Anyone using Pure Acid with hardware pedals?

robosardine

Just wondering - I’m thinking of getting a few. Waste of time and money - or slight edge to be had?

ecou

I say waste of money. BYOD got you covered.

robosardine

@ecou said:
I say waste of money. BYOD got you covered.

I think you may be on it here. I just pulled it out - it’s got a RAT preset (as in Pro Co) which is very, very good. I was thinking of buying a clone - I don’t think I need one now - thanks.

wim

@robosardine said:
Just wondering - I’m thinking of getting a few. Waste of time and money - or slight edge to be had?

Waste of time and money.

It's not like obsessive tone-chasing on an electric guitar where it actually accomplishes something like giving you an excuse not to practice.

Seriously though. Waste of time and money. Running it through iPad FX is every bit as good and gives you the massive "edge" of flexibility and automation possibilities.

michael_m

Probably not worth it. Software will get you what you want most of the time now.

Pedals are good if you want to turn off the screens and just play everything with hardware.

wim

Get an electric guitar if you need an excuse to buy a bunch of pedals.

You don't need to learn to play it since you really only need a few notes and chords to occupy yourself all night tweaking your tone. Expensive habit.

michael_m

@wim said:
You don't need to learn to play it since you really only need a few notes and chords to occupy yourself all night tweaking your tone.

Well it worked for Edge of U2.

wim

@michael_m said:

@wim said:
You don't need to learn to play it since you really only need a few notes and chords to occupy yourself all night tweaking your tone.

Well it worked for Edge of U2.

Huh. All this time I thought it was the beanie.

A_Fox

I’ve used pure acid a lot and never struggled to get a sound I am happy with, using so many different AUV3 effects i don’t have a favourite fx to distort or OD Pure Acid with.
I think you would be greatly inconveniencing your self.
Maybe treat yourself to a premium saturation like saturn 2.

HotStrange

Imo, the iPad IS the ultimate hardware effects pedal. If you have a bunch of AU effects, you can accomplish just about anything for a fraction of the price. Some of the boutique pedals out there are really cool, but I know myself well enough to know I’ll spend way too much money if I go down that rabbit hole lol.

I’m happy sticking with the iPad.

robosardine

😃 I do have Saturn 2 already - and very many distortion and saturation apps. I have also owned all the hardware clones that by Roland, Berhinger etc. I keep thinking I am missing just that little bit of bliss that I hear when listening to other examples. The Rat apps didn’t seem to be doing it for me in reproducing the hardware Rat that everyone raves about. Though as I mentioned above the BYOD one suggested by @ecou is really good.

When I have had say a Berhinger TD3 in my hands - the bare sound is very similar to Pure Acid so I reckoned maybe if I had a RAT then that would get me close to that sound with Pure Acid going through it.

As it turns out the recordings that I have previously made sound very good (in terms of that sound) - if I hadn’t made them myself then I would probably be raving about them. So it’s probably just a case of reproducing that sound at any given time and trusting that it will all sound just dandy on the mix.

It’s not so much getting the sound itself - that is relatively straightforward- it’s getting the quality squeaks and the squelch 😃😎

ecou

Nembrini as a Rat pedal and I think it is free. It’s called Nembrini Black.

You could also try their Big stuff pedal. Also free, I think.

wim

It's weird to me to think of shackling a portable device down to a bunch of cables, power supplies, and batteries. Not to mention the additional AC buzz and pedal noise.

G.A.S. like other addictions does strange and powerful things to the mind doesn't it?

ecou

@wim said:
It's weird to me to think of shackling a portable device down to a bunch of cables, power supplies, and batteries. Not to mention the additional AC buzz and pedal noise.

G.A.S. like other addictions does strange and powerful things to the mind doesn't it?

I agree. If one is going the pedal route might as well buy a Behringer TD3 too.

robosardine

Yes - I think you are all pretty much right at the end of the day - I was mentioning that I already had a TD3 in my hands - the bare uneffected sound of it I found to be very similar to the bare sound of Pure Acid - I have many distortions (including the Nembrini - which I don’t really like either) but none of them seemed too be truly hitting the sweet spot so I reckoned “maybe it’s the actual pedal effects that’s making the difference’.

The popular opinion here says ‘it’s not’ and in retrospect listening back to my recent recordings the sound really isn’t too bad at all - I think those occasions are when I had tweaked about with Bit Maestro were the best.

However thanks to the advice above I have now found the RAT preset in BYOD to be very satisfactory and I am now intent on learning how to get the best out of the rest of BYOD. I will also have a look for the Big Stuff pedal suggested as well.

GAS is an affliction I agree - I have a little pot of cash to spend so I may well give a Korg Volca or two another whirl instead. Maybe the Volca Bass first. I wonder what that would sound like through BYOD?…hmmm…. 😀👍

catherder

I’ve got a bunch of Zoom pedals (MS70CDR, MS60, G1ON) for my synths, and I am using both the iPad and a Raspberry Pi running Zynthian for effects. First and most important: The sound quality of both the iPad effects and the Zynthian is so much better than these pedals. If you add the flexibility of plugins to that, then I don’t see the need for pedals. One exception might be if you are interested in pure analog effects like real spring reverbs or BBD analog shift register chorus and delay effects.

Fingolfinzz

I’ve used pedals with it but it was more effort than the payoff was worth with having to hook everything up and splitting the signal. Get a TD3 if you want to go that route. I like to run that into a tube preamp and then into a Big Muff pedal. BYOD is more than ample though for tone chasing

A_Fox

@robosardine said:
😃 I do have Saturn 2 already - and very many distortion and saturation apps. I have also owned all the hardware clones that by Roland, Berhinger etc. I keep thinking I am missing just that little bit of bliss that I hear when listening to other examples.

Well.. I think the part of the secret sauce to the “classic sound” (I’m old) is some tape saturation… and saturn 2 has that.

robosardine

@A_Fox said:

@robosardine said:
😃 I do have Saturn 2 already - and very many distortion and saturation apps. I have also owned all the hardware clones that by Roland, Berhinger etc. I keep thinking I am missing just that little bit of bliss that I hear when listening to other examples.

Well.. I think the part of the secret sauce to the “classic sound” (I’m old) is some tape saturation… and saturn 2 has that.

Thanks - I’ll dig it out again and have a go. Any chance of a screenshot or two of your favourite settings?

wim

@catherder said:
I’ve got a bunch of Zoom pedals (MS70CDR, MS60, G1ON) for my synths, and I am using both the iPad and a Raspberry Pi running Zynthian for effects. First and most important: The sound quality of both the iPad effects and the Zynthian is so much better than these pedals. If you add the flexibility of plugins to that, then I don’t see the need for pedals. One exception might be if you are interested in pure analog effects like real spring reverbs or BBD analog shift register chorus and delay effects.

Is that a Zynthian kit you're running, or did you DYI it? If not a standard kit, what are you using for audio I/O with the Pi?

catherder

@wim said:

@catherder said:
I’ve got a bunch of Zoom pedals (MS70CDR, MS60, G1ON) for my synths, and I am using both the iPad and a Raspberry Pi running Zynthian for effects. First and most important: The sound quality of both the iPad effects and the Zynthian is so much better than these pedals. If you add the flexibility of plugins to that, then I don’t see the need for pedals. One exception might be if you are interested in pure analog effects like real spring reverbs or BBD analog shift register chorus and delay effects.

Is that a Zynthian kit you're running, or did you DYI it? If not a standard kit, what are you using for audio I/O with the Pi?

All DIY. My kit is a Pi3 with a Hifiberry DAC/ADC pro as Audio interface. All neatly packed into the standard 7 inch touchscreen case. For Midi I use a simple USB Adapter cable. And a Behringer X-Touch Mini controller is used for the knobs and buttons.

wim

@catherder said:

@wim said:

@catherder said:
I’ve got a bunch of Zoom pedals (MS70CDR, MS60, G1ON) for my synths, and I am using both the iPad and a Raspberry Pi running Zynthian for effects. First and most important: The sound quality of both the iPad effects and the Zynthian is so much better than these pedals. If you add the flexibility of plugins to that, then I don’t see the need for pedals. One exception might be if you are interested in pure analog effects like real spring reverbs or BBD analog shift register chorus and delay effects.

Is that a Zynthian kit you're running, or did you DYI it? If not a standard kit, what are you using for audio I/O with the Pi?

All DIY. My kit is a Pi3 with a Hifiberry DAC/ADC pro as Audio interface. All neatly packed into the standard 7 inch touchscreen case. For Midi I use a simple USB Adapter cable. And a Behringer X-Touch Mini controller is used for the knobs and buttons.

Thanks for the info. Verrrryyyy interesting! 😎
We all have our GAS weakpoints don’t we?

catherder

@wim said:

@catherder said:

@wim said:

@catherder said:
I’ve got a bunch of Zoom pedals (MS70CDR, MS60, G1ON) for my synths, and I am using both the iPad and a Raspberry Pi running Zynthian for effects. First and most important: The sound quality of both the iPad effects and the Zynthian is so much better than these pedals. If you add the flexibility of plugins to that, then I don’t see the need for pedals. One exception might be if you are interested in pure analog effects like real spring reverbs or BBD analog shift register chorus and delay effects.

Is that a Zynthian kit you're running, or did you DYI it? If not a standard kit, what are you using for audio I/O with the Pi?

All DIY. My kit is a Pi3 with a Hifiberry DAC/ADC pro as Audio interface. All neatly packed into the standard 7 inch touchscreen case. For Midi I use a simple USB Adapter cable. And a Behringer X-Touch Mini controller is used for the knobs and buttons.

Thanks for the info. Verrrryyyy interesting! 😎
We all have our GAS weakpoints don’t we?

We certainly have - looking at my collection of pedals, the Two(!) Zynthians and the various synths here...

Fingolfinzz

@catherder said:
I’ve got a bunch of Zoom pedals (MS70CDR, MS60, G1ON) for my synths, and I am using both the iPad and a Raspberry Pi running Zynthian for effects. First and most important: The sound quality of both the iPad effects and the Zynthian is so much better than these pedals. If you add the flexibility of plugins to that, then I don’t see the need for pedals. One exception might be if you are interested in pure analog effects like real spring reverbs or BBD analog shift register chorus and delay effects.

Yeah, digital springs and BBD really aren’t satisfying enough compared to the analog hardware. The 303 does sound pretty tits through both too

suboptimal

I'll take the contrarian view and say that hardware is worth the time and money, provided you benefit creatively from the hardware interface.

It's a very expensive rabbit hole. Once you're in the hole, your options are significantly smaller. You spend less time jumping from option to option and focus on one piece of gear.

I'm still a hardware guy at heart. The iPad has become an effects module for me along with providing digital synthesis and recording. I enjoy running the iPad through the hardware, but it's not my main use for it.

All that said, I wouldn't buy hardware effects to supplement Pure Acid, mainly because the pieces that would do the most (like an Analog Heat) are quite expensive and that marginal 2% difference over a serious app like Saturn 2 (IMO worth the price) doesn't make sense.

Hardware synths are a different matter entirely. Dedicated keyboards and knobs are awesome.

raabje

I think you have also problems with the impedance and signal strenght when you use a guitar pedal, the output of Ipad is probably line level. And you introduce extra latency because of the round trip of the sound if you want to record on the same Ipad.

With guitar there is all this little nuance between pedals (imaginary or not....) , I don't know of the synth audio output will reveal this quality of the pedals.

I like to keep things simple, keep everything in the box, or everything out of the box, no hybride setup.

A_Fox

@robosardine said:

@A_Fox said:

@robosardine said:
😃 I do have Saturn 2 already - and very many distortion and saturation apps. I have also owned all the hardware clones that by Roland, Berhinger etc. I keep thinking I am missing just that little bit of bliss that I hear when listening to other examples.

Well.. I think the part of the secret sauce to the “classic sound” (I’m old) is some tape saturation… and saturn 2 has that.

Thanks - I’ll dig it out again and have a go. Any chance of a screenshot or two of your favourite settings?

Sometime over next few days I’ll run Pure Acid through Saturn 2 and “demo” its versatility… a rough narated video

robosardine

@A_Fox said:

@robosardine said:

@A_Fox said:

@robosardine said:
😃 I do have Saturn 2 already - and very many distortion and saturation apps. I have also owned all the hardware clones that by Roland, Berhinger etc. I keep thinking I am missing just that little bit of bliss that I hear when listening to other examples.

Well.. I think the part of the secret sauce to the “classic sound” (I’m old) is some tape saturation… and saturn 2 has that.

Thanks - I’ll dig it out again and have a go. Any chance of a screenshot or two of your favourite settings?

Sometime over next few days I’ll run Pure Acid through Saturn 2 and “demo” its versatility… a rough narated video

Sweet! Thanks for taking the time - looking forward to it 😀