Stomp box types (the diff kind of effects)

[finrod]

ok... im a total newbie when it comes 2 effect so... can some1 explain what are distortion , overdrive, delay, EQ, chorus, wah, compressor, flanger, phaser and er.... uni vibe? i see these words all the time but do not noe wat it means.... :?

 

[Newbie]

lets help each other! im a newbie as well! -winks winks-

Distortion - very rough sounding thing, like... creed, hmm heavy chugs, metallica, mmm guns and roses those type of sound.

overdrive - warm, not muffled, something like clean + warmness + thick tone

delay - u pick one time, the amp reply u one time. example!

you: piak!
amp: piak!


EQ - U see the EQ on ur amp? bass mid treble? no difference from ur amp one compared to ur pedal. u may ask why have it? for example for rythm i wanna have this sound, bass treble many many, mids nothing. then one setting. for my lead tone, i wanna cut thru, mids high high, bass treble same level, or lowered, then just stomp on the pedalbox!


chorus - give u a creamy watery floaty sound. to allow u to "visualise" the sound, look at those auntie curly hair, especially those permed ones.

exmaple: eee ohhh eeee ohhh eee ohhh.


wah - basically, WahO WAhOW ahOoaWaho. (jimi hendrix - voodoo child)



as for compressor, flanger and phaser... really very hard to explain lol. mm lets see.

flanger... more heavy pinchy sounding of a chorusly mixed wah. is tt how u describe it? lol. or is it phaser. hmmm. someone help to explain lol.

 

[PinkSpId3r]

its better you hear it yourself..

you can try listening to the samples from some pedals company website..listen to the different kind of pedals..and you will have a better understanding before others tell you the theory side of it :wink:

heres a link to boss website..where you can hear the sound sample of boss pedals
http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/products/en/p_compactpedals.html

 

[ItAcHi]

wanna know and flanger?? listen to spit it out by slipknot...

 

[finrod]

wooo thx a lot! now i ROUGHLY noe wat they are. haha 8)

 

[mero]

yeah, those are the rough definitions of the different guitar effects... I'll give a more scientific and in-depth explanation.


Overdrive - emulates/boosts the sound of a tube amp cranked until it cracks up, most people find the sound to be warm and smooth, nice for cleans (use a mild amount of overdrive) or as a booster (connect the overdrive pedal at the start to give the signal a boost)

Distortion - a chunkier, harsher sound. As it's name suggests, the tone will be edgier and rock-style

Delay - a reproduced signal of what you play. e.g. if you play a note, that note will sound again after a certain time

Chorus - taking the signal of your guitar and mixing it with several delayed copies to produce a simulated sound of several guitars

Flanger - takes the signal of your guitar and mixes it with another time-delayed signal of opposite phase e.g. two different pitches, sounds like a jet airplane soaring overhead

Phaser - a delay effect but a phase delay one, unlike chorus and flanger, but works similarly. Emulates the sound of a rotating speaker

EQ - equalization, similar to the EQ knobs on the amp, allows you to adjust EQ settings without having to touch the settings on the amp itself

Wah - a tone filter to sweeps the frequency of your playing up and down to produce a sound similar to the human voice saying wah (not the singlish version of wah :wink

Octave - shifts the pitch of your guitar signal by different octaves, upwards or downwards. Some guitarists use this as an alternative to downtuning

Tremolo - rapid increase and decrease in volume

Whammy - similar to the whammy bar found on guitars with tremolo bridges

Reverb - Produces a reverberation effect similar to natural acoustics in a room

Volume - simple, a volume pedal. Controls the volume of your playing without touching the guitar or amp volumes.


EDIT : Tremolo and Whammy changed (Thanks Shredcow )
EDIT : Mixed up Flanger and Phaser (Thanks Shouheng )

 

[popeye]

wooo thx a lot! now i ROUGHLY noe wat they are. haha 8)

you can go to ibanez website or Boss website.

They have sample sound.
Boss website is the best to get sample sound, you can even hear combination of different pedals.

 

[finrod]

mero

damn rite u did ! power liao ah

popeye

ya thx . im listening 2 it rite now 8)

 

[Colarndo]

Compressor: Smooths out the uneven peaks of the given signal. Balances out the sound,reduces dynamic range in simple terms.

 

[sanXp]

Actually the tremolo effect is not the same as the tremolo you have on a guitar.. The tremolo effect is this rapidly repeated increase and decrease in volume. The effect to simulate a trem on a guitar is a whammy pedal.

 

[mero]

oops my bad, will edit it then....

 

[hofner]

..................

 

[shouheng]

and i think you mixed up the flanger and the phaser...flanger is the one that gives you the airplane wooshing sound. flanger sounds like your guitar swirling through a metal can, giving you really weird sexy sounds...sometimes rather cheesy though. and phaser gives your guitar abit of air when its milder.

correct me if i'm wrong. anyway i think effects depends on the user. something cheesy can sound totally sexy with cool usage

 

[Newbie]

increase pitch i thought octave pedal?

 

[thor666]

i think both the whammy and the octave increase in pitch, the former being controlled like a wah, the latter is set it and move on thing. correct me if i'm mistaken.

 

[mero]

yeah an octave pedal looks like any normal pedal with knobs to change the octave but a whammy pedal is controlled by a foot pedal similar to the wah one

Octave Pedal

Whammy Pedal

 

[Newbie]

whammy's like a wah issit?

 

[mero]

something like that, but instead of doing the wah-wah sound, it increases and decreases the pitch, like doing a divebomb on a floyd rose

 

[moggie_54]

Hmm.. Does anybody try death metal by D.O.D??

 

[mero]

Digitech has taken over production of the DOD pedals....

Subversion has done a review of the Digitech Death Metal pedal in the reviews section