Re: Midi sync-effects (guitarist)

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On 10 jan 2007, at 19.02, rune fagereng wrote:

> Hi !
>
> I want to update my guitar-rig and I am looking for
> effects that sync with midi. My repeater are in sync
> with my moto-ableton-mac-gear. What cool midi-sync
> effects are there out there now ?
>
> what hardware effects do you use ?
>
> best regards Rune F. Norway


Beat-synced filterbank is cool. I have an analog Akai MFC42 that  
sounds very cool. See it here:
http://www.vintagesynth.com/index2.html

Its LFO's sync to MIDI Clock and you can change the tempo division  
from a MIDI pedal (like the FCB1010 for example). It has an awesome  
(in my opinion) distortion. Not the usual lame-ish "musical" guitar  
distortion but the real sound of "something on the edge of breaking  
apart".

I'm afraid I have no guitar recording with the filterbank but here is  
how it sounds with a vocal mic:
http://www.boysen.se/audio/funny_small_sound.mp3
and here is how it sounds with blues harp and an EDP:
http://www.looproom.com/audio/trutorgel.mp3 (and some small vocal  
sounds) This examples does show off the distortion of the MFC42 that  
I'm so happy with. There's also a lot of knob twiddling in this  
piece. Every button on the MFC42 can be controlled by MIDI as well,  
so you can sweep the filters by pedals while playing guitar with your  
hands.

Oh yes,  i forgot - here is a clip were I play guitar through the  
MFC42, using it like a wha pedal. I patched the FCB1010's expression  
pedal to the one of the filter cut-off buttons.
http://www.looproom.com/audio/ocl/Organisational_Archeology_clip.mp3

The Akai MFC42 was a commercial flop (which is hard for me to believe  
because I think it's fantastic) so you may still find them very cheap  
on dark shelves at music stores. I bought mine new for a third of the  
initial street price. The only bad side I have noticed with my MFC is  
that it's too big to fit into any of my laptops. ..... ;-)

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)
http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast)
http://www.myspace.com/looproom