Stereo distortion unit

[dtr]

@echothief

EHX Operation Overlord

It has a severe high pass so you loose low end oompf. Something to check for also on other guitar pedals.

[Claid]

Personally I haven’t got a dedicated stereo distortion unit but I am in the market for one. I have used mixers to boost inputs and gain stage for hairy crunchy analog oomph.

I do however have the Jomox T-Resonator II which isn’t strictly a distortion unit but has input gain and does terrifying things to low end, as well as stereo envelope/LFO/filtering for more out of this world effects.

[Tchu]

EHX Platform is a Stereo Compressor/Limiter with Overdrive (Drive button) and a LPF (Tone button).

[Joe_b]

I second this concern.

I bought the Overlord because it had just the controls I wanted for jamming (wet/dry+ 3band eq) and you can always tweak something out of that; but even when processing material that doesn’t have or need a lot of low-end, the end result is hardly ever WOW. I still use it and I’m not looking for a replacement.

A major caveat to this statement is that “samples” is a very broad category, and whether an overdrive works or not depends a lot on your source material and what you’re aiming for at that particular moment.

[LyingDalai]

Don’t overlook cheap analog mixers: some have a good flavor ^^

[dtr]

I reported on both Operation Overlord & Platform here:

EHX Platform & Operation Overlord: stereo dynamics & drive

Splitting off from the live limiter discussion here: Small form factor Limiter for live use? I recently got 2 stereo pedals to pump my MD. I love what AH distortion does to my MD sound but I also want to use my AH for other purposes, so I started looking for distortion fx to dedicate to my MD, and preferably cheaper than getting a 2nd AH… I found the EHX Platform and Operation Overlord pedals that fit the stereo and budget requirement. I’ll be brief about the Operation Overlord, as mentioned …

LPB2ube:

Machinedrum + analog filter/overdrive - experience

Here’s a demo of LPB 2UBE with MD: LPB 2UBE drive is set to maximum. Distortion amount controlled with the input level switch and the MD’s output volume. The louder the input signal the harder it will distort. Machinedrum dry Low: hi input level switch Medium: lo input level switch Max: ramp up to max distortion by increasing MD output volume to max, then back to medium Add Analog Heat and Eventide Space fx Take out fx > back to low > back to dry

[chaocrator]

my favorite stereo distortion at the moment:
Korg NTS-1 with Sinevibes Corrosion plugin.

there are downsides, but they’re minor — physically NTS-1 itself and its mini jacks are somewhat flimsy.

[Wartaler]

Tall Fat & Wide is a pedal specifically made for keyboards : https://www.lounsberrypedals.com/product/tall-fat-wide/

[Grate_expectations]

Thanks everyone so far. It was this video that got me interested in drum distortion:

Andy Stott live Octatrack

Also, the sound of the Triton! I wondered what synth he’d used through this album…

I should add, I’ve been looking at videos that run audio through the A4 filters and I might give that a try before I buy yet another pedal…

[ghostbuddy]

Analog Heat is surprisingly tame, even the high gain setting doesn’t go very far (harsh) as far as distortion goes. Definitely more hi-fi than DOD Death Metal territory.

Honestly two good distortion pedals would be my choice if I were only after a stereo distortion unit. Not that I regret getting an AH but still. You can get two of pretty much any distortion pedals for the price of an AH.

[Fin25]

I’m a big fan of the AH and you can get pretty much most flavours of distortion out of it, especially with the filter and eq to support, but you can sometimes be left feeling that you’re under-utilising it after you’ve spent 700 quid on all it’s bells and whistles.

If I didn’t have an AH, I’d be looking at the Erica Acidbox, it really does sound pretty decent.

Or you could get two Shermans.

[ghostbuddy]

The filter on AH is wonderful, very easy to cut off sizzling feedback frequencies if you so wish.

A stereo Sherman would be awesome. Maybe one day I’ll afford to spend 1400 euros on a filterbank, hah.

[chiasticon]

the AH is awesome but if it’s just drums you’re treating, coming out of the M:S, I’d suggest the OTO Boum instead. still get awesome distortion, but you also get compression. and it’s cheaper than the AH. these are both decently expensive though (the AH is double the price of your M:S!), so my guess is you’d like something cheaper. maybe tell us your budget?

[Grate_expectations]

€300 or below would be nice. Could go higher for the right thing. I don’t want anything too complex (eg. The Sherman)

[DonovanDwyer]

@JamesM

Source Audio Aftershock

I have this… something interesting is that it can have (via the editor app) completely independent distortion types and settings for each side, with a mix control for each. Really “stereoizes” signals in an interesting way.

Another cool unit is the Landscape Stereo Field, Knobs and Andrew Huang have some nice reviews on YT. Totally bonkers.

The unit that I’ve REALLY wanted to get my hands on is the RML Jekyll&Hyde, LFO’d distorted filter mayhem in stereo.

[Tchu]

In the video, he’s probably using the Eventide Space algorithm called MangledVerb (a Reverb with a Distortion).

[Tchu]

This is an example of the M:C drums through an EHX Platform :

Edit : no post-production added. This is a straight Live recording from the Mains of M:C and DT.

[dtr]

@Tchu

Eventide Space algorithm called MangledVerb (a Reverb with a Distortion)

Ssst don’t tell everyone about my secret sauce!

[d4ydream]

It too has a steep low pass filter that is always on when the pedal is engaged. Cuts everything above 12Khz. I returned mine because of this. Bad product? No, but I didn’t want the entire air region cut from my program. I purchased it to use across the master.

[Tchu]

12 kHz or 16 kHz?

I find that it’s a plus because with Distortion, the High Frequencies get unpleasant to the ears.