Ring Modulators

[PopsBdog]

I'm building a Noise pedal board.

So far it has a DigiTech Synth Wah Envelope Follower into a Modded Ibanez LA Metal into a DOD OctaPlus. It is connected to my main pedal board in my sig with a Boss PSM5.

 

Now I am thinking of adding a Ring Modulator.

I read about these so far.

Moog Music MF102 Moogerfooger Ring Modulator Pedal

Electro-Harmonix Frequency Analyzer Ring Modulator

Electro-Harmonix Ring Thing Single Sideband Modulator

DOD Gonkulator

 

Any experiances and/or thoughts on these?

Are there any other Ring Modulators I should consider?

[Rizza]

I've got a Ring Thing on the way...

[murch33]

The Moog is one of my favorite pedals ever, although I don't use it as a straight up ring mod all that often. The one that I'm tempted to try out (even though I've got the Moog) is the Randy's Revenge.

[hangwire]

pass on the gonk... it is a $50 grunge + untunable ring mod experiement that doesn't work

 

the moogerfooger is great, but you always have to deal with the drive control being on... lame

 

the freq analyzer is great and cheap used [i only had teh box box old one... you can velcro the synth wah to the face of the ehx if room is an issue...

[murch33]

In defense of the MF-102, it's the quietest and least intrusive Moog preamp that I've encountered. It's nothing like the filter's preamp, which is incredibly noisy.

[hangwire]

quiet, yes

 

least intrusive, no... for live use it really messes with the dirt pedal settings which wastes lots of little had time adjusting everything... in my expereinces...

[kpd78]

Of the ones you listed, I'd go or the Moog (if you have the budget for it); it's a superb pedal and very versatile.

 

 

I didn't like the DOD Gonkulator at all - it'll just leave you wanting more.

 

I had a Copilot FX 'The Android' which was really good but I sold it as I hardly ever used it.

[Poltergeist]

I've got a Ring Thing on the way...

 

GAS!

 

i want one.

[murch33]

quiet, yes least intrusive, no... for live use it really messes with the dirt pedal settings which wastes lots of little had time adjusting everything... in my expereinces...

My dirt sounds the same with or without it.

[nankuamedha]

Like Hangwire said, Gonkulator is not the answer/

 

The Frequency Analyzer is a great Ring Mod, very clean sounding. The fine tuning control really helps dial in the VCO, not to mention the VCO pitch gets super high if you're into making bell sounds. The low pass filter mode is great for making massive sub harmonic movement, used it a lot in my old band. The downsides - the VCO doesn't go low enough to make those beautifull tremolo sounds, and it runs off of something like 40 volts so it can't be used with daisy chains and such, needs its own adapter. Both of those really wern't a huge deal for myself, I had a big box one for about ten years and used the hell out it, I just recently upgraded to the Moog last summer but would love to get another some day in the XO boxes.

 

Ring Thing is a crazy awsome effect for the price. It has the same nice clean sound as the Freqency Analyer, but it enables you to select the waveshape of the VCO which can give the sound produced a dirty tone with more harmonic content. It has a low-pass filter to shape the sound further, but it doesn't seem to work in the same way as the Freq. Analyzers filter mode, it's more of a standard high end roll off. The VCO can automatically be tuned to match the pitch of your guitar signal with the hit of a butten which is super nice, plus you can isolate the sidebands produced for different tones then a standard ring mod. The pitch shifting stuff is great too, you can modulate pitch shifter with a LFO which is crazy awsome. The Ring Thing also excepts Control Voltage and a expression pedal.

 

The Moog MF102 is what I've been using for the last six months. The VCO has a dirtier vibe the EH ring mods, which I like as it gives everything a nice harmonic timbre. The VCO can be modulated with either a square or triangle wave LFO, it can also do some of the sweatest tremolo sounds I've ever heard. Full expression/CV control over all the parameters, which is one of the main reasons I switched over to the Moog. The LFO and VCO sections can also be used indepent of eachother. Downside, it's a bit more expensive, but totally worth it.

 

I also used a ZVex Ring Thing for awhile, pretty interesting device. It's a step sequenced ring mod. I mostly used it for sound processing and running drums through it. The one thing I really didn't like about it was the Dry/Wet Mix is a trim pot inside the pedal, and for myself that's a pretty crucial control when using ring modulation. As a simple ring mod it sounded really good, tremolo sounds all the way up to piercing bell gonk, but that entire range is convered on a single knob so it was really difficult to fine tune the VCO, also a really important ring mod funtion. The step sequence stuff was really cool, I'm sure the newer version with tap tempo is much easier to impliment (I had an older one without tap tempo). It was more of a specialized effect, I wouldn't recemend it as a veristle ring mod to use with guitar.

 

UMUmumummmmmmm. ... I think that's it, I'm pretty tired so I'm sure there's a lot of typos.

 

Other cool ring mod's I've been meaning to check out -

 

Fairfield Circuitry Randy's Revenge

Copilot FX The Android (great bang for the buck, this would be worth looking into)

Copilot FX Planetoid

Lovetone Ring Singer (yeah, right)

[nankuamedha]

My dirt sounds the same with or without it.

 

Same here, at least if it's after distortion pedals. I actually think my signal sounds better with it in the chain, helps drive the signal.

 

If it's pre-gain, it's obviously going to need to be tweaked with dirt, it's a preamp...

[jcksn1234]

i have the moog, and it really is a fantastic pedal. i think i love the fact that it has one of the best tremolo sounds. adding the lfo with it creates new patterns to that tremolo also. it sounds great too.

 

the only beef i have with it is the drive is on all the time, and also the i have heard the lfo bleed through to my signal when bypassed. that could be because i did not have a buffer in front.

 

by the way were do you guys place your ring mods in your signal chain?

[kpd78]

 

... by the way were do you guys place your ring mods in your signal chain?

 

 

After dirt, before delay/reverb.

[murch33]

by the way were do you guys place your ring mods in your signal chain?

I have mine right after dirt. My chain is typically fuzz -> fuzzy OD -> Moog -> tuner -> delay -> looper

[nankuamedha]

I generally put mine after dirt, I also really like running Phaser > Ring Mod, the sweep of the phaser brings out some really beautiful overtones. Otherwise running it before dirt also yeilds some interesting gritty sounds. Putting delays before is fun too, you can set up an echo with really long trail, and sweep the VCO to make the echos change.

[SpectralJulian]

I could go on and on about ring modulation but here we go:

 

Gonkulator is a noisy and overpriced piece of {censored}

Moogerfooger's sweet if you have the other moogerfoogers or other CV type stuff to interface it with

 

Big Box Frequency Analyzer is gorgeous sounding, and very mod-friendly. Modding it for tremolo is a must.

 

Ring Thing has a bunch of useful features AND it can do chorus, polyphonic whammy, vibrato, octave down, octave up. . . Probably more useful to your average bear

 

 

There's some other ring mods out there too- like the copilot fx android (small and cheap!)

 

but you can't go wrong with either of the EHXs or with the Moog.

[six acre lake]

The EHX Ring Thing is a crazy versatile pedal that has a ton of non ring mod sounds on tap. I love mine but i still almost always stick with the Moog. I had a Randy's Revenge for a bit but I feel the Moog is the better of the two so i sold the RR.

[SpectralJulian]

If I got a ring thing, I really doubt it would kick the frequency analyzer off my board.

[PopsBdog]

By what i am reading it looks like:

The the Ring Thing has EH bells and whistles. Around $200 on eBay.

The Freq Anylyzer is a great budget choice. $100 to $130 on eBay.

The Moog is a very adjustable Ring Modulator. $160 to $190 on eBay.

And the Gonkulator is a POS. $100 to $200 on eBay.

 

I am leaning towards the Moog. But... Some of you use two or more

[oinkbanana]

you might be interested in this thread at ILoveFuzz

http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=151&t=12546

it's about a recent group build of the Logan 5 Ring Modulator

 

 

edit. oh, you're not building pedals for a pedal board,

either way:

Scott from Montreal ASM built some and probably has some for sale

http://mtlasm.blogspot.com/2010/07/ring-modulator.html

I have one and it's {censored}ing RAD out of the wazzooo

the optical sensor to control the frequency makes for some really wicked sounds.

just email Scott, mtl.asm@gmail.com . super nice dude to work with.

if you're building a noise board, check out his other pedals as well

he's got this fax machine (that will glitch up your sounds like a fax machine.!)

and a super unique sounding bit crusher. just check out his blog.

i've got all of his pedals so far. A++++, noise board central.

 

I also have a MF-102 and it's got a sound like no other if you can afford it.

it's a really nice clean sound (if that makes any sense)

[V]

I can't recommend the Moog enough. Not only is it a great ringmod and tremolo, but if you plug the carrier back into the input you can use it as a little monosynth too (and control it with a step sequencer, expression pedal, or other cv source via the frequency expression input.

 

The beginning of this track is done with the moog ring modulator just manually controlled with the freq knob and run into a DMM.

 

They Walk Intro/Credits

[jorhay1]

Maestro

[Meriphew]

I have a Fairfield Circuitry Randy's Revenge. If you're shopping for a ring mod, this should definitely be at the top of your list to try out.

[kpd78]

 

Big Box Frequency Analyzer is gorgeous sounding, and very mod-friendly. Modding it for tremolo is a must.

 

 

Please tell me more.

[Ambient Exposure]

I've got a Ring Thing on the way...

 

I haven't tried one but from what I've read and the demos they look great.