So when was the chorus pedal invented ?

[MightyThor]

I heard "Brass in Pocket" on the radio today and it got me to thinking about when the chorus pedal was invented. It was all over the radio in the early 80's.

 

Anyone have a little info on the history of the chorus pedal ? I imagine it started out as a studio effect but I'm having a hard time remembering any songs that used it before the 80's. Seem like the related flanger effect was used earlier.

[Jules-RM]

I believe it was widely available around 1975 or 76, whenever the Roland Jazz Chorus amp came out.

[Mojambo]

 

I believe it was widely available around 1975 or 76, whenever the Roland Jazz Chorus amp came out.

 

 

Correct. But in stompbox form, I believe the BOSS CE-1 was the first. Circa 1977-ish?

 

I know somebody on this forum has one too...that bastard.

[makingbeds]

[mike.sartori]

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mx5OAbbVV9E

 

 

I just watched that whole thing. It's definitely cool, I don't know if it's the greatest sounding, or my favorite of all chorus's.

Excellent nonetheless.

[Destructobot]

Correct. But in stompbox form, I believe the BOSS CE-1 was the first. Circa 1977-ish? I know somebody on this forum has one too...that bastard.

 

 

I bought one for $99 a couple months ago

[Zachman]

I like this chorus tone:

 

[YOUTUBE]DdGmIzbh4rw[/YOUTUBE]

[tetaJ]

 

I just watched that whole thing. It's definitely cool, I don't know if it's the greatest sounding, or my favorite of all chorus's. Excellent nonetheless.

 

 

wow, you batted 2 HR's today, and a hit

[amp_surgeon]

The Shin-ei "vibe" pedals preceeded the CE-1 by a decade, even though Roland would like to take credit for inventing it. The Shin-ei Vibra-Chorus may have been the first pedal to produce a chorus effect, combined with both vibrato and tremelo.

[sdresdre]

i thought this was WHY was it invented. i was going to say " i have no fucking idea"

[Zachman]

i thought this was WHY was it invented. i was going to say " i have no fucking idea"

 

[echodeluxe]

im not a big fan of chorus in general, i think it is misused or overused a lot. but, there have been a few recordings i have heard with some subtle slow chorus that made the track sound really nice.

[dangerous dan]

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mx5OAbbVV9E

 

 

That CE-1 sounds awesome, the CE-2 can quite a similar sound from what I recall of mine..

 

This guy has all the toys in the world.

[jorhay1]

i think it was the shin ei

 

in the studio, people (crazy in their obsesion for sonic exploration) were doing chorus type effects (similar in effect to a 'chorus' of singers singing slightly out of tune, or a 12 string guitar, Lesile, etc) for years before. but in a pedal, yeah, i thinks teh shin ei.

 

this hatred of chorus is probably just a backlash to the 80's over-use of it.

when used in a subtle way, it can sound natural.

 

i hated that over saturated clean chorus sound of the 80's even in the 80's.

[sdresdre]

 

 

 

80's are calling rackman! come and get it while its H O T

[Flaser_Phanger]

 

That CE-1 sounds awesome, the CE-2 can quite a similar sound from what I recall of mine..

 

 

Here's a comparison of all the chorus ensembles with sound samples

 

http://www.pedalarea.com/chorus_ensemble.htm

[seifukusha]

i got my 1st one for $20, my 2nd and 3rd for around $50 each....then the internet happened..

 

its a great pedal..AH! heres the vibrato used on a track..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTxY5HJ_3KU

[Fender&EHX4ever]

I heard "Brass in Pocket" on the radio today and it got me to thinking about when the chorus pedal was invented.

 

One of the greatest pop songs ever written. And James Honeyman-Scott is easily among my top 5 favorite guitarists ever. His use of chorus was very tasteful.

[SonicVI]

 

The Shin-ei "vibe" pedals preceeded the CE-1 by a decade, even though Roland would like to take credit for inventing it. The Shin-ei Vibra-Chorus may have been the first pedal to produce a chorus effect, combined with both vibrato and tremelo.

 

 

That wasn't the same kind of chorus. The Vibra-Chorus was more like a Uni-vibe.

[amp_surgeon]

 

That wasn't the same kind of chorus. The Vibra-Chorus was more like a Uni-vibe.

 

 

The Vibra-Chorus was almost exactly like the Uni-Vibe. In fact, it was housed in the same brown chassis, with the same controls and script. The major differences were the lack of an expression pedal to control the LFO rate, and the fact that the "Cancel" switch was mounted on the base unit.

 

It wasn't the same as a modern chorus because it wasn't practical to implement delays using discrete transistors, even though Fumio Mieda (the Shin-ei engineer who invented it) actually did do this with a long chain of transistor buffers they built in the lab, though never sold. That lab prototype may have been the first BBD. The Vibra-Chorus achieved it's delay using an incandescent light bulb and quad bank of LDR's. The delay was longer than what could be achieved by a phase shifter, and much shorter than reverb. It could technically be described as a chorus sound, and in fact was labeled "chorus" on the box.

[SonicVI]

 

The Vibra-Chorus was almost exactly like the Uni-Vibe. In fact, it was housed in the same brown chassis, with the same controls and script. The major differences were the lack of an expression pedal to control the LFO rate, and the fact that the "Cancel" switch was mounted on the base unit. It wasn't the same as a modern chorus because it wasn't practical to implement delays using discrete transistors, even though Fumio Mieda (the Shin-ei engineer who invented it) actually did do this with a long chain of transistor buffers they built in the lab, though never sold. That lab prototype may have been the first BBD. The Vibra-Chorus achieved it's delay using an incandescent light bulb and quad bank of LDR's. The delay was longer than what could be achieved by a phase shifter, and much shorter than reverb. It could technically be described as a chorus sound, and in fact was labeled "chorus" on the box.

 

 

 

Well then you could say that Hammond invented the actual effect (obviously not in pedal form) back in the 40's. After all, that is what Shin-Ei were more attempting to reproduce if I'm not mistaken. Regardless of who called which effect "chorus" first, I think this thread though is about the "modern" chorus sound.

[amp_surgeon]

 

Well then you could say that Hammond invented the actual effect (obviously not in pedal form) back in the 40's. After all, that is what Shin-Ei were more attempting to reproduce if I'm not mistaken. Regardless of who called which effect "chorus" first, I think this thread though is about the "modern" chorus sound.

 

 

Actually, the "chorus sound" occurs naturally in nature. All that's needed is the right environment for the short reverberations. Nobody really invented the sound. What Hammond did was recreate this sound in an artificial mechanical way.

 

The thread is about who invented the chorus pedal. The Vibe-Chorus, Resly Tone, and Uni-Vibe DO create a chorus effect, though not with the degree of control provided in modern effects pedals, and they ARE pedals, so the answer to the question posed by the OP is: Shin-ei.

[echodeluxe]

 

Well then you could say that Hammond invented the actual effect (obviously not in pedal form) back in the 40's. After all, that is what Shin-Ei were more attempting to reproduce if I'm not mistaken. Regardless of who called which effect "chorus" first, I think this thread though is about the "modern" chorus sound.

 

 

if we are talking about who invented the "modern" chorus sound, then boss. because, i mean, the boss CE-1 is the de-facto standard for chorus and has been since it came out.

 

but the OP asked who invented the chorus effect in a stompbox first, which is what amp_surgeon was addressing.

[SonicVI]

 

if we are talking about who invented the "modern" chorus sound, then boss. because, i mean, the boss CE-1 is the de-facto standard for chorus and has been since it came out. but the OP asked who invented the chorus effect in a stompbox first, which is what amp_surgeon was addressing.

 

 

Yeah, I got that and he's correct that Shin-Ei was the first to call a pedal effect "chorus", but they really are two different effects, just arbitrarily called the same thing. The OP mentioned "Brass in Pocket" which is "Boss, BBD" type chorus rather than "Shin-Ei, phase shift" chorus.

[amp_surgeon]

 

Yeah, I got that and he's correct that Shin-Ei was the first to call a pedal effect "chorus", but they really are two different effects, just arbitrarily called the same thing. The OP mentioned "Brass in Pocket" which is "Boss, BBD" type chorus rather than "Shin-Ei, phase shift" chorus.

 

 

Strictly speaking, chorus is chorus. It's a function of the amount of delay. Any variable delay line between around 10 and 50ms, with feedback and a mix of wet and dry signals, will produce the chorus effect. The same method with a shorter delay would be a flanger. Longer (100ms or so) and with a low-pass filter in the feedback circuit, and it's reverb.

 

The actual method used to produce the delay line doesn't determine whether it can rightfully be called a chorus, just as a DSP with sufficient memory and a box of springs can both rightfully be called reverb.

 

Phase shift is whole different animal. A network of variable shifters is used, each shifter capable of between 0 and 180 degrees of phase shift. In other words, the delay of each shifter is never more than half a cycle. This isn't how the Shin-ei circuit worked. The delay was a function of the time it takes for an incandescent light bulb to light up and cool down.