The MIDI Overdrives thread

[laxu]

I've owned a Kernom Ridge for the past 18 months. All analogue, every knob controllable using MIDI, 128 presets, clean boost, soft clip, hard clip. Takes an expression pedal directly or CC commands from your MIDI controller. It was the only drive on my "band" board. I think it does an awful lot and does it well. I recently tried a Brothers and liked it, but still preferred the Ridge, so sold it on.

That seems like a cool, but annoyingly large pedal. Maybe that's fine if it replaces e.g 3-4 drive pedals, but it's almost as big as my Strymon Volante.

 

[Desertdweller]

As I put in my original post on this thread, I did wind up trying out all three of these ODs, the Boss OD200, the Lady Luck, and the Strymon Sunset. I think they’re all excellent and I have more detailed thoughts below.

The Lady Luck was the most interesting, but also the lowest tech. I had to hook it up with an old PS3 controller USB to my computer to edit on it, since it was designed to be hooked up to a PC or a phone with a headphone jack and Source Audio has not updated / modernized this pedal yet. Once i could edit it, I loved this pedal because I could program 3 sounds into it that all fit what I liked. I was able to get a dual overdrive to sound close to a TC Integrated Preamp, and I was able to get a solid Tubescreamer sound out of it along with a Mesa Tone Burst style sparkle drive. If they release a new modernized one, I’m the first in line.

The Strymon was absolutely great and I loved the onboard gate. But I had to go into the manual card all the time to remember how to edit on it as it’s really not intuitive. Also the Strymon did something wonky to the bottom end of the signal through a rectifier amp, hard to pick up on phone audio but it definitely had an unusual and unpleasant warble in the room. I eventually punted on this pedal, though YMMV for sure.

The Boss pedal is awesome as well, but I didn’t see any difference between the ODs on it and what you get with the MS3 or the GT1000Core. Either of those devices is not much more $ and you get much more flexibility from them, so my recommendation would be to go with one of those since they’re a little easier to dial in and do so much more. But the OD200 is still really good.

At time time, on one board I have a few analog ODs, and then my other board is a VP4, which has all the fractal ODs in it and really that’s an endgame type of unit, especially considering how absolutely awesome fractal overdrives are.

 

[TheBigDipper]

That seems like a cool, but annoyingly large pedal. Maybe that's fine if it replaces e.g 3-4 drive pedals, but it's almost as big as my Strymon Volante.

Sure. I did, in fact, use it to replace 2 overdrives and a boost. It's good, but won't stack drives, unlike some others available.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I've owned a Kernom Ridge for the past 18 months. All analogue, every knob controllable using MIDI, 128 presets, clean boost, soft clip, hard clip. Takes an expression pedal directly or CC commands from your MIDI controller. It was the only drive on my "band" board. I think it does an awful lot and does it well. I recently tried a Brothers and liked it, but still preferred the Ridge, so sold it on.

That looks killer. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

Sure. I did, in fact, use it to replace 2 overdrives and a boost. It's good, but won't stack drives, unlike some others available.

I'd consider a Kernom Ridge as a midi controllable overdrive, but it wouldn't fit on my board, unfortunately.

 

[gearJunkie]

I'd consider a Kernom Ridge as a midi controllable overdrive, but it wouldn't fit on my board, unfortunately.

The Chase Bliss Brothers AM is the perfect MIDI capable overdrive. It hits on form factor, MIDI controllable everything, flexibility (dual overdrive + treble booster), and sound quality.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

The Chase Bliss Brothers AM is the perfect MIDI capable overdrive. It hits on form factor, MIDI controllable everything, flexibility (dual overdrive + treble booster), and sound quality.


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With the right dip switch settings, can also be a tremolo pedal.

 

[gearJunkie]

With the right dip switch settings, can also be a tremolo pedal.

I did not know this. Can you point me in the right direction so I can try this?

I have a couple of tremolo pedals, but for a small pedalboard rig it may come in handy.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I did not know this. Can you point me in the right direction so I can try this?

I have a couple of tremolo pedals, but for a small pedalboard rig it may come in handy.

Hmmm - I'm not quite seeing how to do it from the manual. A friend told me about this when I said "I don't quite get the Chase Bliss dip switch on this thing though". I see how you can set volume to be controlled by expression but not seeing the usual ramp control that other Chase Bliss pedals have?

 

[gearJunkie]

Hmmm - I'm not quite seeing how to do it from the manual. A friend told me about this when I said "I don't quite get the Chase Bliss dip switch on this thing though". I see how you can set volume to be controlled by expression but not seeing the usual ramp control that other Chase Bliss pedals have?

It might require an external MIDI controller with programmable LFOs.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

It might require an external MIDI controller with programmable LFOs.

Yeah, I wonder if the guy actually thought it all the way through. I was being a little snarky about "I love the King of Tone but it's a pretty straightforward pedal and not sure what the Chase Bliss treatment can bring to the table?" partly because he's an obnoxious Chase Bliss fanboy -- he may have knee-jerked given that response assuming this one had a ramp knob like most of the other pedals. And I didn't follow up to confirm it could be done but did think it was interesting.

Trying to decide between snagging one of these and the Warm Audio Tone of Throne...having all the internal stuff external is pretty great.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

The Chase Bliss Brothers AM is the perfect MIDI capable overdrive. It hits on form factor, MIDI controllable everything, flexibility (dual overdrive + treble booster), and sound quality.


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That is what I was leaning towards, though the price is a bit of a deterrent (it is justified, though). I have an Morningstar MC8. I just wish the midi connection was below the output jack. I'm not sure what options I'd program the MC8 to control, but it'd be on the second page. Maybe treble booster on/off, Channel 1, Channel 2, and Channel 1+2. I'd likely use the other four on the second page to control my SDE-3000 (presets).