The Polymoon is my favorite delay, ever. It's just so incredibly versatile and sounds PHENOMENAL. Multi-tap, the dimension knob turning it into a pseudo-reverb, the dynamic flanger sounds incredible, the phaser is pretty decent (I like the flanger more though), the weird pitch-shift and pitch mode stuff...it's a top tier pedal. I use a DOD Rubberneck for dark, analog, dirty delay which is my 2nd fave
Same! The Raindrops and the CXM were the standouts for me. RE-20 does that particular RE thing. The Mercury7, RV-500 and the CTC reverb were all OK. I actively disliked the rest, the same way I dislike Strymon pedals that just sound too unnatural to me.
„Certain pedals i levitate to….“ niceley said sir. Thats certainly reverbs and delays. Gravitatin is mor the drive class.. my journey for a nice pleasant reverb ended with the gfi specular tempus. Does the kinky stuff to. One of the few pleasant shimmers. Or skylar. Spatium algo always works.
Nice upload Tim, I treat my pedals as instruments, being able to carve some further sonic palette that the synth I am processing possibly does not have. Great upload, thx.
I enjoyed the demos, Tim. I’m really surprised you have no Strymon or Empress pedals … Strymon Volante, BigSky, and NightSky, or Empress Reverb, for instance … GFI Specular Tempus … Death By Audio Rooms … Source Audio Ventris … I could go on. But there are a few key mentions …
Thanks for the tour. It would be interesting to know how you're routing them in and out of your DAW. Integrating external FX can be a bit daunting! Cheers.
Fwiw, I use some direct in the chain. So sound is baked in. Others, like my Empress are a send fx on my mixer. So when bouncing into pc I have a dry & empress channel. If your in the box I personally wouldn’t bother, as vsts are probably better. I only use them as I rarely use the DAW.
A cheap hidden gem that I always loved and return to Is the behringer fx-600. It's a cheap multi effect pedal and the delay on it sounds actually quite unique especially when you tweaked the time on it with the feedback all the way up. It has a very glitch digital sound to it not unlike any other delay I've heard digital, or analog. And the phaser on it has a very beautiful stereo image🎧 which brings me along to the fact that it's stereo in and out 🎛️🎚️👌
RV500 feeding into a GFI Specular Tempus (or Skylar) is a divine combo. Or an Eventide Blackhole feeding into the Tempus. But the RV500 is indeed unequalled in its versatility. I think you will love the Skylar (or a used Tempus is a little more versatile).
@1:02 I love the way he deadpan says "pedals I kinda levitate to" rather than "gravitate to" , I think I might use that to spice up work calls occasionally. Wonderful to see Dreadbox pedals getting represented, I'm a bit of a fan.
Hey Tim, longtime watcher of your videos. I have not liked most reverb pedals, but the CXM 1978 changed that for me. I actually think it pairs better with synths or pianos than guitar. I'd enjoy a video about it. But I also have a recommendation for you that might surprise you: the Strymon El Capistan. The pedal is a sweet-spot pedal, mean every setting on it just sounds good. It is very easy to use, but deceptively versatile, able of doing choruses, slap backs, but you can also use its tape age setting, which is effectively an extremely musical filter, its wobble feature (which can get you lofi sounds and seasick pads) and its lovely (sorry, spring) reverb. It is a very inspiring pedal. Give it a try. Playing a Juno 106 or prophet through it, turning up the mix above 50% (note that 50% on its mix knob is actually at the 3'oclock) and enjoy beautiful sounds. It's my absolute favorite delay pedal, and it really works great for synths - something I haven't seen many people mention. I also enjoy Meris's LVX delay pedal, but it's on the other end of the spectrum - an extreme amount of options/effects.
CXM 1978 == brilliant. Love mine dearly, fave reverb. Have to recommend the Echo Fix EF-X2 (if still worried about stereo, the X3 might suit--but I've found it to be a non-issue), Strymon Volante, and Generation Loss MKII.
I love my CXM 1978 - the lexicon 224 the CXM 1978 is based on is by far my ‘sweet point’ for reverb , so much so that I also sourced a Vongon Ultrasheer , for synth/ambient these two pedals are wonderful. Brilliant review of the pedal addiction problem ……😊
👍🙏💚🧡👌🙋Thanks for this new video!... As listening you in Nature, keeping my three goats under a quiet Sun, i don't hear Nature's Sounding around at this time. That's my favorite subject about effects. Why do we add effects? You knows that musicians for long tme and times have used musical instrument to find a 'chord' with Nature sounding. Vibration From elements, space around, or closing field, wind, breath, birds, animals, trees modulating wind, storms, day sounds, night sounds, seasons.... Nature is never silent and exposes it's space by sound. This is the way I go to electronics, not recreating Nature, but using it's dynamics as Humanity uses Nature in a wise way, wich is far from city music made with close walls, violence, metal and mecanics. So I will listen a second time the video to give a technical advice naming the one pedal I would like to have, stereo that's also a condition, but for now, saying that I like long slow waving reverb, and simple little echoes in selected frequencies. Just what needed to listeners to feel freedom and spacy fields around. everything in analogic if possible. For now the cost can be also a limitation for me, so a simple high quality reverb, added to my velocity and aftertouch play on the keyboards, sustain pedals and joysticks on foot (a way to have hands free) as I don't find this in store, I will build my own multi pass fifth Element foot controller, for sure😎🤗. For now I'm building my moving studio, to travel through Eurasia, so lot of material wood made, boxes, racks, adapted to a modular, semi modular, retro monster, certainly pedals and foot joystick will be home made, because just using two by instrument is going to be wick and a foolish thing. 😱😵🤔 ''and the Music in that mess?'' I have to be serious in designing 😱🤗😎🙋🧡💚🙏
ThorpyFX pedals are awesome, mainly for OD and Fuzz. I love my Boss CE-2w, Volante and Big Sky. I love your comment about being destitute and out on the street! Its so true! Pedals are addictive lol. Ive had loads of multi FX units and they all have the same problem, jack of all trades, master of none. There’s so many parameters on multi fx units, i just end up tweaking and ignore playing, give me knob per function pedals any day. Neunaber make a great reverb pedal called Immerse, one of my small board goto’s.❤
I understand that you are adamant about them being stereo, I feel the same about my pedals. I realized too late that some were stereo signal in and out, but the effect was still mono. I don't know for certain, but I believe the Meris pedals are stereo signal path with a mono effect. Thus summing everything wet to mono and only sending the dry signal out stereo, not sure don't quote me. I know everything from Strymon certainly isn't true stereo, that's what keeps me away from Strymon. UAFX pedals are true stereo, unfortunately they don't provide any midi control, which I am bugging them about regularly in the hope they'll add it. Since they are digital and the usb-c connection is there it shouldn't be impossible imho.
As far as I can judge, these modern pedals have a significantly better signal to noise ratio than the pedals I used in the early nineties. I could not afford rackmount effects at the time, so I bought a Vestafire reverb and a DOD chorus pedal. Your video shows today's pedal can match rack units.... and some nice Berlin School sequencing as a treat. I took the warning, though. No pedals for me, I have to many rack effects as it is. Thank you!
Thank you very much for the tour. I have no pedal at the moment and was actually looking into the BigSky as one for everything. Nice track at the end. I don‘t know about the Rob Papen plugin, is the entire mix going through it?
Your right, pedals are very addictive. I have a couple of zoom ms CDR 70's. TC Hall of fame 2, TC alter ego V2 for the space echo Etc. Now getting a MENG QI wingie MK2 for more sound exploration argghh
I went for the Strymon TimeLine/Eventide Space combo. They're both character pedals that I mostly use in-line whilst tracking. Tbh mix reverbs and delays don't have to be show stopping imho, and VSTs are so much easier to work with that I just default to those in that instance (mostly ValhallaDSP). The Strymon TimeLine is lovely, but quite frankly the Eventide Space could make a fart sound beautiful.
And whilst we're nerding out, judicious use of the Waza Craft Dimension C pedal AFTER your reverb or delay (wet/dry dialled in to taste in your DAW) can elevate your pedals into another... err... dimension! The Dimension C pedal is as classy as it is subtle.
Hey Mr Shoebridge. I just received my CXM 1978 Pedal, how come it doesnt have a power off switch? Are we supposed to leave it on at all times? 😮 weird. I dont want to shut off my entire power strip as it has other deviced plugged into it. ⚡️
Oh wow, wtf Well, you could get two polarity reversing adapters and an inline power switch. Put an adapter at the beginning and the other at the end of the inline switch then stick the setup inbetween the CXM power input and power supply. The inline switches out there are not made for center-negative supplies, but the polarity reversing adapters fix the issue.
I have the DD-500, and while is more feature-packed than the 200, I absolutely love the aesthetic of the 200. Wish the 500 models had the same look. I see you have the RE-20, have you checked out the new RE-202 yet?
I expected you'd have a Zoom MS70cdr. Since you can hack it and basicly load any Multistomp profile on it from any of their pedals, it sounds great and costs almost nothing
I dont think I have used my big skye once since obtaining the cxm 1978. The cxm does basically everything the big skye can do but with a more refined and realistic sound. Another one you should check out is gifi systems specular tempus. It has the role of creative delays and reverbs in my studio while I leave the cxm to perform the more realistic sounding tails.
A big reason why I love my Matriarch so much is the stereo analog bucket brigade delay section. I'd love to replicate that in an FX pedal. Unfortunately mooger fooger delay pedals sell for silly money these days and I'd need two of them! 😂
I bet you already noticed the new Boss DM-101 BBD pedal? It's a shame though that it has a mono only in, but I think it's still interesting for monosynths.
With so many plugins doing the same do you hear any noticeable difference between hardware and software? Enjoy your meditative Videos. Great place to seek sanctuary from the madness 😑
Hi. All the pedals I showed are just running software so are comparable to plugins from that point of view. It all comes down to the algorithms themselves and what you perceive to sound better to you....
Moriarty I think the input and output circuitry makes a difference. That's particularly on old effects units before everything went 24-bit because they often had to design the circuitry to compensate for the weaknesses of the converters. That's one reason I still love my Alesis Microverb III. It's the same with early digital synths.
the conclusion with a warning of ending up on the streets with no money is on point and hilarious xD
The Polymoon is my favorite delay, ever. It's just so incredibly versatile and sounds PHENOMENAL. Multi-tap, the dimension knob turning it into a pseudo-reverb, the dynamic flanger sounds incredible, the phaser is pretty decent (I like the flanger more though), the weird pitch-shift and pitch mode stuff...it's a top tier pedal. I use a DOD Rubberneck for dark, analog, dirty delay which is my 2nd fave
I thought I was going to fall in love with the Mercury7 but it was the Dreadbox pedals that really struck me. Thank you!
Same! The Raindrops and the CXM were the standouts for me. RE-20 does that particular RE thing. The Mercury7, RV-500 and the CTC reverb were all OK. I actively disliked the rest, the same way I dislike Strymon pedals that just sound too unnatural to me.
That was super calming.
„Certain pedals i levitate to….“ niceley said sir. Thats certainly reverbs and delays. Gravitatin is mor the drive class.. my journey for a nice pleasant reverb ended with the gfi specular tempus. Does the kinky stuff to. One of the few pleasant shimmers. Or skylar. Spatium algo always works.
Nice upload Tim, I treat my pedals as instruments, being able to carve some further sonic palette that the synth I am processing possibly does not have.
Great upload, thx.
I keep falling asleep while trying to make it through this video! Lol 😂 I’ll try again soon love the CXM and Meris.
I’m using Empress & DM-2W and love them. Empress makes anything sound great
This was a very calming video. Loved it.
I enjoyed the demos, Tim. I’m really surprised you have no Strymon or Empress pedals … Strymon Volante, BigSky, and NightSky, or Empress Reverb, for instance … GFI Specular Tempus … Death By Audio Rooms … Source Audio Ventris …
I could go on. But there are a few key mentions …
Thanks for the tour. It would be interesting to know how you're routing them in and out of your DAW. Integrating external FX can be a bit daunting! Cheers.
Fwiw, I use some direct in the chain. So sound is baked in. Others, like my Empress are a send fx on my mixer. So when bouncing into pc I have a dry & empress channel.
If your in the box I personally wouldn’t bother, as vsts are probably better. I only use them as I rarely use the DAW.
I know you do mostly new stuff reviews, but would it be possible to wish for a video on the XV-5080
A cheap hidden gem that I always loved and return to Is the behringer fx-600. It's a cheap multi effect pedal and the delay on it sounds actually quite unique especially when you tweaked the time on it with the feedback all the way up. It has a very glitch digital sound to it not unlike any other delay I've heard digital, or analog. And the phaser on it has a very beautiful stereo image🎧 which brings me along to the fact that it's stereo in and out 🎛️🎚️👌
RV500 feeding into a GFI Specular Tempus (or Skylar) is a divine combo. Or an Eventide Blackhole feeding into the Tempus.
But the RV500 is indeed unequalled in its versatility.
I think you will love the Skylar (or a used Tempus is a little more versatile).
Everything sounds great. Thanks for sharing.
@1:02 I love the way he deadpan says "pedals I kinda levitate to" rather than "gravitate to" , I think I might use that to spice up work calls occasionally.
Wonderful to see Dreadbox pedals getting represented, I'm a bit of a fan.
Hey Tim, longtime watcher of your videos. I have not liked most reverb pedals, but the CXM 1978 changed that for me. I actually think it pairs better with synths or pianos than guitar. I'd enjoy a video about it. But I also have a recommendation for you that might surprise you: the Strymon El Capistan. The pedal is a sweet-spot pedal, mean every setting on it just sounds good. It is very easy to use, but deceptively versatile, able of doing choruses, slap backs, but you can also use its tape age setting, which is effectively an extremely musical filter, its wobble feature (which can get you lofi sounds and seasick pads) and its lovely (sorry, spring) reverb. It is a very inspiring pedal. Give it a try. Playing a Juno 106 or prophet through it, turning up the mix above 50% (note that 50% on its mix knob is actually at the 3'oclock) and enjoy beautiful sounds. It's my absolute favorite delay pedal, and it really works great for synths - something I haven't seen many people mention. I also enjoy Meris's LVX delay pedal, but it's on the other end of the spectrum - an extreme amount of options/effects.
CXM 1978 == brilliant. Love mine dearly, fave reverb. Have to recommend the Echo Fix EF-X2 (if still worried about stereo, the X3 might suit--but I've found it to be a non-issue), Strymon Volante, and Generation Loss MKII.
I love my CXM 1978 - the lexicon 224 the CXM 1978 is based on is by far my ‘sweet point’ for reverb , so much so that I also sourced a Vongon Ultrasheer , for synth/ambient these two pedals are wonderful. Brilliant review of the pedal addiction problem ……😊
👍🙏💚🧡👌🙋Thanks for this new video!... As listening you in Nature, keeping my three goats under a quiet Sun, i don't hear Nature's Sounding around at this time. That's my favorite subject about effects. Why do we add effects? You knows that musicians for long tme and times have used musical instrument to find a 'chord' with Nature sounding. Vibration From elements, space around, or closing field, wind, breath, birds, animals, trees modulating wind, storms, day sounds, night sounds, seasons.... Nature is never silent and exposes it's space by sound. This is the way I go to electronics, not recreating Nature, but using it's dynamics as Humanity uses Nature in a wise way, wich is far from city music made with close walls, violence, metal and mecanics. So I will listen a second time the video to give a technical advice naming the one pedal I would like to have, stereo that's also a condition, but for now, saying that I like long slow waving reverb, and simple little echoes in selected frequencies. Just what needed to listeners to feel freedom and spacy fields around. everything in analogic if possible. For now the cost can be also a limitation for me, so a simple high quality reverb, added to my velocity and aftertouch play on the keyboards, sustain pedals and joysticks on foot (a way to have hands free) as I don't find this in store, I will build my own multi pass fifth Element foot controller, for sure😎🤗. For now I'm building my moving studio, to travel through Eurasia, so lot of material wood made, boxes, racks, adapted to a modular, semi modular, retro monster, certainly pedals and foot joystick will be home made, because just using two by instrument is going to be wick and a foolish thing. 😱😵🤔 ''and the Music in that mess?'' I have to be serious in designing 😱🤗😎🙋🧡💚🙏
Thank you Tim! (frm France)
Nice collection Tim. I love my RV-500, set up two presets on A and B, and haven’t changed it since! lol.
Funny that the word “Pedal” in Spanish on some countries can be used as a slang for a drunk person.
So in other words, PedalPunk!!!!
@@dankeplace Lol dude nice. Yeah that guy is annoying.
ThorpyFX pedals are awesome, mainly for OD and Fuzz. I love my Boss CE-2w, Volante and Big Sky. I love your comment about being destitute and out on the street! Its so true! Pedals are addictive lol. Ive had loads of multi FX units and they all have the same problem, jack of all trades, master of none. There’s so many parameters on multi fx units, i just end up tweaking and ignore playing, give me knob per function pedals any day. Neunaber make a great reverb pedal called Immerse, one of my small board goto’s.❤
Very nice video. Thank you. The one delay pedal I find indispensable is the Strymon Volante, not least for its sound on sound feature.
I just use the four eventide pedals, space, mod-factor, time factor and pitch factor with an expression pedal and in stereo
Slim Phatty! 🤗 If I didn't have a Dreadbox Typhon, I'd miss mine terribly.
I understand that you are adamant about them being stereo, I feel the same about my pedals. I realized too late that some were stereo signal in and out, but the effect was still mono. I don't know for certain, but I believe the Meris pedals are stereo signal path with a mono effect. Thus summing everything wet to mono and only sending the dry signal out stereo, not sure don't quote me. I know everything from Strymon certainly isn't true stereo, that's what keeps me away from Strymon. UAFX pedals are true stereo, unfortunately they don't provide any midi control, which I am bugging them about regularly in the hope they'll add it. Since they are digital and the usb-c connection is there it shouldn't be impossible imho.
Thanks for the demo. I would love to see a video on the cxm 1978 on different contexts and the Splash seems really interesting too.
As far as I can judge, these modern pedals have a significantly better signal to noise ratio than the pedals I used in the early nineties. I could not afford rackmount effects at the time, so I bought a Vestafire reverb and a DOD chorus pedal. Your video shows today's pedal can match rack units.... and some nice Berlin School sequencing as a treat. I took the warning, though. No pedals for me, I have to many rack effects as it is. Thank you!
My favorite is my old Roland SRV-330 Dimensional Space Reverb
I really enjoy the source audio Ventris dual reverb
I have the Raindrops and Darkness and Polymoon on my Ambient board.. Awesome pedals with feature packed sounds...
The rv500 is a beautiful reverb. I have switched to plugins now I find them a lot easier and less noise
Great stuff
"Pedals that I levitate to" 😂 I just have visions of you floating up to that pedal board with your legs crossed hahaha.
Thank you very much for the tour. I have no pedal at the moment and was actually looking into the BigSky as one for everything.
Nice track at the end. I don‘t know about the Rob Papen plugin, is the entire mix going through it?
Good video 👍 My Alesis Microverb III, Nanoverb, and Lexicon MX200 still get plenty of use. Used MX200s sell for more than I paid for mine new!
Superb content Tim. I would like to understand how you’re connecting all of your gear? 🙏🏼
Your right, pedals are very addictive. I have a couple of zoom ms CDR 70's. TC Hall of fame 2, TC alter ego V2 for the space echo Etc. Now getting a MENG QI wingie MK2 for more sound exploration argghh
I went for the Strymon TimeLine/Eventide Space combo. They're both character pedals that I mostly use in-line whilst tracking. Tbh mix reverbs and delays don't have to be show stopping imho, and VSTs are so much easier to work with that I just default to those in that instance (mostly ValhallaDSP). The Strymon TimeLine is lovely, but quite frankly the Eventide Space could make a fart sound beautiful.
And whilst we're nerding out, judicious use of the Waza Craft Dimension C pedal AFTER your reverb or delay (wet/dry dialled in to taste in your DAW) can elevate your pedals into another... err... dimension! The Dimension C pedal is as classy as it is subtle.
Hey Mr Shoebridge. I just received my CXM 1978 Pedal, how come it doesnt have a power off switch? Are we supposed to leave it on at all times? 😮 weird.
I dont want to shut off my entire power strip as it has other deviced plugged into it. ⚡️
Oh wow, wtf
Well, you could get two polarity reversing adapters and an inline power switch. Put an adapter at the beginning and the other at the end of the inline switch then stick the setup inbetween the CXM power input and power supply. The inline switches out there are not made for center-negative supplies, but the polarity reversing adapters fix the issue.
I have the DD-500, and while is more feature-packed than the 200, I absolutely love the aesthetic of the 200. Wish the 500 models had the same look. I see you have the RE-20, have you checked out the new RE-202 yet?
I've read some opinions, the 202 apparently sounds a bit cleaner? Need to check out some more demos before drawing my own conclusions 🤔
I expected you'd have a Zoom MS70cdr. Since you can hack it and basicly load any Multistomp profile on it from any of their pedals, it sounds great and costs almost nothing
Could benefit from a (semi active) matrix mixer.
Lovely stuff. What's the wooden rack holding your pedals? DIY IKEA hack or something else?
It's a two tier wooden stand meant for Roland boutique synths which I turned upside down and stuck velcro to! 😂
@@TimShoebridge Nice. The velcro is a great idea.
I dont think I have used my big skye once since obtaining the cxm 1978. The cxm does basically everything the big skye can do but with a more refined and realistic sound. Another one you should check out is gifi systems specular tempus. It has the role of creative delays and reverbs in my studio while I leave the cxm to perform the more realistic sounding tails.
Interesting, I'm thinking of replacing my Big Sky with the CXM.
I love my CXM 1978 🤗
Is that a Behringer Edge below the Crave?
👍
Buy some S-CAT pedals :) Their Filter-Phase is incredible!
Got a Dittox4 and Microcosm...big mistakes! The addiction is growing stronger, wish lists are getting bigger.
youre not tempted by any analogue fx? nice outro tune
A big reason why I love my Matriarch so much is the stereo analog bucket brigade delay section. I'd love to replicate that in an FX pedal. Unfortunately mooger fooger delay pedals sell for silly money these days and I'd need two of them! 😂
I bet you already noticed the new Boss DM-101 BBD pedal? It's a shame though that it has a mono only in, but I think it's still interesting for monosynths.
With so many plugins doing the same do you hear any noticeable difference between hardware and software?
Enjoy your meditative Videos. Great place to seek sanctuary from the madness 😑
Hi. All the pedals I showed are just running software so are comparable to plugins from that point of view. It all comes down to the algorithms themselves and what you perceive to sound better to you....
Moriarty I think the input and output circuitry makes a difference. That's particularly on old effects units before everything went 24-bit because they often had to design the circuitry to compensate for the weaknesses of the converters. That's one reason I still love my Alesis Microverb III. It's the same with early digital synths.
Now listen to apex twin “on” 👍
Gravitate to