Guitar Pedals with no Plugin Counterparts

[SonicDimension]

There are a number of digital guitar effects pedal algorithms which seem to be almost non-existent in the software world. Some examples which come to mind:

• Polyphonic pitch shifters/octavers (e.g. EHX POG)

• Autoswell (e.g. EHX Attack Decay)

• Autofreeze (e.g. EHX Superego+)

• Guitar synth (e.g. Meris Enzo)

I’m not even mentioning the countless unique boutique pedals with no software equivalents. The examples I listed above can all be found in multiple pedals.

It would be nice to see developers offer some of these algorithms in plugin form. Using pedals to record in the 21st century feels kind of anachronistic. Which guitar pedals would you like to have available in your DAW?

[pekbro]

This: https://www.fluxeffects.com/liquidambience


Though personally I like using the pedal quite a lot as it's one of my favs.

[jamcat]

https://www.kuassa.com/products/efektor ... armonizer/
Model of the Electro-Harmonix POG2 (including SWELL control)

https://www.audiority.com/shop/octaver-82/
Model of the BOSS OC-2, with mods, including TYPE: Poly

[SonicDimension]

https://www.kuassa.com/products/efektor ... armonizer/
Model of the Electro-Harmonix POG2 (including SWELL control)

https://www.audiority.com/shop/octaver-82/
Model of the BOSS OC-2, with mods, including TYPE: Poly

Thanks! I'll check these out.

[metalifuxx]

There are a number of plugins that can do the auto swell effect. Amplitube has a Boss Slow Gear effect pedal.

This one is free and does the job quite (s)well

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/autosw ... pechenegfx

[SonicDimension]

There are a number of plugins that can do the auto swell effect. Amplitube has a Boss Slow Gear effect pedal.

This one is free and does the job quite (s)well

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/autosw ... pechenegfx

I think that the Attack Decay pedal introduced some interesting developments of this concept, such as a polyphonic mode and the ability to adjust the decay time in addition to the attack. This would be much more useful than the classic Slow Gear effect.

[ElVincente]

I agree for the superego, I still have not encountered an equivalent...

[zerocrossing]

When you consider that any effect plugin can become a “pedal” for your amp sims, the software world looks very big. A fun trick I learned a long time ago is to use a high gain amp sim without a cabinet as a distortion pedal in front of a clean amp sim, like a Fender Twin or something.

[SonicDimension]

I realized that several of the EHX algorithms I was thinking of apply some kind of spectral analysis and resynthesis of the incoming waveform. Something to do with FFT's perhaps? So I guess that I'm particularly interested in some effects like this. I came across AudioThing Frostbite 2 and Unfiltered Audio Spec Ops, but the feature sets and interfaces of these two are not so appealing for my purposes.

Apparently, Eventide developed a proprietary spectral algorithm called SIFT which was used to build the polyphonic pitch shifter and some of the other new algo's in the H90 pedal. It was also used already in one or two of their plugins, I think. It would be great if Eventide would build some new plugins with this tech instead of reserving the most useful applications for the $900 effects pedal.

[Teksonik]

Frantone Pedals. The definition of boutique:

http://www.frantone.com/

Frantone.png

[Burillo]

When you consider that any effect plugin can become a “pedal” for your amp sims, the software world looks very big. A fun trick I learned a long time ago is to use a high gain amp sim without a cabinet as a distortion pedal in front of a clean amp sim, like a Fender Twin or something.

that's always been my issue tbh. like, people have their own favorite pedals, and that's fine, but like 90% of what an obscure overdrive offers can be approximated using other tools (e.g. BlueCat Destructor) and a bit of creativity. I genuinely don't believe there are guitar FX pedals that are so unique they can't be duplicated using one or many plugins.

[imrae]

I've yet to encounter a simulation of simple transistor fuzz pedals (e.g. fuzz face, rangemaster) that handles the input load effect (i.e. guitar volume knob) properly. And there are a lot of variations on the fuzz face in pedal world!

[zerocrossing]

When you consider that any effect plugin can become a “pedal” for your amp sims, the software world looks very big. A fun trick I learned a long time ago is to use a high gain amp sim without a cabinet as a distortion pedal in front of a clean amp sim, like a Fender Twin or something.

that's always been my issue tbh. like, people have their own favorite pedals, and that's fine, but like 90% of what an obscure overdrive offers can be approximated using other tools (e.g. BlueCat Destructor) and a bit of creativity. I genuinely don't believe there are guitar FX pedals that are so unique they can't be duplicated using one or many plugins.

Yeah, I agree. I fell in love with the Chase Bliss MOOD after hearing a bunch of demos, but in reality it was a pain in the ass to deal with. I was able to get that kind of thing using various plugins, and in reality do a lot more and better. The MOOD didn’t last long in my world, and was not missed.

Another experiment involved a Electro-Harmonix Cock Fight, Gamechanger Bigsby, Electro-Harmonix Attack Decay Tape Reverse Simulator Pedal, and Walrus Audio Melee. I knew it could be approximated with plugins, but I figured the pedal nature and effects loop of the Melee would give me an interesting “feet on” system. In the end, it all went back. I was especially disappointed with the polyphonic attack control on the Attack Decay. Too artifact laden to be useful. The Bigsby was also bad when used in conjunction with distortion further down the chain. The Cock Fight and Melee were great, but in the end, nothing I couldn’t do as well with plugins, or really just inside Amplitube.

[zerocrossing]

I've yet to encounter a simulation of simple transistor fuzz pedals (e.g. fuzz face, rangemaster) that handles the input load effect (i.e. guitar volume knob) properly. And there are a lot of variations on the fuzz face in pedal world!

That’s because there is a push-pull effect that happens between passive guitar pickups and that kind of circuit. I don’t think it would be really possible to emulate that properly. I’ve been mostly using active pickups which don’t work that way, and frankly I don’t really miss it much, but if you love it, you should really have at least one fuss pedal. It’s not like you can’t get great ones for cheap.

[imrae]

Indeed, I do have a few nice fuzz pedals
Currently my favourite is https://www.fredric.co.uk/mutant-fuzz-o ... ii-8-clone (I have the old one-knob + tone switch version).

Ideally the simulations would have an extra control that determines the strength of these effects. From a buffered input it is possible to recreate some of this with series resistance (as the Z-vex Mastotron pedal does), or with an in-line transformer (as the EQD Erupter pedal does). I don't see why that couldn't be modelled.