Guitarophile.com

Tag: chorus pedal

  • How to Dial in a Killer Chorus Pedal

    How to Dial in a Killer Chorus Pedal

    I’ve always treated my chorus pedal like a Crock-Pot: set it and forget it.

    I got my most recent chorus pedal, a Boss CH-1, a number of years ago. I found a decent enough setting, turned the effect way down for fear of bringing the 1980s back to life, and left it at that.

    But lately I’ve been wondering…how can I actually make use of this as a tool? What kind of tones might I be able to get from it that I’m missing out on?

    To answer those questions, I had to go on a journey to discover more about the chorus effect, how it began, what it does, and how to dial in the right tones.

    Here’s what I learned.

    A brief history of chorus effects

    The idea of chorus as an electronic effect dates back to 1975. This was the year Roland introduced the Jazz Chorus amplifier.

    The Jazz Chorus had two speakers, and when the onboard chorus effect was enabled, one of the speakers would be slightly delayed and modulated, while the other continued to play the unadulterated sound.

    The number of guitar-centric chorus pedals in the marketplace has skyrocketed, but they all perform in basically the same way.

    Interestingly, the amp was designed for keyboards and synths, but it soon found a home among guitarists as well.

    In fact, it only took until the next year, 1976, before the chorus circuit from the Jazz Chorus was installed into a pedal, the Boss CE-1.

    Since then, the number of guitar-centric chorus pedals in the marketplace has skyrocketed, but they all perform in basically the same way.

    Understanding what a chorus pedal does

    Chorus pedals are part of a larger group of effects known as “modulation effects.” These effects all slightly delay and alter a copy of your guitar’s sound in some way. (Note: For any effect in your signal chain, your guitar’s normal sound is called the “dry” signal; the altered copy is called the “wet” signal.)

    In short, a chorus pedal takes the sound of your guitar, copies it, delays the copied version by a few dozen milliseconds, and modulates it before playing it back alongside the dry signal.

    This process was designed to mimic multiple human voices singing together (hence the name, “chorus”). Since humans aren’t perfect, when a group sings together, even in unison, slight natural delays and waverings occur, which our ears perceive as making the sound bigger and fuller.

    (That’s also why a choir sounds like a group of people singing together and not just one person singing extra loud.)

    A chorus pedal takes the sound of your guitar, copies it, delays the copied version by a few dozen milliseconds, and modulates it before playing it back alongside the dry signal.

    It’s this natural variation, leading to a fuller sound, that chorus pedals are designed to emulate.

    They do this via two primary settings: rate and depth.

    • Rate affects the modulation. Turn the rate down, and the wavering gets slower. Turn it up, and it gets faster.
    • Depth controls how much of the effect you get. A low depth will be subtler, while with a high depth, the chorus effect will be quite noticeable.

    All chorus pedals will have at least these two settings, although they may call them different names.

    Other common settings include level and tone (or EQ).

    • Level allows you to dial in how much of the modulated sound you hear relative to the unmodulated sound.
    • Tone determines how dark or bright the modulated sound is.

    Dialing in a killer chorus tone

    Now that you understand the nomenclature, it technically shouldn’t be hard to dial in a sound you like.

    If you want faster warble, turn the rate up. If you want a darker sound, turn the tone down. And so on.

    You can get a wide variety of sounds out of most chorus pedals. And you can even use more than one at a time if you’re feeling feisty.

    But, of course, in the real world it’s not always that simple. Sometimes we don’t know what kind of sound we want until we hear it. And for some of us, our ears may not be trained enough to recognize the subtle differences a chorus pedal can sometimes produce.

    It turns out you can get a wide variety of sounds out of most chorus pedals. And you can even use more than one at a time if you’re feeling feisty.

    But rather than trying to explain all of your options, in my research I ran across a video that samples a range of options when it comes to using a chorus pedal, and even how you can mimic a chorus effect if you don’t have a dedicated pedal.

    The guitarist in the video dials in some really cool — and very useable — sounds, so be sure to check it out.

    As for me, I’m still fine-tuning how I use my CH-1. (Like most guitarists, I’m never satisfied with my tone.) But at least now I know what I’m doing, rather than relying on randomly twisting knobs as was my previous habit.

    So how about you? How do you use your chorus pedal? Did you know what all the knobs did, or, like me, was it an effect shrouded in mystery? Let us know in the comments.

  • A Primer on How to Understand Signal Chains

    A Primer on How to Understand Signal Chains

    I don’t like jargon.

    For instance, I have a master’s degree in biblical studies. But whenever I teach or preach, I rarely — if ever — use big theological words. Yes, I know what “hypostatic union” and “weltanschauung” mean, but odds are my audience doesn’t. And my interests don’t lie in showing everyone how educated I am; I’m much more concerned with actual communication, which means my hearers have to understand what I’m saying.

    Hence my disdain for jargon. But jargon exists in every area of interest. And as shorthand for talking with other people “in the know,” it’s fine as far as it goes. But it has the unintended consequence of potentially shutting newcomers out of the conversation.

    For me, “signal chain” is one of those terms in the guitar realm.

    When I started playing guitar a very long time ago, I had a cheap electric guitar and a cheap amplifier. No pedals, no noise suppressors, no nothing. I had never heard of a signal chain and would have had no insight into what it might be.

    Only many years later, when I started to really learn about guitar, did I start to figure out terms like “signal chain.” So today, I’d like to provide a basic overview of a signal chain to help anyone out there who, like “past me,” hears such terms and needs an explanation.

    What is a signal chain?

    Thankfully, a signal chain is a pretty straightforward idea. The “signal” being referred to is simply the signal that runs from your guitar to the amplifier via the cable. Your guitar’s pickups are basically electromagnets that translate the vibrations of your strings into an electrical signal. This signal is then transmitted to the amplifier by your instrument cable, where the speaker converts it into sound waves.

    With a basic setup like I had when I started, your “chain” is literally just the 10-foot cable connecting your guitar to the amp. But as you progress, most guitarists start wanting to add to or change their guitar’s sound. For most of us, I would guess, a distortion pedal is the first thing we buy to achieve this.

    Once you add something like a distortion pedal, you have what could truly be called a “chain” — a signal path with multiple links. In our example case, you now have a guitar signal that is interrupted and modified by your distortion pedal before being sent on to the amplifier.

    Of course, most of us soon realize that if one pedal is good, more must be better! So we save up and buy all kinds of effects pedals: phasers, delays, fuzz, chorus, octave, wah… If you want an effect, there’s probably a pedal designed to do just that.

    So as we slowly build up our pedalboard, we extend our signal chain. In fact, you could almost consider the terms “pedalboard” and “signal chain” to be synonymous.

    How do I set up a signal chain?

    One thing you’ll notice about guitarists is how many of us have so many pedals. I’ve seen players with at least a dozen pedals stuffed onto a board, and it seems like you need a master’s degree in electrical engineering just to understand all of the buttons and knobs.

    But it doesn’t have to be that complex — you can use as many or as few pedals and effects in your signal chain as you want.

    And even for the most convoluted pedalboards out there, most players are following the same basic order of effects — and here it is:

    • The first effects in your signal chain are typically compressors, EQs, and wah pedals. These are called “dynamics” or “filter effects.”
    • Next come overdrive and distortion pedals, sometimes called “gain effects.”
    • Time-based effects like delays, chorus, and flangers come next in line.
    • Reverb effects often come last.

    I’m not a tech guy, so rather than explain why this order works, it’s much easier to say, “This is the order a whole bunch of guitarists over the decades have come to agree is best,” and get on with your day.

    But that statement, while true, doesn’t mean it’s the order you have to put your pedals in. When you are playing your guitar into your amp with your own pedals, you have the freedom to try any signal chain you want. And who knows — you might come across a combination you love and that comes to define your sound.

    The more you know

    At its core, a signal chain really is that simple. It’s just a way to refer to the pedals and effects that sit in between your guitar and the amplifier.

    Like anything, you can dive into signal chains as deep as you want. I’m perfectly happy having a pedalboard with just a few basic pedals, but other people want to go all in and spend thousands of dollars on a massive board. I’m also perfectly fine not understanding all of the theory and intricacies behind how the electronics work, but you may be a person who enjoys such things. In either case, it’s totally fine. You do you.

    Hopefully this has been a helpful, albeit basic, primer on signal chains. So I encourage you to go out with your newfound knowledge with confidence!