Talk:Guitar effects

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Contents

[edit] Proposal: Break out Guitar-dedicated articles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Distortion#Proposed_Article_Titles_and_Changes The refactoring is in-progress. MichaelSHoffman 03:37, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

The refactoring is done. MichaelSHoffman 08:46, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Michael this page is looking really good now. Well done.! 8-)--Light current 17:14, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

81.211.2.210 17:29, 16 January 2007 (UTC) and what about distorted basslines in electronic music such as Drum'n'Bass

[edit] History?

I'm requesting more info on the history of these effects to be added, when were they first used, who invented them, etc, to make the article more complete. 84.217.135.167 16:15, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Historic information on specific models of effect pedals, or just the general effect? Robert Moog is likely credited with a few of the effect types listing, plus some that aren't on this list (i.e. Ring Modulation). In reading the album cover to one of my Cream CDs, Eric Clapton was the first to record a song with the "wah" effect. This was with a Vox wah pedal on the song "Tales of Brave Ulysses." --Dulcimerist 19:35, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sound file

The sound file with the guitar and fuzzbox is poorly recorded and picks up the noise of the guitarist plucking it too much, so you don't hear the true sound. Should be removed in my opinion, what does everyone else think? Mobius131186 01:33, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

It's a crappy recording, no doubt. The transition from the first distorted setting to the second is just awful. Agree that the guitarist's right hand is a bit heavy. Having said that, I'd leave it until it can be replaced with something better. In other words, it's better than nothing! --Schnaz 03:49, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Further Reading

Can anybody please, put some links for the further reading section.

Please sign your posts! The "See Also" section seems to be filled out quite well now. Pioneers in designing effects, such as Robert Moog could be added to that as well, I suppose. --Dulcimerist 17:57, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Phase shifter

I'm not sure that "phase shifter" belongs under "equalization effects."

When I play shows and the score calls for a phase shifter (or "phasey" or "spacy" or some other ambiguous direction), I use my wah-wah pedal. (I still use a Crybaby.) I cycle the pedal very, very slowly (I don't want it to sound like a wah), and the effect is almost exactly like that of a phase shifter, including the whooshing sound, particularly if fuzz or amp distortion is turned on. So, I'm wondering whether a phase shifter is more of a bandpass device and should NOT be listed under equalization effects. Phase shifting, after all, refers to frequency, not amplitude. --Schnaz 16:49, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

"Phase Shifter" is now in the "Filtering-related Effects," which is perfect! So, this is taken care of already!  :) --Dulcimerist 17:59, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proposal: Create a section related to setting up rigs

One of the things that still drives me nuts -- I'm 47 years old and don't like setting up a lot of stomp boxes -- is determining the proper order of stomp boxes and pedals. Perhaps someone could provide a little tutorial on that, or provide examples of their rigs or the rigs of famous artists. -- Schnaz 16:53, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

This is a great idea! This is one of the most common questions regarding effects pedals, and it would definitely be useful to this article! I Support this proposal. For the time being, I will track down a couple of tutorials to link to through this article's external links. --Dulcimerist 19:27, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
External link posted. Putting Your Effects In Order Putting Your Effects In Order - Tutorial The Boss and DigiTech websites likely have similar resources as well. --Dulcimerist 20:16, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] missing

some effects are missing

t-wah/vibrato/dimension c/limter/reverb/noise suppreser/enhancer/acoustic simulator/ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 189.162.21.19 (talk) 05:33, 4 March 2007 (UTC).

Thanks for pointing these out! Here's my response to each one:
  • T-wah - What exactly is this? Isn't this somewhere covered in the wah section?
  • Vibrato - I think that Vibrato and Tremolo are pretty much the same thing, so Vibrato could be mentioned in the Tremolo section.
  • Dimension - What's this?
  • Limiter - A Limiter section would be nice, but I'm not familiar with guitar effects which feature a limiter. Normally I only see limiters in amps and pre-amps. Perhaps Limiters could be mentioned in a brief comment of the Compressor section? Compressors and Limiters are sometimes confused for one another, so we could at least clarify the differences.
  • Reverb - This isn't in the article? This is a must-have in the "Time-based effects" section! I'll try to work on this, as it's a very common guitar effect. I've completed this section now!
  • Noise Suppressor - This section is complete.
  • Enhancer - An Enhancer, such as the BBE Sonic Stomp would be interesting to have a section on, but there really aren't enough of these types of effects out on the market. Some amp manufacturers (such as SWR) build enhancer circuits into their amps, eliminating any need for external units like these.
  • Acoustic Simulator - This would be another interesting guitar effect to fit in; but again, there's not very many of these around at the moment. The Boss AC-3 Acoustic Simulator is the only one I'm familiar with. This type of effect is also a modeling effect, and it would open up a whole new ball of wax if we threw in all of the various modeling effects out there. Perhaps a concise "Modeling Effects" section would be good for this article, though; and stuff like the acoustic simulator could be mentioned.
--Dulcimerist 18:34, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Presence

Presence should be added to the article. The only description I've found is:

Valve power amplifiers often provide an additional presence control (which reduces negative feedback in the power amplifier section) to provide a small amount of boost at frequencies above the treble control.[1]

 —Michael Z. 2007-04-05 04:25 Z

I've understood this to be something that's part of EQ. Some of the good EQ units will have this Presence control with it. Perhaps this could be mentioned in the EQ section? --Dulcimerist 18:41, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Noise Gates

Noise gates should be added to this article, along with a brief description of how they work. The source material for them in their Wiki article would likely suffice. Popular noise gates include the Boss NS-2, MXR M-135, and ISP Decimator. --Dulcimerist 19:06, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I went ahead and added this section, paraphrasing a bit of material from the Wiki noise gate article, and adding the pedal examples listed above. Please feel free to modify and shape it. Thanks! --Dulcimerist 19:25, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for adding that. I reworded it a little. It's still not perfect: I think the trouble is the two meanings of "signal": (1) whatever is coming through, or (2) whatever is coming through that you want (i.e., as distinguished from noise). Technically, noise gates do remove noise, but only by removing everything. I'll have to think more about how to reword it. Cheers, Doctormatt 19:50, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
Sounds good. I had thought about explaining the noise gate as something that keeps things quiet when they're supposed to be quiet. The desired signal is set at a volume way above the noise, so that the desired signal drowns out the noise when the gate becomes open. Thankfully the noise gates we discuss in this article are the simple stompbox variety, and not the more-sophisticated studio rack equipment.  ;) --Dulcimerist 17:47, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reverb

Reverb needed to be in this article, since it's a popular effect. What's out on this article is a bit of a rough draft, so tweak it if it needs it. Showing the differences in a few reverb tyoes seemed to be useful for this article, so I included three popular types. My source material is from the Reverberation article on Wikipedia, and could use a nice paraphrasing. Thanks! --Dulcimerist 19:25, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Effects Pedal Model Names/Numbers

The lists of example pedals are quite good! It might be wise to include both the model name and number for them, though. For example, I'm more familiar with the Boss PS-5 being called the Boss Super Shifter. Listing it as the Boss PS-5 Super Shifter would be more descriptive. This would be a simple minor edit. --Dulcimerist 19:39, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I went ahead and did it. Hopefully I didn't accidentally break an internal link. There were three spam URLs inserted into the article, and one had been inserted inside of an internal link. I repaired the vandalism and tidied up the pedal examples. --Dulcimerist 20:18, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
Is it a goal of this project to make interesting separate articles for noteworthily-famous effects pedals? History, features, manufacturer, noteworthy musicians who have used it, etc. could be added, along with a couple photos of the effect box. I'm sure that there are manufacturers out there who would support this idea with plenty of information. Would this be of interest to this project? Thanks! --Dulcimerist 17:51, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Section on Modeling Effects

Would it be wise near the end of the article to mention the newer modeling effects? These are the effects that make the guitar emulate other things. The Boss AC-3 Acoustic Simulator comes to mind, as well as a sitar model that DigiTech put into their "The Weapon" effects pedal. Is anyone interested in typing something like this up? --Dulcimerist 18:39, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wiki Project?

Is there a music Wiki project that this article and its related articles could fit into? That might get some additional Wikipedians here to work on and shape this cool article! Thanks! --Dulcimerist 19:30, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Done! Both projects I signed this into will be excellent. I also added a discussion page header, which will help users to remember to sign their posts and stuff. --Dulcimerist 19:42, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is there a sound files Database somewhere?

I wrote this post also on effcts pedal. where can I find sound files of these effects? Is there a place in wiki where I can find it?(Joelsims80 21:18, 11 October 2007 (UTC))

I found a website called "Noiseon" it has a lot of sound samples of guitar effects there and it doesn't require registration or anything so I'll just add it to the external links. (Joelsims80 23:25, 22 October 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Remove: Power Attenuators - not really an 'effect'

Shouldn't the 'power attenuators' section be removed?

A power attenuator is a power-management system using a dummy load to absorb high-wattage tube amplifier output in an attempt to reproduce the final sound at lower volume levels.

An effect is an audio signal shaping device.

A power attenuator is not an audio signal shaping device.

Effects modify the instrument signal pre-power amplifier stage. Power attenuators go after the power amplification section of an amp, before the speaker. Effects can be used with a direct box and run into a studio mixing board, power attenuators cannot.

Power attenuators will be seen on amp-building forums, but never on effects-building forums.

Power attenuators are more of an amp subject, not an effects one.


(Jucati (talk) 03:58, 31 January 2008 (UTC))

[edit] Flanger Section Has Sales Pitch

"A modern "clone" of the Tycobrahe Pedalflanger is sold by Chicago Iron."

This is a company blurb/sales pitch - not neutral.

Jucati (talk) 04:10, 31 January 2008 (UTC)