not a demo channel or anything. Just things I upload out of personal interest.
Nice! I’ve been looking at the Downer for future - like the pitch capabilities, wavefolding and the separate filters…all of it then hah.
Essentially for dirt and dust it’s just what I have around or have accumulated for guitar: EarthQuaker Devices Gray Channel (many options/flavours which is cool, if not any real controls otherwise), Catalinbread Heliotrope (drive pedal with sample rate reduction and bit reduction - very gnarly and can flip to a ‘low quality’ mode that sounds very ring mod like - any sense of pitch goes into the pedal and comes out it’s own thing entirely!) and lastly (for now) Dwarfcraft Shiva, just an absolutely disgusting fuzz, sounds zappy and like electricity to me, fun and very destructive.
Oh wow I’ve never even seen the Shiva before. I love Dwarfcraft pedals from a distance, since I’ve never had the pleasure of trying one out myself. There’s a seller in my vicinity that has a Baby Thunder (I think that’s what it’s called) out for sale which is what I actually had to decide between before I got the Downer. I had the Gray Channel a few years ago too before I sold it for my DOD 250 Preamp which has been a permanent resident on my pedalboard as a preamp the last six years. (I only use a cab sim pedal then straight into sound card, no amps)
Longtime owner of a Moogerfooger ring mod, took me about a decade to start using the CV ins and outs for extra rumpus.
Always been curious about the Roland Torcido.
Another leftfield (ha!) option is the Landscape Stereo Field. If you keep the feedback knobs low and touch only the lower plates it gives a nice grit to the input signal that interacts in stereo. You can put coins on the plates too instead of fingertips to keep levels consistent.
Of course, it can go absolutely batshit crazy if you want it to
There’s a seller in my vicinity that has a Baby Thunder (I think that’s what it’s called) out for sale which is what I actually had to decide between before I got the Downer. I had the Gray Channel a few years ago too before I sold it for my DOD 250 Preamp which has been a permanent resident on my pedalboard as a preamp the last six years. (I only use a cab sim pedal then straight into sound card, no amps)
