Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

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japmn wrote:Not really gear, but maybe it is...I had a really really slow end of last year and first half of this year freelancing so I haven't bought any gear in a long time, but I took a full time job and have money again, so after going through about 7 different reverb plugins (waves is pure garbage) and hating them all the other day I pulled the trigger on Valhalla Classic Reverb. It is the best plugin reverb I have ever used. It sounds great. Handles pretty much any thing other than a spring sound for which I recommend PSP Springbox. Between these two, I might just delete every other reverb I have just to clear up the list. They really are great. I'm buying Valhalla's Delay for sure and will have time travel under control from here on out.As long as I'm talking about plugins, Everything FabFilter makes is perfect. Between Valhalla, FabFilter, and Ozone, I don't think I need other plugins at all. Maybe Soundtoys for when I'm too lazy to re-amp through a pedal. Good stuff. It's all you need.Just to point this out, the following plug in(while it probably isn't going to be useful to everyone) is free to folks who have purchased one of their plug ins(though I believe you have to have bought it on their site) and is willing to fill out a survey.https://valhalladsp.com/shop/modulation/valhalla-space-modulator/

Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

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Focal Shape 65's. Other than the subtle M shape of the tweeter the other design that is as visually distinctive as it is audible is the passive radiators on the sides which transmit lows in the place of the more common choice of ports.These quickly revealed some of the muck in my mids, and stopped me from trying to constantly tame (i.e. cut) highs that weren't necessarily problematic. A pretty major upgrade from the lowly KRK Rokits I'd been sort of tolerating for many years, as I think I know their sonic weaknesses but still took a lot of extra trial and error to get a balanced tonal picture.Curiously something blew out leaving only the tweeter working on the right speaker after 10 hours of burn in time, followed by about 20 hours of session work. Fortunately between the local dealer and Focal's support, a new one is already in transit. I have been assured this is a uniquely rare lemon I've run into, which is hopefully true because I was just falling in love with working on these.
Colonel Panic wrote:Anybody who gazes directly into a laser is an idiot.

Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

196
EHX C9 - Bought a used one on the cheap.Tracks amazingly well with humbuckers. A little shocked actually. Oddly, the tone control on the guitar directly affects the tone of the pedal too, which I hadn't expected either because I assumed they setting were samples. Haven't tried it with single coils yet. Loud as FUCK. I'm not sure how often I'll use it, but I'm digging it nonetheless. I wish this 9 series of pedals were like the TC pedals where you can load sounds. Because I'd love to pull 2 or so each from the B9, C9, Key9, Mel9. Super fun to run this into a ring mod for bizarro lead sounds.I'm mostly into the 9 - Telstar setting but the 6 - Mellotron Flutes is fun too.

Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

198
Tommy wrote:EHX C9 - Bought a used one on the cheap.Tracks amazingly well with humbuckers. A little shocked actually. Oddly, the tone control on the guitar directly affects the tone of the pedal too, which I hadn't expected either because I assumed they setting were samples. Haven't tried it with single coils yet. Loud as FUCK. I'm not sure how often I'll use it, but I'm digging it nonetheless. I wish this 9 series of pedals were like the TC pedals where you can load sounds. Because I'd love to pull 2 or so each from the B9, C9, Key9, Mel9. Super fun to run this into a ring mod for bizarro lead sounds.I'm mostly into the 9 - Telstar setting but the 6 - Mellotron Flutes is fun too.Not familiar with the C9, but had the B9 and regret selling it. Fantastic little thing, even if I was dubious going in on principle (pedals purporting to do similar emulations historically always made me angry, like I got duped). That thing was a great, one trick pony... used it on recordings more than any much more expensive emulations via midi. People have complimented the sound on these tracks, and asked me which midi/software Hammond I used, but it was just that pedal through a gritty AC15. I ve mucked about with the mellotron one, does a good trick, but the guitar interface as performance tool never quite felt as natural as the organ pedal. Mind you, I favored a more chunky, messy organ style of performance, less a sustained clean ambiance. You could really mash out some filthy, Keith Emerson style frenetic b3 ala Tarkus sounds if nobody stopped you.
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Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

199
Prescription Electronics Yardbird - I hated it at first, until I realized that this is one of those first in line/ volume knob kind of fuzzes. Much more similar to a Fuzz Face than the Balls MK II I had. For straight up plug in and go sounds the Balls pedal sounded much better than this one, but the Yardbird has some really cool attributes as you ride the volume knob of your guitar up and down. I think it has better rolled off sounds than the Roger Mayer GE FF I have, but I think that the Roger Mayer sounds better full up up and down the neck. However, the Yardbird does something really interesting on the treble strings that differentiates it from the others. Definitely suited to bendy Beck-era Yardbirds types of moves. It s just that hitting the low E sounds so nuts I don t think it s entirely useful without a lot of volume fuckery. The Yardbird also behaved much better with an old Carvin with single coil pickups than my EGC with hot humbuckers. Cool pedal, still figuring it out. But the graininess you get when you roll off the volume is definitely worth exploring.
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Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

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llllllllllllllllllllllll wrote:Prescription Electronics Yardbird - I hated it at first, until I realized that this is one of those first in line/ volume knob kind of fuzzes. Much more similar to a Fuzz Face than the Balls MK II I had. Weirdly, those are actually MkIII Tone Bender Clones, not schematically similar to either a Fuzz Face or a MkII. Not sure why PE decided to market that as a Yardbirds related thing, but whatever. The MkIII is a great sounding fuzz, but definitely in that grittier seventies vein than some others.

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