Eventide Pitchfactor and a good reverb like Space (for shimmer/freeze/modulation etc) together would get you a long way in terms of making ambient/pad stuff from a monosynth.
Speaking of Eventide I run my Subsequent 37 through an H9 Max and it’s a match made in heaven - I sometimes find myself wishing for a second, but that’s the only complaint I have. It’s such a versatile pedal, and the various algorithms are so useful (delays with reverbs, reverbs with modulated delays, pitch shifting and octaving, shimmer, sparkle, rhythmic modulation, infinite hold and freeze reverbs, and extremely controllable distortion are all just scratching the surface of what that pedal can do). It’s basically a Space, a TimeFactor, a PitchFactor, or a ModFactor, plus it has it’s own algorithms which go far beyond what those did (and any single one of those pedals are already incredible capable/complex).
The H9 does look good, but I’m not too keen on ‘clean cut’ sounds. I was reluctant to get the El Capistan as it is, and I’d rather pair it with something a bit more out there.
I have no idea why people continue to say eventide are “too clean”… their tape delay, for instance, has wow, flutter, tape degradation, rolloff, etc. If by “too clean” you mean it doesn’t add tape hiss and fake glitch artifacts, ok, but that’s not “clean” or whatever, that’s literal noise generation. If you want a noisy pedal, well, you’re not asking for an effect, IMO, you’re asking for another instrument.
I make pedals for a living, and I try to demo most of them with a synth of some kind. I kind of have to be a big fan of my own stuff, but since I’m the “creative director” they tend to work pretty damn well with my electronic kit
What I mean is that, while it sounds lovely, it’s a very standard ‘nice’ effect. You listen to it and your first reaction is ‘that’s a very nice reverb/delay’.
I always worry about the opposite, where with the usual delays and reverbs I think about the music that is being played with the more unusual stuff I end up feel like it is good for 1 song as it is a bit of a gimmick. Maybe I think about it too much. I would say get stuff to build interesting chains with maybe a drive a crusher or a fuzz in there to add in weirdness, instead of a more gimmicky pedal.
I’ve gotten quite good results with using the tc electronic dark matter distortion and the earthquaker ghost echo pedals with mono synths. Dark matter is hands down one of my favorite distortions works quite well with synths. Ghost echo is nothing crazy but I enjoy what it brings.
I know its sounds like the opposite of what one would want for thier analogue synth…but…
I take the headphone out and run it through and Alesis Bitrman bit reducer!!! Then feed that back into the audio in…using the headphone out volume pot to get just enough signal to the pedal so its not squealing like a pig with feedback (which can also be nice) and use the ext audio pot to blend just enough of the digital crunch with the analogue gooooo.
Sweeping the filter through the bit reducer makes incredible vowel like sounds that are fed back into the sub for a second pass through the ladder filter. Its the meatiest, yet well defined thing i have ever heard.
Pure filth!!! Then into a strymon big sky for some reverb.
Might not be exactly what you mean here but… how about the Fairfield “Shallow Water”?
You could put that at the beginning of the chain, I find it really cool for breathing “life” (or motion) into any patch without drawing too much attention. It also tends to darken the sound, which is usually nice.
Walrus Audio Julia (chorus/vibrato)
Old Blood Endeavours Dweller (Mad phaser sounds)
Strymon El Capistan (standard delay)
TC Hall of Fame Mini (a basic but nice hall reverb)
Old Blood Noise Endeavours Dark Star (a ridiculous par reverb for super ambient sounds and ‘chords’)
I’m thinking of rounding things off with a decent looper or freeze pedal. Ideally I’d like to freeze an ambient pad with the Dark Star and then play a lead line over the top.
I have a TimeFactor, the tape delay is OK, main criticism being that the modulation of the wow+flutter is too predictable. It’s slightly more complex than a standard LFO but you can still hear the cycles repeating.
I mainly just use it as a looper anyway, so no complaints!
The Magneto and Shimmer machines in the Strymon Bigsky can put out big pad vibes.
You can also do a few things on the Subsequent37 with LFOs and envelope looping that’ll push those effects further.
I had a Strymon Blue Sky and didn’t like it at all. I guess I might be the only one to not like it. Then I got a small 3U Eurorack effects box and love it. One of the most useful modules is M.I Warps with the parasites firmware. Kind of secret sauce. Put the output of that through a nice reverb and modulate it all to buggery and you have amazing soundscapes and drones and whatever you want.
I tried a Bigsky but ended up passing on it. The shimmer just wasn’t really what I was looking for.
I managed to snag an old blood noise endeavours Dark Star for £180 and I absolutely love it. Might grab a cheaper reverb (Polara?) to cover the basics, but the pad tones coming out of this thing are incredible. The pitch mod is like having two extra tunable oscillators!
