Sonic Youth Gossip - View Single Post - I'm looking for a certain type of Ring Modulator pedal

SpectralJulianIsNotDead · 02.03.2009, 10:10 PM

Snarling Dogs Mold Spore (it is in a wah enclosure)
Moog MF-102
Copilot FX Android (I have an Antenna bit crusher, it's awesome)

Also, it doesn't have an expression pedal- but the EHX Frequency Analyzer is really awesome and the knob is so big you can tweak it with your foot. And the bass boost switch (filter switch) fucking rules. What's nice about the Frequency Analyzer is since it uses 40V is that it has a ton of headroom and it's completely clean in tones, allowing for the best chiming metallic tones. But it sounds monstrous with fuzz.

And all ring modulators are polyphonic. Except for octave effects and tracking ring mods like the Mothership. For two reasons:

1. A ring mod takes your incoming notes and adds and subtracts them from it's internal note from an oscillator. On an octave up pedal, instead of using the oscillator, it just uses a copy of your guitar signal. So your pitch + your pitch = octave up, your pitch - your pitch = 0 hz. When you combine two polyphonies with ring mod, it's just going to come out as noise because there are just so many resulting frequencies from the math.

2. A tracking ring mod or octave down adjusts the internal pitch of the VCO by tracking your notes. When you play a note it fails to track and starts to jump all over the place. Even if it had polyphonic tracking though, it would go back to the issue in one where you're combining two polyphonic signals.

Of course, playing a chord into a ring mod is going to come out as pretty ugly, unless you're playing the write chord. But that's because of the math involved. All those notes and all those microtones combined are just going to come out as atonal. If the internal pitch is tuned to E and you play an E or an A chord, it will come out as pretty, because the root notes sound good ring modulated, and the odd harmonics added to the 3rd and 5th sound cool without dominating. The E is either doubled or halved, and a 1st + a 5th and a 1st - a 5th in ring modulation sounds aesthetically pleasing.

Though I love to purposefully play the wrong tones for some serious gronkage.

02.03.2009, 10:10 PM	#4
SpectralJulianIsNotDead invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 7,409	Snarling Dogs Mold Spore (it is in a wah enclosure) Moog MF-102 Copilot FX Android (I have an Antenna bit crusher, it's awesome) Also, it doesn't have an expression pedal- but the EHX Frequency Analyzer is really awesome and the knob is so big you can tweak it with your foot. And the bass boost switch (filter switch) fucking rules. What's nice about the Frequency Analyzer is since it uses 40V is that it has a ton of headroom and it's completely clean in tones, allowing for the best chiming metallic tones. But it sounds monstrous with fuzz. And all ring modulators are polyphonic. Except for octave effects and tracking ring mods like the Mothership. For two reasons: 1. A ring mod takes your incoming notes and adds and subtracts them from it's internal note from an oscillator. On an octave up pedal, instead of using the oscillator, it just uses a copy of your guitar signal. So your pitch + your pitch = octave up, your pitch - your pitch = 0 hz. When you combine two polyphonies with ring mod, it's just going to come out as noise because there are just so many resulting frequencies from the math. 2. A tracking ring mod or octave down adjusts the internal pitch of the VCO by tracking your notes. When you play a note it fails to track and starts to jump all over the place. Even if it had polyphonic tracking though, it would go back to the issue in one where you're combining two polyphonic signals. Of course, playing a chord into a ring mod is going to come out as pretty ugly, unless you're playing the write chord. But that's because of the math involved. All those notes and all those microtones combined are just going to come out as atonal. If the internal pitch is tuned to E and you play an E or an A chord, it will come out as pretty, because the root notes sound good ring modulated, and the odd harmonics added to the 3rd and 5th sound cool without dominating. The E is either doubled or halved, and a 1st + a 5th and a 1st - a 5th in ring modulation sounds aesthetically pleasing. Though I love to purposefully play the wrong tones for some serious gronkage.
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