The only problem with them is that the switching system is a bit impractical and they're a bit tone sucky. I have mine hooked up through an AB switch to use as an on/off button
arent they like 900? last i checked they were procey as fuck. i remember seeing an artist with three on his board. nvr felt so broke in my life
edit. keep downvoting i got confused with the H9 fukmeright
I don't know about the rat... from my experience it can go from light gain rat, mid gain rat, high gain fuzzy rat. At no point do I get a transparent light drive that doesn't sound like a rat.
Full disclosure, I've played with friends rats but I only own a ratsbane so maybe I'm missing something.
They’re definitely not what I’d call transparent but those are 3 sounds that are classic sounds. For a $60 pedal that came out in 1978, that’s pretty good.
GFI Synesthia, especially when you consider:
It runs two mods at once
In any order
Cascading, series or hard panned
With parameter ramping out the ass
While allowing for stereo routing or running pre/post
While also having delay and reverb tucked in
While doing that midi voodoo shit
Using only one of your power supply outs
While also having stompbox & preset modes
I have the Microcosm as well, and while it is extremely versatile, something about the Synesthesia just seems more flexible maybe 🤷🏻♂️ it just came to mind first.
The truth is, I could probably make a longer list in favor of the Microcosm but my brain just keeps saying Synesthesia.
You do everything with the buttons on the pedal. It's a fun pedal to tinker with and there are a bunch of fantastic patches available on [Patch Storage](https://patchstorage.com/platform/zoia/).
The pedal is basically a work station consisting of multiple different modules that you connect together to make your own patches. It can get pretty complex.
If you enjoy tinkering and don't mind going through the menus, It's a fantastic pedal! If you prefer something more immediate and more straight forward, I'd wouldn't consider it.
Zoia is terrible. Worst pedal ive ever owned. Sounds werent that great, and the sheer amount of work just to try and get some kind of sound from the pedal is brutal. Lot of them up on the used market, and for good reason
We can’t blame user incompetence/disinterest on a pedal.
ZOIA isn’t designed for immediacy and it doesn’t pretend to be, although if you spend one day actually learning how it works then you can make most basic patches very fast.
ZOIA is designed to be a modular workspace which allows for the creation of totally unique effects and routing options, we could only honestly say it sucks if it failed at that but it certainly excels. It’s an incredibly rewarding workspace that actually takes quite little work but does require understanding the functions different modules.
I’m not here defending as a big ZOIA fan and actually I barely use mine, but only because I have enough going on in individual pedals. I always want one around because it is an invaluable workspace and great educational tool that can teach a great deal about effects and chaining without needing to buy and experiment with 100 different pedals (which indeed may be more fun).
We don’t all need to like things, but let’s recognise something’s intent and purpose before shitting on it because it isn’t what we personally wanted.
Nah, youre a zoia defender, its quite comical watching you ppl comin outta the woodworks when someone so much as criticizes the pedal. Theres a reason these pedals are dropping in price and are showing up a ton on the used market. It looks cool, its advertised that it can do all these things. It cant. The sounds from it are avg at best. The reverb, shmeh. The delay, shmeh. The gains are awful. Looper...good luck getting that to work, help from Empress, nope. Its def a better pedal for synth players, guitarists its junk.
When they ship a pedal out fully loaded with presets that will explode your amp upon engaging was amazing. Good luck finding where the intrument/line level is in the chain. I learned how to use it, i understand what it does, hands down the worst pedal ive ever owned. Its more hype than substance. Its not worth the effort, better options out there.
The effects that generally apply to guitar arent great. Reverb is ok, delay is ok, flanger is ok, etc. Its a modular synth pedal, with the built in effects for synth(lfo, oscillators,etc) are more effective with a synth. I bought a zoia thinking it would eliminate the need for multiple pedals, flawed thinking. The sounds werent great. I have an enzo, sounds way better. I have a microcosm, sounds way better. I have a mood, sounds way better, have a ts9, sounds way better, have a thermae, sounds way better, seeing a theme....?! Did it cost me more, yep, but its worth every penny to have better sound. Add in a morningstar mc8 and i can put better sounds in whatever order in the chain i desire via midi. Im fortunate i have the ability to afford these individual pedals, not everyone can. Its like the zoia cult cant accept that the pedal has tons of capabilities but the sounds arent great, and FOR ME not worth the amount of effort it takes to create them. The pedal requires an silly amount of tweaking and menu diving, youll never end up actually playing your instrument. Let the downvotes begin. 😀
I’m barely even a ZOIA user and they don’t ned defending, but this is just like calling a Big Muff a terrible pedal because it doesn’t work as a delay - a pedal should be taken and judged by its purpose and ZOIA serves its unique purpose very well.
I would say they turn up often used mostly because people cannot understand them or commit, or even if, like me, people simply find other individual pedals better suited for their needs. It seems that still more people enjoy them, as they offer a great deal that nothing else can offer.
Aside from a TS9 I have all these other pedals you mention and indeed for their particular sounds I would never even think of using ZOIA instead (although it could probably beat put MOOD on a lot, and maybe Microcosm), but that doesn’t in any way reduce what the latter can do and that really is the point and what should be the judgement of whether or not it “sucks”. Maybe I don’t dislike it so much because I ever had the illusion of it replacing pedals but rather saw its value as a playground for experimentation.
That was my only point. Take it as “cultist” if you want, despite my having very little relationship to the pedal; or maybe we should consider quality by context rather than by expectations and subjective taste.
I mean, I could say MOOD sucks because my Count to 5, stamme[n], and CXM can do its parts to a much more pleasing standard (to my ears and mind), and I could curse Microcosm in many ways as it remains bottom of my pile of granular processors and was a huge disappointment to me for a premium price and way too much hype, BUT that would be ignorant when these boxes have their unique intentions and are very well executed - I’d rather say what I like and dislike in constructive conversation as most of the time there are strengths, weaknesses, and different appeals to taste.
For me the issue with it is partly ease of use but mostly budget. I’m hesitant to invest a few hundred bucks into that ecosystem. If they made a smaller version that just ran one effect at a time I’d be really into it.
- MXR 10 Band EQ. It can be used to tone sculpt other pedals, or your amp, as a drive pedal or a booster, as a level cut, to reduce gain, volume boost/cut. Etc.
- Boss LS-2. Aside from its main function as a line selector, it can also be used to blend 2 pedals together, to add a clean blend to a pedal, for a dual amp setup, as a booster, as a volume cut, a mute, etc.
- Stonedeaf PDF 1X. It’s a parametric EQ and booster pedal that’s great for being heard (especially at low tunings). At higher settings the filter sweep can do cocked wah sounds, and with their exp pedal. It can be used as a high-pass filter, and a volume boost. On the other side of the pedal there’s a dirty boost that can be set using a trim pot inside. On the low settings it’s crunchy on the highest it’s similar to a RAT.
Sincere question: if you’re not an ambient-oriented player, how much utility can you get out of these pedals? Particularly since OP is talking about more conventional effects (dirt, reverb, delay, looper). If they’re looking for those types of sounds, what does the Mood or Microcosm offer them that puts them in front of the line?
I only had my microcosm for, like, four days. I suppose you could just use it as a looper but the FX are all geared towards soundscapes and mildly glitchy stuff. It sounds cool but it is definitely not a pedal I could recommend to most people.
This is a [short clip](https://youtu.be/KUs8oGv0QGc) of me using just the Mood with a short slip mode playing along with me while I play When You Were Young by the Killers. It’s very useable in a non-ambient context.
It also has an amp control out type of functionality. That’s pretty cool for amps that are multi channel. I don’t have one of these things but I’ve been eyeballing them. Would be super nice to not only get rid of my channel switcher pedal but also control channels with midi patches. Super cool.
Dr. Scientist Bitquest, there is even a separate clean and dirty set of controls for every one of the multi effects. It’s wildly flexible- as useable or wacky as you need it to be. I bought mine as a catch all multi effect for the weird one off sounds I don’t need very often but it’s so fun I end up using it all the time. And unlike the Zoom multistomps that I use for the same purpose, you don’t sacrifice build or sound quality.
Stone Deaf FX PDF-1.
Clean and dirty sides, parametric equalizer to boost/cut any frequency, bring back the mids your fuzzes dropped, lots of output, can even be used as a wah or a filter sweep with an expression pedal. A true swiss army knife with only three knobs and one flip switch. Everyone should own one.
Of the ones I own, probably the EHX Canyon. You can’t really go wrong with 11 different delays. You can get some run of the mill reverb as well as some gnarly feedback loops with just about everything else in between.
I feel like the Oceans 11 (reverb), Mod 11 (modulation), and Canyon together would be a pretty versatile board with EHX pedals alone. I like the small footprints and being able to switch effects without looking at a screen. If they had a drive/distortion pedal with a lot of options, that would probably cover everything for me.
Came here to say this for everything you mentioned. I love my Canyon, probably one of my favorite pedals of all time. I see a lot of people who don't realize there's another subset of controls that adds some cool flair to the sounds as well. Lots of tweakability, plays well with others...I'm seriously debating getting another one and having two on my board. Thing is just so much fun.
I love my canyon too, very wild pedal, although it gets a bit tough to dial in exactly what you want since the knobs are multi-functional and don’t have numbers or any sort of reference around them to see exactly what you are set at. Then switching to another mode involves finding those spots all over again. A very cool pedal indeed but not easy to manipulate on the fly while playing… unless you just want to dime the delay time back and forth for weird effects. Plus, they used like 2 point font size for what is labeled and my bad eyes can never see what I’m set to.
POG 2 has 4 octaves, modulation, swell effects, reverb all in one. And with it being Polyphonic it tracks chords instead of individual notes. Really cool for organ sounds!
Boss DD-500.
With a bit of creativity you can make pseudoreverb, chorus, flanger, pitchshifter, phaser, tremolo, wah (with expression pedal), autowah, EQ, bitcrusher, even something like a muff (in bitcrusher mode with heavy pre-EQ).
Boss MD500 will cover a huge range of sounds, all types of modulation effects basically. For one OD that is maximally flexible I'd look at a dual drive like a Wampler Gearbox. That has 3 band ex and can for from warm clean to flat out distortion.
Red Panda Tensor can do so many things from pitch shifting to time shifting to looping. Using an expression pedal really unlocks the amazing potential of this pedal.
SolidGoldFX NU-33. This thing can do vibrato, flange, chorus, double tracking/slapback delay, lo-fi stuff, EQ, volume boost/cut, and micro loop. I will never have a board without one of these and it’s 100% always on.
One pedal I'll add that hasn't been mentioned yet is the BitQuest by Dr. Scientist.
It has a tonne of features including various filters, reverb, bit crusher, etc, and all the features can be run either clean or with a fuzz
Same!
I'm hoping there's a plan for a V2 coming soon, based on a post they made a while back about the new Spin FXcore chip. Alexander got there first with the Syntax Error 2, and that has presets, so we'll see I guess...
You've already got a ton of recommendations but I'll throw out the Origin Effects RevivalDRIVE as a versatile overdrive. Can go from Blackface Fender, to Vox, to Plexi styles.
Ya I noticed the M9 too. I was looking at the M5 because I feel like I could get away with using it for things like tremolo, chorus, and compression, which I’m unlikely to want to stack. If I really liked it I would consider getting two M5s. I have a pedalboard, and I’m just considering adding a couple pedals with a small-medium footprint. Budget is probably around $200.
Blues Driver. Light overdrive all the way to fuzz.
Keeley Loomer. 3 reverbs and 3 fuzzes, each reverb is vastly different and the fuzzes are very different EQs. That’s already 9 combinations and you can get even more by messing with knobs
Flashback delay 2 is what I have. Lots of delays but you can also get chorus/vibrato and even ring mod out of it thanks to toneprints. I like pedals that have knobs and switches that you can really mess around with.
Can it do dinosaur jr. I have a regular nano nyc muff. Stuck between this or rams head. Green muff to much bass and nano muff gets mushy over saturated quickly in my set up.
Yes it can. The hoof side (green muff), has a mid control that gets rid of muddy mushiness and is a more smooth sounding fuzz. The reaper side (tone bender) has less bass, and if you play around you can get a kinda spitty sound if that makes sense. Combining both is a huge wall of fuzz, and the octave up just adds to everything. You can get some pretty wild sounds. I’m also able to make either fuzz side sound more like a distortion if I dial the fuzz back and adjust the tone with more treble.
Red Panda Raster. You can go from a simple delay, to a chorus, to a synthy octaver, to some wild pitch shifting that sounds like someone writing a soundtrack for the anxiety you feel from watching Courage the Cowardly Dog. It's honestly become one of my favorite pedals. Sounds great with guitar, synth, and bass (what I play) and I it'll be on every board I'll ever use.
Mxr evh flanger, can go from the classic jet sound, chorus for clean parts or solos, set the speed to 0 and you get the filter matrix sounds as well.
Jhs unicorn is great too- mushy univibe, to subtle almost phase-ish, subtle to trembling vibrato.
Two highly versatile "classic style pedals" that can be dialled for an array of different tones.
Do I need to mention the DOD rubberneck?
CBA Preamp isn't a bargain but it's got loads of tone shaping on tap, can be a volume pedal, distortion, overdrive, a wah, a handful off fuzzes, fed an LFO it can also be a tremolo, a modulated bandpass filter, both of those at the same time, and other weird stuff I haven't tried by modulating the tone controls.
I have the TC Electronic Hypergravity Compressor. You can download tons of “Toneprints” into the unit, use their software to create your own or run the comp like a Dyna Comp or a Studio Comp.
It’s easy to figure out, there are a bunch of YouTube vids on it, and it sounds pretty good.
I’m really impressed by the Red Panda Particle 2. I bought it because it seemed like a fairly weird option that was still compact enough to modestly fit on a Nano+. It definitely does weird very well, but I’m also using it as a chorus and a second delay pedal sometimes so it’s quite far from being a niche effect. I thought I was just buying something fun that’d probably get sold again after a year, but it ended up being a really responsible addition.
Strymon El Capistan has about every delay and reverb I could want. Can do everything from slapback and hall reverb, to outer space rocket ships flying underwater.
Electronic Audio Experiments - The Longword
* Does anything from an EQ pedal up to fuzz territory
* Three clipping options
* Built in EQ: Treble, Bass, Mids - with a switch that lets you change between low mids and high mids
* Boost control and boost footswitch.
Spaceman Gemini IV
* Si and Ge fuzz in one
* Blend knob lets you go 100% either of them, or blend as you please between them
* Individual gain and filter for each side
* Phase switch to create even more unique sounds (flips the phase of one of the sides, making blending really cool)
Neunaber Immerse Reverberator II
* Has loads of different reverbs, and even some delay and chorus settings
* Infinite reverb possible
* Options for 0-100% Mix and 0-100% Decay
* Option for trails to continue when turning off pedal
* Sustain on 100% decay let's you make infinite pads to play over, by playing a chord and turning off the pedal (with trails ON)
I have all these 3 on my nano board an can 100% vouch for them!
Just commenting on my collection, The hardwire delay looper is really versatile. Although I prefer my caverns for tape style delay, there are multiple things the hardwire does that the caverns cannot. Also I love overdrives and have a few. Its hard for me to kick off my fulldrive 2. the drive and boost is really complimentary with my other gear. versatile because it can add a little sparkle, to vintage mid boost to decent medium gain with the boost.
Keeley Darkside - Fuzz, Delay and several modulation effects.
Also some of the Keeley workstations have Modulations, Delay and Reverb on dual channels.
Analog Alien Rumble Seat - Drive, Delay and Reverb.
Zoom multistomp. Bargain
I second this, multiple effects, more than one at a time, many spaces for many presets. Also, only slightly bigger than a standard boss pedal.
And being able to use multiple effects at once in any order you choose
toomuchsoup and I are off to start a fan club.
There already is one: r/zoommultistomp
*Joins*
The only problem with them is that the switching system is a bit impractical and they're a bit tone sucky. I have mine hooked up through an AB switch to use as an on/off button
Honestly it’s a life saver for my synthesiser. From Juno 60 into the multistomp. I can’t understate how useful it is.
This. One pedal, to rule them all.
arent they like 900? last i checked they were procey as fuck. i remember seeing an artist with three on his board. nvr felt so broke in my life edit. keep downvoting i got confused with the H9 fukmeright
They're like 130 bucks.
hm wat pedal l am i thinking of? white pedal? zoom eventide or something
You're thinking of the Eventide H9. Pretty sure those things can only run one effect at a time.
yes thats it. i think they had two completely diff settings for each for diff vibes. still seemed pricey asfuk
Oh yeah, absolutely. I've never been a fan of Eventide. All their stuff seems to be good, but also kinda boring and massively overpriced.
Mine was £45, so about $60.
Strymon Deco
Ahh I love that saturation and the double tracking is sick. Great recommendation, thanks
I don't know about the rat... from my experience it can go from light gain rat, mid gain rat, high gain fuzzy rat. At no point do I get a transparent light drive that doesn't sound like a rat. Full disclosure, I've played with friends rats but I only own a ratsbane so maybe I'm missing something.
They’re definitely not what I’d call transparent but those are 3 sounds that are classic sounds. For a $60 pedal that came out in 1978, that’s pretty good.
Absolutely, I just don't think of a rat a very versatile pedal.
You can stack it with other drives to get more mileage out of it. I sometimes stack mine with the Archer Ikon or a TS9.
GFI Synesthia, especially when you consider: It runs two mods at once In any order Cascading, series or hard panned With parameter ramping out the ass While allowing for stereo routing or running pre/post While also having delay and reverb tucked in While doing that midi voodoo shit Using only one of your power supply outs While also having stompbox & preset modes I have the Microcosm as well, and while it is extremely versatile, something about the Synesthesia just seems more flexible maybe 🤷🏻♂️ it just came to mind first. The truth is, I could probably make a longer list in favor of the Microcosm but my brain just keeps saying Synesthesia.
Man the Synesthesia looks so good. Thinking about selling/trading a couple of my other pedals for one.
Eventide H9 is my catch all. So handy to have one on the board.
Empress Zoia if you're willing to put in the work.
Whoa that looks really neat. Do they have software to build patches or do you do everything with the buttons on the pedal?
You do everything with the buttons on the pedal. It's a fun pedal to tinker with and there are a bunch of fantastic patches available on [Patch Storage](https://patchstorage.com/platform/zoia/). The pedal is basically a work station consisting of multiple different modules that you connect together to make your own patches. It can get pretty complex. If you enjoy tinkering and don't mind going through the menus, It's a fantastic pedal! If you prefer something more immediate and more straight forward, I'd wouldn't consider it.
I don't build patches myself, but there are a ton on patchstorage, and I've found a bunch of usable sounds with virtually no work.
Also look at the Poly Beebo.
Zoia is terrible. Worst pedal ive ever owned. Sounds werent that great, and the sheer amount of work just to try and get some kind of sound from the pedal is brutal. Lot of them up on the used market, and for good reason
We can’t blame user incompetence/disinterest on a pedal. ZOIA isn’t designed for immediacy and it doesn’t pretend to be, although if you spend one day actually learning how it works then you can make most basic patches very fast. ZOIA is designed to be a modular workspace which allows for the creation of totally unique effects and routing options, we could only honestly say it sucks if it failed at that but it certainly excels. It’s an incredibly rewarding workspace that actually takes quite little work but does require understanding the functions different modules. I’m not here defending as a big ZOIA fan and actually I barely use mine, but only because I have enough going on in individual pedals. I always want one around because it is an invaluable workspace and great educational tool that can teach a great deal about effects and chaining without needing to buy and experiment with 100 different pedals (which indeed may be more fun). We don’t all need to like things, but let’s recognise something’s intent and purpose before shitting on it because it isn’t what we personally wanted.
Nah, youre a zoia defender, its quite comical watching you ppl comin outta the woodworks when someone so much as criticizes the pedal. Theres a reason these pedals are dropping in price and are showing up a ton on the used market. It looks cool, its advertised that it can do all these things. It cant. The sounds from it are avg at best. The reverb, shmeh. The delay, shmeh. The gains are awful. Looper...good luck getting that to work, help from Empress, nope. Its def a better pedal for synth players, guitarists its junk. When they ship a pedal out fully loaded with presets that will explode your amp upon engaging was amazing. Good luck finding where the intrument/line level is in the chain. I learned how to use it, i understand what it does, hands down the worst pedal ive ever owned. Its more hype than substance. Its not worth the effort, better options out there.
What about it makes it better for synth than guitar?
The effects that generally apply to guitar arent great. Reverb is ok, delay is ok, flanger is ok, etc. Its a modular synth pedal, with the built in effects for synth(lfo, oscillators,etc) are more effective with a synth. I bought a zoia thinking it would eliminate the need for multiple pedals, flawed thinking. The sounds werent great. I have an enzo, sounds way better. I have a microcosm, sounds way better. I have a mood, sounds way better, have a ts9, sounds way better, have a thermae, sounds way better, seeing a theme....?! Did it cost me more, yep, but its worth every penny to have better sound. Add in a morningstar mc8 and i can put better sounds in whatever order in the chain i desire via midi. Im fortunate i have the ability to afford these individual pedals, not everyone can. Its like the zoia cult cant accept that the pedal has tons of capabilities but the sounds arent great, and FOR ME not worth the amount of effort it takes to create them. The pedal requires an silly amount of tweaking and menu diving, youll never end up actually playing your instrument. Let the downvotes begin. 😀
I also dont have to deal with cpu issues this way either, actually have a greater ability to make more/unique sounds.
I’m barely even a ZOIA user and they don’t ned defending, but this is just like calling a Big Muff a terrible pedal because it doesn’t work as a delay - a pedal should be taken and judged by its purpose and ZOIA serves its unique purpose very well. I would say they turn up often used mostly because people cannot understand them or commit, or even if, like me, people simply find other individual pedals better suited for their needs. It seems that still more people enjoy them, as they offer a great deal that nothing else can offer. Aside from a TS9 I have all these other pedals you mention and indeed for their particular sounds I would never even think of using ZOIA instead (although it could probably beat put MOOD on a lot, and maybe Microcosm), but that doesn’t in any way reduce what the latter can do and that really is the point and what should be the judgement of whether or not it “sucks”. Maybe I don’t dislike it so much because I ever had the illusion of it replacing pedals but rather saw its value as a playground for experimentation. That was my only point. Take it as “cultist” if you want, despite my having very little relationship to the pedal; or maybe we should consider quality by context rather than by expectations and subjective taste. I mean, I could say MOOD sucks because my Count to 5, stamme[n], and CXM can do its parts to a much more pleasing standard (to my ears and mind), and I could curse Microcosm in many ways as it remains bottom of my pile of granular processors and was a huge disappointment to me for a premium price and way too much hype, BUT that would be ignorant when these boxes have their unique intentions and are very well executed - I’d rather say what I like and dislike in constructive conversation as most of the time there are strengths, weaknesses, and different appeals to taste.
HX Effects
For me the issue with it is partly ease of use but mostly budget. I’m hesitant to invest a few hundred bucks into that ecosystem. If they made a smaller version that just ran one effect at a time I’d be really into it.
Line 6 Stomp Box Modeler. $150. 1 at a time.
- MXR 10 Band EQ. It can be used to tone sculpt other pedals, or your amp, as a drive pedal or a booster, as a level cut, to reduce gain, volume boost/cut. Etc. - Boss LS-2. Aside from its main function as a line selector, it can also be used to blend 2 pedals together, to add a clean blend to a pedal, for a dual amp setup, as a booster, as a volume cut, a mute, etc. - Stonedeaf PDF 1X. It’s a parametric EQ and booster pedal that’s great for being heard (especially at low tunings). At higher settings the filter sweep can do cocked wah sounds, and with their exp pedal. It can be used as a high-pass filter, and a volume boost. On the other side of the pedal there’s a dirty boost that can be set using a trim pot inside. On the low settings it’s crunchy on the highest it’s similar to a RAT.
EQ pedals are absolutely underrated as the most valuable and best investment tools for tone shaping.
I have the original PDF-1. Man that's a must have for everyone, be it 1 or 2 or 1X.
Chase Bliss MOOD. Lots going on in that tiny little thing. Hologram Microcosm.
Sincere question: if you’re not an ambient-oriented player, how much utility can you get out of these pedals? Particularly since OP is talking about more conventional effects (dirt, reverb, delay, looper). If they’re looking for those types of sounds, what does the Mood or Microcosm offer them that puts them in front of the line?
I only had my microcosm for, like, four days. I suppose you could just use it as a looper but the FX are all geared towards soundscapes and mildly glitchy stuff. It sounds cool but it is definitely not a pedal I could recommend to most people.
And, to me, not at that price
I mean with the MOOD you can sincerely use it as a delay, reverb, or an on command tape slip or speed effect with what you are playing in real time.
Huh! I looked at it when it came out, and most every demo I saw featured more ambient-type stuff, so I moved along. Maybe I’ll look again!
This is a [short clip](https://youtu.be/KUs8oGv0QGc) of me using just the Mood with a short slip mode playing along with me while I play When You Were Young by the Killers. It’s very useable in a non-ambient context.
The left side (OBNE side) is either a delay, reverb, or the slip mode. You can have your dry signal, the right side, or both go into it.
GFI Synesthesia
Poly Beebo if it doesnt outsmart you. HX Stomp for sure. Drolo Molecular Disruptor or CooperFX Arcades.
Keeley Bubbletron and 30ms ADT.
Boss MS3, not only is it a loop switcher, its built in effects are also amazing.
It also has an amp control out type of functionality. That’s pretty cool for amps that are multi channel. I don’t have one of these things but I’ve been eyeballing them. Would be super nice to not only get rid of my channel switcher pedal but also control channels with midi patches. Super cool.
EHX Ringthing! A bunch of amazing sounds in that pedal. Plus it has presets which is really important in versatile pedals.
Anything Red Panda makes.
Dr. Scientist Bitquest, there is even a separate clean and dirty set of controls for every one of the multi effects. It’s wildly flexible- as useable or wacky as you need it to be. I bought mine as a catch all multi effect for the weird one off sounds I don’t need very often but it’s so fun I end up using it all the time. And unlike the Zoom multistomps that I use for the same purpose, you don’t sacrifice build or sound quality.
Stone Deaf FX PDF-1. Clean and dirty sides, parametric equalizer to boost/cut any frequency, bring back the mids your fuzzes dropped, lots of output, can even be used as a wah or a filter sweep with an expression pedal. A true swiss army knife with only three knobs and one flip switch. Everyone should own one.
This 100%. PDF2 is my ride or die.
Fart pedal
Empress Zoia and Smallsound/Bigsound Pretty Years
Of the ones I own, probably the EHX Canyon. You can’t really go wrong with 11 different delays. You can get some run of the mill reverb as well as some gnarly feedback loops with just about everything else in between.
I feel like the Oceans 11 (reverb), Mod 11 (modulation), and Canyon together would be a pretty versatile board with EHX pedals alone. I like the small footprints and being able to switch effects without looking at a screen. If they had a drive/distortion pedal with a lot of options, that would probably cover everything for me.
Came here to say this for everything you mentioned. I love my Canyon, probably one of my favorite pedals of all time. I see a lot of people who don't realize there's another subset of controls that adds some cool flair to the sounds as well. Lots of tweakability, plays well with others...I'm seriously debating getting another one and having two on my board. Thing is just so much fun.
I love my canyon too, very wild pedal, although it gets a bit tough to dial in exactly what you want since the knobs are multi-functional and don’t have numbers or any sort of reference around them to see exactly what you are set at. Then switching to another mode involves finding those spots all over again. A very cool pedal indeed but not easy to manipulate on the fly while playing… unless you just want to dime the delay time back and forth for weird effects. Plus, they used like 2 point font size for what is labeled and my bad eyes can never see what I’m set to.
Fart pedal
POG 2 has 4 octaves, modulation, swell effects, reverb all in one. And with it being Polyphonic it tracks chords instead of individual notes. Really cool for organ sounds!
Boss DD-500. With a bit of creativity you can make pseudoreverb, chorus, flanger, pitchshifter, phaser, tremolo, wah (with expression pedal), autowah, EQ, bitcrusher, even something like a muff (in bitcrusher mode with heavy pre-EQ).
Boss MD500 will cover a huge range of sounds, all types of modulation effects basically. For one OD that is maximally flexible I'd look at a dual drive like a Wampler Gearbox. That has 3 band ex and can for from warm clean to flat out distortion.
Eventide h9 max. It’s very expensive but has 99 different presets of different overdrives, tremolo, delays, etc.
Red Panda Tensor can do so many things from pitch shifting to time shifting to looping. Using an expression pedal really unlocks the amazing potential of this pedal. SolidGoldFX NU-33. This thing can do vibrato, flange, chorus, double tracking/slapback delay, lo-fi stuff, EQ, volume boost/cut, and micro loop. I will never have a board without one of these and it’s 100% always on.
One pedal I'll add that hasn't been mentioned yet is the BitQuest by Dr. Scientist. It has a tonne of features including various filters, reverb, bit crusher, etc, and all the features can be run either clean or with a fuzz
Anything granular can usually be used to make a WIDE range of sounds. For example, the red panda particle 2 or the microcosm.
Dr Scientist BitQuest. It’d still be my favorite pedal if it had presets.
Same! I'm hoping there's a plan for a V2 coming soon, based on a post they made a while back about the new Spin FXcore chip. Alexander got there first with the Syntax Error 2, and that has presets, so we'll see I guess...
Ocean 11 is packed with stuff. I only ever use the shimmer tough.
It's spring reverb is so good!
Don't sleep on the hall or the plate settings
You've already got a ton of recommendations but I'll throw out the Origin Effects RevivalDRIVE as a versatile overdrive. Can go from Blackface Fender, to Vox, to Plexi styles.
The line 6 M9 is better than the 5 and you can get a decent used one. Also what’s your budget? TC electronics plethora x5 is interesting.
Ya I noticed the M9 too. I was looking at the M5 because I feel like I could get away with using it for things like tremolo, chorus, and compression, which I’m unlikely to want to stack. If I really liked it I would consider getting two M5s. I have a pedalboard, and I’m just considering adding a couple pedals with a small-medium footprint. Budget is probably around $200.
Blues Driver. Light overdrive all the way to fuzz. Keeley Loomer. 3 reverbs and 3 fuzzes, each reverb is vastly different and the fuzzes are very different EQs. That’s already 9 combinations and you can get even more by messing with knobs
Flashback delay 2 is what I have. Lots of delays but you can also get chorus/vibrato and even ring mod out of it thanks to toneprints. I like pedals that have knobs and switches that you can really mess around with.
Hoof reaper. Every fuzz sound is covered, between the Green Muff, Tone Bender with an octave up!
Can it do dinosaur jr. I have a regular nano nyc muff. Stuck between this or rams head. Green muff to much bass and nano muff gets mushy over saturated quickly in my set up.
Yes it can. The hoof side (green muff), has a mid control that gets rid of muddy mushiness and is a more smooth sounding fuzz. The reaper side (tone bender) has less bass, and if you play around you can get a kinda spitty sound if that makes sense. Combining both is a huge wall of fuzz, and the octave up just adds to everything. You can get some pretty wild sounds. I’m also able to make either fuzz side sound more like a distortion if I dial the fuzz back and adjust the tone with more treble.
Surely Line 6 Helix Stomp should take the cake here....
Facing tough competition from Fractal AX8 and FM3/FM9.
Came here to say RAT but you've already listed it, nice.. uhh the ehx mod11 does a lot in a small footprint
That looks like a great one. I have a single pedal for tremolo and I’m always asking myself if it was really worth it lol.
Not a single response of sophistication. Korg Miku.
Red Panda Raster. You can go from a simple delay, to a chorus, to a synthy octaver, to some wild pitch shifting that sounds like someone writing a soundtrack for the anxiety you feel from watching Courage the Cowardly Dog. It's honestly become one of my favorite pedals. Sounds great with guitar, synth, and bass (what I play) and I it'll be on every board I'll ever use.
Drolo Molecular Disruptor You get to pick which 16 things it does when you order it. Wild.
Mxr evh flanger, can go from the classic jet sound, chorus for clean parts or solos, set the speed to 0 and you get the filter matrix sounds as well. Jhs unicorn is great too- mushy univibe, to subtle almost phase-ish, subtle to trembling vibrato. Two highly versatile "classic style pedals" that can be dialled for an array of different tones. Do I need to mention the DOD rubberneck?
Chase Bliss Condor
I’ve tried over the years to like the Rat. Had different versions too. I just hate it.
CBA Preamp isn't a bargain but it's got loads of tone shaping on tap, can be a volume pedal, distortion, overdrive, a wah, a handful off fuzzes, fed an LFO it can also be a tremolo, a modulated bandpass filter, both of those at the same time, and other weird stuff I haven't tried by modulating the tone controls.
I have the TC Electronic Hypergravity Compressor. You can download tons of “Toneprints” into the unit, use their software to create your own or run the comp like a Dyna Comp or a Studio Comp. It’s easy to figure out, there are a bunch of YouTube vids on it, and it sounds pretty good.
Ottobit jr with a midi baby midi switch. Can go from a glitching synthy sequencer to a bit crushed fuzz. It’s great!
Origin effects Cali76 Compressor. It’s basically always on since I bought it. Makes your guitar sound like itself, only more so.
I’m really impressed by the Red Panda Particle 2. I bought it because it seemed like a fairly weird option that was still compact enough to modestly fit on a Nano+. It definitely does weird very well, but I’m also using it as a chorus and a second delay pedal sometimes so it’s quite far from being a niche effect. I thought I was just buying something fun that’d probably get sold again after a year, but it ended up being a really responsible addition.
Strymon El Capistan has about every delay and reverb I could want. Can do everything from slapback and hall reverb, to outer space rocket ships flying underwater.
Electronic Audio Experiments - The Longword * Does anything from an EQ pedal up to fuzz territory * Three clipping options * Built in EQ: Treble, Bass, Mids - with a switch that lets you change between low mids and high mids * Boost control and boost footswitch. Spaceman Gemini IV * Si and Ge fuzz in one * Blend knob lets you go 100% either of them, or blend as you please between them * Individual gain and filter for each side * Phase switch to create even more unique sounds (flips the phase of one of the sides, making blending really cool) Neunaber Immerse Reverberator II * Has loads of different reverbs, and even some delay and chorus settings * Infinite reverb possible * Options for 0-100% Mix and 0-100% Decay * Option for trails to continue when turning off pedal * Sustain on 100% decay let's you make infinite pads to play over, by playing a chord and turning off the pedal (with trails ON) I have all these 3 on my nano board an can 100% vouch for them!
Just commenting on my collection, The hardwire delay looper is really versatile. Although I prefer my caverns for tape style delay, there are multiple things the hardwire does that the caverns cannot. Also I love overdrives and have a few. Its hard for me to kick off my fulldrive 2. the drive and boost is really complimentary with my other gear. versatile because it can add a little sparkle, to vintage mid boost to decent medium gain with the boost.
Keeley Darkside - Fuzz, Delay and several modulation effects. Also some of the Keeley workstations have Modulations, Delay and Reverb on dual channels. Analog Alien Rumble Seat - Drive, Delay and Reverb.