Guitar Pedals For Synth

Hey, y’all. Nick here. I know that Josh normally writes these articles, but I got to the pedal shop today and read the following notice:

Dear Nick,

I regret to inform you that I'm not going to come in today to record an episode. I frankly don't feel like it. Just do whatever you want. I don't really care. Maybe do an episode about pedals on instruments they were never designed to be used on? Also, please inform everyone that I'm not your dad. That would be weird.

Love,

Josh

Now, I can roll with the punches, so let's do an episode/article about using guitar pedals on synthesizers.

Before we take a look at these guitar pedals for synthesizers, I want to brag on the synthesizer we used in this episode. We used the KORG Prologue Polyphonic Analog Synthesizer. This is an incredible machine. I love it a lot. I've written a lot of our JHS jingles like “He Has the Box” on this machine. There is a sweet program knob where you can flip through all of the amazing sounds on here. It’s stereo. It’s quality. I love it.

So that's the synth. Let's go on to the pedals.

Line 6 MM4 Modulation Modeler

The first pedal I'm going to show you is the Line 6 MM4 Modulation Modeler. This is a classic pedal. I made two presets I’m going to flip between. The first is a rotary drum preset and the second is an opto tremolo preset. We're going to run this in stereo because we can.

For those of you who argue that I’m playing it too safe, I’ll quote my good friend John Locke from a little show called Lost: “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.”

As always, you’re going to get more out of this article if you go back and watch the JHS Episode it’s based on, but do what you gotta do. For this jam, I used a sound on the Prologue called EP Logue.

Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dweller Phase Repeater

The next pedal on the list is the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dweller Phase Repeater. The name sounds like something out of the Lord of the Rings series, and it’s honestly epic enough that Bilbo and Frodo probably jammed with this pedal at some point.**

**I don’t know if Hobbit Rock is a thing yet, but it should be.

This pedal is seriously incredible, and I have yet to fully tap into all of its mysteries. It blew me away when I first tried it. In fact, I didn't know it existed until the day we filmed this episode.

In the jam, I used this pedal as a step-filter. On the Prologue, I used a sound called Sparkle. The combination is beautiful: the Dweller takes that Sparkle and turns it into a horror/sci-fi soundtrack. For an added layer, I also had the onboard delay running on the Prologue.

Beetronics OctaHive Octave Fuzz & Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork

I’m a huge fan of the Beetronics OctaHive Octave Fuzz. This is an octave fuzz, and I used it with a sound on the Prologue called Organique. It's kind of a boring organ sound, but it positively sings when you pair it with the OctaHive.

When I was working on this riff, I wanted to use the pitch wheel on the KORG, but I couldn't reach it in time, so I decided I would use the Pitch Fork as a pitch wheel instead. I also took the time in the jam session to play the sound bypass so you could hear how boring it is before we make it spicier. Because that’s what friends do.

DOD Rubberneck Analog Delay

The DOD Rubberneck Analog Delay is a wild box full of goodness. Again, this is a box of mysteries that I would probably need to spend three more pages really unpacking, but in the jam session I used it on a sound called Arp + Pad. As the name suggests, this is an arpeggiator and a pad mixed together. By itself, it's a little too dry/slightly stale, but when you marry it to the DOD Rubberneck, it takes the sound into starry space.

My favorite thing about this combo is that it gives you some real Stranger Things vibes.

JHS Pedals Emperor Analog Chorus/Vibrato

In the second-to-last jam session, I used a sound on the Prologue called Blurry Flute. To make it a little less blurry, I paired it with the Emperor Analog Chorus/Vibrato, by JHS Pedals. Yeah, this is a shameless plug for JHS gear, but I’m not afraid to hawk my own wares on this website like some people I could mention.

Josh. I could mention Josh.

In the jam, I used the Emperor’s vibrato setting. I set it pretty heavy, because I just really wanted it to feel old and worn out. Basically, this is a cool pedal, and since we make it, you could buy it.

BOSS RV-6 Reverb

The last pedal on the list is the BOSS RV-6 Reverb. I paired this with a shimmer sound on my Prologue called Sanctuary. The results were otherworldly, strange, ethereal, and every other adjective I could find on Thesaurus.com. This is partly due to the fact that we ended up with two reverbs in play during this jam session. I accidentally left the on-board reverb on the Prologue on with this, which took us into a double reverb situation. Honestly, this was fine by me, because it sounded really cool.

If you liked this article and are a fan of using guitar pedals with things other than guitars, go check out “Guitar Pedals For Drums.” Also, I have my own YouTube channel called Nix Tapes, where I revamped a bunch of our Legends of Fuzz pedals through synthesizers and drums and vocals. It was really fun. You should go check that out.

Basically, I want you guys to have a good time putting guitar pedals on your synths. That's it. Make it happen.